The Washington Redskins have proved to be a time-tested election predictor. In the previous 15 elections, if the Washington Redskins have lost their last home game prior to the election, the incumbent party has lost the White House. When they have won, the incumbent has stayed in power.
This election year, that deciding game takes place on Sunday, October 31 … vs. Green Bay.
Hmmmm. Think some high-profile members of the Packers are going to be arrested in the coming days?
Well, no soonder do the BoSox win, then Lee over at Right Thinking decides to of course, make a political comparisson – this, of course, assuming that the Astros win over the Cardinals tomorrow. “Just think, if the Astros make it, it’ll be a Texas vs. Massachusetts match-up. Just like the political World Series on November 2.”
Y’know what? Fuck the Astros. Kick their ass, Cardinals!
(PS – no one tell Lee that our President is from Maine, okay?)
The BoSox are going to the World Series :)
It has more to do with my hatred of the New York Yankees then my love for the Bosox, although I do love Boston as a whole better than New York as a whole.
Go Boston! 8 – 3 right now. And y’know, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer team …
… and if you’re a listener of the Don & Mike radio show, don’t you figure Mike is kickin’ himself right about now? About two weeks ago he forfeited on his bet that the Sox would win the Series and agreed to do a full body massage on two naked men. And now! And NOW!
… against Bush.
Former Republican Senator Marlow Cook writes,
I shall cast my vote for John Kerry come Nov 2.
I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican. But when we as a party send the wrong person to the White House, then it is our responsibility to send him home if our nation suffers as a result of his actions. I fall in the category of good conservative thinkers, like George F. Will, for instance, who wrote: “This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and having thought, to have second thoughts.”
I am not enamored with John Kerry, but I am frightened to death of George Bush. I fear a secret government. I abhor a government that refuses to supply the Congress with requested information. I am against a government that refuses to tell the country with whom the leaders of our country sat down and determined our energy policy, and to prove how much they want to keep that secret, they took it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Those of you who are fiscal conservatives and abhor our staggering debt, tell your conservative friends, “Vote for Kerry,” because without Bush to control the Congress, the first thing lawmakers will demand Kerry do is balance the budget.
The wonderful thing about this country is its gift of citizenship, then it’s freedom to register as one sees fit. For me, as a Republican, I feel that when my party gives me a dangerous leader who flouts the truth, takes the country into an undeclared war and then adds a war on terrorism to it without debate by the Congress, we have a duty to rid ourselves of those who are taking our country on a perilous ride in the wrong direction.
If we are indeed the party of Lincoln (I paraphrase his words), a president who deems to have the right to declare war at will without the consent of the Congress is a president who far exceeds his power under our Constitution.
I will take John Kerry for four years to put our country on the right path.
Ouch.
I listen to Out to Lunch many afternoons, a radio show in Baltimore with Miles Montgomery & Steve “The Thrill” Hill. Well, about twenty-minutes ago, a caller called in and said he told his wife that The View was lying when they mentioned that Kerry & Bush were related.
Oh!
Another caller called in, said “Yes, they’re third cousins!”
Nope! I sent an e-mail with a link to the news article I quoted in my Sept. 9th entry on the subject matter.
And they mentioned it on air! Wooot!!
So, not long ago, the Guardian, a UK paper, decided it wanted to help John Kerry win the election.
It’s just possible that you have heard this once or twice before recently, but the forthcoming American election, on November 2, may be the most important in living memory. People have been saying this about every presidential race for decades – but, as one environmentalist put it recently in a US newspaper interview, precisely the problem with crying wolf is that sometimes there is a wolf. You would be forgiven, though, for feeling increasingly helpless as you hear the “most important election” mantra repeated daily: unless you happen to be a voter in a handful of swing states, there’s little you can do about the final result. If you’re not American, the situation is more acute. Certainly, the actions of the US impact on our lives in overwhelming ways; British political life may now be at least as heavily influenced by White House policy as by the choices of UK voters. And yet, though the US Declaration of Independence speaks of “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind”, you don’t, of course, have a vote. You can’t even donate money to the campaigns: foreign contributions are outlawed. And you’re unlikely to have the chance to do any campaigning on the ground. All you can do is wait and watch: you’re powerless.
Or are you? At G2, that sounded like fighting talk. Where others might see delusions of grandeur, we saw an opportunity for public service – and so, on the following pages, we have assembled a handy set of tools that non-Americans can use to have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the vote. We’ve identified ways to give money to help your preferred candidate, even though direct campaign contributions from foreigners aren’t allowed. There are ideas for making your voice heard in the influential local media outlets where it could really count. And at the core of it is a unique scheme to match individual Guardian readers to individual American voters, giving you the opportunity to write a personal letter, citizen to citizen, explaining why this election matters to you, and which issues you think ought to matter to the US electorate. It may even be a chance to persuade somebody to use their vote at all.
I heard about this from Adventures of an American Girl in Germany, where everyone’s favorite expat has this to say, “This makes me so mad. The aggrogance. Imagine an American newspaper suggesting it’s readers to write letters to Britians about why Tony Blair’s party should be re-elected. Or to Germans suggesting Stoiber would be a better candidate because he’s more friendly to America. Or voting against Chirac in the next French election. Riiighhhtt.”
I don’t think she’s far off the mark for being upset. Some Americans were so upset that they threatened to have US Navy SEALS “descend upon the offices of the Guardian, bag the lot of you, and transport you to Guantanamo Bay, where you can share quarters with some lonely Taliban shepherd boys.”
From Texas comes the opinion, “Real Americans aren’t interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it.” Of course, Real Americans live in Texas and vote Bush. One wonders if this ignoramus goes up to native born second-generation immigrants and screams when they tell him that they’re American.
Another response says, “We don’t need weenie-spined Limeys meddling in our presidental election. If it wasn’t for America, you’d all be speaking German. And if America would have had a president, then, of the likes of Kerry, you’d all be goose-stepping around Buckingham Palace. YOU ARE NOT WANTED!! Whether you want to support either party. BUTT OUT!!!” Now, I wonder if he means “likes of Kerry” he means a) Democrat or b) Liberal. This person should certainly take a history class! Franklin D. Roosevelt was both a) Democrat and b) Liberal.
Knoxville, Iowa writes, “Fuck off and die asshole!!!!!” Yes, and to you too, friend!
Someone else ignorant of the fact that the Republican Party is just as socialist writes, “I’ll tell you, you’re a bunch of meddling socialist pricks! Stay the hell out of our country and politics. And another thing, John Kerry is a worthless lying sack of crap so it doesn’t surprise me that a socialist rag like yours would back him. I hope your cynical ploy blows up in your cowardly faces, you bunch of mealy-mouthed morons!”
More hilarity (and bad manners) here.
Merriweather Post Pavilion, designed by world-renown architect, Frank Gehry, opened in 1967 and was immediately heralded as an architectural success. Beyond simply being a marvelous structure placed in a beautiful natural setting, Merriweather was praised it’s sound quality as well. In its heyday, Merriweather played host to several dozen shows each year, with acts ranging from symphonies to ballets to plays to popular musicians. Though it recently fell on some hard times, with the annual number of shows decreasing and a lack of investment and upkeep in the site, Merriweather rebounded in 2004 with the help of IMP Productions, its current managers. IMP devoted considerable resources to improving the grounds, for which they have received unqualified praise, and the schedule this year was healthier than any in recent past. The Summer of 2004 showed doubters that Merriweather is still a viable concert venue and can certainly be successful and profitable.
I didn’t see many concerts at Merriweather – only one, I think: Counting Crows & Live. It was a great show. Atholton High School’s graduation ceremonies also used to be held at Merriweather. How many people get to recieve their diploma on the same stage that Jimmi Hendrix once performed on?
Columbia is over developed as it is. It doesn’t need another Bed Bath and Beyond. Keep the music, man.
If the human race doesn’t realize the precarious situation we are in, it won’t be a matter of if the Trees become fully a threat, but when. It will only be a short while before we are reduced to the life of a slave, from which our ancestors tried to free us.
And do it for the survival of our species!
Kingdom Hospital was a fifteen hour television mini-series written by Stephen King based on a series by Lars von Triers. Jack Coleman (“Peter Rickman”) describes the series as “ER on crack.”
Set in a hospital – could you tell from the name? – we find a wide ensemble cast of characters reacting to working in a haunted hospital plagued by regional earthquakes, a big anteater, and a corpse running around looking for his severed head.
We’re introduced to the hospital through Peter Rickman, after the character (America’s best known artist) is involved in a hit-and-run similar to the accident which nearly killed Stephen King in 1999. Rickman is left for dead but is rescued by Antubis – a big anteater who likes to say, “I do you a solid, you do me a solid.”
At the hospital we’re quickly introduced to the two main characters – Doctors Hook (Andrew McCarthy) and Stegman (Bruce Davison). Rickman, as might be imagined with a cast this large, falls rapidly into the background for much of the series, his only contribution being his relationship with Antubus and the ghost “time keeper” Mary.
No time is lost in showing the hatred that Hook and Stegman feel for each other. Stegman, we quickly learn, left Boston General under … not so great … conditions. He feels banished to Kingdom Hospital, located in what he would probably consider the backward wilderness of Maine. Hook, who in his spare time enjoys gathering evidence of malpractice by the doctors at Kingdom Hospital (including himself), frequently gets Stegman’s goat, provoking an ongoing feud over the fate of Mona Klingerman and the botched brain surgery Stegman performed.
“Kingdom Hospital” isn’t scary in that – Oh! – sense. There are very few genuine scary moments. It much more focuses on suspense, and the growing frequency of the quakes which threaten the hospital. As we learn, Kingdom Hospital is built on a site where in 1869, a mill fire claimed the lives of numerous children workers. Seventy years after that, a hospital on the very same spot burned as well. Inhabitants of both haunt the halls of Kingdom Hospital.
But here’s the thing – the cast of living characters is so strange and weird that even without the whole supernatural angle, the show would still be compelling to watch. Where do I start?
You’ve got Dr. Elmer Traff (Jamie Harrold), a young doc who tries to gain the romantic interest of Dr. Lona Massingale (Sherry Miller). And, really, when it comes to the lovely Sherry – who wouldn’t want her romantic interest? Elmer also had a perpacity for decapitating corpses leading to some of the most light-hearted moments of the series.
Diane Ladd plays Sally Druse, a woman with connections to the “other side.” Ed Begley, jr., plays the overly cheery and creepy hospital administrator, Dr. Jesse James. A whole slew of guest stars – including Wayne Newton – portray maintenance men (none of whom, to Stegman’s ire, are “Johnny B. Goode”, the hospital’s chief maintenance man).
Rounding out the supporting cast are Julian Richings as the almost-blonde German security guard Otto, Del Pentecost as orderly Bobby Druse, and Brendan Bauer and Jennifer Cunningham as Able and Christy – two (as Stegman calls them, “feebles”) adults with down syndrome who work in the bowels of the hospital and seem to know everything about everything.
It’s an addictive ride.
I had today and yesterday off from work. A “mini-vacation”, if you will, and the only one I’m going to get until my week off in November (heading to Connecticut for Thanksgiving). Yesterday I settled on the couch and watched Stephen King’s “Kingdom Hospital”. Today I had lunch with a professor and spent the rest of the day … not doing much else.
I had a lot of things I wanted to do this weekend – clean the apartment, rearrange the furniture in the bedroom, reorganize and clean the den. Well, I got the bedroom furniture rearranged: I also have a pile of magazines and books in the center of the room, and I only did half the laundry I was planning on doing.
So what is going on in the Blogosphere?
Andrew Sullivan is more than a little pissed by the so-called “firestorm” over Kerry’s remarks during the last debate. “Does anyone have a single leading Republican voice objecting to Republican Senate candidate Jim DeMint’s statement that gays should be barred from teaching in public schools? Has any leading conservative criticized the RNC flier claiming that a vote for Kerry would mean banning the Bible and forcing gay marriage on the entire country? Has any leading conservative columnist criticized some of the anti-marriage state amendments because of their vast scope and banning of any protections for gay couples? I noticed that Jay Nordlinger did object to Alan Keyes’ description of Mary Cheney as a selfish hedonist. But did Kristol? Or anyone else? The Cheneys ignored it. I’m just trying to be fair here. I’m relieved that Bill Kristol cares so deeply about not demonizing gays. I’d just like to hear of a single instance in which he has said such a thing before. That would get to the core of his sincerity, would it not? Or his sickeningly shameless opportunism.”
Over at Culture Shock (note the new URL, the one on the right still needs to be updated – Tim?), everyone’s favorite Blonde Librarian talks about the use of the word ‘must’ and how the German language forces her to use it more. Damn the German language! No, kidding, but a very insightful look at some of the unintended consequences of living in a foreign country. Foreign countries are bad – we should invade and make them America! Hooray! On a bright side – people get to drink beer for breakfast in Germany? Or is that all of Europe in general? Hell, who cares – let’s move to Deutschland!
Laura from 11-D complains that she’s a magnet for crazy people. Well, duh, she’s on my blogroll, isn’t she?
Jon Lieberman was just on CNN. Apparently he had some balls, and some ethics, and is no longer working for Sinclair Broadcasting. Their loss.
No, not with Jack Black! Besides, that was School *of* Rock.
Take a look here, a fun, informative, bit about Pirates & Emperors (and, y’know, lots of implications in today’s world and all).
Thanks to Cat M.
So for some dumb reason when I went to open Firefox, it deleted ALL of my bookmarks, all of my options and preferences. I had to reimport everything from IE, which was a huge pain in the ass, since all of the bookmarks I’ve added SINCE I stopped using IE over a month and a half ago are now gone. The meticulous arrangment my bookmark folder was in was completely undone. I am so incredible pissed at Firefox.
Why? Why did this happen? I have no idea. But I’m pretty fucking pissed.
At my indy delivery job, the Boss scheduled three drivers instead of two, so I was able to take the afternoon off. I was going to clean my bedroom, do a lot of laundry, dishes, and maybe even vacuum the whole apartment.
Instead, I did one load of laundry, changed the cat litter, and vegged out to the Discovery Channel.
The night shift at my franchise job was perfect – not too busy, not too slow. I averaged nine runs in my first three hours … and one run in my last two. Even that isn’t as bad as it sounds – it gave me plenty of time to get my closing chores out of the way, and we were able to listen to the debate on the store radio. The only problem with that was the only station we could get was Live 105.7 and the Ron & Fez show, which aired the debate. Now, here’s the thing: Ron & Fez is a COMEDY radio show, which meant that you had their comments atop the debate itself, which made following the debate somewhat difficult.
Well, that IS what CSPAN is for, right? Rerunning the debate? Ja!
Tips tonight were decent, and none of my runs were to the ends of our delivery area. I only had one double (when I take two deliveries in one trip from the store), but I didn’t really care about that – the night air was cold and crisp, people were cozying up to the fire, and more than one kid opened their door with a Halloween mask on and shouted “Boo!” forcing me to jump up and scream “Aaaaah!” and pretend to run off. Now THAT was hilarious, because the kids would all be like, “Oh, no, Mr. Pizza Guy, come back! I’m not a ghost!” And I would be all like, “Oh, are you sure? I don’t know …” Then I’d let myself be talked back to the door, and the mom or dad would be grinning. Let’s face it: pizza delivery is a service industry, similar to a job a waitress does (although I’ll be the first to admit that there’s a lot more work to a waiter or waitresses job). If you make the customer laugh, they’ll treat you better.
Complement the pets, say “hi” to the kids, gaze at the wife’s boob job … er, scratch that last.
… that the Bush Administration had no plans to go after Saddam for his alleged WMD, but rather because of Iraq’s past history with the US and his oil supply. Why do I say this? Because after the invasion, instead of protecting the Iraqi citizens and their businesses from looters, US troops stood by and did nothing. US Troops did guard the oil refineries, however. And now the most damming – from the Guardian,
Equipment which could be used in an illicit nuclear bomb programme has disappeared from previously monitored sites in Iraq, and radioactively contaminated items from there have been found abroad, the International Atomic Energy Agency has told the UN.
So, if, uh, we went in to find the WMD (you know, the ones that were never there) why did we leave equipment that could be used to MAKE WMD unguarded? Could it be that, like with every other thing they’ve tried to do in Iraq, the Bush Administration has no clue what they’re doing?
Read the damn Marshall plan. Put enough troops on the ground. Don’t disband the Iraqi army – great idea, putting a bunch of soldiers into the unemployed market. Gee, I wonder what they’re doing now – killing Marines? They could have been used to maintain order and help rebuild.
George W. Bush – you are incompetent. Four years ago, your supporters told us that even if you *were* a moron, you surrounded yourself with smart people. You told us that you didn’t like yes men. Well, looks like the “smart people” you surrounded yourself with are indeed “yes” people, and as a result, you’ve bungled the War on Terror, and brought the United States into another quagmire like Vietnam.
“Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it”, so goes the saying. Gee, guess who failed to study history?
George W. Bush. Too dangerous to reelect.