Political Art

All the presidents' heads

Victory!

"WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break." From The Onion

All kidding aside, I'm so happy that Obama won. I couldn't stand another term with a Republican president. I wish President-elect Obama and his family the very best. He has his work cut out for him.

Happy Election Day!

Spreading the Word

Shan posted a link to an op-ed piece from Huffington about Palin, and I wanted to share it with the three people who read my blog who don't also read hers. Here's the piece. Shan posted some of her favorite parts, but mine is this:

Now, I want to be clear and speak directly to those of you who LOVED that Palin interview. You're an idiot. I mean that. This is not one of those cases where we're going to agree to disagree. This isn't one of those situations where we debate it passionately and then walk away thinking that the other guy is wrong but argued well. I'm not going to think of you as a thoughtful but misguided person with different ideas who still really cares about the country and the world. No, sorry, not this time. This time, if you watched that interview and weren't scared out of your freakin' mind, then you're mentally ill, mentally disabled, or mentally disturbed. What you are NOT is responsible, informed, curious, thoughtful, mature, educated, empathetic, or remotely serious. I mean it.

Happy Banned Books Week!

Happy Banned Books Week! Check out some of these links for more information:

ALA Banned Books Week
ALA Challenged and Banned Books
100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990-2000
Most Challenged Books of 2006
Librarians Against Palin
Office for Intellectual Freedom
Amnesty International Banned Books Week

And, just to show how unbiased I am, you can read this tripe by some homophobic right-wing nutcase: Banned Books Week: Smokescreen of Hypocrisy

Funny or Sad?

I normally hate e-mail forwards, but I got this from a coworker.

• If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic and different."'
• Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

• If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
• Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

• If you graduate from Harvard Law School you are unstable.
• Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're grounded.

• If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works, and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
• If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council, 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second-highest ranking executive.

• If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
• If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress and left your disfigured wife to marry the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

• If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
• If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

• If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
• If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Politics

First, I'd like to take a moment to remember the thousands of people who died in the terrorist attacks 7 years ago (I can't believe it has been 7 years already).

Today marks the beginning of the Pennsylvania smoking ban. Granted, there are plenty of exemptions (casinos, bars that make less than 20% profits in food sales, etc.), but it still scares the shit out of me that the government is telling private business owners that they can't allow a legal activity to take place on the premises. You know what they say: absolute power corrupts absolutely. *Update* I just got an e-mail from the PA State System of Higher Education that smoking is no longer permitted on any campuses. Between undergrad and grad school, I've put tens of thousands of dollars toward PASSHE and now I can't smoke outside?? I guess most people are so wrapped up in being happy about not having to smell smoke that they aren't concerned by the government's erosion of our rights.

And while I'm writing about politics, I just read that Palin's church is hosting a conference to "pray away the gay."

You Don't Want to Piss off the Librarians

Not that this comes as a surprise, but Sarah Palin is, in addition to being a member of the NRA and a fund-cutter to sex ed. programs, a book banner.

"[Former Wasilla mayor] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. 'She asked the library how she could go about banning books,' he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. 'The librarian was aghast.' That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving 'full support' to the mayor."

Booo!! As a card-carrying member of the American Library Association (seriously), I would like to direct Mrs. Palin's attention to the ALA's Library Bill of Rights:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

Republicans, do you really want someone in office who would fire a person for disagreeing with her beliefs?

Please support challenged and banned books. Civil liberties are one of the founding principles of this country.

Source

Grass and Weed

Today is a day of great rejoicing!! My landlord, who had not mowed (mown?) our lawn for 5 weeks, finally mowed today!!!!!! The grass was up to my knees and the weeds were past my hip. Plus, I found a tick on my head while I was on the phone with Rusty last Saturday. Nasty!!

I'm leaving you with a joke I heard on the radio:

A man met a little girl and asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She replied that she wanted to be the first female president. He asked her what party she was going to belong to and she replied that she was going to belong to the Democratic party. The man asked her why she wanted to be a Democratic president and she replied that she wanted to help the homeless. The man told her that she didn't have to be the president to help the homeless; in fact, he was going to pay her $5 to clean up dog poo in his yard. He told her she could then go give the $5 to the homeless people to put toward a house. The little girl thought about this proposition for a little while and then asked, "Why don't you just have the homeless people pick up the poo and give them the money directly?" The man replied, "Welcome to the Republican party, my dear."

I Hate Being Force-Fed

I'm really pissed off by the fact that the media is force-feeding us Obama and Clinton and ignoring everyone else. I hate that the purpose of the media is to entertain, not to inform. I recently received an e-mail from Rusty asking me who Mike Gravel is. When I sent her a link to his campaign website she responded with "I watch the news! How the hell have I never even heard of this guy?!" This is truly not a bust on her because most people probably don't know either, and I didn't know until a few weeks ago. Plus, Rusty is a Republican and I can only name four of the Republican candidates off the top of my head. But it's a really sad comment on the state of the 2008 primary election. Have you watched any of the Democratic party debates? Which two candidates are standing in the middle? Which two candidates get at least twice as much time to talk? Here's a link to the YouTube debates; see for yourself.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about the candidates who don't receive as much press. Mike Gravel doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell, but he is my personal favorite and is going to get my vote. I'm hoping to get the word out that there are choices besides Obama and Clinton. I'm actually probably more of a Libertarian than a Democrat, but I'm registered with the Democratic Party so those are the candidates I researched. Please keep in mind that I'm giving my opinions and this is in no way an unbiased discussion and the pros and cons of each candidate.

Joe Biden is a US senator from Delaware.

The good: He's against No Child Left Behind, wants to increase minimum wage, and is against the Defense of Marriage Act. He does have some good plans and ideas, but I think most of them require too much government involvement and are way too idealistic. I also have no idea where he thinks he's going to get the money for all this.

The bad: He has flip-flopped on the war; first supporting it, then saying we should go to war only after trying to end the conflict by diplomatic means, then supporting the war again, then saying he only supports it if Bush is honest with America, then calling for troop withdraw. He does not support legalizing marijuana and he thinks smoking in movies should affect the MPAA rating. He also supports affirmative action in college admissions.

Notable quote: "I've had a great relationship [with Indian-Americans]. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian Americans — moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Joe Biden on Where I Stand.com.

Christopher Dodd is a senator from Connecticut and the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

The good: Dodd is against the war (although he voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002) and he was not in agreement with the recent troop surge. He has some good ideas about health care and the environment, thinks the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional and is in agreement with stem cell research.

The bad: He supports free trade, which sends our jobs to other countries, he wants to relax immigration laws, and he is proposing mandatory community service. He also has received some questionable campaign contributions and frequently supports the ACLU.

Christopher Dodd on Where I Stand.com.

You've all heard of John Edwards. That's probably because he is third in campaign fundraising behind Obama and Clinton.

The good: He supports stem cell research and universal healthcare. He is against making it unconstitutional to burn the flag.

The bad: He's religious, which is fine with me, but I think it will interfere with his decision making; for example, he thinks prayer should be admitted to public schools. He also thinks religion should play a part in policy-making. He promotes mandatory community service, which I'm against because I don't think it's oxymoronic for the government to force us to volunteer.

John Edwards at Where I Stand.com

Mike Gravel is a former senator from Alaska. He is essentially broke and is probably running with less money than anyone else. In the two-hour CNN debate on June 2, Gravel was allowed to speak for 5 minutes and 37 seconds. He doesn't bullshit or beat around the bush and during the YouTube debates asked of the airtime given to most of the candidates, "Has this been fair so far?" to much applause.

The good: He helped to end the draft in Vietnam. He believes Bush should be impeached, believes the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional, is against No Child Left Behind, supports gay marriage, supports universal healthcare, and thinks we should treat drug addiction as a mental health problem, not a crime.

The bad: He came under fire for saying that everyone who died in Vietnam died in vain, but I don't necessarily see that as a negative. He won't win.

Notable quote: "The war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis."

Mike Gravel at Where I Stand.com.

Dennis Kucinich is a representative from Ohio.

The good: He supports the legalization of marijuana. He's against No Child Left Behind. He supports same sex marriage, stem cell research, and raising the minimum wage.

The bad: He flip flopped on abortion. A few years ago he described himself as pro-life, but then changed his mind. He's trying to ban the sale of handguns to civilians. He thinks religion should play a role in policy-making.

Dennis Kucinich on Where I Stand.com.

Bill Richardson is the governor of New Mexico.

The good: He has gone overseas several times to negotiate the release of American prisoners. He supports the legalization of marijuana and stem cell research. He's against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The bad: He advocates affirmative action and the Defense of Marriage Act, thinks the HPV vaccine should be mandatory, and opposes term limits.

Bill Richardson at Where I Stand.com.