Seriously?

Coincidence? Probably. But if I were a conspiracy theorist...

Blair Announces Iraq Withdrawal Plan
(dateline: Thursday February 22, 2007 5:01 AM)

Britain's Prince Harry to Serve in Iraq
(dateline: Thursday February 22, 2007 9:16 PM)

VA Voting Shenanigans

This freaked me out a little. And it doesn't seem to be getting too much press (at least that I've seen). Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive.

An article in the Online Journal says:

"What is being called a "glitch" by Hart InterCivic spokespersons, three cities in Virginia -- Alexandria (my note: population 128,283 in 2000), Falls Church (pop. 10,377 in 2000) and Charlottesville (pop. 45,049 in 2000)-- will not properly display (~Democrat) Jim Webb's name on the November ballot summary screen. Voters will only see 'James H. "Jim"' on the ballot, instead of 'James H. "Jim" Webb'.

To make matters worse, the candidates will have "their party affiliations . . . cut off". To put some perspective and clarity to this, in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, Virginia, voters will not be able to recognize Jim Webb by his full name OR by his party's affiliation!"

Those of us who live in VA know that those 6-year-old census numbers have done nothing but skyrocket since they were recorded. So the number of voters seeing incorrect (or incomplete) information on their ballots is going to be significantly higher than the 183,709 recorded in '00. Nice. The last couple of elections have been won and lost by what...27...maybe 30 votes? 100k shouldn't matter at all...right?

While on the subject, did anybody happen to catch HBO's "Hacking Democracy" last night about the ultra creepyness of the Diebold voting machines? Scary stuff. I only watched a few minutes of it (but I recorded it for later viewing pleasure), but I have to say the ease with which they were tampered was startling.

---
Edited to change my population data. Evidently I used the total population of VA (7+ million). Duh. The data has been corrected. However, my point still stands. With a race that came down to 6,000 votes (as of last night), that 100k+ still could make or break somebody. I guess we'll see after all of the the recounts and lawsuits are done.

Another from the "People who just don't get the irony" department

On the way to work today (in my very red state), I saw a car with a "Dissent is disloyal" bumper sticker.

:-
If "dissent" is disloyal, then I guess they'd really have a problem with a group of people rising up against their leader.

And imprisoning him.

And putting him on trial for all of the crimes he's committed.

...

Wonder if they've ever heard of a little place called Iraq?

:-
Maybe "disloyal" is relative to which side of the fence you're standing on.

Are you f*cking kidding me?

In what is at once the most funny and fucked up explanation (spin) I have ever EVER heard, a military official had this to say about Saturday's three suicides at US the military prison at Guantánamo Bay:

"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

Wait, wait, wait. So the enemy is now waging war against us by killing themselves?? That's fantastic news! All we have to do now is sit back and watch it happen!! Maybe Bush knew more about war than we thought after all.

Oh, the hypocrisy

Got this in an email today and had to laugh...kinda.

George Bush has started an ill-timed and disastrous war under false
pretenses by lying to the American people and to the Congress; he has run a
budget surplus into a severe deficit; he has consistently and
unconscionably favored the wealthy and corporations over the rights and
needs of the population; he has destroyed trust and confidence in, and good
will toward, the United States around the globe; he has ignored global
warming, to the world's detriment; he has wantonly broken our treaty
obligations; he has condoned torture of prisoners; he has attempted to
create a theocracy in the United States; he has appointed incompetent
cronies to positions of vital national importance. He is supported by an
extremist Congress, both houses of which are run by criminals in their own
right.

Would someone please give him a blow job so we can impeach him?

Fuck You, Senate

Senate endorses oil drilling in Alaska wildlife refuge

I hope 51 of you (and you know who you are) get rectal cancer, and have to have large, cold, uncomfortable things with sharp edges shoved up your asses. I hate you.

"Increasing our domestic energy supply will help lower gasoline prices and utility bills", says He-of-the-38%-Approval-Ratings George Bush.

Mark my fucking words, the odds of seeing $3/gallon gasoline prices are a hell of a lot better than the odds of seeing $2/gallon prices. Especially in urban areas like my home town (DC). You want to "lower gasoline prices and utility bills"? How about reigning in those huge fucking oil company profits?

"Conoco Phillips profits were up 89 percent, or $3.8 billion; Exxon's profits were up 75 percent, or almost $10 billion; and BP was up 34 percent, for a profit of $6.4 billion".

The only way supporters of this measure could get it past the opponent's filibuster was to tack it on to another budget measure that is immune to filibuster. You fucks.

Here's a silly idea...Why not spend the next 20 years (while you're waiting for ANWR to get up to speed*) trying to break America's reliance on oil? 20 fucking years. I bet if we taxed the shit out of the oil profits, and used that money to study alternative fuels...in 20 years, what does, and does not, come out of ANWR wouldn't matter for shit anyway!






* "no oil is likely to flow from ANWR for 10 years and peak production of about 1 million barrels a day isn't expected until about 2025, according to the Energy Department. Currently, the United States used about 20 million barrels of oil a day."

What a Dick

I spent Saturday down in DC at the anti-war protest put on by the ANSWER Coalition, Operation Ceasefire and United for Peace and Justice. While I am, and have always been against this (bullshit, unjust, for-profit) war, I don't support the "bring the troops home now" ideal that was the main idea of many of the marchers. I don't understand how people can justify pulling all of our troops out, after we've toppled a government. It seems to me that that would lead to open class- and civil war in the country, resulting in thousands, hundred thousands, or millions more deaths. We've done a 'heck of a job' fucking the place up. It should fall to us to stabilize things before we abandon it. Basically, I guess it serves us right.

So anyway...

Started the day out driving down town. With over 100,000 expected for the march, plus a few other events going on in the area, I knew parking would be a bitch. So I tossed the singlespeed on the bike rack, grabbed a cable lock, and headed out. My plan was to take Rt66 just into the city, then head north and park a few miles away from the epicenter of activity (the Ellipse at the White House and the Washington Monument). Man, did I underestimate the parking situation. After nearly an hour of roaming every side street known to man (full-on lost a number of times) I made my way over to the Union Station side of town. Eventually, I found one lonely parking space, parked the car, mounted the SS and headed towards the action.

At about 12:30, I arrived on-scene at the Ellipse, where I found 99,999 like-minded folks doing everything from chanting to singing to praying to climbing street signs and waving corporate American flags (I gotta get me one of these!) to just being seen in fantastic costumes. It was looking to be a very animated march. And by far, the biggest I'd ever been a part of.

After milling about taking scores of random photos for an hour past the scheduled march start-time, things finally got moving slowly up 15th Street. The march was pretty uneventful on the whole (damn peace-niks! Where were the riots? Everybody loves pictures of riots!), but as we walked in front of the White House (in the street-cum-parklike "please don't blow up our president" zone), emotions ran high. I continued marching with the crowd until we passed the north side of Lafayette Park where I decided I wanted to spend more time in front of the White House. I cut south through the park and wandered around the "please don't blow up our president" zone for a while more. It was here that I got my favorite shot of the day. The devil (ok, probably not "the" devil, but one of his minions, no doubt) held a puppeteer's rod (you know...the stick thingies to which strings are attached, which in turn control puppets). To this puppeteer's rig was attached 'Dick Cheney', also holding a puppeteer's rod, which in turn was attached to 'W' who was holding an inflatable globe, a quart of oil, and a soft pretzel(?). It was a fantastic costume setup. I (and every other photographer in the immediate area) snapped off dozens of shots. As the other photographers moved on, I kept snapping when Mr. Cheney looked right at me and told me I was #1!


(Worth noting that when I scaled this image to the correct width (400 pixels) the height became 666 pixels. Coincidence? I doubt it).

After a highlight like that (not to mention that I had already spent 2 hours more time there than I had planned on), I figured nothing could top it and decided to head for home. I made a bee-line hike back towards my bike, straight down 14th to Constitution, skipping the Pennsylvania Ave and Constitution parts of the "official" march. A quick pedal up Constitution on the SS (which was very cool, since Constitution was still closed for the march, and the last few thousand marchers were still coming in, so I got to ride upstream in their midst), and I was back at Union Station and the car. A few detours later I was out of the city and heading for home.

I had originally planned on going back into DC for the concert and speakers later Saturday evening, but was pretty wiped by the end of the day. So I blew it off. I didn't realize that there were other protests going on Sunday (including a pro-war march). Had I known about them, I would prolly have gone back down in hopes of getting some confrontations on film (err...you know what I mean).

Interesting numbers that I heard regarding the march:

* The anti-war organizers had hoped for 100,000 people. Estimates were anywhere between 150,000 (DC police chief) and 300,000 (event organizers). I'd bet closer to 300k. It's nice to see that there are lots of people fed up with the war machine.

* Counter demonstrators on Saturday were numbered under 200 from what I heard on the news, and fewer than 400 on Sunday. From what I read, they were hoping for 20,000+. Interesting that they still claim they speak for the majority of Americans.

I hate to say "I told you so"...

Ah screw it, who am I trying to kid...no I don't. I love it.

"President George W. Bush will seek deep cuts in farm and commodity programs in his new budget and will propose overall limits on subsidy payments to farmers, administration officials said over the weekend"

"Thanks for voting for me, middle America. Now go f*ck yourself!"

Love,

George

This just in from the "AAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" department

This flat-out scares the shit out of me.

U.S. students say press freedoms go too far

Here are a more articles on it from Google News.

I may have been kidding about leaving the country when Bush 2.0 "won" his second term, but I seriously have to be out of here before these little freaks come into any kind of power.

No Child Left Behind...for the war machine

I heard the other day that little noticed provision of the "No Child Left Behind" act that Bush signed into law in 2001 was that any high school that recieves federal funds (lots, probably most...if not all of them) must turn over names, addresses and phone numbers of it's seniors and juniors to military recruiters. Oh joy.

I origianally heard this on NPR, but all they have is an audio segment here. I then found the following written article:

Maynard, who was puzzled at how the recruiter got his telephone number, experienced one of the military's weapons in recruiting: The No Child Left Behind Law. Thousands of high school students across America are being recruited by telephone because federal lawmakers passed the law in 2001 with a little-noticed provision that requires the nation's public schools to report the names, phone numbers and addresses of high school juniors and seniors to the military.

Pretty sneaky.

The war on sobriety, pt. 2

If you haven't read part one, scroll down (or click here) and do so before reading this.

Anyway, continuing...

We arrived at 7th and D to find a large number of people and cops milling about. Clearly, we had missed the exciting part of the rukus. We spent some time in the intersection talking with the other protesters. When it was clear that there was no more rukus-making forthcoming, we decided to head over to Zack's work. He had a couple of things to take care of, and the rest of us wouldn't mind the heat of an office building.

At the office, Zack does what he needs to do, while the rest of us annoy the shit out of his coworkers, who are trying their best to be productive. They were good sports to not throw staplers and shit at us. Thanks guys!

After the office space interlude, someone comes up with the bright idea to go over to the bar across the street from the office (a dangerous place for a bar, no?). Not seeing any reason to forgo this, we head over. More beers and bar-food ensue. Thankfully we get there at 3:53pm and only have to wait 7 minutes for Happy Hour to go into full effect.

Sometime after 4:30pm, somebody suggests that we head out and ride back to Dupont Circle to meet up with the Crit Mass ride scheduled for 5pm. We arrive back at Dupont to find a number of the usual suspects from the morning ride milling about. Still no obvious leader, so Zach again attempts to rally the troops. It seems to work, and there seems to be a group as we ride off into the city. A block or two later, it seems what group there was decided it wasn't time to ride yet, and peeled off. Now, it's just DT, Steve, Zach, me and a couple of CM guys. I'm not really sure where the breakdown occurred, but the six or eight of us ride off, kinda in search of the "main group" (assuming one even existed). At some point, the few people we didn't know peeled off, and it was just the four of us. Not ones to let something like that get us down, we ride around, in and out of traffic for a while longer before calling it quits, sometime around 7pm-ish (I think). From the few mails I've received from the CM list today, evidently, the main group had a good ride as well.

We head back towards home (Zach on his bike, the rest of us in my truck). Hit Arlington, get DT's car. Hit Lost Dog for pizza. Drop Steve and pizza off at DT's and head home. The end to a very very cool day. Even if it was the first day of the new term of our dumb president. Only 3 years, 364 more days to go. Tick tock tick tock.

Had you asked me yesterday if anybody in my neighborhood was cool enough to know who Bad Religion was, I'd have said "no".

Evidently, I'd have been wrong:



Bad Religion's "Kyoto Now" lyrics from the CD The Process of Belief.

I guess the vandalizer could have been talking about the "Kyoto Now" campaign, but I prefer to think there's at least one hip person in the area. Even if they are a vandal. Still, I can't figure out why that van was targeted. They don't have any right-wing/pro Bush stickers on it or anything.

I found this after an email from the girl. I thought it was worth sharing...

This is a clothing label from a small American company that sells their product in France.



Here's the translation of the French part of the label.

* Wash with warm water.
* Use mild soap.
* Dry flat.
* Do not use bleach.
* Do not dry in the dryer.
* Do not iron.
* We are sorry that Our President is an idiot.
* We did not vote for him.


My first thougth was "ha, funny...but not real". I hit snopes.com and found nothing. Then I dug around Google and came up with the site credited above. The company is Tom Bihn Design. They made a shirt in honor of the tag and are donating proceeds from it to the Seattle Vet Center's Homeless Vet Program. $16,000 so far. Tho, they seem to be trying to spin the story of the label in order to prevent a visit from Das Homeland SSecurity Department.

On a sorta related note, I was driving in to work today and saw a "VIVA BUSH" sticker on a car and I had to wonder...why would right-wingers pick a French word (al la "VIVA LA FRANCE") for thier candidate? I thought we didn't like the French? Remember them Freedom Fries? Now that was a good idea.

Not that I voted for him or anything...

But there are some interesting Inauguration and anti-Inauguration events coming up 1/20/05. Plenty of opportunity to make my opinion heard, and maybe take some pictures of the day's goings-on. I'm sure it will be an interesting scene downtown anywhere you go.

A copule of things I'm considering doing with my day (I've already asked for time off from work):

First of all there is the Critical Mass bike ride/protest starting off at Union Station at 7:30am. This is the leader on my list of things to do. I'm just trying to figure out how I can attach my camera/lenses to my body while I ride. I'm sure there will be some great shots to be had.

I'd love to show up and turn my back on Bush:

http://www.turnyourbackonbush.org/

http://www.turnyourbackonbush.com/index2.html

I also found this pretty cool map with parade route, metro stops, street names, entry points and buildings over-lay-able (is that a word?).

If you're coming down, beware the Metro stop closings (my post about this is coming up soon) and street closings. It's not gonna be easy getting around anywhere near the Capitol or parade route. I'm glad I'll be on a bike.

Oh man! I just noticed that I wrote this blog entry up on 11/3 and never posted it! Damnit! Oh well, it still holds true (even if it's not as funny as it was then)...

Always look on the bright side of life [de de, de de de de de de]

When republicans give you lemons...make lemonaide! Here are my personal reasons to not be totally depressed at this "victory" for "morality" (your reasons may vary):

1-I'll never need an abortion.

2-I don't have any gay lover to marry.

3-Go ahead and drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. It's a big state, I'm sure there's lots of other pretty stuff to see up there.

4-I'm too old/fat to be drafted. And i'm sure as hell not gonna sign up on my own for the Bush-Neverending-War-Machine.

5-The don't draft girls, do they?

6-There are 4 more years to try and catch the real guy who wants to kill us all.

7-All the cool punk bands have 4 more years of great material.

OK, I lied. I'm not looking on the bright side...I'm gonna cry.

Welcome to life in the new world (order)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait of President Bush using monkeys to form his image led to the closure of a New York art exhibition over the weekend and anguished protests on Monday over freedom of expression.

(Link courtesy of www.fark.com)

Family Values

This has prolly been all over the net and in everyone's inbox already, but I just got a copy of it and thought it too good *not* to post:

===========================================================

October 4, 2004:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041004-7.html

Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.
Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they saved $2,800 on their income taxes.
They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to more efficiently heat their home, made some home improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the president said.
"Next year, maybe they'll want to come to Texas," Bush quipped.
Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, said the tax cuts also gave him additional money to use for health care.
He said he supports Bush's values.
"The American people are starting to see what kind of leader President Bush is. People know where he stands," he said.
"Where we are in this world, with not just the war on terror, but with the war with our culture that's going on, I think we need a man that is going to be in the White House like President Bush, that's going to stand by what he believes.


But then...December 8, 2004...

http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2662511&nav=1LFXTwUP

A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual exploitation of a child.
KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.
Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.
Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old in the church youth group this spring.


Here is another threaded story about the same thing:

http://www.theiowachannel.com/politics/3978990/detail.html

Way to pick 'em Georgie. That's my kinda family values.

A small victory

Old news, but I'm happy to see it. Hopefully the devil we know isn't better than the devil we don't know. Now let's just hope Rumsfeld gets the f*ck out too.

Attorney General John Ashcroft Resigns From Bush Administration

Sore winner

Upon leaving my place today, the girl found a note under her car's windshield wiper:

"Bush won. Ha Ha!"

Nice. Dickhead. Had Kerry won, I'd have been an ass too, but I'd have at least come up with something more creative. I only wish I knew who did it. That way, in 2 or 3 years, I could leave a note on their windshield:

"Your son has been drafted for the war! Ha Ha!"

Or maybe:
"Hope you live a long, healthy life...without healthcare. Ha Ha"

Or even:
"Your kid gets to grow up in a Bladerunner-esque treeless wasteland. Ha Ha!"

Guess we'll have to see who gets the last laugh. My money is on me.

Rollercoaster

The latest wave of unease started Monday. I felt the end was near. Or, more appropriately, I felt the end was not near. I started to feel that the the Bush/Cheney era in the White House was not on it's last legs. And I was scared.

Then, late in the day Monday, I made up my mind to travel to PA and offer whatever I could to the Kerry election effort. My state (VA) is a loss anyway, always falling to the Republicans. There wasn't really any reason to volunteer here. PA was the closest battleground, and had a lot of electoral votes at stake. I had a connection inside the Kerry camp in the Philadelphia suburbs, so that was my destination.

Tuesday dawns. A timeline.

5:00am - Alarm goes off. That sucked.
5:15am - Out the door (I'd showered the night before as not to be entirely gross to my fellow volunteers).
5:30am - In line at my local polling location. 5th person in line.
6:00am - Doors open. I'm in. I'm the first vote cast at my location (the first 4 people in line were older/slower, so they were easier to shove out of the way when it was time to make my move. Only kiddng. They did take extra time signing in and figuring out the electronic voting machines.
6:04am - Back in my truck, headed north.
6:25am - Hit the DC beltway.
6:44am - Make it to 95N.
7:04am - Pass the big "Balimore" smokestack in Charm City.
7:57am - Ahh, Deleware.
8:18am - PA.
8:36am - Media, PA. I'm here.
9:30am - At this point, it gets pretty busy. [* see detail below]
7:43pm - Done. Head for home.
9:58pm - Home.
2:18am Wednesday - Bed.

*...Basically, I first went to the main Kerry HQ in Media PA. I was handed a map and was pointed in the general direction of the Media, PA Theater, where the volunteers were being coordinated. Maybe a mile from the HQ. I arrived at the staging area, got a quick orientation (with a bunch of other volunteers) got paired up with an older local guy and a couple of young Georgetown Law students also in PA to help, got our assignment packet, grabbed some road food (graciously provided by the Kerry organizers) and hit the road. Basically, we were the foot soldiers. Each team of volunteers was assigned a neighborhood, we were given voter registration records and told to knock on every registered democrat's door and ask if they'd had a chance to go vote yet. If yes, thank them and mark them as "voted" on the lists. If no, ask when they thought they might vote, and ask them if they needed a ride or anything else. Once we had covered our entire neighborhood (checking off all the houses we hit), we return to home base and trade data in for a new packet, then hit the streets again.

I managed to outlast three partners: Granville, Bok and Stephen (what is it with these PA names???), not counting the Georgetown Law kids, and make a total of 4 or 5 neighborhood runs throught the day. The last run was completed in total darkness at 7:00pm, using a flashlight to read our map and find house numbers.

After the final run, we went back to the Theater and found pizza waiting for us. Sweet. Food! That's exactly what I needed for the 2.5 hour trip home. Gobble down some grub and get back in the truck, headed southbound. I wish I could have hung out with the other volunteers in the Theater watching the results come in, but after an extremely long day, all I wanted was to get home and crash out.

For the first 30-45 minutes of the drive home, I listened to whatever NPR station I could pick up and tried to keep up with the incoming results. The initial numbers were sounding good, and that managed to get my hopes up. After I found myself trying to do electoral-vote math in my head while driving (and wandering all over the highway in the process) I decided I would let things settle as I drove home and worry about the returns later. I threw in a CD and set the cruise control.

I finally arrived home around 10 (after breaking all my election-night plans to go out with friends) and immediately switched on the TV. Uh oh. The results were pouring in fast and furious at this point, and a lot of states on their pretty map were colored an annoying shade of red. My heart sank, and continued to stay sunk for a long time.

There was one shining moment of sheer happyness that almost brought me to tears. When CNN predicted that PA, and it's 21 electoral votes would go to Kerry, I felt like I had just hit the lottery. I took it personally. He won the state that I went out and fought for. Man, that was a good feeling. I really feel like I played a hands-on part in trying to remove Bush from office. Of course, it's now clear that we had won the battle, yet lost the war. But I'm inspired. Inspired to fight against this right-wing psuedo-moral christian who's got 4 more years to impose his creepy values on me.

-g

One last thing before I go. I would like to thank the two rednecks in the car next to me at the stop light on Sunday. They pulled up, and passenger-redneck sits up in the window of the car (Dukes of Hazard-stly) and starts yelling to a group of Kerry supporters on a streetcorner: "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck John Kerry! If we give John Kerry the election, we lose our fucking country. Fuck John Kerry! Fuck you!". I thougth briefly about getting out and clubbing him with my Mag light. Then thought better of it (now I think I should have gone with my first instinct). That was the catalyst. I really wish our efforts could have saved this country from mongoloids like them, but I guess the idiots have to want to be saved.

On the plus side, all the bands I like have 4 more years of great material to work with.