Spirituals Project

Thanks to Sojourners, I just found out about this awesome site: Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals. It is a multimedia site run by The Spirituals Project at the University of Denver on the history of spirituals and their impact on us today. I could spend a whole day on the site. Then again, I spent four years in school singing spirituals such as "There is a Balm in Gilead", "Great Day", and "My Lord What a Mornin'". I never got a solo in the spirituals, though. My voice ain't big enough. (/choir memories)

Banned Books Week 2004

I forgot that this is Banned Books Week. If I had remembered, I would have done like last year, and do a banned/challenged book for each day of the week. Since I forgot, I'll just refer you to the books I covered last year:

• The Handmaid's Tale
  
• A Light in the Attic
  
• Bridge to Terabithia
  
• A Wrinkle in Time
  
• In the Night Kitchen

The Ten Most Challenged Books of 2003

On the list as #5 most challenged for the past year is Fallen Angels, which I helped work on in my college internship with HRW (I helped choose 'Connections' for it). It isn't one of the better works I've read, but it is unique. It covers a black teen's experience in the Vietnam War, the loss he suffers, the pain he sees his friends go through, the racism he views, and more. As it covers the fictional experience of soldiers, the language is quite "colorful" and the description of violent events is explicit. It's not a happy book, but I think it should be available to anyone who wants to read it.

Something I doubt either candidate will bring up tonight. . .

. . . the fact that we are a selfish nation. My mom told me about this opinion piece which was in today's local paper.

About 1,050 US soldiers are dead in Iraq. Up to 15,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. None of that has persuaded us Americans to put down the kaleidoscope and stop spinning in our own orbits. No amount of mass sacrifice abroad has resulted in mass sacrifice at home. No amount of failure in the original mission of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has made us question the fantasy of bullying the world. Our toys really are us. We're big, we're bad, and you Euro girlie-cars, we're cutting in.

It would be sad to conclude someday that our leaders sent our soldiers halfway around the world to die for our cars. In the absence of weapons of mass destruction and in the absence of Saddam Hussein being tied to Sept. 11, there is not much left to conclude. On its current website, the Economist Intelligence Unit says "the biggest potential prize" and an "ideal prospect" for international oil companies is Iraq, home to the world's second- or third-largest oil reserves. In 1993, the deaths of a mere 18 Army Rangers in resource-starved Somalia made us flee that country.

Today we accept 58 times more American fatalities to secure Iraq. We accept the death of human beings who just finished being boys and girls, yet we have not accepted the notion that to avoid losing more of them, the rest of us must grow up. In 1991, during the first Gulf War to defend Kuwait from Saddam, Americans were consuming 25.2 percent of the world's oil. Today the figure is 26.1 percent, according to statistics kept by British Petroleum.

A huge part of that consumption is our insistence on huge cars, symbolized by Hummers and Caddys. But almost everything about our lifestyles, from our obesity epidemic to our homes, reeks of not giving one whit about being only 4 percent of the planet's population yet creating a quarter of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Even though the size of the American family has shrunk over the last half-century, the size of the average American home has more than doubled, with a single home in the suburbs loaded with more technology than whole villages in the developing world.

If any of this comes up during the debates, it will be a miracle. The last thing voters want to hear from a presidential candidate is that a more secure America means a less selfish America. You certainly will not hear that from President Bush, who says he can drill us into energy independence, even if that takes out a few snow geese and polar bears up in the Arctic. Nor will you probably hear much about sacrifice from his challenger, John Kerry. The Massachusetts senator has a voting record that earned him the endorsement of many environmental groups. But in the heat of pandering to voters, Kerry also said: "You want to drive a great big SUV? Terrific. That's America."

Having it all in America

Jesse Jackson and Kerry

Jesse Jackson has just signed on to be a senior advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign. My sister has a funny story about him, since she heard him speak when she was in junior high. Apparently, he is big on the pithy rhymes. You know, "Be cool. Stay in school." I guess she found his speech more humorous than educational.

I know it's a good move for the KE folks to get him involved, though.

The Official Kerry-Edwards Blog

update: Leah has reminded me of the rhyme he used for their speech: "Down with dope! Up with hope!"

if you want Gore's advice. . .

Al Gore has an op-ed column in today's NYTimes.

My advice to John Kerry is simple: be prepared for the toughest debates of your career. While George Bush's campaign has made "lowering expectations" into a high art form, the record is clear - he's a skilled debater who uses the format to his advantage. There is no reason to expect any less this time around. And if anyone truly has "low expectations" for an incumbent president, that in itself is an issue.

But more important than his record as a debater is Mr. Bush's record as a president. And therein lies the true opportunity for John Kerry - because notwithstanding the president's political skills, his performance in office amounts to a catastrophic failure. And the debates represent a time to hold him to account. For the voters, these debates represent an opportunity to explore four relevant questions: Is America on the right course today, or are we off track? If we are headed in the wrong direction, what happened and who is responsible? How do we get back on the right path to a safer, more secure, more prosperous America? And, finally, who is best able to lead us to that path?

. . . . . . . . . .

The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined."

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: How to Debate George Bush

Smart people watch the 'Daily Show'?

from IMDB:

Concerns that people who receive their political information from late-night comedy shows may not be adequately familiar with the issues in order to vote knowledgeably appeared to be laid to rest Monday by a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey. In a poll conducted between July 15 and Sept. 19, nearly 20,000 young adults were asked six questions about the presidential candidates' stands on various issues. Those who watched no late-night comedy shows answered 2.62 questions correctly. David Letterman's viewers answered 2.91; Jay Leno,'s 2.95; and Jon Stewart's (The Daily Show) 3.59. The results for Stewart appeared particularly striking to the pollsters, who noted that his viewers "have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers."

letter to Tom Brokaw

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 16:09:23 -0400
From: Elizabeth S. (myway email address)
To: Tom Brokaw (nightlyATmsnbcDOTcom)
Cc: FAIR (fairATfairDOTorg)
Subject: bias and "banning" the Bible


Dear Mr. Brokaw -

I understand your show's need to cover such news as the "Bible ban" mailing. However, as a liberal and a Christian, I am upset that your coverage perpetuated the myth that Democrats want to ban the Bible by not giving any liberals a chance to speak to the myth. Please remember it is a journalist's job to correct lies, not to give them national distribution.

Thank you for your quick attention to this matter.

Elizabeth S.
Austin, TX
http://evso.blogspot.com

_______________________________________________
No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding.
Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com

Your pre-debate quiz

I just found this on the NYTimes political blog-like thing. It's quite funny.

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Political Points: Why Wait? Here's a Pre-Debate Quiz

photobucket

My images are out because photobucket is having issues. Sorry!

urgh. . . T*dd Baxter

Someone just came by our office looking for Todd Baxter's campaign headquarters. Urgh - a republican campaign near my office! My co-worker suggested afterwards that we should have told the man he was in the wrong building. I wish I had - the guy rolled his eyes at me when I said I didn't know where that office was.

Too late now!

Inspired by NPR this morning

I heard this story on Habitat for Humanity and the difficulty it is having finding affordable land to build on.

Habitat for Humanity Vies for Affordable Land

Affordable housing for low-income people is an issue very close to my heart, as I spent a year working with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. How did I choose to do this? Well, it was my senior year in college and I knew that I wanted to do some form of volunteer/mission work after graduation. Peace Corps was out for me, so I was looking into Americorps, Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteers, Mission Year, and more. Then the choir I was in had to sing before a speech by Millard Fuller (the founder of Habitat), and I decided to stay and listen. His speech seriously affected me (he's a very charismatic speaker and worth hearing if you ever get the chance). He mentioned the Habitat*Americorps program, which I hadn't heard of. I went on to apply and was accepted at Twin Cities program, the second largest Habitat affiliate in the nation.

Most people have the mistaken notion that Habitat gives houses away to people. Wrong. A lot of people think that Jimmy Carter founded Habitat. Wrong. Carter does lead a yearly work project, and is quite involved with Habitat and its work, but he did not found it.

I led parts of construction on a couple of projects in the Twin Cities area, and got to work with several Habitat homeowners. It saddens me to hear that Habitat is having a tough time of it. Lack of affordable land is not just a problem in Georgia. We dealt with the issue in Minnesota. Another issue we had to deal with was requirements for neighborhood associations. A basic rule for Habitat is that you build houses for people, not cars. However, for many of our houses, we were required to build garages because the associations required it.

I hope the affordable land situation improves, but I am not sure I see how it could.

you must go read this now

Radmila has written a very tender post about memories of her grandfather. Excerpt:

My Deda was one of the most non-judgmental people I have ever known.
I had never heard him say an unkind thing about anyone. He used to carry me around on his shoulders making clucking noises, stick his finger in sugar and then in my mouth, when I was very little.
He was gentle and silly with me. I knew that he had suffered in his life. He spent time in a Hungarian work camp because his brother who was a big Communist fingered him as anti.
I know that he spent time in the Dachau Concentration Camp.

Please go read the whole thing.

under God, no assault weapons ban any more

I love that Congress can let the assault weapons ban die out, but the House feels it must defend the words "under God" in the Constitution. Lord help us. Seriously.

Republican leaders have also been chipping away at the Constitution by proposing to deny judges jurisdiction to review selected acts of Congress. The House passed a measure yesterday retaining the Pledge of Allegiance's "under God" phrase and prohibiting any federal court - including, outrageously, the Supreme Court - from judging the law's constitutionality.

In essence, the House proposed to protect a patriotic ritual by trashing the constitutional system it celebrates. This measure was spurred by discontent over a 2002 federal appeals court ruling that invalidated the recitation at public schools of the pledge with the "under God" phrase in it, and the Supreme Court's recent choice to dismiss the case on technical grounds rather than addressing the merits. It echoed the mean-spirited and unconstitutional Marriage Protection Act, which the House approved in July to bar federal courts from reviewing the legal definition of marriage.

The New York Times > Opinion > Congress Slouches Toward Home

with Scott's permission

I post his latest toon here. I wanted to post it on my page, but it is too wide. =(

I think my favorite is the part about the Sermon on the Mount, because it is sooo true.

another reason I don't believe in polls

Thanks to Michael Moore:

Making call on sham of political polling

Jimmy Breslin discusses the 168 million cell phone users that are ignored by common pollsters.

Zogby points out that you don't know in which area code the cell phone user lives. Nor do you know what they do. Beyond that, you miss younger people who live on cell phones. If you do a political poll on land-line phones, you miss those from 18 to 25, and there are figures all over the place that show there are 40 million between the ages of 18 and 29, one in five eligible voters.

And the great page-one presidential polls don't come close to reflecting how these younger voters say they might vote. The majority of them use cell phones and nobody ever asks them anything.

Common sense would say that the majority of the 18 to 25 who do vote would vote for the Democrat. The people who say they want to vote for Bush are generally in the older age brackets, and they don't have as much trouble with the lies told by Bush and his people. The older people also use cell phones much less because they can't hear on the things and when trying to dial a number on these midget instruments they stand there for an hour and get nothing done. The young people on cell phones appear not to be listening and they hear every syllable. They punch out a number without looking.

They are quicker, and probably smarter at this time, and almost doubtlessly more in favor of Kerry than Bush.

edit: I forgot to add that I depend on my cell phone, as I have no land line. It just makes more sense financially. Most of my friends (and my sister) do the same thing.

Yowza, Ann!

Cat Stevens = terrorist?

Ted Kennedy and Cat Stevens - both on government watch lists.

United Air Lines Flight 919 from London to Washington was diverted to Maine after the singer's Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, turned up on a "watch list" designed to keep terrorists or their supporters from boarding flights, U.S. officials said.

Islam, 56, took that name when he became a Muslim in the 1970s.

An FBI spokeswoman told CNN the singer's name was only matched to the watch list after the plane had departed London.

While the plane was in flight, the Advanced Passenger Information System flagged Islam's name, a Department of Homeland Security official said.

CNN.com - Detained Cat Stevens heading home

DeLay's PAC's in trouble!

The eight companies involved in the indictment include Cracker Barrel, Sears, Bacardi, and Westar Energy.

A Travis County grand jury on Tuesday indicted three top lieutenants of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and eight corporate donors for their efforts on behalf of DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority during the 2002 elections.

While the felony indictments put the two-year controversy on DeLay's doorstep, the investigation also inched toward Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland. Craddick was not indicted, but it was disclosed for the first time that he accepted a $100,000 corporate check on behalf of the Republican political action committee from a nursing home alliance that was indicted.
. . . . . . .
The scope and number of indictments stunned defense attorneys, who had expected only a handful of charges, if any at all. The investigation will continue, and the criminal trials could overshadow any attempt by the Legislature to redefine laws prohibiting corporate money being spent on political activity except in limited circumstances. Those laws have been on the books for decades, the result of populist fears against the financial power of corporations.

I posted about this investigation in February. I'm amazed that Ronnie Earle was actually able to pull this off. Yay!

statesman.com | Grand jury indicts DeLay lieutenants (subscription)

I wanna go to Seattle

I just found out about their new library.


The Seattle Times: Seattle's new library

who was Fern Holland?

The NYTimes Magazine investigates this woman and her fight for the rights of Iraqi women. It's a very detailed story about the enemies she made in Iraq, her reasons for being there, and her eventual murder.

Holland's story immediately took on mythic qualities. Rumors spread in Baghdad that she'd been riddled with 79 machine-gun bullets, a palpable symbol of Iraqi wrath against America. And in a way her story slipped effortlessly into a parable about American exceptionalism. Headstrong, reckless, idealistic, Americans have always believed in the power of will -- that one man or woman with enough faith and tenacity can at some moment pull off his or her vision. It happens here, in America, often enough. But in much of the rest of the world, the willful individual, moiling away against the system, may attain nobility in some moral order but is nonetheless fated to be crushed. These two perspectives are colliding in Iraq. The collision may, in the future, give way to some fruitful synthesis. For now, the result of the occupation is mostly carnage.

The New York Times > Magazine > Fern Holland's War

More aggravating than pledge breaks . . .

So now PBS is too left-wing, eh? I thought the point of PBS was to be not be on any wing! If I find these shows on my PBS station, I may just give up on it forever. PBS is having enough frustrating problems with the whole government-making-it-go-digital thing. So now PBS is having monthly pledge breaks (pledge seasons as they call it). Instead of having local people repeat themselves begging for money, we have national people repeating themselves and begging for money. I haven't been a member of PBS (b/c of financial reasons), and if FAIR is accurate (as they usually are), then I probably will never become come one.

The notion that public broadcasting should find ways to balance itself is odd, and accepts at face value the right-wing critique that PBS is biased to the left. If anything, PBS (and public broadcasting in general) is theoretically designed to balance the voices that dominate the commercial media. As the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act proposed, public broadcasting should have "instructional, educational and cultural purposes" and should address "the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities."

Instead, public television has in practice largely been a home for elite viewpoints, dominated by long-running political shows hosted by conservatives (Firing Line, McLaughlin Group, One on One) and by business shows aimed at the investing class (Nightly Business Report, Adam Smith's Money World, Wall $treet Week). When this line-up wasn't enough to insulate public TV from right-wing complaints in the mid-1990s, programmers responded by creating more series for conservatives like Peggy Noonan (Peggy Noonan on Values) and Ben Wattenberg (Think Tank).

Now PBS seems once again to be trying to placate right-wing critics, in this case by bringing to public broadcasting voices already well-represented in the mainstream media.

FAIR ACTION ALERT: PBS Panders to Right With New Programming

those darn CBS memos

I watched the CBS report in dispute and didn't really think it presented any new information (that I hadn't already read in that infamous Salon article). I guess it was mainstream enough to trouble the hawks, though. FAIR has released an analysis of the CBS report and findings since then.

. . . media should not lose sight of the fact that if questions about how CBS reported this story are important, it is mainly because the story itself is important. The information in the memos that Knox vouched for includes assertions that Bush was suspended from flying for refusal to obey a direct order to take a required flight physical, and for failure to perform to standards of the Texas Air National Guard. Knox also bolsters the allegation that Bush's commanding officer was under pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's records-- and that he was willing to "backdate" records to benefit Bush.

The fact that someone was able to bring these charges to CBS, even though they no longer seem to exist in Bush's official records, lends at least some credence to the very serious charge that Bush's records have been sanitized. Whether or not CBS's journalistic standards will hold up under the scrutiny they will no doubt receive in coming days, it's clear that evidence of an official cover-up of Bush's service record is a more pressing story than whatever reportorial failings Dan Rather might be guilty of.

FAIR ACTION ALERT: The Mysterious Case of the CBS Memos

Feliz diez y seis!

Daily Texan: Celebrating Diez y Seis
San Antonio and Diez y Seis

Larry David's opinion

Larry David has an opinion piece in today's NY Times about those darn undecided voters. Here's a taste:

The other night I saw a whole gaggle of you on TV in a focus group. You really liked chatting with professional pollster Frank Luntz, didn't you? He seemed very interested in what you had to say. Afterward, I could imagine all of you piling into a bus and heading for Denny's to discuss your exciting evening with Frank. I could see all of you staying friends even after the election. Maybe go on some trips together. Perhaps a wine tour of Tuscany. On bicycles! Oh, the life of the Undecided. Too bad they can't hold these presidential elections more often. Ah, well, you'll just have to make do.

The truth is, Undecideds, you're getting on our nerves. We Decideds hate all the attention you're getting and that you're jerking us around. Anyone who can't make up his or her mind at this point in the campaign should forget about the election entirely, buy a pint of ice cream and get into bed.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Are You Undecided? Or Not?

my boss and Hurricane Ivan

My boss and her husband went to New Orleans this weekend for their anniversary and were supposed to fly out today. They assumed they wouldn't be able to get an earlier flight out. Only problem is, the airport is closed. So they are stuck in the fifth floor of a hotel in New Orleans. My mom (who I work with also) thinks they will be back by Friday. I told her I seriously doubt that. The earliest they might be able to get back to Austin would be some time this weekend. How are they going to get out of town with 18-20 inches (edit: feet?) of rain? I asked why they couldn't rent a car and get out of Dodge, but it seems they'd rather stick it out.

I feel badly for them, but I'm still taking Friday off to go the ACL Festival. We have a really small office staff, but I've asked someone to come in for part of the day to help out. Hopefully my boss will be back next week! We'll have to wait and see.

Hurricane Ivan Roars Toward Gulf Coast

update 9/16: My boss and her husband will be flying out this afternoon, and she'll be in to work tomorrow. I'm a tad disappointed I won't get to hear about the adventure.

Jennifer Weiner and chick-lit as a genre

Jen Weiner has a great post about the New York Times mention of her new book. Here's the mention:

Jennifer Weiner's "Little Earthquakes" is also geared to a precise demographic group: brand-new mothers. "Babies make strange bedfellows" is its ultimate wisdom.

Ms. Weiner made a splash on the beach-book scene with her first novel, "Good in Bed." It was candy-colored and charming; "Little Earthquakes" strives for the same effect. But this new book is more formulaic, thanks to three characters who are drawn together by the prospect of new motherhood and fascinated by every last aspect of childbirth.

Reader interest in anesthesia, diapers and breast-feeding is presumed. Husband- and mother-in-law-related grievances also shape the story, as do baby-related emergencies. Jenna Jameson footnote: one of the book's young mothers brings home a porn DVD from a series in which Ms. Jameson figures. This is mistaken for a kiddie video by the character's mother-in-law.

In her blog, Jennifer mentions that when a new mother writes about new mothers, it is put in the "chick-lit" genre. When a man writes about family, it is considered "Literature with a capital L":

Will LITTLE EARTHAQUAKES be of especial interest and poignancy to new mothers? Probably. Will it be of interest to those readers exclusively? For my sake, and my publishers’, I sincerely hope not.

But that’s the typical reflexive, simplistic, sexist take on chick-lit for you: produced by women writers who aren’t smart or creative enough to see past their own eyelashes and create vivid imaginary worlds; consumed by women readers too stupid or silly or self-involved to even want to read about something that hasn’t already, or might someday, happen to them.

If you’re Tom Perrotta or Benjamin Cheever writing about the joys and frustrations of family living, universal appeal is a given, and it’s Literature with a capital L, worthy of everyone’s attention, not to mention a full review.

If you’re me, well, if it’s by a new mommy, it’s only going to be for new mommies, so get to the back of the bus with the politicians and the porn star.

emphasis mine.

I've loved Jennifer's past two books, so I pre-ordered Little Earthquakes (I rarely ever buy books I haven't previously checked out from the library, but I make a couple of exceptions). Even in my own mind I associate her with chick-lit. I don't necessarily give that a negative connotation, but I know that the publishing world does tend to regard chick-lit as light, fluffy stuff (and yet they make serious money off of it). She really says it best in her post.

This is messed up

and far from legal.

Moulton woman says she lost job for sporting Kerry sticker on car

Charlie has Phil's contact information if you'd like to let him know what you think.

Jack and Bobby

I caught the last 30 minutes of this show last night and became hooked. It's definitely an original concept for a show, and I'll be eager to see how they pull it off. They are re-showing the pilot again on Thursday at 8c/9e.

TheWB.com - Jack & Bobby

big media and The Norm

I got into the strip "The Norm" during my year in Minneapolis. Since it isn't in the Austin paper (that I don't subscribe to anyway), I've been reading it lately online. I went to the site to read it today and find that the artist is retiring the strip:

As you know, Michael decided to retire THE NORM. After eight years of battling the syndicate-newspaper corporations, he felt it was time to move on. It wasn't an easy decision, trust me.

If you are interested in helping the little guy out, go here to become a member.

Operation Bubbe

I just had to blog about this. I love it!

Operation Bubbe is an effort to recruit Jews unhappy with the leadership in Washington who live in “safe states” to travel to Florida for the five day weekend before Election Day as Get Out The Vote (GOTV) volunteers to make sure Jewish retirees get to the polls.

What is Operation Bubbe?

put bluntly and truthfully

Bob Herbert at the NY Times has a great Op/Ed column today. Most of the reasons I've been against this war from the get-go are covered in it (except for the loss of civilian life). An excerpt:

To what end? You can wave goodbye to the naïve idea that democracy would take root in Iraq and then spread like the flowers of spring throughout the Middle East. That was never going to happen. So what are we there for, other than to establish a permanent military stronghold in the region and control the flow of Iraqi oil?
. . . . . .
The Iraqi insurgents - whether one agrees with them or not - believe they are fighting for their homeland, their religion and their families. The Americans are not at all clear what they're fighting for. Saddam is gone. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The link between Saddam and the atrocities of Sept. 11 was always specious and has been proven so.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: How Many Deaths Will It Take?

get 'em while they're hot!

Scott Bateman has just set up merchandise with the statement: "You can't spell AWOL without Dubya". You know you want to buy it, so go to it.

The original cartoon that inspired it.

the New York Times is ticked

Not only do I find this in the opinion section:

At the very best, Mr. Cheney was speaking loosely and carelessly about the area in this campaign that deserves the most careful and serious discussion. It sounds to us more likely that he stepped across a line that the Bush campaign team had flirted with throughout its convention, telling his audience that re-electing the president would be the only way to stay safe from another attack.

There is a danger that we'll be hit again no matter who is elected president this November, as President Bush himself has said on many occasions. The danger might be a bit less if the current administration had chosen to spend less on tax cuts for the wealthy and more on protecting our ports, securing nuclear materials in Russia and establishing an enforceable immigration policy that would keep better track of people who enter the country from abroad.

but I find this in their Politics section:

. . .Mr. Cheney's latest assault on Mr. Kerry, which startled Democrats and Republicans alike, raised a central question even in this notably ferocious presidential campaign: Is it possible for a candidate to go too far, and alienate the very voters he is trying to court?

The BC04 campaign must not be doing as well as they would like, to resort to such tactics. I figured they were moving that way - I've read some liberal commentary stating the BC04 slogan is, "If you vote for Kerry, the terrorists win". I thought they were joking, but Cheney's quite serious.

Sheeshkabob.

vote or not?

If you are registered to vote, you can enter this sweepstakes. If you win, you get $100,000, and I get $100,000 for referring you. Whoo hoo!
Vote or not?

I'm watching "60 Minutes" tonight

Tonight, Former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes will appear on CBS to discuss his role in keeping young George W. Bush safely out of Vietnam by securing him a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard. Most Texans are familiar with the story and most who have been paying close attention know there are still gaps in Bush’s service record that support the conclusion that not only did our Bush find a way to avoid service in Vietnam,'’He broke his contract with the United States government – without any adverse consequences. And the Texas Air National Guard was complicit in allowing this to happen,” as retired Army Colonel Gerald A. Lechliter, told the Boston Globe after studying Bush’s records. Lechliter went on to say, ‘’He was a pilot. It cost the government a million dollars to train him to fly. So he should have been held to an even higher standard.”

. . .

Perhaps the RNC expects Barnes to change his story tonight. We don’t. We think Barnes is too smart for that. We might even go so far as to say that Barnes’ coming forward in this matter represents something of an omen of things to come. After all,Barnes, who has grown rich and powerful as a lobbyist and behind the scenes player, didn’t get that way by placing stupid political bets. Some might even go so far as to say that his coming forward means the smart money in Texas is betting on a change of administrations in Washington.

DriveDemocracy: Half True, Half Lie

the evils of poll results

Here in America we take polls to heart, which is quite ridiculous. Everything is polled nowadays: how many people objected to Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction", how many people think that Bush is a "man of God", who would you vote for if the election was held today, etc. No poll can be completely accurate - you'll note at the bottom of any poll graphic (most of the time in teeny lettering) a degree of accuracy/inaccuracy. So, say, 45% of Americans like turkey hot dogs, 50% dislike turkey hotdogs, and 5% don't care. Then this is with a +/- 3% degree of error. Well, with this 3% degree of error, it could really mean that 47% of Americans like turkey hot dogs, 51% don't and 5% don't care. Or any other variation.

Basically, polls are crap. When I hear that Bush is leading in the polls with "likely" voters, well, bully for him. As I learned in my media and politics class in school, that doesn't mean much at all. We all know who the media favors (and always has), so if they want their results to show that Bush is in the lead, they can take it however they like.

Given that Bush is only leading by 1% among registered voters in a USA Today poll, I don't think they've got much to cheer about. I'll take it with a grain of salt and remain ever-skeptical.

update: I felt I should qualify this post by noting that I am skeptical of election polls no matter the result. So even if they said Kerry was in the lead, I still wouldn't buy it until the votes were counted.

wow!

I feel so special - this blog is one of the top results to come up in a yahoo or cnn.com search of "jenna and barbara's speech".

My statcounter is feeling the love right now.

The world's voice, the world's vote

found via Electoral vote predictor: us-election.org is holding a world election on the US Presidential candidates. You can vote, as well as see who people from different continents would vote for if they could.

US-Election.org: The world's voice, the world's vote

Latino USA

Latino USA this week discusses the Republican convention and more. The current show should be up sometime soon, and I'd recommend checking the first two stories out.

It really was a bunch of hooey . . .

Just like I thought. FAIR's analysis of the Republican convention coverage is not kind. It makes the point that the media didn't publicize all of the false statements made at the convention. Example:

But overlooking distortions was the norm in television's coverage of the convention. When Dick Cheney spoke ( 9/1/04), he said of Kerry: "He declared at the Democratic Convention that he will forcefully defend America after we have been attacked.... We cannot wait for the next attack. We must do everything we can to prevent it and that includes the use of military force."

Kerry did say in that speech (7/29/04), "I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and a certain response. " But he couldn't have meant that that was the only time military force might be required, since he had said earlier in the speech that "the only justification for going to war" is "to protect the American people, fundamental American values from a threat that was real and imminent."

Cheney went on to say, "Senator Kerry denounces American action when other countries don't approve as if the whole object of our foreign policy were to please a few persistent critics." In this he echoed Sen. Zell Miller ( 9/1/04), who charged, "Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations." In his acceptance speech, Kerry actually said, "I will never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security."

FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: If Only They Had Invented the Internet - The Failure of Fact-Checking at the Republican Convention

Three Kings and a documentary?

I just realized that they are going to re-release Three Kings (which explains why I saw a preview for it before the showing of Control Room). They were planning to re-release the film, along with a documentary. Now they've decided the documentary is too political and they probably won't even include it on the Special Edition DVD.

After seeing the completed 35-minute film, titled Soldiers Pay, Warners bosses deemed it too much of a political hot potato to release ahead of the November election. The suits were also concerned that the film could end up violating federal election laws.

"We felt that it's inappropriate to put out a personal political statement and attach it to the film," said Warner Bros. spokeswoman Barbara Brogliatti. "We just felt that this was a personal political view, it didn't have a place."

The $180,000 doc features interviews with Iraqi refugees, human-rights officials and veterans of the Iraq conflict. While it takes an anti-war stance, it avoids taking sides in the presidential race and doesn't mention either candidate.

E! Online News - Warners "Kings" Controversy

This sucks. I wonder if the doc will be available for viewing elsewhere?

I know he didn't!

I'm reading my headlines of the day from the NYTimes and I see this as the quotation of the day:

"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas
is called 'walking.' Now and then I come across as a little too blunt
- and for that we can all thank the white-haired lady sitting right
up there."
- GEORGE W. BUSH

You know, I think even here in Texas we'd call it a swagger. I'd say a large percentage of Austinites would term it a "damn arrogant" swagger at that. Gawd, it pisses me off when he says stuff like this. Let's just further that growing stereotype of Shrub as an arrogant cowboy, shall we? Who thought that was a good idea?

Mainly it angers me because I've lived in Texas all my life, and here is this ignorant man representing my state and claiming citizenship. Ack!

history, Turkey, and Bob Harris

Bob Harris is in Turkey and blogging about it at This Modern World. It's a lovely post and quite thought-provoking. One of my favorite parts:

You sort of have to give up the idea that human history is linear, or that progress is inevitable. It ain't. I pick up a newspaper, and now in our tenth millennium, humankind is still killing itself in the name of imagined gods.

Istanbul is also a fabulous reminder of how poorly we imagine the future. A short walk from here is the Hagia Sophia -- St. Sophie's, if you will -- a 1500-year old architectural miracle about 18 stories high with a nave the size of a football field. (This is one big building.) It was built as a Christian church, became (after a military conquest) a Muslim mosque, and now (after a secular government took power) stands as a multifaith museum. But could the Christians in 532 realize they were in fact building what would one day become the greatest temple to a religion that didn't yet exist? Of course not. Did the Muslims who rehabbed the building for centuries realize that someday it would become a proud museum in a (supposedly) secular state? Aw, hell no.

Someday there will be people speaking languages vaguely resembling our own but indecipherable if we could eavesdrop. Their maps will not be our maps. And they will look at our wars over half-forgotten gods the same way you and I look at the struggles between the tribes of Ur, very possibly while killing each other in the name of gods which do not yet exist.

They will dig and puzzle and speak of the Oil Age and how its brevity stunned humankind toward the end.

Go check it out already; it is most clickworthy (Could I sound any more like Bill and Ted?).

scary, scary man

Zell Miller at the RNC last night.

worst convention speech ever?

Okay, that may be taking it a bit far, but still. Here are some choice quotes from Jenna and Barbara's speech last night:

Except maybe our Grandmother, Barbara. And, if she didn't like it, we would definitely hear about it. We already know she doesn't like some of our clothes, or music, or most of the TV shows we watch. Ganny, we love you dearly, but you're just not very hip. She thinks "Sex in the City" is something married people do, but never talk about. . .

. . .since we've graduated from college, we're looking around for something to do for the next few years ... kind of like Dad.
. . . .

But, contrary to what you might read in the papers... our parents are actually pretty cool. They do know the difference between mono... and Bono. When we tell them we're going to see Outkast, they know it's a band... and not a bunch of misfits. And, if we really beg them, they will even 'Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture'.

Barbara and Jenna's speech

Compare this one to Alexandra Kerry's or Vanessa Kerry's speeches. Or course, the Kerrys do have the advantage of age and maturity.

I don't care much for the Bush girls period, unrelated to their father's administration. But I think if you are going to make these girls get up in front of a televised convention, watched and critiqued by many, then you should by all means help them write their speech! Good night, I don't know who approved that speech, but it was definitely not written for prime-time. You know it's bad when FoxNews agrees.

A nation of . . . what?

Just poking around and I found this clickworthy link on nycnotebook:
RNC: Signage, Part II

an RNC Protestor's blog

Carlos at the Daily Texican posted about wanting to know more about the protests going down in NYC, and so was I. I was able to find this blog, TNS: RNC Protest Correspondents' Blog, but I don't know if it's the best one out there. If anyone knows of a better blog, let me know, because I am extremely interested in reading about the truth about what's going down in New York during the convention.

update: There's also this blog which is coverage on everything associated with the RNC right now: TalkLeft.