Paul Newman

Dead.

Someday I'll tell you about almost knocking him over in the feminine hygiene section of Achorn's Pharmacy in Westport, Ct.

Sniff.

Last day in Korea

Well, the conference I was attending wrapped up yesterday. It was pretty good – but was chock full of incredibly dry information. Just imagine several hundred people (mostly men in suits – me? In jeans and sneakers. But that’s cause everyone there from the large corporate enterprise I work for dresses casually – cause most of the other folks there want our business – it’s a bit of a trip to be so wanted…) sitting around talking about global computer security standards for three days. In a row.

Fascinating…or not. But, it’s part of the gig and I learned some new things and made some new connections and I got to come to Korea, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Today, I hired a car to take me to a “Folk Village” that showed how people lived here hundreds of years ago and then I went to  an herb farm. The goal for the day was to take pictures and oddly enough, the herb farm turned out to be a great photo spot.

I’m wrapping everything up here (packing, cleaning up pix, posting pics, loading up my iPod) so that I’m prepared for 18 hours or so of travel tomorrow. I fly from Jeju to Seoul (about an hour flight), then need to pick up my bags and take a train from one Seoul airport to another Seoul airport.

(Isn’t this Korean kitty cute?)

Then, I’ll check in all over again and kill some more time before the 12 hour flight back to Seattle. Not looking forward to it, but I pulled down the most recent (2 hour) episode of Heroes (yay iTunes) to watch on my computer, have a book and a couple of audiobooks to play with….hopefully that will entertain me sufficiently. Probably not. I’m not good at being still for extended periods of time. Maybe I should try to stay up all night so that I’m so exhausted I’ll sleep – but then there’s the risk that I’ll do something stupid when I need to transfer between the two airports and get lost or lose my money or something dopey like that. I do not function well without sleep. I basically become a walking moron.

And, it turns out that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not for me. I spent a lot of time in preparation for this trip ripping Buffy episodes and watched about three of them on the way over here, but it’s just not doing it for me. I tried, but I’m just a crappy geek. Don’t tell them where I work cause I think that it’s grounds for dismissal if I don’t dig the whole sci fi thing – I’ve managed to avoid discussions about Star Trek so far, but if they find out I’ve never seen that, I’m sure I’m SOL.

All of the pix I shot today are here. See you on the other side…of the world.

SarahP struts her stuff

Well, I’ll give her this…she can string English words together. They don’t actually make any sense though. She’s as dumb as a rock. Want some evidence?

Just in case you lost focus there, here’s the transcript (it doesn’t make any more sense in writing though):

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

Edited 9/27 to add: As my friend Bob says….”fully buzzword enabled”.

Become a Schlepper

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Your grandparents can make all the difference, so get on board “the great schlep”. She cracks me up.

Want more info about the great schlep? Click here.

Despicable

Hmmm….John McCain is putting his campaign on hold so that he can deal with the financial crisis (you know the one that he and his advisors have been poo-poo-ing until…you know…pretty much today). Nice try buddy. He wants to reschedule this week’s debate with Barry…to be held instead of the VP debate. Interesting timing since Barry’s been moving up in the polls lately – largely as a result of the financial crisis.

I’m thinking that the President of the US needs to be able to multitask. There’s a strong possibility that more than one area will need his attention – even when there’s a crisis.

Second of all, McCain has consistently voted and spoken out in favor of many of the root causes of this crisis – especially deregulation of banks. I’m not so sure I want him heavily involved in figuring out how to fix said crisis as a result.

Third of all – go Barry! He pointed out that in real life, you can’t just put something “on hold” when you’re the President. Nice to have a Dem running who’s not letting them push him around and then apologizing (yes, I’m talking to you Kerry).

Then there’s the lies. And the press is getting pissed off and finally starting to talk about them, like here.. And Andrew Sullivan has a running list of documented SarahP lies. Here’s his list of the first twelve. And of course, you can always go to the nonpartisan site Factcheck.org to see if what both campaigns are claiming is actually, you know…true.

And Sarah Palin is not allowed to take questions from the press, has had two “interviews” – not sure Sean Hannity qualifies as an interview, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt (sigh) and now the campaign wants to reschedule the VP debate for some time in the future – What? November 5? Let this woman out and let us see who she is and how she handles tough situations. She could be the VP of a 72 year old President who has serious health risks. Stop hiding her!

And best of all, listen to Campbell Brown talking about sexism and SarahP…the McCain campaign’s sexism towards her:

I’m fired up this morning.

Gay o’Rama

First Lindsay Lohan confirms that she’s been in a long-term relationship with Samantha Ronson and then Clay Aiken acknowledges that he’s gay?

Apparently Clay is coming out in the new issue of People magazine. I’m sure that a lot of people are shocked by this news because he really did a good job of appearing straight. Sigh.

Hmmm….things usually go in pairs of three (heh). Who’s next?

***Updated on Sept. 26 to add that “Anonymous” posted a comment that I’m the third gay person to publicly come out. Interesting company I’m keeping these days…

*** Also, it turns out it’s Lindsay not Lindsey. My most sincere apologies, L!

Working the red carpet

Jimmy Kimmel sent Guillermo to the red carpet at the Emmys this past weekend. He brought along tequila and did shots with the celebs as they entered – he ended up doing 21 shots. It’s really amusing – especially Cheryl Hines who comes back for more and Ricky Gervais who asks for crack.

Favorite email of the day

Instead of us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let's all make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name. And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate--Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular "Donate Online"

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:

McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202

or you could send it to the
Governor's Juneau Office

Alaska State Capitol Building
Third Floor
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau , AK 99811-0001

Phone (907) 465-3500
Fax (907) 465-3532

from:    http://gov.state.ak.us/govoffices/

Travel Gadgets

I have a bit of a gadget problem. I mean, I like new, shiny toys. I just had the thought that I have all of the necessary toys with me on this trip:

• Plug in speaker to listen to music in my hotel room (speakers on my laptop are crap)
• Portable wireless router so that I can have my own (private) wireless internet access in my hotel room and I’m not forced to be wired in my room if I don’t want to be
• Portable power supply/USB charger/surge supply (charges 2 USB devices, room for 3 items to plug in)
• Electrical adapter (see – I can plug the power supply into it & have 3 electrical outlets that accept US plugs! Suddenly, I’m looking kinda smart, aren’t I?)
• Travel video camera/microphone for Skype calls
• Wireless mouse
• Various chargers, extra network cable, lots of different USB cables (for my two!?! cameras, iPod, etc etc etc.)
• iPod Shuffle (I learned how I can listen to Podcasts & audiobooks on it). You can’t beat it for size and portability.
• Little water boiler gadget (turns out this is unnecessary because all my hotel rooms this trip have had a teapot to boil water in, which is lovely.)
• Lots ‘o extra batteries
• And so on…

I know it sounds a bit excessive (if you’re a civilian and all), but I’m telling you – this stuff makes me happy. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Where did the nice man go?

Humane Society Breaks Tradition

and endorses a Presidential candidate:

Don’t you just love this picture? The Humane Society sent a questionnaire to both campaigns – McCain didn’t bother to reply for some odd reason. If you care about animals, read on…

Here are some excerpts (bolding is by me!):

…(Obama) pledged support for nearly every animal protection bill currently pending in Congress, and said he will work with executive agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to make their policies more humane. He wrote of the important role animals play in our lives, as companions in our homes, as wildlife in their own environments, and as service animals working with law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. He also commented on the broader links between animal cruelty and violence in society.

…

On the Republican ticket, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has also supported some animal protection bills in Congress, but has been inattentive or opposed to others. He has voted for and co-sponsored legislation to stop horse slaughter, and voted to eliminate a $2 million subsidy for the luxury fur coat industry. But he has largely been absent on other issues, and has failed to co-sponsor a large number of priority bills or sign onto animal protection letters that have had broad support in the Senate.

…

While McCain's positions on animal protection have been lukewarm, his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-Alaska) retrograde policies on animal welfare and conservation have led to an all-out war on Alaska's wolves and other creatures. Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States.

Palin engineered a campaign of shooting predators from airplanes and helicopters, in order to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters. She offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf as an economic incentive for pilots and aerial gunners to kill more of the animals, even though Alaska voters had twice approved a ban on the practice. This year, the issue was up again for a vote of the people, and Palin led the fight against it -- in fact, she helped to spend $400,000 of public funds to defeat the initiative.

What's more, when the Bush Administration announced its decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Palin filed a lawsuit to reverse that decision. She said it's the "wrong move" to protect polar bears, even though their habitat is shrinking and ice floes are vanishing due to global warming.

She’s despicable. She only cares about life when it’s human…or has the potential to become human someday.

Who did he piss off?

Slacker Uprising

New movie from Michael Moore. This is from an email from him that arrived today:

This is it. The time has arrived! At midnight tonight, you can be one of the first people ever to legally download, for FREE, a brand new, feature-length film. It's my new movie, "Slacker Uprising," and I'm giving it to you as a gift of thanks for coming to my films over the 20 years I've been a filmmaker.

It's also one of my contributions to help get out the vote November 4th. That's why I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use "Slacker Uprising" in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It's completely free -- I don't want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it's to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words -- it's yours!

"Slacker Uprising" chronicles the 62-city tour I did leading up to the 2004 election. It is electrifying to see the tens of thousands of young people who were ready then for the uprising -- and who, this year, are actually making it happen. This is my concert film tribute to the young voters who are going to save this country from four more years of Republican rule.

There are a number of ways, beginning at midnight tonight, that you can download or stream "Slacker Uprising" thanks to our distributor, Brave New Films:

1) Blip.tv will provide standard resolution streaming, free of commercials and advertising.
2) Amazon Video on Demand will provide a high quality version of the above stream.
3) iTunes will make it easy for you to download "Slacker Uprising" on your iTunes, iPod, or Apple TV, and view it there or transmit it to your television. This way, the film can be portable as well as for home viewing.
4) Hypernia is providing bandwidth, servers and management to host "Slacker Uprising" online, so you can download the film and view it at any time or burn it onto a DVD.

I am fortunate to have all these great people bringing you my movie for free. There will be no ads and they have all agreed to supply their services free of charge. All of them wanted to be part of this historic moment when the first major feature-length movie is being released for free on the internet.

(For those of you who don't download, there will be a low-cost DVD available.)

This past Thursday we held the world premiere of "Slacker Uprising" in Ann Arbor (you can read about it here). The response was incredible and I want to encourage you to screen this movie with large groups. I believe it will inspire our get-out-the-vote efforts at a time when we need to get millions registered in the next two weeks.

Thanks again for all your support over the years. I hope you'll like my new film. It's all yours, anytime after midnight tonight. Enjoy!

Yours,

I’ll definitely be downloading this to watch on the flight home. I encourage you to download it even if you’re not going to watch it and help push the numbers up…and who knows, you might actually get around to watching it at some point!

Seoul-full thoughts

I left Seattle on Thursday afternoon (2pm) and arrived in Seoul on Friday afternoon (6pm). In real time, it was about 12 hours later. Flight was uneventful – I’m incredibly unimpressed with Korean Air. It was fine, but kinda bare bones. I wouldn’t rush to fly them again.

Most interesting thing about Customs & Immigration in Korea? It was way easier to get into this country than into Canada. What’s with those kooky Canadians? They always interrogate me when I’m visiting. I think they have an inferiority complex.

Took forever to get into Seoul from the airport – rush hour traffic, apparently. The cab driver spoke a little English (much more than my Korean, which is….none – I truly am an American). His brother lives in Oregon, btw. He asked if I wanted to listen to music and when I said yes, he said USB! and I looked and there was a thumb drive plugged into the car’s dash and apparently, it could just read the MP3s off of it. Why don’t we have that?

First song…Britney Spears. Really? That was followed by Jim Croche, Bruce Springsteen and so on…but my favorite was when “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” came on. Now that was surreal.

Spent yesterday (Saturday) wandering around an area named Insadong. It’s a big shopping area and I thought I might be able to get some good pix. Unfortunately, it was really rainy, so my photography options were somewhat limited. I did get some interesting shots though. Here are all of the pix I shot yesterday.

This lady was making royal cookies. She started with a blob of (hard) honey. She put a hole in the center of it and immersed it in corn starch and then pulled it out so that it was a circle. Then she stretched it and folded it in half again so that it was 2 circles (or 4 threads) and she kept dunking it in the corn starch and doubling it over until she had thousands of tiny little strands. She pulled a bunch of strands off and filled them with a mixture of ground up nuts & seeds and wrapped them up with the threads. It was pretty good – not really sweet, but very good. There are people making these all over and they all know enough English to count every time they double the number of threads. It was impressive at first, but then I found out they all knew how to count in English. Oh well. Still way better than my non-existent Korean.

This is the bestest frozen yogurt I’ve ever experienced. I know that in NYC & LA there’s Pinkberry and I hear that this chain (Red Mango) is in NYC as well. Korea has exported both of those to the US and they’re both doing really well. I tried Pinkberry when I was in LA and I wasn’t impressed. It was too tart for me. But Red Mango was different. It was super duper yummy. I got to pick 5 toppings, so I got strawberry sauce, mango, pineapple, peach and corn flakes(!?!). It was so good.

Oh and there were a couple of women and a little girl sitting next to me at Red Mango. The little girl had a bag with her that had cartoon characters on it and some words & phrases in English. My favorite was that it said “Let us become reconciled and friends again.”

And with that, I sign off.

Pray for us Sarah

On the streets of NYC...

Kewl song/video

It's a British band named Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. This is my first exposure to them, but I like. Downloading the MP3 from Amazon.com right this very moment...and checking out more of their stuff.

Multiple Choice

Always tardy girl (heretofore known as ATG) has been MIA for a week now. She told me that she goes underground where she's stressed out and it's happened before (several times) since we started hanging out in June-ish. It totally freaks me out every time. I know it's what she does - she mentioned that she does it to her mom, so it's not an Amy thing, but every time I freak out and think it's me. And then I get worried about her, which doesn't feel all that much better than thinking it's all about me.

I've finally calmed down a bit but it still bugs me. It's not fair for me to have expectations of her - we have no commitment. So, it's up to me to either find a way to live with this or walk away because it upsets me. I hate those options, btw.

And then pretty drunk girl (PDG) suddenly reappeared yesterday with several texts. I hadn't heard from her since our little encounter(s) on vacation, but I had left the door open...Not sure what precipitated her reappearance, but it did cheer me up. No expectations there either, but it sure makes me happy to see her face pop up on my mobile.

And I have deleted beautiful stripper chick (BSC)'s phone number from my mobile cause that was just not ever going to happen again. But it was lovely.

So, here's the multiple choice question for my readers today:

What do all three of these women have in common?

A) They're all really pretty.

B) They're all really unavailable.

C) All of the above.

Yeah, that's a tough one. Even the Caribou Barbie could work through those options.

I'm open for suggestions. As long as they're not incredibly obvious cause I think I've covered that territory on my own.

Relax a little

All my trusty Liberal friends and family have been in a tizzy since the SarahP announcement - they think that the McCain/Palin ticket has a lot of momentum now and that folks really dig SarahP.

Well, apparently Barry raised more than $66 million in August - a monthly record, according to Bloomberg.com.

I like that the article mentions that there were 500,000 new donors in August. That means that it's not just the same old folks kicking in, which makes me even more happy.

And I read recently that all kinds of new people are signing up to vote - and as Democrats.

Don't buy the hype. It's in the media's best interest to make it appear as if this is a close race. Of course, I don't think this means we should sit back on our laurels. We need to be out there educating people about the lies the McCain campaign is spreading - lately, it seems as if everything they say is just an out and out lie (and the nonpartisan website factcheck.org seems to agree - and document, like here and here and here and more!).

I still believe that we're going to see a blowout in November. But we need to publicize the truth and keep the focus on the top of the ticket. Even though, focusing on the Caribou Barbie is way more entertaining...winning is more important.

David Foster Wallace

Dead.

"Palin" & "Hills" on SNL

A well written, really well performed sketch on SNL tonight:



I've got a big ole smile on my face right about now. Thanks SNL for pulling out the funny.

No commentary necessary

Advice

Just got some great advice via text from my dear friend Orin:

Be practical - if you're going to find hot, entirely inappropriate women, get them locally. Fewer trips to the airport in traffic.

See why I heart him?

Facebook Speaks

Look at the numbers of folks who have joined each of these groups. Kinda makes clear who the younger folks of this country support, eh?

Nuff said. (Wanna guess which one I joined?)

Updated to add these additional Facebook groups:

Tweet that made me chuckle this morning

Not on Twitter yet? Jump on board! Then just start sending texts from your fone. Fun fun fun. You can find me there.

When you don't like the story

change it. Like changing the definition of "torture".

From yesterday's White House press briefing:

Q But Osama binLaden is the one that — you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama binLaden was the mastermind of 9/11 –

PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he’s sitting in jail right now.

The Bush administration: winning the war on words.

Added a couple of blogs to my blog list

Added Andrew Sullivan, Huffington Post and Crooks and Liars. If you're not a commie Liberal, you should avoid these blogs at all costs.

If you're like me, you'll love them and find them helpful, enlightening and frustrating.

Barry attacks Sarah?

Okay, you find the part in here where he talks about her. Cause the McCain campaign Drudge Report (and Fox News) is freaking out that he was sexist in this comment.

The full context of Barack Obama's quote is as follows:

“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics. That’s just calling the same thing something different.”

With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”

Apparently, any sentence that includes the word "lipstick" is sexist and about SarahP. This is how we pick a President?

Updated to add a clip of McCain using the same phrase in reference to Hills:

McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s plan, he said it was “eerily reminiscent” of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the 1990s.

“I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” he said of her proposal.

It's funny when McCain says it. Don't you see the difference?

Hooray HBO

Last night was the season premiere of Entourage and the series premiere of True Blood on HBO. I have been so craving some good television. Mostly I have been reading and wandering the web aimlessly, so it's nice to have an alternative option...

The last season of Entourage was a little off, but this season started with a bang. It's been six months since we last saw the boys and Medellin is a HUGE flop and it looks like this season is going to be about Vince trying to climb back on top of the pile 'o beautiful Hollywood boys. First he has to get the pile of beautiful Mexican girls off of him, which seemed to be a little difficult for some reason. Hmmmmm....

And to boot, his brother is on a hit show. Who woulda thought that Drama was going to be a regular working actor again? He cracks me up - especially talking chirping with his girl on the net.

Entourage is a great escape and strikes me a pretty realistic for a (very small) group of people living in LA. It's fun in a voyeuristic way to see how these people define themselves, make choices and live the Hollywood "dream".

It was a nice setup for the season and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what the boys get into. I'll be tuning in for sure.

And then there was the premiere of True Blood, which is brought to us by the amazing Alan Ball, who brought us Six Feet Under and American Beauty. This is a man who knows how to turn a critical eye onto America and how make it entertaining. And he's doing it with good looking people and vampires in the South. Yeah, that works for me.

The series stars Anna Paquin (the kid from The Piano - one of my alltime favorite flix -- but she's all grown up now - see the picture above - she's the chick. Heh.)  playing Sookie - a waitress in a small town who can read people's minds.

There's a whole bunch of other characters we met last night - Sookie's brother (Jason), who's a total hounddog, who gets all worked up watching this chained up chick get screwed and worked over by a vampire - apparently, the vamps like it pretty rough. He may have killed her during a little innocent choking  while screwing while she was chained up while they were watching the video of the vampire naughty stuff to her (are you still with me here?). And then there's Sookie's boss (Sam), who's in love with her and Sookie's smartass best friend (Tara - a woman of color who goes off about her mother who named her after a famous plantation and all) who's all in love with Sookie's brother Jason and so on and so on and so on. You know, the first show is all about introducing the characters and setting the stage and there was a lot going on last night.

And then there's the vampire. Well, there were a couple, but only one that matters. The really good looking one (Bill!?! - the dark & brooding guy in the picture above) that Sookie ends up helping out when some bad people try to steal his blood (oh, did I mention that vampires are "out" in this world? They survive by drinking something called "Tru Blood" made by the Japanese, so they don't have to drink real blood any more. And there's a black market for vampire blood, which gives you a huge rush and apparently, great sex). And you know, there's the American Vampire League who's out there making sure that vampires aren't defamed in the media...

So, it's all about gay people ya know...hey, it's not just me - Alan Ball said so and it's his damn series. Okay, maybe it's not all about the gays, but it's a sneaky way for him to work in how gay people are perceived and discriminated against in the US. But who cares about that seriousness - this show is dark and interesting and different and has a lot of pretty people, which is always nice in my book. You should totally check it out.

If you missed either of these shows, I'm sure HBO will be rerunning them 90-100 times in the next week or so. And it looks like you can watch True Blood online here if you don't have HBO, so you have no reason to miss out.

Women Say No To Palin

My friend Eileen sent me this email that appears to be legit:

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here <mailto:womensaynopalin@gmail.com> with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation. 

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called "Women Against Sarah Palin," which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest convenience the greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!
Sincerely,
Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com <mailto:womensaynopalin@gmail.com>

 

Here's what I wrote in the email I sent them (titled "Why Sarah Palin does not have my support"):

1. Pro life under all circumstances

2. Financially irresponsible with her state and city budgets

3. Teaching abstinence in school

4. Anti-gay

5. Pro-drilling in Anwar

6. Doesn’t believe that people contribute to climate change

7. Anti-environment

8. Against stem cell research

Too much Jesus in government.

And the busy-ness continues

My calendar of meetings for this week (names have been removed to protect the innocent).

I'll squeeze some actual work in there somewhere...I'm free every day after 4pm, after all.

The good news is that the "day of caring" on Friday is when the large corporate enterprise I work for sends us out into the community to volunteer and do something good. That will be nice.

Blogs?

Sometimes folks ask me what blogs I read and sometimes folks complain about trying to keep up with blogs.

I have added a link to my blog with a list of some of the blogs I read regularly. They span from entertainment, to technology, to smut, to lefty politics, so be warned. I listed blogs that tend to be updated regularly - some of the blogs I read are only updated every now and then or are really just about their family and kids 'n stuff and not so interesting to the general public that may find their way to my blog, so they're not on this list either.

And how do I keep up with all these blogs? I use Google Reader, which allows me to subscribe to all the blogs I like to read and then it keeps an eye on them and displays any new blog postings from any of my subscriptions onto a single web page.

That way, I just go to Google Reader a few times during the day and I see anything new posted to any of the blogs I like. There's no way I could keep up with all these blogs otherwise. I strongly recommend it. I also like it because I can use Google Reader from any PC. If you already have a gmail account, you can use the same logon for Google Reader.

So there you go. Amy's recommendations for interesting blog reading and how to keep up with it all. Enjoy.

Wonkette rocks

I know...I've been posting a ridiculous number of items about politics, but the darned Republicans just keep making it oh so easy. Check out a few choice tidbits from this GREAT Wonkette bit:

America laughed again last night as a terrible “green screen” once again appeared behind John McCain, during his big speech at the RNC. Well, the “green” was actually the lawn of a school in North Hollywood, California. And the school is called “Walter Reed Middle School.” And the random idiot assigned the task of picking John McCain’s video background during the biggest speech of his career was apparently told to put a picture of Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the screen, and ineptly googled this utterly random California school picture, instead. And nobody knows what Walter Reed Hospital looks like, anyways, so everybody just assumed it was another one of his mansions. The school is about to release “a statement” damning McCain for inappropriately using the picture of this innocent school.

New blog for your reading pleasure

My friend Jessica has started a new blog with a bang. Yes, it's a letter to the Caribou Barbie herself...

A bit to whet your appetite:

...

I’m not generally of the paranoid type, Mrs. Palin, but, I have to say, listening to you really gave me the creeps. As in, hair on the back of the neck and everything. You terrify me the way Hitler must have terrified decent, moderate Germans, the way Freddy Kreuger terrified Nancy, the way the storm drain at the bottom of my street terrifies my dog. I’d call it irrational, blind fear, as it is in the latter case, but where you are concerned I fear it is all too rational. You, my friend, have frightened me in a way that your running mate never could, and in a fashion that no one else in your party of mean-spirited, fear-mongering, shit-talking cohorts has.

Sorry about that last sentence. I try hard not to be vitriolic. But sometimes it’s so hard. Vitriol is so much easier than informed discourse, isn’t it? And so much more entertaining! And frankly, after listening to you incite a rabid, redneck, slack-jawed crowd to spectacular levels of, well, rabidness, red-neckedness, and slack-jawedness, after hearing your castrating, withering remarks about my candidate and your insouciant, utterly ill-informed and unscientific attitudes towards issues I hold dear and true, I can only conclude that, for better or for worse, vitriol is the only coin left in this realm with any spending power.

....

She has a way with words, doesn't she? Makes me proud...

(Updated on 9/7 with new URL.)

Fair and Balanced

Apparently, that means changing your tune when necessary to support the Republican party...

What my schedule looks like lately

Modified to remove all identifying information, but you get the idea...

(sometimes I bribe people to meet with me by buying them coffee. See my 3:30 meeting...)

Basically, I am in meetings all day and will finally have time to start "working" at 4pm tomorrow. I thought it was just this week - trying to squeeze 5 days worth of meetings into 4 days, but next week looks very similar.

Ah....corporate life. I never knew what I was missing. And why do I enjoy it so? Odd.

Yahoo

If you're a Yahoo chat person, I am now set up to chat via Yahoo. I am amygeek AT yahoo.com.

c ya.

Snoqualmie Falls

My friend Akasha was visiting this weekend and mentioned that she'd never seen a waterfall before...so I took her to Snoqualmie Falls. It's really pretty there and here's a picture I took.

MSNBC: Why Palin Shouldn't be VP

Updated at 5:35pm because I had lots of incorrect info in this post. Thanks Richard for keeping me on my toes!

Pat Robertson Buchanan talking with two Fox News MSNBC anchors about why SarahP should not be the VP candidate for the McCain ticket. 

Oh, I should probably mention that this was recorded before she was announced as the VP candidate. I'm thinking they're spewing a different line of attack now.

Barry should just release this as his next ad.

Richard adds:

And Buchanan has totally changed his tune since that particular broadcast. After seeing what he believes to be the strength of the conservative reaction to the Palin selecdtion, he has been converted into a big fan.

my cute dog

I totally agree

SarahP is going to end up stepping down as the VP nominee & we'll end up with another rich white conservative guy. There's no way she's going the distance. I'm willing to bet on it.

                                            

From the Huffington Post:

When she pulls out, Ms. Palin will say that she was wrong to accept John McCain's offer. She will tell Alaskans and the rest of America that her 17 year old daughter, Bristol, five months pregnant, needs her mother right now.

...

It is becoming increasingly clear that Sarah Palin is a victim of the failure of the McCain campaign to properly vet her as a candidate.

...

They would have realized that the troopergate story is real and will prove damaging. When the drip-drip-dripping finally stops, Madame Governor will have to own up to the emails and admit that, not only did she improperly interfere in the investigation of an ex-brother-in law, but she failed to come clean about it more than once.

Any investigators worth their salt would have concluded that Palin actually supported Alaska's bridge to nowhere, before she opposed it. That damages her image as McCain's reformer/soulmate, which is critical to her appeal.

And they would have heard that sound file of the incident with the talk radio hosts, in which Palin laughs when a political opponent of hers, a recovering cancer patient, was called a bitch and a cancer. That tarnishes the gloss even further.

...

Add it up, because that's what they're doing at the McCain headquarters right now: Palin's lack of qualifications + McCain's age and history of skin cancer + troopergate + the bridge + the radio incident + the unmarried, pregnant teenage daughter.

And you know there's more coming, because the real vetting has just begun.

...

What's the likelihood that Romney's sitting at home giggling to his little Mormon self (and his 92 little Mormon kids)?

store window in seattle today

makes me happy

Jon Stewart's take on Sarah Palin

With the added bonus of Samantha Bee, who always cracks me up.

Family Values

The seriously conservative, right wing, evangelical VP nominee Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is five months pregnant. But it's okay - they're gonna get married. And I'm sure that will work out fine.

It's always the folks who judge everyone else who are the most messed up. At least in Republican politics, it sure seems that way.

Sarah Palin stated that she didn't believe in abortion under any circumstances - even if her (then 14) year old daughter had been raped. This is farther right than even the Republican platform (and most Americans, who want abortion to be legal in some circumstances). But if you're having pre-marital sex (which Sarah Palin opposes - she wants abstinence taught in schools - along with "Intelligent Design"), then you are going to get married and have that kid and that's what God intended, I guess.

And let's just mull over the idea of teaching abstinence in schools - if this message didn't get across to SarahP's daughter (who was obviously brought up in a loving home by parents who taught her all about abstinence - one would think, an ideal evangelical situation), what makes SarahP think that it can be successful with other kids in preventing pre-marital sex? One can only hope that at least one of her other kids is gay. A flaming queen would really work for me. Okay, one doesn't have to hope that, but I kinda do.

From today's NY Times:

In a statement, Mrs. Palin said: “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows that she has our unconditional love and support.”

...

Groups that oppose abortion rights had been thrilled with Mr. McCain’s selection of Mrs. Palin, the governor of Alaska, as his running mate, partly because of her opposition to abortion. It is not clear how social conservatives will respond to the latest news.

The campaign intends to cast this as the kind of situation that ordinary American families face.

And Dan Savage has a great comment about all of this:

Sorry, but if the federal government is going to pour hundreds of millions—billions—into abstinence “education” programs, we have a right to ask if these programs are effective. You know: Is our children abstaining? Sarah Palin’s aren’t, and I strongly suspect that Jenna Bush wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night either.