Gonzales Testifies

The long awaited testimony starts today- watch it here and stay one step ahead of the spin.

Step It Up Akron

Rally group
Originally uploaded by luckyfly.

I volunteered at the Step It Up rally held in Akron this weekend, and despite wind, rain, and general not-nice weather, the turnout was impressive. We had a wonderful round-up of speakers, but I was most impressed with our freshman Representative Betty Sutton, who took the time to show up and made a great speech. I have a feeling she'll go on to do great things in Congress, and I'm thrilled she's one of the many new Dems in Congress stepping up on this issue.

I've put up pics of the rally on my Flickr site, which is linked all over the place on this page, so check them out. There were hundreds of these things all over the country, and you can read about them here:

stepitup.org

Also, take note, John Edwards is the only candidate so far to propose real energy reform, and he was also at his local Step It Up event on Saturday.

If a protest happens in Iraq and no one reports on it, does it make any noise?

Le Monde, France's "paper of record" covers the anti-occupation rallies in Iraq this Monday, complete with video- it bears noticing that this story doesn't make it into the top stories on CNN.com, FoxNews.com, or MSNBC.com despite taking place TODAY and being a non-violent protest which drew thousands of participants. It's a sidebar on the New York Times website and made it onto the BBC homepage, but it's certainly not highlighted as a top story. We wonder why so many Americans are uninformed about what's going on Iraq- perhaps because no one bothers to do any actual reporting?

Say It Loud, Say It Proud

Chairman of the DNC Howard Dean says exactly what needs to be said in the Dem's weekly radio address (full text/audio here):

We have a new Congress in Washington. The American people have elected us to hold President Bush and the Republicans accountable for the incompetence in Iraq, the mismanagement at Walter Reed, the purging of Justice Department officials for partisan gain. We will do what the American people have asked us to do. We will bring our troops home.

The Bias of Bad Reporting

I am a true believer in "new media" and it's effects on politics and campaigns. The popularity of candidates from Barack Obama to Ned Lamont has relied on strong netroots support, and blogs like MyDD and Daily Kos get into the nitty gritty of everything from polls to policy papers. However, despite the educational and informational value of delving into a blog or two, most Americans get their news from either the local or cable news broadcasts. Whatever individual opinions might be about the validity or real news value of these shows, it seems almost impossible to over-estimate the impact of their segments on the general public. I'm not talking about the five minute public interest stories about someone's house exploding (as happened here last week), but their coverage of the D.C. scene- the war, the presidential nominees, Bush's talking points, etc.

News has no need to be biased. There are plenty of spaces, in both new and mainstream media, for opinions to be aired and discussed. It is likely true that many news bureaus tend to lean Democrat in their staff, but it is equally true that good reporters show no personal opinion in their stories. In a perfect world, this would indicate that the news is unbiased. Many watchdog groups, from Media Matters to Crooks and Liars to the ACLU, have documented the conservative slant in our media. But I don't think this is necessarily an indication of a personal conservative bent among writers and newscasters. I think it has a lot more to do with the shoddy quality of journalism in general.

Campaigns of all stripes have sets of "talking points" which they attempt to get out through interviews, press releases, and editorials. Any current president has the ultimate chance to distribute these talking points- daily press conferences, high profile speaking events, etc. It should be no surprise to anyone that the Bush people rally around their talking points, and that these points often offer a version of events that is highly in favor of Republicans. What should surprise us all, on the other hand, is that reporters accept this rhetoric, these talking points, uncritically and serve as a free communications department for the administration.

Case in point, the recent flap over Nancy Pelosi's visit to Syria. While an objective view of events might consider the visit of anyone, Republican or Democrat, to Syria as a step in the right direction in terms of foreign policy, diplomacy, and our influence in the Middle East, the conversation surrounding Pelosi's trip has consisted of her decision to wear a head scarf, her right to visit the country in the first place, and the damage of undermining the anti-Syria position of the White House. Republican talking points brought up these issues, and it was a smart, if dishonest, strategy. It was also successful Writing an article about how offensive it was that Ms. Pelosi chose to wear a head scarf, while disregarding the fact that both Condoleezza Rice and the First Lady have both chosen to wear head scarves on visits to the Middle East, is not news, but commentary. Talk of the disruptive politics of her visit, or calling it an attempt to grandstand or undermine Bush, completely ignores that the visiting group also included Republicans and offers no real reporting on the facts of the visit.

Journalism requires research. Imagine. There is a difference between reporting the facts and the analysis of events which comes in editorials. Reporting on events requires knowing something about them in the first place. I can't see how any of the recent reporting on this issue has stuck with the facts, and as such has given the public an incredibly inaccurate view of events. I like to think that being a citizen and a voter requires research as well, but that might be asking too much for many casual observers of politics. However, as most voters are casual observers of politics, stories such as the following demonstrate exactly why Republican talking points have won the day for the past six years.

From Think Progress, via Daily Kos:

This morning, NBC’s Today Show ran a biased segment casting doubt on Pelosi’s Syria trip. Every single question asked by anchor Matt Lauer was framed around conservative talking points. In his first question, Lauer claimed Pelosi has gotten off to a rough start because of criticisms from a baseless Washington Post editorial, Vice President Cheney, and the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal:

LAUER: Vice President Cheney called Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria "bad behavior," a Washington Post editorial on Thursday called it "counter-productive and foolish," and an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning goes a step further and suggests her trip may actually have been a felony, that it may have violated something called the Logan Act. Tim, is this the way the Democrats wanted to get off the mark in terms of foreign affairs?

With his second question, Lauer asserted that "a lot of people think [Pelosi] messed up on this one," and then asked "what’s the impact for the Democrats overall?" Lauer never mentioned the fact that five Republicans — Reps. Frank Wolf, Robert Aderholt, Joseph Pitts, David Hobson, and Darrell Issa — visited Syria this week.

To wrap up the segment, Lauer suggested that Pelosi may be "seen as usurping presidential power in designing and implementing foreign policy," disregarding Rep. David Hobson’s (R-OH) comments that the Pelosi-led delegation "reinforced the administration’s positions."

This kind of hack reporting has taken place on everything from wiretapping to Walter Reed to the US attorney firings, and it's just plain depressing. While there is certainly no shortage of great reporting to be found all over the web and in news journals like the Atlantic, Mother Jones, or The Nation, it would be nice to see some from our most popular newspapers and t.v. news programs.

Your Right-Wing Noise Machine at Work

MediaMatters via Daily Kos:

CNN correspondant Michael Ware was baselessly accused of "heckling" John McCain at the press conference regarding his recent visit to Iraq. While it seems it would certainly be possible to have heckled McCain over his statements about the "safety" and "progress" in Iraq when he toured with an army regiment and body armor, in fact Ware wasn't even able to ask a question at the press conference, let alone harass the speaker. Despite video evidence that backs up Ware's denial of the heckling, Drudge continues to run the story and it has been picked up the The Washington Times, Power Line, Michelle Malkin, and Wizbang. So in the face of all evidence to the contrary, Ware will now be labeled an unreliable, liberally-biased hack by the Fox News voting bloc and the many Americans who can't be bothered to distinguish truth from bullshit.

And so it goes.

It's all about the Dylar pills, baby

So there are actually a lot of things I want to write about, but I'm rather involved in spending all my spare time watching the West Wing, so you'll have to wait. I would, however, like to post this parody of Lazy Sunday about Don Delillo's White Noise. It's awesome (hat tip, Jeremy):



So, anyway, I'll get to the rest of it eventually. Also if you want to donate to any candidates, the quarter (the most important one!) ends tonight for fundraising, so give some money! Check out actblue.org.

why i love gawker

A recent post:

We're frankly a little confused about the spat that's currently going down between n+1 and "lit-bloggers." We're not so much confused about the fight itself, which seems to involve n+1 being ornery about blogs, especially lit-blogs, and said lit-blogs being all ornery right back. It's all come to a head recently on the lit-blog The Millions, and it's left us wondering, just whose side are we supposed to be on here? The blustery intellectual macho-ists of n+1? The whiny, jargon-dropping we-are-too-relevant book bloggers? Sigh. It's like Trump and Rosie all over again.

Following the N+1 and lit blog wars, plus gossip roundups, politics, and nyc media news? Bless your black little heart, Gawker.

The Millions is a pretty rocking blog too.

See a little less (RED)

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels strongly about the (RED) campaign- check out buylesscrap.org, a site that takes on the (RED) campaign image for image. There you can donate directly to the causes the (RED) campaign supports without consuming more product. They say, reject the notion that "shopping is a reasonable response to human suffering." I say, Amen.

(Hat tip to Stephen)

Seriously?

Ok, Wikipedia...you and Conservapedia can rock paper scissors for the eyes of the reading public. But I'll bet a dollar I already know who wins.

Seeing (RED)

So unless you live under a rock or are an avid subscriber of AdBusters (in and of itself problematic), you will have certainly heard of the (RED) campaign. While it is essentially, and openly, a "business model" (promoted by a company called The Persuaders, no less!) it does have a manifesto, which you can read here. The (RED) people have joined up with such companies as Apple, the Gap, and Motorola to brand certain items as (RED), which means that when they are purchased some money will go towards buying retroviral drugs for Africans with HIV/AIDS. In the manifesto, the campaigns says the following:

(RED) is not a charity. It is simply a business model. You buy (RED) stuff. We get the money, buy the pills and distribute them. They take the pills, stay alive, and continue to take care of their families and contribute socially and economically to their communities.

If they don't get the pills, they die. We don't want them to die. We want to give them the pills. And we can. And you can. It's easy.

All you have to do is upgrade your choice.

This is vaguely threatening language, and clearly designed to help consumers view their decision to spend $150 on a cell phone feel more like a philanthropic act. But there are more than a couple problems with this. First, this "we want to give them the pills, which is only possible if you consume more products" is patently false. It has been well-established by many health organizations that it wouldn't take much money to fight AIDS in poverty-stricken areas. What holds them back is partially lack of funding, but it's also proprietary medicines, price gouging from pharmaceutical companies, and the pull-back of funding for preventative programs which teach safer sex practices, abolished by the Bush clan. The reason why AIDS drugs never get any cheaper or widespread is because the populations who have AIDS are irrelevant to most of the world. Poor, largely female, African, uneducated. They count on aid groups to deliver medicines to them, because the real money for pharmaceutical companies lies in promoting and developing drugs that stop incontinence, boost virility, or lower the blood pressure of our obese population.

I don't doubt that there are researchers out there who spend their days searching for cures, or that promotion of statins is necessary to recoup R&D spending. But it goes far beyond that. There is certainly a profit-margin for those in the industry, which spreads to doctors, politicians, and shows it's consequences in the sad story of the millions of people, mostly childen, who die ever year from preventable diseases like dysentery and malaria. Why? Because why should anyone bother spending money to manufacture drugs that no one will be able to pay for?

Which brings me back to (RED). The idea has come under fire, particularly for the contrast between the amount of money spent marketing (RED) products and the amounts which they actually contribute to the cause. But, as they say again and again, they are not a charity. They are a business model. The problem is not the idea that one would pay money for something one wants and indirectly donate to a charity. This has been done for AIDS before, through the sales of bracelets and other jewelry, and I'm sure in other marketing ploys as well. But I think there is a difference. When you buy a silver AIDS bracelet, it's a simple silver bangle with a large AIDS ribbon on the side, signifying that this was a purchase with a point.

(RED) products are, in general, the color red, some are not. Some have catchy slogans promoting the idea and selling the cause, others just the logo. But all of them are simply one item in a brand's line which obstentially make the buyer more socially aware, more politically active. But does it? The (RED) manifesto says nothing about educating buyers about the AIDS crisis, or the real solutions and problems which face it. While putting up some Gap billboards which state the number of AIDS deaths per year may shock some, shocking someone into buying a t-shirt to soothe their conscience does nothing to promote either activism or philanthropy, only Gap's sales figures. The AIDS crisis is no secret, nor has it been for years. The issue is not that people are unaware, or that they need Bono and Oprah at the Apple store hawking iPods to goad them into action. The issue is that the problem is "over there," a place where there are so many problems that the genocide and massive rapes in Darfur barely made a blip on the American radar. People may say, well, what can I do? And certainly, there is plenty. But the answers require real thought, a true facing of the way that our values affect the rest of the world, and whether or not we care enough to change it.

There has been a lot of talk since the iPod's takeover of American ears that you see so many people wandering around, white earbuds in, socially tuned out. And whether it's white, black, or (RED), the metaphor stands- it's a band-aid solution, but not for AIDS in Africa. This marketing band-aid attempts to cover America's occasional guilt over consumption and ignorance, but like the iPod, it's best if you turn the music up and close your eyes.

documentary films: excessively depressing, culturally relevent, or both? discuss.

If any of you saw the Oscars, you may have stuck it through long enough to watch Jerry Seinfeld present the Best Documentary award. His monologue was a bit strange and excessively long, and it struck me at the time that he was winging it because someone was in the bathroom or something and he had to kill time. It was funny, but insulting to the films and their makers and out of step with the tone of the show. One of the nominated filmmakers, John Sinno, has written an open letter over at Indiewire regarding the speech which raises some interesting points about the category, the introduction, and the show in general. Read it here.

the tip of the iceburg

So they've handed down a conviction to Scooter Libby. While it's likely he'll end up in jail for this, as so many of his corrupt brethren have in the past few years, Libby is not the real problem here. He is being used in this scandal, as others have been used in the Abu Gharaib, wiretapping, Walter Reed, Katrina, etc. scandals, as the fall guy for the incredible ineptness and corrupt nature of this administration. There can be little doubt that Cheney is involved in this, but equally little doubt that it will ever matter. Just as no one above the lowest levels of army officials or middling political staff has ever taken responsibility for anything that has gone wrong over the past 6 years, no one above Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, will ever take a hit for this. Maybe I will be wrong. Maybe eventually lawsuits and political pressure will catch up to Cheney, just as public and military pressure finally did in Rumsfield. But it seems unlikely. In addition to the five major political disasters listed above, there has also been the very fact of Iraq itself, and still Bush's cabinet remains intact and his agenda unchanged. Despite plummeting approval ratings, a Democratic sweep in November, and a pathetic list of Republican candidates for 2008, it seems that nothing short of impeachment will keep this president from doing whatever he damn well pleases and Republican supporters from talking the most disgusting brand of bullshit imaginable to keep the lies afloat. While this may feel like a victory, it's more like a step in the right direction, and there are a hell of a lot more of them to go before we can pull American politics out of the gutter.

Zodiac Update: It gets the Pajiba stamp of approval. A commercially-viable movie that doesn't suck, stars Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., and has great cinematography? I am so going.

I'll have the Mark Ruffalo, with a side of the Zodiac Killer

So my reading audience may or may not know this, but for all my hatred of slasher flicks, I do have a morbid curiosity about famous serial killers. At once point in the past I even stumbled upon a whole website that gives case histories of all the most dramatized and famous cases in American history, and way up there on the list is the infamous Zodiac killer. You also may or may not be aware that: 1) the zodiac killer killed people in public places and communicated with the media for years, 2) he was never caught, and 3) my boyfriend Stephen has a long-standing and irrational fear of the Zodiac killer with which I like to tease him. For example, if the power goes out, I may suggest something like...the Zodiac killer is lurking around in the basement, just to freak him out. Yes, I am aware this isn't nice, but sometimes he's just asking for it. Stephen, unlike myself, loves horror movies and always tries to get me to see them, so when I heard rumors of a Zodiac killer movie in the works a few years ago, I thought he might actually be excited. However, he set me straight. As for myself, I was fairly unexcited about the prospect of an anything-related horror movie. That is, until about five minutes ago, when I came upon this important fact about the new Zodiac film: it stars Robert Downey Jr. AND Mark Ruffalo, two men I love love love to see in practically anything. Their involvement led me to believe that this was perhaps not exactly a horror film, and I do believe we could instead call it a "psychological thriller", a genre with which I have no problem, even when it verges into horror territory-e.g. Seven. ALSO- it has an 85% positive rating on rottentomatos.com, which is mighty hard to come by anytime of year, but particularly in the dregs of the movie-going season which is Feb/March. So, I may just have to drag someone out to the theater to see this...fortunately for him, Stephen has escaped this fate by a few thousand miles. Don't worry honey- I'll get you later.

Under Construction

I'm going to be messing with the HTML and CSS of this over the next few days, so it might be a little, or a lot, messed up and/or hideous when you happen upon it, depending on what I am doing. I may in the end decide it's not worth it and revert to the black, but I'm also very bored at the moment and coding this is something to do. So we'll see. Anyway, expect disarray.

It's ok, Associated Press, the Mormons like Jesus too.

You know it's got to be a special piece of bad journalism when it's got some of the left's very best defending Republican presidential candidate, and Mormon, Mitt Romney. And, in fact, it is: a particularly bullshit "news" article by the A.P. highlighting the "polygamy branch" of the Romney family tree. Apparently Mitt's great-grandparents were polygamists, though he is against the practice and has been married to one woman for 37 years. (For the record, how many other Republican front runners can say that?) As Shakespeare's Sister rightfully points out, this has "zero fucking relevance" to the campaign. This is no more relevant to Romney's campaign, or life for that matter, than it would be to know that any other politician's great grandparents had been strong proponents of Jim Crow laws, though they themselves of course are not. Bringing it in to the campaign, let alone calling it news, insults the public and the media establishment as a whole, and I really hope that this gets called out somewhere other than the many blogs that have written about it. SS also brings up the obvious religious implications inherent in making big news out of practically fabricated biographical information (insinuating Romney supports polygamy)- while Mormons are indeed Christians, they aren't the right kind, the "strong leader" kind, the sober up and find evangelical Christianity then go make war in the Middle East kind. And that's who America likes to lead it.

Right into the ground.

yay God: oscar edition

Just a brief note to express my happiness that Scorsese (and The Departed!) finally, finally won that well-deserved Oscar, that Jennifer Hudson, Helen Mirren, Forrest Whitacre, and Marie Antoinette's costumer won theirs, slight disappointment for Kate Winslet and Leo Dicaprio, though I'm sure they'll get theirs eventually, and a reference to go fug yourself.com for the best dress commentary tomorrow- and my God were there some bad dresses.

Now if you haven't seen it- go watch The Departed! and Infernal Affairs. It's not exactly the feel good movie of the year, but it's pretty freaking fantastic.

did anyone beta test web 2.0?

It's about one a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning, a normal time for me to be up on any night really, but especially on a weekend. Sadly there's so much nothing to do around here I contemplated going to bed a couple hours ago but got sucked into flickr and last.fm, which brought me to updating the blog. I was talking to my sister recently about the horrendously named "web 2.0", which is the phenomenon of web community networking sites, wikis, etc. Blogs fit in to the category, so does Wikipedia (natch), as does flickr, my love of loves, last.fm, the facebook, del.icio.us, and any one of the ten or twenty of these sorts of things I use or hear about every day. Even things with a strong real-world component, like Netflix, buy into web 2.0 and hype their "friends" feature, which I've been using recently with sick fascination to either denigrate or be impressed with the movie choices of my friends. I didn't realize quite how plugged in I was to all this networking technology until I reached the low of trying to get my completely anti-book sister to join Shelfari, a (really cool) site dedicated to sharing and exploring reading habits. After she told me to go and peddle my zeal for literature elsewhere, a message which was delivered via facebook, I think I hit a social networking wall.

I frequently try to get my friends and family members to join me on websites I find particularly cool, especially if it's related to something they are really interested in already. However, no matter how much some friends love their digital cameras, I can't seem to get them on flickr. Same goes with music lovers and last.fm (or any other music site, pick your poison.) It seems that my interests, which include technology, music, lit, writing, photography, film- all the things to which these sites cater- match all of my friend's interests but one important one. The technology one. While I have a few friends who participate in each site, with the exception of facebook, that be all, end all of social networking sites, it seems like there is some idea of "trouble" or "work" built into the idea of doing things online. I'm not sure where this comes from exactly, but there must be some kind of critical mass at which people say, I'm done with new technology for the moment. For a lot of people, that catalyst may have been the iTunes-iPod combo of death, which controls the experience with such a heavy hand that the more freeform method of some networking sites may indeed seem like a lot of work. But I really think that the benefits are worth the five minutes of clicks it may take to figure something out.

Last.fm, for instance. Could I like it more? I don't know. Jonesing for some new music? Hate the radio? Just plain bored of hearing the same songs every hour? Yeah, me too. Know what bands you already like? Fantastic. Type it in a box, they play you bands kinda like that one. Hate a song? Skip it. Love it? Tell 'em. Get a custom radio station of all music you actually like. Imagine that. Make friends with people who like music you do and get some recs. Been listening to music like Ben Folds and feel like some music like Gnarls Barkley instead? No problem. So why the heck are people like, yeah, that sounds cool, but it's too much work to do it. ?!?! Same rules apply with flickr, the photo sharing site that stole my camera-happy little heart way back when it began, and has since even made a paying member out of me.

My bottom line: web 2.0, while possibly the lamest name ever coined, has brought us some damned cool websites, and I'm tired of everyone's lazy excuses for not joining them. While I can 100% see why not everyone might take it upon themselves to write a blog (you may be asking yourself why I do, as do I at times like this), if you have even slightly more than a passing interest in music, join the ranks of last.fm users and find your new favorite band. Or, allow me to peddle my zeal for literature and suggest a visit to Shelfari.com-it's new, it's got teensy books on a virtual shelf, it can help you settle that pesky problem of forgetting what books you want to read, and it will allow you to become a proud participant of the web 2.0 "revolution". And come on, don't tell me you never wanted to be part of a revolution.

Well it's been a while since I've written anything of substance, and I only put up the dog pictures under force of threat by multiple people, so I think it's safe to safe I am totally neglecting my blog. What I am wasting my time with instead? I'm ashamed to say not a whole lot. While I was busy with packing and moving and leaving school, it was easy to take a few minutes and write something, or waste hours online reading the news while I avoided doing something else. But now that I have nothing to avoid it's way easier to just do nothing. I check my email but other than that I've even been away from the computer, unaware of politics, scandal, bad outfits, or any other web items of interest and I still remain surrounded by about twenty boxes worth of junk that needs put away, clothes that need unpacked, and I still haven't really found a job.

So, you might ask: What the hell am I doing with myself all day?! Well, usually I don't really know. Today I spent a good two hours screwing with our wireless network. Honestly it really doesn't seem that bad when I get up and waste the whole day and then go to bed until I start writing something like this, which underscores exactly the amount of nothing one is capable of achieving in a day. While I'll have a job by next week, and then no more time to waste, this is still pretty unacceptable, isn't it? I'll get it together kids. For the blog. Because seriously, I am boring even myself to tears.

gratuitous dog posting

So we're having what the weathermen are calling the "Storm of '07" (ominous, right?), which means about a foot of snow and assorted wintery crap, and while it's causing all kinds of problems for the humans around here, my dog is loving it. In honor of that, and my sister and Stephen's persistent bitching, here are some photos of his first real snow:

Ben- Storm of '07

The link will take you to the picasa web album. Cheers!

lord help us all

So it's been awhile since I've posted and a lot has gone down since that not sucky Monday. In my own life I am in the process of moving, which is the reason for my shady lack of posts. Out in the real world, however, the Colts won the Superbowl in a rainy game upset, Repubs are blocking debate about Iraq in the senate (Reid says: you can run, but you can't hide. Nice.) , and Boston is getting it's panties in a twist over glorified lite-brights used to advertise for the next Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. These things are alternately surprising, depressing, and hilarious, and all have been commented on in excess by my blogging friends and peers.

Instead of putting in my two cents, which anyone bothering to read this I'm sure has either heard or can guess, allow me to direct your attention to these links:

Armed America: Portraits of Americans and Their Guns
Fascinating, and the portraits are fantastic.
(hat tip to Stephen)

Vivavi
Sustainability and green living meets beautiful, really freaking expensive furniture. Sigh.

And this, which needs no words:

here's to you, not sucky monday

so the past two days have been pretty decent, all things considered. we finally got some snow, heroes came back on, the colts beat the patriots, and hillary clinton finally announced her run so we can stop conjecturing about it and start bitching with the facts (those of you that choose to bitch. i say let her run, yay women, etc., vote for obama. but that's just me, and it's only january.)

i just wanted to have a shout-out to these lovely days of sunday and monday, because tomorrow is the state of the union address and it can only be bad for us. normally i try to watch it from a bar with plenty of alcohol at hand to play drinking games and numb the urge to put my hand through the t.v., but this year the crowd is decidedly less political and i have a feeling i will be venting my feelings here along with 9/10ths of the blogosphere, or everyone not associated with pajamas media. it will be covered by every channel, pre-empting whatever you were hoping to watch, but both cnn and msnbc should have good coverage, with msnbc putting chris matthews and keith olbermann on it. also he'll be interviewing hillary later this week, which should be interesting as he hasn't shied away from asking people questions they'd rather not answer. tune in.

that said, here's to a lovely beginning of the week, and the downhill slide that's sure to follow.

shoes are like potatos?

as a recent (ok, i'll say it) drop-out of a literature ph.d program, this combination of article/commentary from gawker brought home all the reasons why grad school is so great, and all the reasons why you want to leave as soon as humanly possible...

n+1 takes on the semiotics of payless
(via gawker)

step by step, lie by lie

as the rhetoric between the administration and iran grows and my boyfriend and i argue over the likelihood of war with iran, it seems worth revisiting this excellent timeline from mother jones, which chronicles in excruciating detail the run-up to the iraq war. they call it "lie by lie" for a good reason...even though we all lived through it, and many of us saw it coming, you'll be shocked to look back and see how much it all fits together in retrospect. it's a disturbing echo of current events, and worth a look for anyone interested in revisiting exactly how we got ourselves into this mess. it's also (nerd alert) a great use of flash and really well put together from a design perspective, if any of that matters to you political junkies. i believe it's also searchable, paper writing folks.

random blogosphere items of interest

not so breaking news:
bill o'reilly is an ass, believes kidnapped children "have more fun" with their kidnappers
(via media matters)

it's heeeere....it will monopolize your system resources, but you'll love every minute of it.
google earth 4

college republicans, still lame.
18-24 and support the war? great, don't enlist, take cookies to some wounded troops.
(via this modern world)

yes yes yes.
why being a feminist does not mean backing all women
(via alternet)

this doesn't even deserve a title

from bush's recent 60 minutes interview:

PELLEY: Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?
BUSH: That we didn't do a better job or they didn't do a better job?

worst. president. ever.

iphone- shiny goodness or sucky letdown?

most people i know (read=mac obsessed fanboys) have been waiting eagerly for months for the announcement of the iphone, sure to be God's gift to the computer using world (read=everyone). now that they can finally put away their mock-ups and feast their eye's on the real thing, however, the shiny object joy of the touchscreen and the sheer mac-ness of it all seems to be wearing off under the decidedly not so shiny glare of reality. as a person who has worked fairly extensively with both mac's and pc's, i have to say in the interest of full disclosure that i generally consider myself to be more of a pc person. i will say, though, that mac does what it does well, and that they have an absolutely killer marketing strategy. i won't list all my pros and cons of each here, but in my last laptop buying consideration process i came thisclose to a mac but just couldn't bring myself to make the switch...to me macs are an illusion somehow, and they never quite live up to their expectations in day to day use. plus i make my living fixing broken pc's at the moment, so who i am to complain about shaky os's?

at any rate, initially the iphone does look pretty effing sweet, but it looks like it might be better as the new ipod (though apple won't be the first working this touchscreen) and not so much as a phone. the good cnet bloggers over at crave have put together a pretty good list of why the iphone may just be good for shiny object lust and not so much actual use...sorry mac fans, but you can't be all right, all the time.

no, virginia, they don't really have herpes.

so i'm actually old enough to remember a time when prescription medicine wasn't advertised on television in hopes that you'll take your desire for the new anti-depressant/statin/bp lowering med to your doctor. apparently this trend causes some confusion among the younger generation, as i learned while watching a valtrex commercial with my step-sister:

her: so do you think these people actually have genital herpes?
me: um, no. they're actors.
her. really?
me: yeah, they're getting paid to talk about it so more people take this medicine.
her: huh.

what followed this exchange was an even more ridiculous conversation about exactly which types of herpes it's ok to make fun of people for having between her and her brother (answer=none), but it left me feeling slightly disturbed that a 13 year old girl might think that all of the people shilling meds, or anything for that matter, on t.v. might really believe the things they're saying and not just be paid actors. i'm not sure if it says something about her age, personal naiveté, or complete lifetime immersion in advertising, but it does seem slightly problematic that kids don't even take commercials with a grain of salt. not giving me a heck of a lot of hope for questioning the media/government/etc as they get older.

generation sheep? i sure hope not. maybe we need to expose them to the power of nancy pelosi's womb.

disco balls and the feminazi agenda

as if you needed any more evidence that ben shapiro is a jackass, he helpfully wrote this editorial a few days ago to remind you what a moron he is, harvard law or no. his problem? nancy pelosi's womb and it's apparent influence over the m.s.m and beltway politicos.

(article example: "Pelosi is ardently pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on illegal immigration, anti-gun rights, anti-religion and anti-welfare reform. She wants to dramatically escalate taxes and doesn't believe that we're currently engaged in a war on Islamism. But she used the Lamaze method, so don't you dare call her a San Francisco liberal!")

anyway, just to further clarify matters, shakespeare's sister creates a helpful diagram to demonstrate exactly how the radical gay and feminazi agenda is formed in the womb and spread to all those so easily influenced on capital hill by it's subversive ways. i especially dig the disco ball.

when really bad plans go wrong

it's been a weird week for news. strange, unidentified smells in manhattan, birds falling out of the sky in australia, and now this: a body found dead in the wheel well of a plane that had flown from senegal to atlanta. not too much is known at the moment, other than that it appears to have been a stowaway. the flight is nine hours long. this story begs questions on several levels. we can't take more than three ounces of lotion on a plane, but someone managed to sneak into the wheel well? nice going, airport security at about fifty different levels. also, not that senegal is the type of country from which one flees, but if one was trying to leave, shacking up in the wheel well of a 767 seems, well, more than a little misjudged. they were interviewing people on the plane, so it will be interesting to see how this story develops. as usual, they were quick to assert, there was no terrorism involved, but just as quickly, that no one really knew the details, so who the hell knows. senegal, the new front in the war on terror? they were a colony of france...........

why msnbc deserves a special place in our hearts

it came to my attention over my christmas vacation that not everyone has heard of keith olbermann. this is a travesty, to be sure, as mr. olbermann is one of the very few people in any form of media "speaking truth to power" as they say, and i am regularly shocked the man still has a job. his show, "countdown," is aired on msnbc at various times, but you can download all kinds of clips from youtube and many of his speeches are up online as well. the whole show is frequently hilarious, but when he does his final speech (special comments) he's almost always deadly serious and as on point as can be. here's an excerpt from a recent show, on bush's new (moronic, evil, pointless, etc.) plan for a troop "surge" in iraq:

This senseless, endless war.

But -- it has not been senseless in two ways.

It has succeeded, Mr. Bush, in enabling you to deaden the collective mind of this country to the pointlessness of endless war, against the wrong people, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

It has gotten many of us used to the idea -- the virtual "white noise" -- of conflict far away, of the deaths of young Americans, of vague "sacrifice" for some fluid cause, too complicated to be interpreted except in terms of the very important-sounding but ultimately meaningless phrase "the war on terror."

And the war’s second accomplishment -- your second accomplishment, sir -- is to have taken money out of the pockets of every American, even out of the pockets of the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and their families, and to have given that money to the war profiteers.

Because if you sell the Army a thousand Humvees, you can’t sell them any more until the first thousand have been destroyed.

The service men and women are ancillary to the equation.

This is about the planned obsolescence of ordnance, isn’t, Mr. Bush? And the building of detention centers? And the design of a $125 million courtroom complex at Gitmo, complete with restaurants.

At least the war profiteers have made their money, sir.

too bad the white house only watches fox news, eh?

here's a link to the rest of the speech as well.

now we can swim any day in november

in light of 2006 being the warmest year on record it seems like a good time to either panic about our impending doom, or start cranking out the homemade biodiesel and put our own stamp on the "fight global warming" movement. while we may not all be able to drive the diesel vw golf of stephen's dreams, there are plenty of pretty easy things to do to help steer our pretty planet back in the right direction. al gore would be so proud.

1. super easy. join terrapass. for a variable sum (for a cr-v it's about $40) you can buy a yearly pass to counteract the emissions of your car and eliminate your carbon footprint, which they'll reinvest in green energy. now you can also buy them for your plane trips and for your house. it's not a ton of money and it makes a measurable difference. they have a third party audit them to verify where the money goes as well. they send you stickers too, and who doesn't like stickers?

2. also easy. buy more local food. yeah, it costs more. but the less time it takes your food to get to you, the fresher it is, the less possessed it has to be to stay that way, the better it tastes and is for you, the less chemicals it contains, etc.

3. even better- eat less meat. know very much about how your meat gets to your table? the way we farm animals has direct consequences on our emissions levels, in particular cows. what to do about it? eat less meat for one, support organic, grass-fed beef for another. there are plenty of farms working towards sustainable agriculture and there are co-op farms you can join or buy food direct from the farm- find them here.

4. not so easy- walk, ride your bike, take the bus. this one depends on where you live. of the many places i've lived over the past couple of years, i can honestly say most of the time you could suck it up and walk, but that bike riding was mostly out of the question due to traffic and lack of bike lanes or sidewalks. buses are practically non-existent outside of university campuses and large cities, unless we're talking europe, in which case all public transport is superior, even in luxembourg. bully for them.

5. install those cool looking fluorescent bulbs, turn the heat down, etc, etc, wash your clothes on cold. you know the drill kids, they've only been teaching us this stuff since the second grade. even the repubs are jumping on the save the planet bandwagon, and it's about freaking time.

you already knew all this, right? right. well consider this a friendly new year's reminder to do your recycling, walk someplace once in a while, and stop being so happy it's 55 degrees in january. cute little penguins in antarctica are losing their homes. or something like that.

and really, none of this stuff will do any good unless there are real changed enacted on a national level. i say national because we're responsible for more of this than any other industrialized nation, and i think it follows that we ought to act accordingly to work to fix it. in all likelihood, the government won't be the ones doing the work here....organizations like terrapass, or the apollo alliance, or even states, will be pushing for change. george monbiot's new book "heat" attempts to present some real-world solutions as well, more than just "drive less", etc,...here's a review.

bandit

this saturday, we lost our family dog bandit. he was eleven years old. he was an eighty pound best friend and family member to all of us, and we'll miss him so much. we love you bandit. i'm glad i had a chance to say goodbye.

last night's dream: or, my missed chance at being a debutante

in the occasionally interesting subject of dream interpretation, i offer last night's creation-


me, along with a large group of girls, some of whom i know and some strangers, brought to new york with one suitcase and no real idea what was going on. what is going on? debutante (debutard?) luncheon! to my panic and chagrin, my suitcase lacks the requisite white pantsuit-type lunching outfit every debutante requires and is instead filled with black, vaguely punky hipster clothing that i try desperately to make into some kind of presentable outfit, knowing that i will surely be denied entry due to my wrong-end of manhantten appropriate wardrobe. and the worst part- i'm actually kind of broken up about this.

wtf?

odd manifestation of my current existential crisis? repressed lament over never getting to be a debutante? plain old cracked out standard issue dream?

i'm going to go with number 2. lord knows i always wanted to have multiple male escorts (one military, even), exchange small talk with hotel heiresses, AND impress everyone present with my curtseying skills. i mean, seriously, who wouldn't? once you get your invites, the tables are only ten thou. pocket change.

there's a reason why these people are frequently referred to as debutards.

plan B

allow me and my angry feminist sensibilities to direct you to this cartoon, brought to my attention over at shakespeare's sister, and exactly how very, very wrong it is:

plan B

in light of all the rampant vag-flashing going on (ahem, britney et al.), etc., it seems like jokes about plan B being another excuse for "drunken whoring" barely seem to be about birth control, and actually seem to be about what happens after plan A just stops working out and "plan B" is judt a better publicity strategy.

in the real, non-drunken whore celebrity world, however, this "blame the victim" discussion is so ridiculous is barely rates talking about. as ss points out, more women are raped in thier homes and by people they know, not while wearing short skirts and walking down the street, or for that matter, even for acting like drunken whores. comparing rape to petty theft is demeaning and absurd, but it does reflect one perception that so many people seem to have- that a woman's body is worth about as much as an ipod or a watch.

it just blows the mind.

haben sie special doughnuts?

so, in case the desire strikes you to read about my trip to vienna before i post about it, with many many hotlinks and probably a great deal about erwin wurm, head on over to stephen's hung(a)ry for____ blog for your reading pleasure.

another year

well, i'm officially back in the states after spending my holidays in hungary, and it's been a bittersweet return. our family dog bandit has cancer, and i'm facing the knowledge that i have to go back to indiana to start working two jobs, get some kind of health insurance, and figure out how to sell my apartment, along with find some kind of real full time job/place to live in another state. i don't regret leaving my program because i know i couldn't stay and be happy with what i was doing, but it sure would have made life a lot easier. in the meantime i'll just dwell on the good time i had in budapest and start planning my mardi gras party, which is going to be sweet. also, expect plenty of pictures of various things, because i'm breaking out my assortment of cameras (yes, stephen, even the lomo!) and putting together a real portfolio finally. it's about damn time i got my life together, and that's as good a resolution as any.

Cuki, explained.

So, in case you're wondering, (and even if you aren't) cuki is a Hungarian diminutive form of the word sugar. It's also a 16 year old Hungarian girl who made a Valley-girl style music video that is both horribly awful and catchy as all hell, as well as being pretty much everything you could ever want in a Hungarian pop song whose main lyrics consist of the words "I am sugar." We've pretty much been playing/singing it incessantly, because when no one is saying anything, the tune will suddenly, evily creep into your brain, and you will be helpless to resist. Watch at your own risk. Oh, and if you really feel like a thrill, go on YouTube and watch Speak the Hungarian rapper. Unlike Cuki, he's not parodying anything, but his song succeeds at being waaaay more hilarious. Sorry Cuki, but we still love you. Lalalalalalala.

a mini photo essay of budapest

From Budapest-2006

the courtyard of stephen's apartment building

From Budapest-2006

thier uberscary, but pretty, elevator

From Budapest-2006

the beginning of chain bridge in pest

From Budapest-2006

Stephen outside Fisherman's Bastion at night

From Budapest-2006

Me, The Living Room, Depeche Mode, New Years 2K7

From Budapest-2006

Nada, Kasia, Marko, Jen- who doesn't love Depeche Mode?

From Budapest-2006

Happy New Year!

From Budapest-2006

Emra, our Turkish friend getting his MA in real job skills

From Budapest-2006

Jen and Tyler and the wonders of modern technology

From Budapest-2006

Zombie Chickens. Better watch yourself.

From Budapest-2006

We made our own snow for Christmas

From Budapest-2006

Israel juice represent.