London Calling

So, I feel its kind of needed to have a more calloused approach to the idea of London being bombed.

London's attack today has reached the hearts of the public again. It may not hit as close to home, but people are still leaving messages and stuff. I imagine that this will be at the forefront of most people's thoughts for the next few days. And, much like last year's bombings in Madrid, the horror of the events wil soon be forgotten in lieu of a more violating use of the events to put forth whatever political viewpoint people have. It has already started, as of today. The people of London have my sympathy.

What makes this most amusing is how things change when they go from being somewhere ese to being in your or your friend's backyards. People are people, and will always associated over there with over there. CNN, Fox News, and other such 24 hour news channels do little more than raise the death toll every time a bombing happens in the Middle East. 20 dead. 40 dead. There are no real conferences each time this happens. Why? Because they are over there. To the Western Civilization, they've made their bed, they can sleep in it, we don't care. They are not the same as us. And other such elements of distancing occurs.

As soon as it moved to the backyard, in this case London, it becomes front page news, headlines happen, news shows change, conferences are held. These are English speaking people who are victims. White people of European descent. They are us. This is abominable. Why did it have to happen, etc etc. Sure, it may not be on the scale of 9/11 (think 9/11 divided by 100, or 9.1), but it still is shocking.

But, what will be the overall response? The problem is that this will probably push people back into extremist divisions again. The Right Wing people will say, "You liberals have tied our hands behind our backs. This is what happens when we diminish our presence. We need to renew the Patriot Act so it doesn't happen around here. These people need policing." The Left Wing will say, "See what happens when you go around policing the world? They retaliate! It's not their fault they're miserable. It's ours."

Either way, in the shuffle of the upcoming political propagandizing, and abuse of the horror that people feel when they think about these events, the real London victims will be lost, and the constant barrage of attacks in Iraq and other nations will still be largely ignored. There may be some sympathizing, but maybe not.

The other thing that will happen is the real motive will be lost. One motive that may be used will be that people are trying to draw attention to the plight of the people and get the nations of the world to do something about it. The other motive will probably be that these are the people committing the steady stream of bombings already occurring, and they are trying to get the nations of the world to stop and leave them along. And, this, again, will further divide opinion.

The public has my sympathy.

Security

The Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002. From DHS' website:

Vision
Preserving our freedoms, protecting America ... we secure our homeland.

Mission
We will lead the unified national effort to secure America. We will prevent and deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and hazards to the nation. We will ensure safe and secure borders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors, and promote the free-flow of commerce.

Their history, as defined by George W. Bush, on the DHS website:

a single department whose primary mission is to protect our homeland

In their vision, there is nothing about commerce, and only in the mission is there a comment on "the free flow of commerce." Their primary goal is to protect the freedom of the United States Citizens. Their mission is to protect us from terrorists, threats, and attacks. They are primarily a function to keep us safe.

So, why then, are they teaming up with the MPAA? Why did the Department of Homeland Security team up with the MPAA and the FBI to conduct a raid on Elite Torrents? Is this a threat to our nation? Are torrents really a threat to our national security? If 10,000 people (read: <$100,000) download Star Wars Episode III and find out that it SUCKS, and not go see it in the theaters, will this be an attack on our freedoms? If people steal software to practice on until they can actually afford to buy shit to practice on, will our nation crumble?

In a word, No. The Department of Homeland Security has far overstepped its bounds in doing a raid on a system not linked to terrorism or actively threatening our nation. This is exactly why we are under a constant threat, and why our nation's security needs more attention. The FBI and the DHS have spent far too long on lesser crimes, and not enough on ones that will actually damage the nation and bring it to our knees.

If 1334 h4xx0r5 weren't such lazy introverted bitches, I'd say that people need to organize a protest. Protest the way that this situation has been handled. The MPAA, the theater system in general, and everybody else surrounding has been able to gyp us left and right by raising ticket prices and jacking up the volume of bad movies. Back in the day, you could demand your money back if the movie was terrible. Now, you can't do that anymore. It is time to protest the terrorism against the torrents. Protest the 10 warrants against the Elite Torrents Admins. Capitol Hill, here we come!

In other words, FUCK YOU DHS, and your little dog too.

High Crimes

Medicare has continuously skyrocketed. Since its passing, it has done nothing but increase in cost. Now, its riveling any of the bills which the liberals ever suggested, costing $720 billion.

Yes, folks, the once estimated less than $400 billion which was given to Congress when the bill passed.

December 8, 2003: Medicare Bill passed with cost estimate of $395 billion
January 31, 2004: Medicare Bill estimates rise to $520 billion.
February 9, 2005: Medicare Bill estimaes rise yet again to $720 billion.

We are only $70 billion short of being double the original estimate signed on the bill. There was no cost cap, so we have to live with it, currently (until it is successfully challenged).

In the meantime, I don't believe there ever was an investigation into the big scandal regarding the 2004 re-estimate, where a White House employee testified that he had provided estimates of 25-50% higher than the original bill called for, but was threatened into not revealing the estimates.

Let's go impeaching.

Power Hour

Thanks to Dan, we have statistics for the State of the Union drinking game

If the game had been played, this is how many times we would have had to drink in approximately an hour:
21 - "freedom"
7 - "liberty"
3 - "justice"
7 - "democracy"
1 - "God" (really surprised at how low this one is)
2 - "Saddam"
3 - "election"
23 - "terror"/"terrorist"
2 - "tax relief"
1 - "Activist Judges"

plus 6 for 3 mentions of "war on terror."

And, lastly, a double shot of 151 for one mention of "imperial communism."

Grand total: 76 drinks.

Playing at 1 oz per drink, that would be just over 6 beers and a double of 151.
Playing at 2oz per drink, thats 152 oz, that would be almost 13 beers and a double shot.

All within an hour.

Listen Carefully

Everybody knows that political speeches are notorious for being full of cliches and powerful words stripped of their meaning due to overuse. So, I decided I want to start having drinking game parties for every Bush speech. Drink when each gets mentioned/said:

- "freedom"
- "liberty"
- "justice"
- "hatred"
- "democracy"
- "God" (twice for God told me to/God is on our side)
- "Saddam"
- "elections"
- "terror" (twice for "war on terror"; shotgun for winning the war on terror)
- "tax cuts"
- "activist judges"
- double shot of 151 for "communist" or "communism"

OK, I think that's enough rules. Next speech: State of the Union.

Pop politics

Instead of popping over to The Magic Bag for Team America (which I may still do, depending on...things, information to follow), I watched South Park's Trapper Keeper episode. This is the combo episode of Cartman getting a Trapper Keeper which takes over the world and the kindergarten elections.

For those of you who don't remember, Trapper Keeper aired on November 16, 2000. 9 days after Gore and Bush went head to head. It has Ike go head to head with Fillmore, and the election ended as a tie wth Flora not being able to make up her mind. Then, we had to get the sick, absent kid's vote. Then, Fillmore called in his aunt Rosie O'Donnell. Here's Mr. Garrison's little dialogue with Rosie O'Donnell:

Rosie: "OK, so then what we need to do is count everybody's vote by hand. Then, we need to go over the votes manually..."

Mr. Garrison: "Oh stop it, stop it, stop it! Look, kids, we're all in this kindergarten class together. We have to respect one another, or else we're in for a terrible school year."

Rosie: "We're just making sure that the kids who voted for my nephew don't get cheated."

Mr. Garrison: "Half the kids in the class didn't vote for your nephew, so what about them? You don't give a crap about them because they're not on your side. People like you preach tolerance and open-mindedness all the time, but when it comes to middle America, you think we're all evil and stupid country yokels who need your politial enlightenment. Well, just because you're on TV doesn't mean you know crap about the government. Now, get your ass back on first class and respect this class's ability to make up their own mind."

There is nothing quite like seeing the follies of your ways when you see them pitched from a long time ago. Four years ago, Parker and Stone hinted at it. But, did the liberals take notice? No. They sat there and continued on their merry ways, even though they had lost the majority of the elections. Though, we may be currently closer to when the democrats realize that they have been preaching at middle America instead of easing them around. The Republicans have more in common with Middle America (in terms of personal views), and, thus, are more believable. They are a less bitter pill to swallow. The Dems have been pushing their superiority to the Republicans, but that isn't very effective as it seems more like whining when you don't agree with them. Yet the Pubs can get away with it because you already are on their side, hence the popularity of evil talk radio people.

Speaking of talk radio, here come the liberals to Detroit. Air America is now on 1310AM for most of the day. They also will have the Jerry Springer show. So, for all you drivers who want a change from the awesome music you listen to, here's some liberal chit chat.

I'll leave you with the kindergarten finale:

Fillmore: "I don't want to play anymore, because this game is stupid."

Jenny: "Yeah, it doesn't make any sense."

P.S. My new espresso machine is really neat, now I just need to get the hang of it. I made a nice single shot, I think.

Crime and Punishment

20/20: The Matthew Shepard Story (2004)
Producers: Stephen Jimenez, Glenn Silber
Reporter: Elizabeth Vargas

What do you get when you have one of the most savage murders in America become an icon for a lifestyle? What if the murder may not have been committed for the originally stated reasons? Do you dig up the truth, and report it?

Well, for Elizabeth Vargas, she decided to do some investigative reporting on the Matthew Shepard case, and what she found delves into the world of childhood abuse, money, and crystal meth...though not on the side of Matthew Shepard. Yes, boys and girls, according to Elizabeth Vargas, Matthew Shepard was not a hate crime, it was a drug-induced crime. In a reporting style that borders this side of fishy (oh, wait, this is a newsmagazine, right?), Liz interviews people ranging from gay limo drivers, to the attackers' wives. She came up with a story that drugs and money played important roles in both Aaron McKinney's life and the life of Matthew Shepard.

The purpose of the report could be stated that it is just to get the truth out. However, it seems to be less an anti-drug commercial (which it should be if the report was done in this manner) than an anti-anti-gay-rights commercial.

The first portion of the report make the two victims out as sympathetic victims of their parents' excesses. From being beaten by mother's boyfriends to...well...everything, the attackers were not masters of their destinies. And, by the time they murdered Matthew Shepard, one was a parent, and both had severe meth addictions. But, its OK because they had a rough life, right?

Well, meth isn't nearly as good as it should be because the awesomely gay Matthew Shepard used the evil meth. Very evilly, he used the evil meth. It was bad in this case because he had so much going for him, never mind the minor mention of his getting raped. How dare he be depressed that he was raped on a field trip and got AIDS as a result. He should have been damned chipper, if you ask Elizabeth Vargas. Certainly not a drug user.

The second half of the report drives home the idea that this was not a hate crime. McKinney's wife lied in 1998 when she said it was because Shepard made a pass at McKinney (or so she had said he told her). And, in fact, neither of the attackers were homophobic in any ways. On top of this, several people had seen Shepard and McKinney together prior to the event. And, McKinney and friend was just coming down off a three-day meth binge with little to no sleep when they beat and murdered Shepard. And tied him to the fence. But, it was the meth's fault. You can't really blame the attackers though. They're paying their time. Its all good. Never mind that it was only after Shepard touched McKinney's leg that McKinney hit him for the first time.

I have such mixed reactions to this piece of newsmagazine reporting.

1) I agree truth is important. If it was not a hate crime, then whatever. They still did a vicious murder that was probably more brutal than a great deal of cinema. They deserve no time off for drug use.

2) The truth was reported in such a way that I almost felt that becoming a meth addict should allow me to kill anybody and get away with it, so long as it wasn't a hate crime. Except, I'm bi, and that makes meth use bad.

3) The truth has changed from the inception. Though, even The Laramie Project hints at the non-hate crime motivations, and that was a few years before this piece of fluff. The problem lies in a 17 second clip (17:23-17:40 in my clip, 16:59-17:16 raw):

Elizabeth: You had told police that at some point, Matthew had reached over and grabbed your leg.
Aaron: Yeah
Elizabeth: And what did you do when he grabbed your leg?
Aaron: I hit him with a pistol.

Yup. No gay panic there.

4) The facts around this single hate crime should in no way shape or form invalidate the gay rights movement. For every falsely reported gay hate crime, there are dozens of real ones. Even though this writer does not feel that hate crimes make things worse, it is a way of labeling a group of victims and a source of problems which needs to be solved. And, the gay rights movement, largely fueled by the Matthew Shepard case, is in no way wrong.

Anyways, that's the story. Those are my problems with it.

Strangely Political

Listening to AM 1400 is a funny funny thing. Sometimes its informative too. Here's some things I learned on that station:

1) Christians want to convert everybody to save them from the firey pits of HELL, even fellow conservatives. Somebody told Dennis Prager that he was going to Hell for not embracing Jesus...after telling him that she (the caller) agreed with everything he said.

2) People get sidetracked easily. Several times on the station (especially on religious nut Kevin Fobbs' show), people prattle on about topics hit on the day before, or even the week before.

3) Conservatives believe illegal aliens should be tagged. Some even belief that legal aliens should be tagged. By tagged, we mean implanting a chip inside the person's skin. Of course, this would mean we would have had to tag current cabinet head of Economics, but that's besides the point.

4) Christians are starting to perform Bar Mitzvahs. Oy Vey. This reminds me of the Jews For Jesus counter-trend.

5) People inevitably sound like the things they criticize. On Kevin Fobbs' show, he was criticizing Hollywood's anti-religious humor, and displayed SNL's skit of Leviticus. He ended up sounding like Leviticus.

6) Religious people want tolerance for their religion, but hate anybody who is atheist, agnostic, or UnGodly. They want to say prayers in schools and at work, but hate anybody who thinks that there is no God.

7) Inauguration day is all about healing. (see below)

8) Gays really are second class citizens.

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On that note, I should bring up the Supreme Court's latest ruling. For those of you too busy to follow, the Supreme Court recently upheld a 1977 Florida law which prevents homosexual couples from adopting children.

The facts:
In 1977, Florida banned homosexuals from adopting children. You had to be straight in order to adopt children, and generally married. In 2003, they passe a law allowing single people to adopt children. However, Florida allows homosexuals to be foster parents, which means they can raise the kids, they just can't legally adopt them. Several foster parents, and other needy homosexual couples looking for rugrats to fill their sad lonely little lives, have sued to have the law taken off the books, so they can adopt their children. Today, January 11, 2005, the federal supreme court ruled that the best family is the classic nuclear relation of a mother and a father.

The positives:
On the one hand, this has become a cementing factor in the federal vs. state line. Federal law has generally left family issues such as marriage, adoption, and so on to the states. When gay marriage, and the amendment to the federal constitution to ban it, were in the spotlight, one of the hot issues was that it changed the weight from the state to the federal. Since there is speculation on this being a hot button issue in congress soon, the upholding of state law may be a key argument against the need for a national ban.

The negatives:
Well, gay rights have lost again. But, this is in both the state and federal arena. And, it isn't for the children since one of the couples suing was named Foster Parents of the year for taking in several children infected with HIV. This isn't for the family values, since single people can adopt as well. This is all about Florida coming down on gay people, and another dignity taken away. While I congratulate the federal supreme court in their decision, I condemn the Florida supreme court (through whom the case had to have gone) for not cancelling the law.

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In other news, People are protesting George Bush's inauguration on Thursday, January 20, 2005. How? By not buying anything for 24 hours. The protect is called Not One Damn Dime, and they hope people will not buy anything for 24 hours in protest to the war in Iraq, and the re-election of George Bush. Go Blue!

Racism and bigotry - Conservative style

We all know that Bush is chasing the minority and female vote when he promoted Condi "Mr. President is right" Rice, and then sledged it home when he elected an import to head the economics department, Carlos Gutierrez, and a woman to education, Margaret Spellings. In addition, he named another hispanic, Alberto Gonzales, to head the Justice Department. This isn't to reduce anything in their capacities, but they aren't exactly prime examples of their species. More like sycophants, with Bush playing the psychotic role of Oliver Stone in this strange and disturbing reality which plays out more like a film rolling before my eyes than reality setting in with normalcy and sanity.

Regardless of Gonzales' and Spellings' abhorable, yet obvious, states as Bush worshippers, Roger Clegg in National Review wrote on race and affirmative action (a more embarassing AA than Alky Anon) in the education and justice system. In this report, straight out of the fifties, Clegg writes,

It raises eyebrows, then, that two of the White House aides who are reported to have been behind the weakening of the Justice Department’s position in the Michigan cases are now slated to head the Justice and Education Departments: Alberto Gonzales and Margaret Spellings, respectively.

The Michigan cases which he writes about are the notorious University of Michigan Affirmative Action cases. I say notorious because the worst of the whites were clamoring against the worst of the minorities for the tail-end acceptances into a school which they will probably flunk out of anyways (It's sort of like if Badnarik fought bitterly with Nader for the Presidency). And, I do meant retarded. If you've seens ome of the mentally disabled people that come in to that school, and I am not just talking culturally insulated either. In these cases, both the law school graduate program and the LSA undergraduate program were targeted in separate cases with similar suits. The ruling came down that the law school was not justified in its use of race as an admissions factor, while the undergrads were.

Clegg wrote that Bush's view, as well as the view of the Republican Party, tates, "[B]ecause we are opposed to discrimination, we reject preferences, quotas, and set-asides based on skin color, ethnicity, or gender, which perpetuate divisions and can lead people to question the accomplishments of successful minorities and women.” Thus, he concludes that because Gonzales and Spellings recognized the potential for poor preparations (horrible school districts, terrible culture, etc) that a slight boost is needed for minorities who are the racial majority in desparate situations. That isn't to say that they are right, but that they saw something which many of the rich white folk with stupid children fail to see.

In actuality, Clegg is also reacting against the promotion of more women and minorities to the cabinet. Good bye Powell, hello Cuban? I can picture them saying, "goddamn spics, they better know where they're place is." Actually, Clegg writes it without the obvious vulgarities,

On the other hand, Gonzales and Spellings are both famous for being loyal soldiers, and one hopes that the White House will give them — and the rest of the administration — clear marching orders in the second term.

And, later,

It would be worthwhile, then, for senators to question Gonzales and Spellings during their confirmation hearings on these issues, and gain some reassurance that each will enforce the civil-rights laws in the same way for all Americans, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or sex. Conservatives should also insist that the civil-rights officials appointed under Gonzales and Spellings have a strong commitment to color-blind law.

Clegg is actually worrying about a minority and a female taking over. He suspecta that neither will actually be faithful to the party, but faithful to their race and their culture. Because, let's face it, women and minorities, in Republican terms, are just pawns meant to obey every word which comes out of their party's mouth, right?

Maybe I have been so naive that racism is veritably dead. Maybe I have been so naive that I would actually think that minorities were mainly judged on their actual merits. Though, since Spellings and Gonzales have already proven their loyalty (to a fault), why do we have this questioning?

Roger Clegg is a racist and general counsel for the Center of Equal Opportunity.

A tip to the wiseass

If you fucking beat this prick long enough, he'll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago fire, now that don't necessarily make it fucking so! - Reservoir Dogs

Top of the news: Information retrieved by torture is now admissible in courts of law. Prisoners who have been held in prison for three years (and still going strong) were held because of evidence given from prisoners in Guantanemo Bay, where "misconduct" happened. (Actually, depending on the woman, I wouldn't mind being the prisoner who got flashed for information).

While everybody knew that torture had to happen somewhere in the system for the protection of our country (hell, we're one of the most hated countries, its probably not that easy to get information against us), this is the first time its use in courts to imprison people is acceptable in about 70 years. Part of the reason they stopped allowing duressed evidence: unreliability (see above quote).

While I am definately for the use of extreme conditions to gain information regarding the safety of the nation, I am against it being used to imprison people. Why? Because, as somebody else put it, "giving up your freedom is the harshest punishment around." Taking away freedom indefinately on circumstantial evidence is a bit lacadaisical, in my opinion. In addition, while it is a crime to conspire to overthrow the government (which seems rather unpatriotic to me, given that our nation was founded by overthrowing a government *whistles*), it is much harder to convict people on conspiracy to commit a crime.

But, we're on our way to convictions of the 9-11 prisoners. Yay law!

--------------------------------------------

In other news: Tom Ridge, director of Homeland Security, has stepped down. Another one bites the dust (and another one's gone...Hey, he's gonna get you too). I wonder if all these people were hoping that Bush would not get re-elected.

Making flippy floppy

Top stories:
1)US declares Fallujah
2)Fighting in Mosul
3)6 Bush Cabinet Members leave (including Michigan's own Spencer Abraham)
4)Matthew Shepard hoax revealed?

1) So, the US has declared victory in Fallujah. Yet gunfire rings out from, well, everywhere. They have declared 1000-1600 killed, though relatively few bodies. Ah well, the bodies up and went to

2) Mosul! There, the insurgents have conquored police stations and various other buildings in the Army's absence. Well, not quite absence as they have decided to drop 500-lb bombs in Mosul. Probably without warning. Good bye civilians. Fare thee well.

3) And, between fight or flight, it seems there is a mass exodus from the White House. John Ashcroft, everybody's favorite slimeball, kicked off the ceremonies last week. Joining him for the unofficial start was Commerce secretary Don Evans. Colin Powell, the resident token Black Man and veritable puppet, continued the ceremonies by announcing his leave. Spencer Abraham, sectretary of Energy and Michigan reject, fled as quickly as he could. Education secretary Rod Paige, and Agriculture secretary Ann Veneman have kept the race going. 6 people have left the cabinet so far. Color me scared.

4) 20/20 will air on November 26th a new report that Matthew Shepard, homosexuality's hate crime poster boy, was not beaten because he was gay but just because it was a burgled robbery. I can't wait, namely because I saw The Laramie Project on HBO last night for the first time, and I believe that all the words in that project were exactly what was said. If that was the case, then the whole defense was that he was targeted because of his sexuality. I should see if the court records are open. Anybody know anything about that?

In the meantime

So, while my computer is recuperating, I will send you guys with a link to an amazing piece of video animation, with a political message (liberal).

What Barry Says

Thanks you Knife Party!

Another reason why the democrats lost the election

http://johnkerryads.websiteanimal.com/

Deconstructing a construction

When asked which side needs to change, the conservatives or the liberals, confronted with the idea that Christians haven't changed in 2000 years, here was my response:

Do the Christians still torture and execute Jews, Gays, Muslims, and Protestants?

(well, we've solved 50% of the problem)

The Christians still attack foreign lands?

(yup)

The Christians still conduct Holy Wars against each other, burning churches and razing cities?

(I think most of these have been stemmed)

Yup, you're right, Christians are constructive.

In addition to these classic examples, currently we have religious leaders saying they'll murder gays just for giving them "a look" then lie to God about it (Jimmy Swaggart). Leaders who lead their flock to exclude people who don't believe in what they do (Kerry and abortion). Leaders who lead their flock to hurt people who don't believe in what they do (abortion bombings, groups of which have included pastors). Leaders who brainwash people and use manipulation tactics to get them to conform to what they believe (as opposed to the Glitterati informing people of what they believe and exposing them to it) (see Hell House). Leaders who praise the torture and beating of other people, solely for their sexuality (Rev. Fred Phelps). I could go on...

I have no problem with Christianity itself. I have a problem with the Cult (or Church, if you will) of Christianity. The total and utter control of beliefs to be exclusive of anybody who doesn't conform. The belief that gays or any other moral or belief system are second hand citizens (now slightly more inclusive with Jews!).

I understand the appeal of church. I understand the need to belong, the need to find answers to questions unknown. The need to believe. BUT, the church leaders are using their clout not for good, but for exclusion and/or conformity.>

The left's psychotics (who are psychotic...see Monster, a horribly sympathetic portrait of a killer) are to be shunned as well. But, they don't have nearly the committed following that the church does. With the glitterati, people don't necessarily believe the politics covertly dished out at the cineplex, in magazines, on television. They also aren't told they won't be allowed to watch programs or read magazines if they don't believe (see Communion counter-part).

In academia, things are a bit different, but the culture wars which happen in universities (see UofM, subdivision of Haight-Ashbury) prove that the students are not all listening nor believing. When the pro-Palestines clash against the pro-Israels, it is a beautiful clash. When the pro-Affirmative Actioners fight the anti-race-based-Affirmative Actioners, it is beautiful (I still love the White scholarship).

Both sides have their head deep in their ass, but the religious right has a much more solid grip on its followers.

Ideal job

BBC News reports the latest in the anti-terror effort:

Before now, there has been speculation that Osama Bin Laden has hidden messages in pornographic images posted and swapped on Usenet, eBay and Amazon.

However, after analysing over two million images from eBay, Niels Provos and colleagues from the University of Michigan have said they found no evidence of hidden messages. Mr Provos and his colleagues are now extending their work to check more images.

I'd hate to be the custodian at UofM, but I want to study the pictures. I wonder what the preferred clean-up method was.

Not so stunning facts

According to CNN

20% of Bush's voters go to church more than weekly. 11.7% of Kerry's do.

29.6% of Bush's go weekly. 22.2% of Kerry's do.

13.7% of Bush's make it monthly, 14.3% of Kerry's do.

24.7% of Bush's go a few times a year, 31.5 of Kerry's do.

10.5% of Bush's never go. 19.4% of Kerry's never do.

49.6% of Bush's voters go to church weekly or more. 33.9% of Kerry's voters do the same.

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88.1% of Bush's voters are Catholic or Protestant. 71.4% of Kerry's voters are Catholic or Protestant.

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And this probably doesn't include too much good information from the rural states.

Jaded about elections

A story, told by an idiot, with much sound and fury, trying to explain the absence of the youth vote, signifying nothing:

I remember it like it was yesterday. Let's set the stage:

Date: November 7th, 2000
Time: 9:00pm
Place: Fraternity House

Election year. It is that quadrennial event in which people go to the polls to pull the pole which selects the politician which you want to lead your country for four years. It is the event of high hopes and dashed dreams. An event full of ideals and values. One of the events which should be sacred to every single American in this country.

This election year was my first to vote. It was also my second year in college. I had driven all the way back to my hometown to vote because this was the year where they passed a bill saying that you could not vote in your college town, but had to vote in your original district. I missed the absentee deadline, so I drove home to make sure I was able to vote.

Several of my fellow fraternity brothers had done similar things, or filed for absentee ballots. For many of us, it was our first chance to vote, our first chance to say who we wanted for leader, our first chance to say "we want this man to be our president."

Living in Michigan, one knows that the Democrat/liberal candidate would easily win. Gore hadn't said much that was ideal to me, but I know I hated GWBush and his politics. I had voted for Nader and the Green Party for the purpose of trying to get him to push to the 2% needed for federal funding. Not that he had a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but I felt the democrats and republicans were sort of like polarized magnets which were facing each other on a high friction surface. Slowly and painfully, they were coming together to become virtually the same magnet.

The house was pretty evenly split, but very cordial about it. Only a couple of the brothers were truly political (excluding yours truly...aerospace homework and parties = political lightweight). They were communication or poli-sci majors.

On election night, the house had gathered in the main room to watch the news progress throughout the evening. Eagerly anticipating the results, we were on the edge of our seats for most of the evening. Edge of our seats may be the wrong term...more like edge of our drink. We were drinking to celebrate and...well, it was a fraternity, we used any excuse to get together and drink, though I suspected this was a good one.

The results started coming in, rather silly at first. As usual. Most of us had pledged that we would stay up and watch until the concession speeches were given and the whole evening was over. As the results came in, Florida stayed stubbornly indecisive. Soon, a news channel had declared Florida for Gore. A general feeling of relief and finality had overcome us. The concession speech would surely come soon, right?

Time passed...

and passed...

and passed...

I decided to start doing my homework, which I had vowed to neglect until the speeches were done, (and I was slightly tipsy). Bush had not come out to give his speech. Why not? We were all really frustrated at this point. We wanted to get on with our lives knowing who would be our next President.

Then, Fox News decided that Florida really voted for Bush. Then, it was really close, and no concession speech would be given that night.

Days passed.

Weeks passed.

Stories of voter fraud started emerging from the newspapers. Recalls kept occurring. Ballots were thrown out. Stories of difficult ballots came out. The popular vote had clearly gone to Gore. But, who what would seperate the winner from the loser? And, finally, the Supreme Court decided that Gore had lost and Bush had won.

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Year: 2004

Four years later. Billions of dollars in debt. At war with a country which did not attack us. We were poised to renew our bid for President. Would we be able to choose who we wanted this time around?

October 2003 had the beginning of the first section of the year's rally "A.B.B." Anybody but Bush.

The democrats were a joke when they first started their bid in October 2003. Who were these jokers, and couldn't we have a remix of them? Who really wanted to vote for any of these assholes? Why were we stuck with these decisions? Were we stuck with these choices because of ABB? Nobody chose to answer these questions, but Kerry was elected in the primaries, to the chagrin of most democrats. ABB became ABBAK, Anybody But Bush And Kerry.

Early in 2004, bombings of Spain their election week laid claims that the terrorists were manipulating elections abroad. Newspapers and politicians clinged to this concept of who people would vote for were dictated by fear. This wasn't too far off.

Cynical speculations that Usama Bin Laden would be "captured" sometime in late October, in time for re-election. Or, he would at least pop up somehow. This turned out to be true.

MTV's perpetual use as a pop culture brainwashing machine came to restart their "Choose or lose" which was later molded into "choose or die." Choose or Lose was deemed a success for asking what type of underwear Clinton wears, circa Beavis and Butthead era.

Actors and actresses came out, as usual, and demanded that people should vote...and vote for Kerry, the new Democratic running mate.

Besides the volume and rancor of the punditry, everything seemed to be moving fairly normally: except for ABB.

THEN THINGS STARTED TO GET MEAN

Besides the usual trash-talking and mud-slinging which pervades every election, we had the new stories of potential voter fraud, and more groups of wannabe registrars.

There were electronic voting boothes which had no paper trails, thus allowing data to be manipulated (there is a reason the IRS demands you keep reciepts for 7 years).

The groups were caught with various false registrations.

Ohio throws out registrations because they were not on thick enough paper

Registrations were missing through the mail.

Voter fraud starts appearing in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida...And these started happening in September.

By late October, many people were tired of the endurance which it takes to keep up with the virtual onslaught of politics which happens with election year.

Neither side was innocent. Neither side believed that the elections were sacred. They both took the events of last year's elections as a launch pad for further manipulation.

False news stories appear on television, to be proven false on internet blogs. False news stories then happen on blogs.

Finally, the voice of reason appears: from Trey Parker and Matt Stone. South Park's 8th season premiere airs the Wednesday before election day. In it, they criticize PETA and plead with people vote. They tell people to vote, but agree with the potential non-voters that the candidates are a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Literally. This had overtones of The Simpson's 1996 season (interestingly their 8th season) opener "Treehouse of Horror VII" which featured Bill Clinton and Al Gore as aliens, whom you were doomed to vote for. The issue with South Park was it ended with your vote didn't matter anyways.

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Why have the youth decided not to vote. Besides the respectable people who don't vote because they don't know anything about politics, we have a jaded society. Elections have become a sham. A way to defraud the American public. A joke. With armys of lawyers deployed to various states, we have an extremely large way for the youth to be jaded.

People between the ages of 22 and 25 have experienced two elections in a row which have practically seemed as if they weren't decided by votes but by flaws and laws. With al of the predictions from the liberal left coming true, why shouldn't we believe that there would be voter fraud? Then, those rumors came true when there was a computer election booth which created 3000 Republican votes.

Is it any wonder why we have so many youth jaded from voting?

Whoever wins, we lose

1pm ET; 12pm CT; 11am MT, 10am PT

According to the NYTimes, Kerry will concede the race at 1pmET in Boston. 31 hours after the booths opened, Kerry will concede the race at 1pm. Ohio is a lost cause, as 130,000 is a shitload of voted. NV and NM and IA are all leaning towards Bush.

Whee!

Four more years.

Suing companies

Now that civil unions have been banned in Michigan, it is time for all gays who do possess the civil union standing to go out and sue the pants off the state so their straight civil union counterparts do not recieve the benefits which their civil unions afford them.

Impeaching Bush

Well, its 2:30, and there still isn't a decisive winner yet. Florida still is working its way through absentee ballots, though nothing short of a miracle will get Kerry's victory. Ohio has been declared about an hour and a half ago, given to Bush. This puts Bush at 269 out of the 270 electoral votes necessary, with the three last remaining states coming into play being Iowa, Hawaii, and New Mexico.

Here's where things get hairy, though. Ohio has been predicted to be the legal battleground state for recounts and various other elements of voter fraud. Florida has a notorious history of strange voting records (see 2000 election). But, there is still the hypothetical situation that Kerry could pull the rest of the states (MI [def], WI [def], HI[def], MN [def], IA[slim], NM [slim], and NV[very very bleak]), though I doubt it.

Not to sound like a sore loser (oh, wait, my candidate didn't even get 1% of the vote...fucking morons), but its time we get Bush to start being honest with us. Let's impeach the fucker. I want everybody to write to their Representative, write to your Senator. Start a judiciary committee on Medicare.

Yes, folks, Medicare might be the key to our success. Many conservatives are genuinely pissed off that Bush lied about the cost of Medicare, and they might be sympathetic to the plight posed by democrats. Deroy Murdock in National Review wrote about the illegality of what might have happened to get Medicare voted in. Medicare was known to probably cost around $600 billion, while it was voted on at $400 billion. But, what was best was that many of the people working for the administration came out as being forced into keeping quiet about the real cost. Murdock lists 5 laws broken.

Send this out to everybody. Let's get the impeachment trials started now.

Voting is easy

In my district, there was no line this morning. I voted for Badnarik. I voted an almost straight libertarian ticket, UST when not libertarian, democrat when not independent.

No on Michigan Prop 1, No on Michigan Prop 2.

He's BAACCKK! or: Timing is Everything

With the election being one week away, we have two different terroristic tapes on our hands, Iran's nukular issue, Arafat's illness, and, to top it off, a Japanese body was found in Baghdad.

1) Usama Bin Laden has released another video tape, this one dated back to the 70s. Seriously, it is dated back to at least September if not sooner. I think it was kept under wraps until this week anyways. Our government is weird like that.

2) Azzam the American. For those who haven't heard, we have a new cartoon character. This one is Azzam the American. Azzam has released a 75 minute long lecture tape, this one captured by ABC. It seems rather cartoonish and bizarre. At first, they assumed that English was not Azzam's native language. Now, they suspect that it is Adam Yahiye Gadahn (aka Adam Pearlman) who made the tapes. It is a hard-to-distinguish accent. *sigh* My favorite is the lack of originality in moving from Adam to Azzam. Yet Pearlman becomes Gadahn.

3) Iran has voted on their nuclear issue. They have voted to keep enriching their uranium, which can be used for nuclear weapons. According to the two reports, they shouted "Death to America"...again. Did we attack Iran two years ago? Nope. Last year? Nope. This year? Nope. Hrm. Did we attack Iraq? Yup. Did they have WMDs? Nope. Hrm. Do we want somebody who attacks the wrong country as our leader?

4) Arafat is recovering in a French military training hospital. No news whether this is free of charge, but he was lifted from Jordan in a French army jet. He is expected to make a full recovery, much to the chagrin of Israelis and Zionists.

5) A Japanese body this time? Jebus. Go war in Iraq. Japan won't pull out due to a dead body, so why should we, right? RIGHT? GODDAMMIT.

The silent minority

There is one group in the country, politically. The Repocrats. OK, so it really is two parties but they have melded together in an urgent need to gain votes from the other side.

This is bad. Very very bad. Why?

Because we have a country where people aren't voting for who they think will do the best job, but who they think will win. People aren't voting for who they think will do the best job, but who won't do the worst. People aren't voting for the best candidate, but the lesser of two evils.

Before I go on, I must say that this is sounding so typically third-party in terms of whininess, but they do have a point...a point which I have agreed with since 1996.

In America, we have an unofficial two-party system. Over time, these parties have changed, but rarely has a three party system survived in this nation. We have a winner-take-all system when it comes to everything. President gets elected in, but the losers get nothing except the right to grumble about the elected. If you are in the third party, you get nothing.

Recently, with the development of the neo-con, it has seemed that the Republicans (who have made mistakes since I can remember) are splitting off. But, with this election being so "important" (dictated by the media), everybody is afraid from deviating this year from their party. On the other hand, many people voting for either candidate actually associate themselves as libertarians. Why?

One person wrote, "I won't vote for the libertarians because of the nutjobs who generally run for office." This is a problem inherent in the system. It costs a lot of money to campaign. It costs even more to demand recognition if the media won't help. You have to be able to have a job after the election is over, and survive through the campaign trail. One would have to be crazy to spend millions on a campaign which has no government support, and which is doomed to lose anyways.

Another person wrote, "I hate to waste a vote on somebody who I know won't win." If everybody who said this actually voted for the person they thought should win, that person would probably have into the 10% margin. At that point, there would (hopefully) be much more media attention to the third party. Of course, that is idealism (we all know that the media is in the pockets of the DNC and RNC).

In this modern time, I hope everybody votes for who they think would do the best job. Who stands for what you think is important. Not what party you should stand for. Stop voting for Bush if he doesn't support your ideals. Stop voting for Kerry if he doesn't support your ideals. Stop voting against somebody. Start voting with your brains and your morals.

It is also time to revamp the system. We have been behind the times for far too long. Canada has a system where your vote for leader doesn't just go to that leader, but also to a chair in a section of their parlament. Maybe we should adopt a new system which upholds this style of election. Where people wouldn't be afraid of losing a vote. Where things might happen outside of the bipartisan method.

When you vote on Nov. 2nd, vote with your brain. Not with your anger.

Sideline punditry

Everybody knows about the Sinclair broadcasting hullabaloo. Here's what's going on from the other side.

2003 - ohGr - Majik - An industrial band releases an animatronic anti-Bush video.
Early 2004 - Sundance replays Robert Altman's HBO series Tanner '88, witten with Garry Trudeau, about a fictional presidential candidate's failed political campaign.
Mid 2004 - Another anti-Bush animatronic video (will get data by tomorrow)
May 2004 - Michael Moore releases the first in a flood of political documentaries which are just campaign commercials.
September 2004 - Sundance Channel replays Tanner '88.
September 2004 - Sundance Channel also picks up Al Franken's talk show.
October 2004 - Sundance plays several anti-Bush documentaries, including With God on Our Side, and The President Versus David Hicks
October 2004 - Eminem releases Mosh (Featured on Launch), another anti-Bush animatronic.
November 1st 2004 - Sundance plays the "un" trilogy, Unprecidented: the 2000 Presidential Election, Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War, and Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties, as well as Bush's Brain (about Karl Rove). In addition, it plays A Perfect Candidate, a movie about Oliver North's 2004 Senatorial bid.

From the middle:
HBO has been playing Diary of a Political Tourist, which is a fluffy yet evenly despising comedy about the candidates.

What was that about the Sinclair broadcasting system being biased? At least everybody recognizes Bush as an evil cartoon character.

Scylla and Charybdis

Given the extreme waffling in the electoral college polls, I have discovered that you can't trust any of them. However, Michigan is supposedly a strong Kerry supporter now, though Kerry is losing over all. One of the reasons is that The Detroit News, one of the conservative papers, has pulled its endorsement for President.

Yes, the Republicans are finally going against Bush in a conservative backlash against those bastard neo-cons. The big government "compassionate" (my ass) conservatives are ruining the nation, and The Detroit News has pulled its endorsement of Bush. They also are not endorsing Kerry. Some choice quotes:

The Detroit News will not lend its endorsement to a candidate who has made too many mistakes, nor to one who offers a governing philosophy that we reject.

Such bad management cannot be forgiven in a wartime president. At home, Bush has shocked us with his free-spending ways.

The president's record does not recommend him for re-election.

Thank God. Maybe we can pull some of the Republicans over to libertarians, or at least get a fiscally conservative candidate. Because, Goddammit, I will not vote for a President who does not support any of my ideals. I will not support a rock nor a hard place. I will transcend the two party system and back a candidate who I think will run the country in a better manner.

Pandering to the LCD

Je suis un Mexicano. Je ne parle pas Espangole. Mais, dans l'ecole, j'ai apprendu le Francais.

I keep getting these fliers from the DNC telling me to vote for Kerry, only in French. I am torn between deciding whether I think its racist or not, since they are bilingual, half in Spanish, half in English. I'm also torn whether I think it is great for the DNC to be marketing to people who don't speak English since all of the campaigning is in English.

I have decided I didn't like it though. It makes assumptions.

To date, the RNC hasn't sent me any fliers.

Frightening Politics

Chris Madden, a Bush Cheney Spokesman, commenting on the flu vacciene emergency, "We know that they listen to the facts. The reason for the shortage is because John Kerry and his friends support people to have the right to sue doctors...They won't listen to rhetoric -- Kerry pounding his fist on the table."

There are two things going on, if you didn't catch that:

1) Unintentional hilarity. Talk about irony, Madden's "rhetoric" line takes the cake, and he said it without any semblance of a sense of humor.

2) Horror. This is a prime example of why we don't need tort reform. If not for the fear that we could sue the doctors, the doctors and, more importantly, the drug manufacturers would screw us over ever chance they could get, including giving us contaminated vaccienes.

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Fox & Friends also showed the video of Ann Coulter getting attacked by pies. That was the most hilarious video ever. Then the comments by the newspeople were hilarious too. They kept going on about how dangerous it all was. Pies...pies were dangerous.

Who I should vote for

http://www.selectsmart.com/president

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%) Click here for info
2. Badnarik, Michael - Libertarian (77%) Click here for info
3. Cobb, David - Green Party (59%) Click here for info
4. Nader, Ralph - Independent (59%) Click here for info
5. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (59%) Click here for info
6. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (57%) Click here for info
7. Brown, Walt - Socialist Party (49%) Click here for info
8. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (48%) Click here for info
9. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (44%) Click here for info
10. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (42%) Click here for info
11. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (41%) Click here for info
12. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (37%) Click here for info
13. Peroutka, Michael - Constitution Party (35%) Click here for info
14. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (34%) Click here for info
15. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (33%) Click here for info
16. Bush, President George W. - Republican (26%) Click here for info
17. Hagelin, Dr. John - Natural Law (25%) Click here for info
18. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (21%) Click here for info

Palestinian Uprising in Michigan (or: Lecture Day)

Yesterday I filmed a lecture given by Don Matthews, an asst professor at Oakland University. He gave a lecture here in the Middle East Speaker Series, put on by the college, and headed by Randy Schwartz. The lecture was titled, "Palestine, Israel, and the Origins of a Conflict." Matthews has visited Jerusalem annually, including in August.

The Speaker series is normally around 2pm on Wednesdays, but yesterday was different. It was on Tuesday and at 3pm, or so. There were fewer people there than normal (though more people than the first lecture I filmed) and in the audience were four Palestinian supporters, two of whom had the grammar and accent to have actually been from the area. Of the other two, one was a young kid with ghetto stylings, and the other was an older guy who had fish eyes and strong-ass glasses.

Matthews' lecture was surprisingly even-handed. He placed equal blame on the Israelis as on the Palestinians, or he did as much as possible. He went through the history of the area from pre-Roman era through the diaspora, the regions name, and its occupational changes.

For those of you who don't know the history, I'll give you a brief recap. Palestinians were the name of a group of indiginous people pre-Roman era. Not necessarily the people who are Palestinian Arabs though. They disappeared during the Roman occupation, and spread out. After the destruction of Jersualem and Israel, the area was named Palestine.

Palestine was always named Palestine throughout its occupations, though generally as a provencial-type name. It went through independence, occupation by the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate, and now Israel again.

Around the time of WWI, or just before, there were no Zionist Jews in the area, as most were nationalist for Palestine. The Zionists decided to take over the land, and ended up going from 35,000 to 450,000 population in a relatively short amount of time. The Brits promised the Jews a section to call their own, but not necessarily a state. The Arabs rose up against the Zionists before this time because they saw them as taking over the land (which they were). The Zionists were also not being friendly to the Arabs at this portion, killing many who didn't submit. Post WWII, the Brits finally leave the land because they were tired of the Zionists demanding control of the land, and the Arabs fighting over it.

They then left Israel in the hands of the Jews. There was a war which broke out, launched by the Arabs, against Israel by the five nations, and Israel lost 1% of its population suppressing the uprising. Then, in a combo move, the Arabs were simultaneously driven out and fled to become refugees in foreign lands.

Then, we fast forward and skipped over the Six Day war, of which Matthews said one of the scariest things possible (and it was also of the reugees too), "The history on that is still being written." Israel was the first to use arms, but Egypt had blockaded a river. Either way, this is the Gaza Strip and the West Bank areas.

At the present time, Egypt is at a formal peace with Israel, though they may be hostile otherwise.

After the lecture, this is where things got a bit hairy. The four Palestinian sympathizers decided to go rabid and make this a pro-Palestine source, and/or thought that Matthews was somebody who commented for Israel. He was, actually, very even handed. They started asking the most pointed questions and cutting him off before he got a chance to finish his statements.

Lord knows that I am not an Israeli sympathizer, but this guy was no expert. He was giving a foundation for the conflict, and these four fuckheads started going on about Ariel Sharon and recent events:

Fucktard 1: What do you see the war as...
Matthews: *gobbeldy gook* and Sharon's use of targeted killings...
Fucktard 1: targeted Killings, you mean assassinations?
Matthews: Yes, targeted killings, assassinations, whatever term you want to use for extralegal killing
Fucktard 1: But, here, isn't asassinations illegal?
Matthews: Yes, that's what extralegal means, outside of the law.
Fucktard 1: But, doesn't that
Matthews: Well, Sharons, if you'll let me finish my point, excuse me...

It was almost embarassing how pointed the questions were when he was trying to mak an even-handed point. If I had a beer for every time one of these fucktards had a personal story, I would have passed out. "They only gave us a tank of water on Tuesdays and Thursdays." "My grandfather was in the Jordanian army." "My foot hurts because of Israel." Shut the fuck up. If it wasn't for Israel, you wouldn't be in America, you fucktards.

Matthews handled as well as one could handle over-dominating cretins.

Kerry Ka-putnik

First debate not watched solo. First debate in which Kerry looked completely terrible compared to Bush. Crash and burn for the Kerry team.

Kerry, tonight, appeared tired and beat, almost as Bush did in the first debate. The surprising thing about that is that yesterday was Kerry's day off, while Bush was going around campaigning and practicing his debate speeches. Maybe Kerry should take a note, ebcause he might spend the however-many-days of Vacation that Bush did on some ranch.

Kerry had no viable plan for anything, he didn't show any strength whatsoever, his plans were non-existant, and his attacks were weak in origin. Bush, on the other hand, had facts (though infinitely repeated ones) coming out of his left ear (where he was probably wired), and appeared confident almost to the point of cockiness. My fellow viewers resorted to remarking on Bush's appearance, including such micromanagement issues as his tie.

I don't undertsnad why when the debates were still somewhat rollicking when they weren't dull as shit. In the opening pieces, I was rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard, but through most of it I was bored to tears I had heard the same spiel so many fucking times before. It was a campaign management on ice.

Best phrase:
Bush: "...Fiscal sanity..."