10 posts tagged “politics”

Or, I've lost count how many times I've messed with Texas.

The Mess With Texas Sign

Mainly because I occasionally begin to think it might be OK down there, and then I remember: I've only ever really been to Austin. So I forget to pay attention.

And then BS like this pops up.

From the NY Times:

"President Obama's plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has set off a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.

The uproar over the speech, in which Mr. Obama intends to urge students to work hard and stay in school, has been particularly acute in Texas, where several major school districts, under pressure from parents, have laid plans to let children opt out of lending the president an ear."

WHY O WHY does it not surprise me that out of all of the loony fringes in the loony parts of the U.S. that TEXAS comes up first.

This is YOUR PRESIDENT. Vote for him or not, like him or not, he is the UNITING FACTOR of what we call the UNITED STATES.

My favorite part:

“The thing that concerned me most about it was it seemed like a direct channel from the president of the United States into the classroom, to my child,” said Brett Curtiss, an engineer from Pearland, Tex., who said he would keep his three children home.

“I don’t want our schools turned over to some socialist movement.”

That's right, your GOVERNMENT-FUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS shouldn't be turned into a socialist movement. And get your grubby government hands off my Medicare, while you're at it.

I really wanted to restrain myself from noting that had this been the former President Shrub, and it had been 2003 or 04 and he'd decided to give a speech to public schools, and some Democrats had objected the reply would have been: "Why would you do something so anti-patriotic? We are AT WAR. Why do you hate America?"

And then I decided not to restrain. The HYPOCRISY IS PAINFUL.

And my eldest niece has just started to attend these schools.

Lord help us all.

From CNN: "Sen. John McCain has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, a senior McCain campaign official told CNN on Friday. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, here in February, will be Sen. John McCain's running mate, a campaign official says."

I'll have a think and come back later.
 

More on Vegas after I get some sleep. Meanwhile, something that'll keep you from sleeping:

Right. So. About to drop over from too-much-movie-itis (I know, boo fuckin' hoo), and will hopefully have something useful to say next week about the craziness that is SXSW, but in the meanwhile:

My record at not voting for viable candidates stands. As I noted a few weeks ago, I've never backed the winning horse in a political race larger than -- at the time -- governor. That's because I voted for Gov. Spitzer and he actually won. As of today, I'm back down to never choosing anyone in a race larger than city council, and I'm not even 100% sure I backed any winners there.

Non-profanity cannot express my insane irritation at this series of developments. Moral here? You can't fight The Machine, and you can't even take a good run at The Machine if you keep dropping your pants. I haven't felt this annoyed since Gary Hart taunted the press in the late 1980s and got caught with Donna Hart mere weeks later.

This is the exact reason why we need a woman in top office: Less pants dropping will go on.

So here's the question now. Seriously, folks, should I just go back McCain in November?

I can hear her from the other room on CNN. Hillary, making some kind of positive, upbeat, "see, look what I can do" speech.

I'm not mad, precisely. Just a little disheartened. And oddly sanguine, because it all makes sense.

When I got up this morning I was rousing myself from a good 36-hour long-building flu/cold thing that grabbed and shook me on Monday and said "lie down!" so I did. Got me some antibiotics in the meantime and things are moving back to normal, despite that cottony/drunk feeling I have in my head, and that I'm thirsty all the bloody time.

Anyway, I got up knowing that of course I had to vote, because I always vote and that's just how it is and yes, I do look down badly on those who don't, whatever your reasons are. Even if you vote for Bugs Bunny, you get out and do something. So, I'm about on 80 percent power but these things have to be done. And honestly, I haven't decided. I've put off deciding. I am not the decider.

Well, I'm decisive enough to know what party, that's for sure. But my record is quite poor: Other than Gov. Eliot Spitzer, I have never backed a winning candidate in a race larger than city council. In instances where I was sure it was a lock (like, oh, say 2000 and 2004) I made the grandiose gesture of knowing that New York would go blue and so I could afford to pick a third party candidate and tra-la, that will show them.

Didn't change New York, certainly, but we all know how that thinking worked out.

So I got up today trying to pick: Do I go with the candidate I think is most likely to grab Washington in the nether regions and give it a good squeezing? Or do I go with the one who knows the most folks in Washington already and knows how to caress those nether regions? And more importantly, how did this become a discussion of genitals?

See, my one success -- Spitzer -- has been a warning shot of reality. Yah, he got in. But Governator isn't the same as Attorney General, and all of the Old Boys in Albany circled their wagons against the Usurper who didn't have the right connections -- but who did want to change things -- and they got him in a headlock, hoist by his own petard, which has left things dangling and mostly useless in Albany for some time. Just like always. So my concern is that Obama, should he get elected (and, lord help us, not get shot afterwards) would be stuck in much the same position. All idealism, not nearly the connections he needs to get stuff done. Meanwhile, then there's Clinton, who is in the opposite position -- she's got all of the connections. Too many connections, if you know what I mean.

So I'm on my way to the polling stations and I put on the iPod and I get Earth, Wind & Fire randomly on the player singing "Fantasy." And then I get Frankie Goes to Hollywood doing, "Relax." And in the middle of that last tune, I'm at the polling place. So while I'm really not going to say that my iPod did the choosing for me, I would like to say that I have consulted the iPod Oracle in the past, and it is worth considering.

And so, my record remains unblemished: I have still not voted for a winner in this race.

Almost makes me want to pick McCain in the general election.

I know the final final final results aren't in just yet, and I'm not 100% sure who I'm voting for (and at the moment I can't recall if I'm even registered with a party, though I think I am), but I'm glad to be living in a time where the battle over who won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire is between a woman and a biracial man.

That's some solid progression in the world, and I'm happy to be here for it.

Australia's new government is looking up already. From the BBC:

Australia's prime minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has announced the make-up of his new government.

He appointed his deputy leader, Julia Gillard, as education minister, and a former rock star, Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett, as environment minister.

Methinks he'll be having Midnight Oil's 1984 album cover "Red Sails in the Sunset" in mind while in office:

Let's dance

Garrett isn't exactly a stranger to politics; it's not like Air Supply are going to be taking over the Ministry of Cheese or anything. But I'd love to see some of those press conferences, and I can't wait until he makes a trip up north (as he must, surely!) to meet whoever's running things up here in a few more months.

Come, Peter Garrett! Our beds are burning.

Once again, Keith Olbermann hits it on the nose.

"And for you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need to achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display that iota of patriotism Richard Nixon showed on August 9, 1974. And give us someone, anyone, about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne and say, 'I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job.'"