Cultural Nonsense

Suppressing the Vote

2008-10-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

Ohio is once again at the center of election controversy. People haven't even had a chance to vote, but some Republicans, quickly seeing the writing on the wall, are trying to get hundreds of thousands of voters tossed from the rolls:

More than 200,000 registered Ohio voters may be blocked from casting regular ballots on Election Day because of a federal appeals court decision on Tuesday requiring the disclosure of lists of voters whose names did not match those on government databases, state election officials and voting experts said.

On the one hand, I'm kind of psyched that the Republicans have pushed the panic button so early - the internal numbers they are seeing in their polling have clearly shown them they need to do something drastic to get out of the hole they dug themselves. It's too bad that they are disenfranchising people to do it, especially in Ohio. If there is any state that has felt the hurt of the Bush Administration's policies, it's Ohio. Talk about salt in the wounds - with this kind of behavior, Republicans are basically saying "we've helped eliminate the businesses and jobs that you depend on for your modest living, we refuse to provide any kind of job training or incentives to business to replace those jobs, and now we want to make sure you have no say in changing things". This is your Republican America.

Obama and Race: Union Style

2008-10-15T07:09:00.001-07:00

One of the best persuasion discussions of Obama and race that you'll see this cycle (thank goodness). There is a sizable chunk of working-class whites who can't wrap their heads around a black president. They have to. Their futures depend on it.

Building a Better DC

2008-10-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

For a (very) brief moment, I considered going to Cornell to study Urban Planning. I'm still a bit of geek about development and how cities and towns can be built in better ways. The environmental strains and logistical difficulties of building and maintaining a successful city are particularly obvious in Washington, DC. There are limits on building heights, historical preservation concerns, and a generally stable economy that lends itself to ongoing development, and all contribute to the difficulties. Oh, and all the people, too. DC is unique in the number of people who converge on the city on daily basis for work and then hightail it back to their suburban sprawl - and they all apparently MUST drive. Ugh. I have a car that I use to visit my family (my brother's family is nearby, as is my mother, but neither is convenient by public transportation). My car is, no lie, 17 years old, and I keep it safe and running, but prefer to walk or use public transportation whenever possible.

I wasn't always into the bus or Metro - I was one of the suburban idiots who turned my nose up at the bus, and found the train inconvenient. Once I moved into the city, it was really dumb to continue to be that stupid, so I changed my ways.

DC is one of the most walkable cities in the country - in college, I would come out to visit my brother, and would spend the day exploring the city on foot, occasionally hopping the train when it was convenient and made sense. $20 would get me anywhere I wanted all day, cover any fees for getting into special exhibits, and still leave me some dough for a half-smoke and coke. I'm pondering getting a new(er) car, and I'm struggling. I think I'll do it, but part of me feels like it is kind of dumb. We'll see.

Anyway, one of the best sites to read about issues w/r/t development, traffic, sprawl, and "people movement" is Greater Greater Washington. It's smart, very current, topical, and on the nose about the importance of changing our mindsets on how we get around and make the city better overall.

No Embedding? Ha!

2008-10-13T17:02:00.001-07:00

Since all of the real versons of "I Want I That Way" are disbled for embedding, I am using a different (some might say better) version. I kind of hope the NKOTB reunion gives them the chance to have this kind of hit - it's sublime. Great, memorable pop songs are tough to come by, and this one definitely goes in the canon.

Bangin'

2008-10-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

I love them both for different reasons (okay, I sometimes get annoyed by Beyonce, but only because she has taken over the universe - she's still totally bangin'). Love the fall music season - great stuff, and they both look amazing:

Making Rape Victims Pay

2008-10-07T07:41:00.001-07:00

Sarah Palin had a policy as mayor of Wasilla to charge rape victims to process the evidence in their assaults.

Just To Balance Things Out

2008-10-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

To demonstrate that I also like music that isn't questionable in quality, a couple of other treats.

VH1's Greatest Hip-Hop song of all time:

Madonna, at her most sublime (there are many options):

Some newer loveliness, the Veronicas:

and my new personal theme song, "The Whole World Should Revolve Around Me":

Blast from the Past

2008-10-06T19:28:00.001-07:00

I have a lot of geeky, embarassing quirks. Ooh, look, here's one now!

Guess who's baaaaaack?

Woo-hoo!

Judge me all you want. A warning, though: Britney's new video for "Womanizer" has to be dropping soon, and I will be adding to the torture when it does.

Let's Be Better

2008-10-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

My friend Erin, a rock for me since midway through high school, is inspiring me to try harder with this blogging thing. Her blog is funny and interesting and smart, and I aspire to be more like her with this blog. She's naturally much funnier than I am, and without the sarcastic edge I tend to use to slice through life. Read her blog.

This post isn't going to be funny, however, but I mention Erin because she wrote a post that got to the heart of my biggest frustration with Sara Palin. I have a number of issues with her on the merits, but the biggest is how underwheliming her brand of "leadership" is. I don't want some "average, Joe six pack, soccer mom with lipstick on her pitbull" running our country. I know, I know, she's "only" running for VP. But can't we find two big thinkers out of the millions and millions of people who are in this country? She's carrying on the Bush tradition of relishing her own lack of vision and celebrating the very ordinariness (not a word, but whateva) of her being. I want GREATNESS, I want VISION, I want someone who thinks bigger and better and smarter, and who may not always hit the mark but is throwing him- or herself at the wall trying.

I don't generally think of myself as patriotic, mainly because the notion has been co-opted to mean that I have to drive a pick-up, have a flag pin, and drink shitty beer. I am, though, in the sense that I love this country and all of the possibilities that we celebrate every day. The fact that there are so many idiots on TV running their mouths and so many morons in Congress that I disagree with is a testament to what is so great about this place: there are possibilites to make a difference everywhere, no matter your abilities or beliefs. There are a lot of caveats and complications to this of course, but for the purposes of this discussion, it's true. There is no country on earth like America, and there is nowhere in the world I could have the life I have now, and I am thankful every single day.

When I really became interested in politics, I was about 13 years old, and my interest grew from an intense belief in social justice and the possibilities that exist if we all work together to make things better. I still have that belief, and a drive to make things better. This, despite working in professional politics for years and growing increasely jaded and disgusted with how our dear "leaders" behave. Even the ones that gross me out are generally there because they want to DO something and change things, an absolute imperative if America is to continue to be the great great place that it is.

Back to Lipstick Lady. Her race to the bottom of the bell curve is disturbing, but I'm even more bothered by how it is being embraced. I'm also disturbed by how the media is giving her a pass on her nonsensical verbiage and answers totally lacking in logic, reason, or depth. Enough. We have a great legacy of brilliance in this country: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony - all people who saw beyond what was to what could be and worked their asses off to get there and to get the rest of us to see it, too. America is not average, and our leaders shouldn't be either.

Seriously?:

SERIOUSLY? Watch just a few minutes of this, and listen for any kind of vision or aspirational thought:

I want this:

And this:

Funny, Awesome, and Correct!!

2008-09-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

VMA Picks

2008-09-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

I actually watched and enjoyed the VMAs this year - Russell Brand was edgy and funny, just like the host of this shindig should be. My two favorite performances:

Pink, "So What"

Paramore, "Misery Business"

Hell Yes, Good Will Hunting

2008-09-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

Smart and on point:

Also, it's easy to see that he's the same guy that wrote this:

"I Put It on Ebay"

2008-09-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

This was one of Sarah Palin's big applause lines during her convention speech/Miss Congeniality audition. It seemed so salt-of-the-earth, sellinga jet on the the interwebs, and yet....

Palin's Ebay Story: What Actually Happened (HuffPo)-

"What is left unmentioned is that Palin didn't come up with the idea to sell the plane using eBay in the first place. Moreover, because of the unique purchasing terms of the aircraft -- which required the state to make payments amounting to $20,000 per month even if the jet wasn't in use -- the decision not to hire a broker to help sell the property appears in hindsight to have been a costly mistake."

I'm sick of hearing about this woman, to be honest, but it's sort of inevitable, considering that three weeks ago no one outside of Alaska knew who she was.

Counting Coins at the 7-11

2008-08-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Musical brilliance, courtesy of HBO's hilarious "Flight of the Conchords":

Ooh Look, A Window To the Past

2008-08-03T15:00:00.001-07:00

Not going to lie, I had to change the channel a little ways into "Meet the Press" today. I feel like the bookers to do a show with the most annoying past candidates they could find. Mission Accomplished.

I felt like Lieberman was smarmy when he ran for VP, especially compared to Al Gore, who was so authentic it was sometimes hard to watch as he tried to make his obvious intelligence palatable for voters. Lieberman, on the other hand? Barely memorable, which in the long run is probably for the best. I wonder if he needs to see a doctor - riding that fence the way he is has got to hurt:

In the house to counter Lieberman? John Kerry, whose 2004 campaignzzzzzzzzzzzz...........sorry about that, happens every time.

Who on Team Obama thinks it is a good idea to send him out as a top surrogate? Did they sleep through the last election (okay, totally possible, I fall asleep just thinkingzzzzzzzzzzzz........dammit)? Seriously, this is on par with hiring your opponent's fired campaign manager. Oh wait.

When Lieberman is handing you your ass, it's time to go back to debate school:

One other thing, Senator Kerry - stop bagging on Wes Clark. It's rude, considering he went to the mat for you in '04.

Please Seek Professional Help

2008-08-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

Maureen Dowd really needs help.

The primary is long over, there are serious issues to discuss in the upcoming election (stupid ones too) - yet she continues to yammer on about Hillary, Hillary's supporters and her weird love-hate playground crush on Obama. She needs help (or at least some perspective from her editors). Watching her hurtle further into irrelevance is painful, especially on such a high-profile platform.

PS - MoDo, your complaints about "whining" would have a lot more weight if they weren't so hypocritical. Please grow up.

Funny AND Nutricious!

2008-07-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

This one has special meaning for me, as "Walking on Sunshine" was a key element in one of the funniest times I had with my friend Erin in her jeep in high school. The jeep was Erin's baby, and probably the place we were most often besides her house and school. Enjoy:

A Teeny, Tiny Bit of Justice

2008-07-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ass. I hope he moves to Texas, so he and Miss I-Love-Guns, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, can hang out together.

In the first hours of the first day that it was legally possible to
register handguns in the nation's capital, only one person showed up to do
so--and he was turned away because he didn't bring his weapon with
him.

Capitol Hill resident Dick A. Heller, whose lawsuit prompted the
landmark Supreme Court ruling that scuttled the city's strict firearms control
laws, arrived at D.C. police headquarters at 6:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the
new gun registration process was scheduled to begin.

Heller, accompanied by an adviser, was met on the steps of the building by a cluster of camera crews and Lt. Jon Shelton, head of the firearms registration unit. In an animated discussion, police explained to Heller that he needed to show officials the guns he wanted to register -- and allow them to be test-fired -- as part of the
registration process.

Seriously?

2008-06-09T09:30:00.001-07:00

Enough already. It's over.

Brilliant Ideas (Some of Them, Anyway)

2008-06-09T08:38:00.001-07:00

This is brilliant. Starbucks has a website devoted to customer suggestions for everything from the coffee flavors and store setups to the new loyalty rewards program the company has started. Some of the ideas are very good: recycling bins in the store, "Starbucks should enable customers to encode their usual customized drink orders on their Starbucks cards and have a scanner available in the front of the store" so that customers can scan skip the line by scanning in their order and payment. Some are gross: "Starbucks should include a shelf in the restroom to place your drink" - this should never, ever be implemented. People should not be encouraged to bring food and drink into restrooms. N-A-S-T-Y.

Check out the My Starbucks Idea site - it's interesting to see what ideas people come up with, and it's also intriguing to see what people put a premium on as customers. It represents a great way to use the internet to improve customer relations and ultimately, the bottom line. This makes sense, particularly for customers of businesses like Starbucks that sell the notion of afforadable luxury. Their customers seem much more likely to be online, and to take the time to give feedback on what they do and don't like about the Starbucks experience. The thing about the Starbucks customer is that they will spend $5 on a cup of coffee, but they are very aware that it is $5, and they want to get everything they can out of that $5 (I can't blame ~~them~~ us, but I do recommend a French Press. For $50 you can get a nice press and splurge on some amazing Illy coffee. You spend that at Starbucks in a week - treat yourself!). I digress. Go check out the site, very interesting.

Dammit

2008-06-09T08:15:00.001-07:00

Last post was in March, apparently. Trying again. Lots has happened since then, most notably

I was in the front row for this, and it was incredible. Regardless of how you feel about Hillary or the primary race, her departure speech was classy and optimistic.

Getting Back on the Horse

2008-03-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

It did not take long for me to drop the blogging. Not drop, really. There were just some great shiny objects distracting me. Oh well, I'm back for now anyway. What's changed since I last posted? I have a new, awesome job. We still do not have a nominee for the Democrats - and we still have WEEKS to go until the next primary in PA John McCain is finally getting his moment in the sun. Britney started her comeback last night. My mom has a giant vulture living in the woods behind her house. HUGE BIRD. The writer's strike is over.

Watch La Vie en Rose - it is fantastic:

Learn from Violence?

2008-02-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

Sarkozy wants French children to study the Holocaust and identify with kids their age who were taken by the Nazis.

"President Nicolas Sarkozy dropped an intellectual bombshell this week, surprising the nation and touching off waves of protest with his revision of the school curriculum: beginning next fall, he said, every fifth grader will have to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust." (NYT)

Small minds think alike:

"A firearms dealer in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Friday confirmed a bizarre link between the graduate student accused of killing five people at Northern Illinois University and the gunman in last year's deadly shootings at Virginia Tech.
A Web site used to buy gun accessories by Steven Kazmierczak is owned by the same company that operates a site patronized by Seung-Hui Cho, the company said."(CNN)

A Brief History of America:

Sexism in America

2008-02-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to get too heavy-handed with the "deep thoughts" - at least for now. But given what the Democratic primary looks like this year, there is a lot to think about. I'm going to post some thoughts from time to time. Now is one of those times. I like Hillary (disclosure: used to work for her, and gained more respect for her every day), but even if I didn't, this sort of thing is absolutely unacceptable. If anyone talked about Obama's race the way they talk about Hillary's gender, there would be riots in the streets. As it stands, this kind of junk gets some discussion, but hardly the outrage it deserves. Two examples to think on (these are past events, but things like this happen every day, mostly off camera).

"Iron My Shirt":

Chris Matthews, retro sexist:

Life's Big Questions

2008-02-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

Why does my Tivo keep suggesting "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"?

Now I Remember

2008-02-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Now I remember why this process is annoying. I wrote a post, and thanks to the wonders of technology, it was eaten immediately upon hitting "publish." Forget my insights, I'm posting this to cheer up:

A New Beginning

2008-02-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

I've attempted to keep a blog in the past, and it's been annoying enough that I haven't stayed with it. I like doing it, it just feels too much like the journals I would repeatedly buy and not use throughout high school and college.

This blog is not going to be that. I'm going to add things and thoughts so they live somewhere, and hope that I manage to stay with it - I think the fact that I haven't been able to do this (online, on paper) might say something BIGGER about me, and I'm just not willing to concede the truth just yet.

Here we go...