NFL

Final: Green Bay 28, Washington 14

Good.

NFL

Go Pack.

100 Facts

100 Facts and 1 Opinion on why you shouldn't vote for Bush.

Via Trash Heap.

It's ... Football

Johnny B's Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications!. Again, he goes with the Seahawks, despite their less than stellar record recently.

Well, we'll see.

Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote

What if you show up to vote next Tuesday and election workers say you are not registered?

1. Make sure you are the correct voting precinct. You can check at My Polling Place or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE for assistance.

2. If you are at the correct polling place and officials claim you are not registered, request a provisional ballot. It's your right under the law.

Please pass this on to as many people as you can. Lifted straight from Political Wire.

Political "Cartoon" Thought

This is an awesome-looking political cartoon, I wonder if we'll ever get any as cool about President Kerry?

Dude. Mosh.

"Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47
Let him go
Fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way.

No more blood for oil!
We got our own battles to fight on our soil.
No more psychological warfare
to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country
we're patronizing a hero

Look in his eyes
It's all lies.
The stars and stripes
They've been swiped
Washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face!

Mosh now or die.
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight..."

-from "Mosh" by Eminem

Watch the video. Links in this thread.

So, Eric...

What is your favorite song of the 1990s? And the 1980s? And do you have one from the 1970s, too?

Well, we voted today

There is a definite advantage to having absentee ballots sent to your house a couple of weeks before the election. Especially an election like this one, where it is oh, so clear who we need to vote for. So Laura and I voted this morning, and now it's over and done with, and we can go on with the rest of our lives. Like watching the Red Sox win the World Series (nothing against the Cardinals, I like them, too, but if the Sox win, then we won't have to hear about any curse any longer -- until the Cubs make it...).

Oh, wait, there are lots of political ads being shown during the World Series, and any other show we want to watch... (Jeopardy! is becoming almost unwatchable for all the political ads running during it.)

Of course, those ads won't have any affect on us. We voted already!

Done

Both of us voted and put our ballots in the mail. Now if only I could make all the stupid political ads just go away... Eight days...

A Letter To His Family

A fellow wrote a letter to his family to explain why he thinks they should vote for John Kerry. It's got a lot of evidence in it, most of which I'd seen. What impresses me about it is the eloquence with which he makes his case.

I wish I could send it to my family.

Via Life, It Is A Travesty.

No Plans Lead To ...

So Bush went into Iraq expecting flowers to be thrown at the feet of American soldiers. As a result of this stupid belief, the Bush Administration didn't plan for securing key locations in Iraq... including the few places where explosives were known to be stored thanks to the successful UN inspections. Thanks to this utter lack of foresight, this sheer insane confidence, 350 tons of the powerful explosives THAT WE ALREADY KNEW EXISTED were stolen under the noses of the American occupation.

You wonder where the Iraqi insurgents are getting their materials for bombing? Wonder no more.

Bush's inability to allow proper planning has resulted in an unthinkable disaster, and then the Bush Administration, who knew about the thefts, hid all information about it in a vain attempt to prevent the American public from learning about it.

How can anyone support Bush? How can anyone with even a tiny shred of decency cast a vote for Bush and his corrupt and murderous administration? The answer is: you can't. Only people who are morally bankrupt or completely ignorant will be voting for Bush.

More On Mutiny

I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, I'm not going.

What does Bush think our troops are? A bunch of plastic pawns to push around a table at need? These are human beings! Sending them on a mission when: "their trucks lacked essential armor, vehicles were broken down, there was no plan for adequate combat support and, finally, the fuel shipment was contaminated (and thus unusable)" seems like something only a military berift of brains would do. Where's the common sense? If the stuff they were supposed to delivery wouldn't even work, why send the men on a suicide mission?

American Conservatives...

Endorse Kerry. Why? Because, like many other true Republicans, they recognize that conservatives are responsible for the current mess that is the US, and that they must get rid of the man and administration that screwed it up. That means voting out Bush and regrouping with real conservatives in four years.

And if they do, and there is a suitable Republican candidate in 2008, I will consider voting Republican again. But as long as Bush remains in power, no Republican will ever get my vote.

The Election Made Simple

Via Pandagon...

The Election Made Simple.

A Response to the Puppies Ad

Poor Kittens.

Heh. Wolves

A response to the latest smear ad by the Bush campaign. Amusingly enough, most people who have seen the "wolves" ad claim it's really funny and completely ineffective at expressing a threat.

Since Bush has been completely ineffective for his entire administration, this doesn't come as much of a surprise.

More Johnny B

That's right, it's time for Johnny B's Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications!

This week he gives the nod to the Seahawks... let's see if our rebuilding team has what it takes to beat Arizona.

It's Just Too Striking...

I can't resist posting the image itself, instead of just a link to it. It pretty much sums up my feelings for Bush and his administration...

It's also an Alex Ross piece, which ties it into my comic book fandom. Sadly, I don't dare post it on Bloggity thanks to rethuglicans. The title piece in The Village Voice, the source of this cover, has an interesting quote about politics:

Ever since the days of Joe McCarthy, the claim that a made-up charge by one side is no longer an outrage if the wronged party gets a chance to refute it has been an easy refuge for journalistic scoundrels. When Republicans accused someone of being a Communist, newspapers reported it, true or not; then they reported the victim's outraged denials, the day's work done—no matter that the person's life might now be ruined by the merely invented accusation. With a setup like that, the side willing to say anything to win will win every time.

Rethuglicans will say anything to win. They are the enemy. Terrorists may threaten our lives, but the Bush Administration threatens our very way of life.

More Florida Vote Fraud

People posing as election officials are stealing absentee ballots, mostly from low-income and elderly folks. Lovely. Are there any lengths to which Rethuglicans won't go?

Is Bush The AntiChrist?

An amusing look at the evidence.

Wal-Mart = Scumbags

As if we needed more evidence. Don't shop at Wal-mart unless you hate America.

Very Scary Article

Boing Boing points to a terrifying article that ties in with the last post... Bush fans are delusional, and so is Bush and his entire administration. I fear that when Kerry wins by a landslide, which he will, Bush will refuse to give up power. We're headed for a dictatorship if Rove has any say in the election.

Thieves and Delusional

Bush supporters are stealing music to use in their propaganda films.

As if that weren't bad enough, they are also delusional:

The Sept. 11 Commission found that there were no substantial ties between Hussein and al-Qaeda, and Charles Duelfer's report states that Iraq had no significant WMD program. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of supporters of the President take comfort in pretending that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and pretending that there were significant ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

In addition, the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes' survey also found that a majoroty of supporters of President Bush mistakenly believe that the President supports the Kyoto global-warming treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court, and the treaty banning land mines, when he in fact opposes them. A majority of Bush supporters also think that most of the people on the world hope the President is re-elected. This is not the case.

They lie to us, they lie to themselves... if you vote for Bush, you are an idiot.

Republicans, TRUE Republicans, Hate Bush

That's pretty obvious:

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.

It's Terribly Satisfying

...to slap Bush. And hey, there's something there for Bush loving idiots, too!

Bad News Bothell

A colorful description of poor cops. I have to wonder about this one even more than usual. I mean, this story makes me wonder how the police expect anyone to report a drunk driver?!??

Curses, a Comics Related Post

Can't post this one on my other blog... way too hot politically. Take a look at the latest Alex Ross cover for Village Voice. Wowsa. I might not have put it quite like that, but it's a very good visual metaphor for the situation we're in.

Many thanks to Trash Heap, where I spotted this first.

Heh. Funny.

Yankees At The Bat.

No updates today

Hubby-Eric here. I just wanted to let you all know that Laura's not feeling well today, so she probably won't be posting any time soon. She's sleeping very soundly right now. It was so bad, I had to go out to work to get her. Probably nothing too serious, however.

I Still Don't Get It

Why is the Right fussing over Kerry's respectful comment about Mary Cheney? It makes no sense whatsoever:

From all the outcry over Mr. Kerry's invocation of Ms. Cheney, with the attendant rhetoric about the evil of exploiting a candidate's "child" in a campaign, you might never guess that the child in question is not Chelsea Clinton at age 12 but a 35-year-old woman (two years older than Andrea Mackris). Or that she lives openly with her partner, Heather Poe, whom she brought onstage after the vice presidential debate. Or that she is the paid director of vice presidential operations for the Bush campaign, and that her mother is the author of a notorious potboiler ("Sisters," 1981) that drools over the prospect of lesbian coupling with O'Reilly-like glee. (For choice excerpts from Mrs. Cheney's fiction, go to whitehouse.org/administration/sisters.asp ).

Emphasis mine. She's part of the campaign, has been openly gay for many, many years, and the comment Kerry made was completely respectful. Not only that, but Dick Cheney HIMSELF mentioned her orientation, and many other Rethuglicans have not only mentioned it, but condemned it. Let's not even get into what Keyes said about her. I'm surprised Dick Cheney hasn't challenged him to a duel over it, considering the reaction to John Kerry's respectful and totally on-topic remarks.

Via Mark Evanier.

WAHOO!!!!

Boston just pulled off the impossible!!!! Oh yeah!!!!!

Bush Silences Oregon Protestors with Force

Bloggg has the story, but I'm going to quote some of it here:

The main street was lined with people gathered to witness the event. Many supported the president. Many did not. Some came because they were simply curious. There were men, women, young and old. The mood was somewhat festive. Supporters of John Kerry sported signs, as did supporters of George Bush. Individuals, exercising their rights of free speech began chanting. On one side of the street, shouts of “four more years” echoed in the night air. On the other side of the street, chants of “three more weeks” responded. The chants were loud and apparently could be heard by President Bush. An order was issued that the anti-Bush rhetoric be quieted. The local SWAT team leapt to action.

It happened fast. Clad in full riot gear, at least 50 officers moved in. Shouting indecipherable commands from a bullhorn, they formed a chain and bore down upon the people, only working to clear the side of the street appearing to be occupied by Kerry supporters. People tried to get out of their way. It was very crowded. There was nowhere to move. People were being crushed. They started flowing into the streets. Pleas to the officers, asking, “where to go” fell upon deaf ears. Instead, riot police fired pellets of cayenne pepper spray into the crowd. An old man fell and couldn’t get up. When a young man stopped to help, he was shot in the back with hard pepper spray balls. Children were hit with pepper spray. Deemed “Protesters” people were shoved and herded down the street by the menacing line of armed riot police, until out of the President’s ear-shot.

The president abused his authority to silence a crowd of people, some of whom supported him, because he didn't want to hear it. What a scumbag. Why hasn't this one made the national news???

See also KATU 2 in Portland. Via BOPnews.

Bush Gets Major Endorsement

Iran. Yup. Iranian dictators who hate America endorse Bush. No surprise there.

More Politics

I linked to Blue Oregon below, and they seem a pretty cool site to visit regularly. Going to have to add them to my feed... but even better, they directed me to Evergreen Politics... hey, that's my state! Cool!

Always nice to find more local sources for opinions on politics now that I'm getting interested in them.

Riot Gear Explained

Oh. So that money-grubbing idiot Alex Rodriguez made a blatantly illegal move and was called on it, so the umpires called in the riot police after the crowd made it clear that they weren't happy. Well, hey. That's what you get for hiring a guy so stupid as to say, "it's not about the money" when leaving a good team for a crappy team. No, I'm not bitter. Why would you think that?

Red Sox Make History

They've done something no team has ever done in the history of MLB playoffs... down three to nothing and facing elimination, they came back to force a game seven. Now, can they win that last game and go to the World Series? I sure hope so!

Baseball????

So I turned over to the baseball game, ya know, the one with the Evil Empire against the Red Sox... and there are police in riot gear pouring out of the dugouts to line the area in front of the stands. I can't tell what the score is.

What the heck is going on? What inning is it? Why did the police come out in force? This is one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

Ah, finally. It's the top of the ninth, Sox are up 4-2... I think I may understand the caution. Maybe. It's still very odd.

Oregon Troops

Oregon Troops Say...

And don't miss this one, too.

Via BOPnews.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

I finally sat down and watched the video of Jon Stewart on Crossfire on CNN the other day. I'd heard a lot about his appearance, and so I grabbed a copy off bittorrent to take a look.

From the first moment, from Jon Stewart's first words, he's clearly serious. Despite his normal ability to be funny while acting serious, from the first moment on Crossfire I could tell he was going to say something he really wasn't looking forward to saying.

It's really painful to watch a good comedian be serious when the audience doesn't realize what he's doing. The dude with the normal tie seemed to be laughing at completely inappropriate moments in the beginning, but then realized Jon was serious. The guy in the bowtie clearly wasn't getting it. And didn't want to.

Watching these guys attack Jon for not asking John Kerry hard-hitting questions when Jon doesn't claim to be a newsman... while they do claim to be serious newsmen and are really just complete partisan hacks... as Jon pointed out... it was sickening.

This wasn't a pleasant show to watch, but it was definitely Jon Stewart telling the media off, something which needed to be done by someone. I was not impressed by the CNN guys, who seemed desperate to avoid actually answering Jon's accusation and his plea, and the one in the bowtie in particular who seemed simply incapable of understanding what Jon was trying to say and determined to get Jon to insult him by insulting him first, repeatedly.

And he looked utterly ridiculous in the bowtie, by the way. Like a little boy playing dress-up. The other guy at least clued in to what Jon was saying and managed to avoid making himself look worse. But then, he was wearing a normal tie, so he already appeared more intelligent... and both of them looked like morons compared to Jon.

Sports News

Jerry Rice has been traded to the Seattle Seahawks. Maybe he can teach our young guys how to actually catch the ball instead of letting it bounce off chest/fingers/hands. That alone would be worth the amount traded, a seventh round draft pick.

Obscene...?

This is obscene?

The women said they were angered by reports of peaceful protesters being thrown out of previous Bush-Cheney events. They said they chose the phrase, "Protect Our Civil Liberties," because it was unconfrontational.

"We chose this phrase specifically because we didn't think it would be offensive or degrading or obscene," said Tania Tong, 34, a special education teacher.

The women got past the first and second checkpoints and were allowed into the Jackson County fairgrounds, but were asked to leave and then escorted out of the event by campaign officials who allegedly told them their T-shirts were "obscene."

Just how is "Protect Our Civil Liberties" supposed to be obscene, unless you don't believe in the constitution of the United States of America? Bush Republicans are really really sick in the head if they find that message to be a threat.

Via Digby and Brown Equals Terrorist.

Election Follies

The administration is sitting on a 9/11 report that pulls no punches and names names. Apparently they don't want it seen before the election. I wonder why?

Two more weeks.

Stem Cell Research Thoughts

Patti Davis wrote an article about stem cell research and Christopher Reeve. This topic is a little too hot for Bloggity, since the article also mentions the short-sightedness of our current "president", so I'm posting it here instead. Via Mah Two Cents.

Doonesbury Links parts 4-6

Thursday's Link - "Rep Doug Bereuter's letter to his constituents" - Thursday's Strip

Friday's Link - "An editorial from the Lonestar Iconoclast" - Friday's Strip

Saturday's Link - "a prescient piece from conservative columnist George Will!" - Saturday's Strip

Johnny's Predictions

Sadly, I missed posting the link to Johnny B's Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications because I was out enjoying myself, but here's a late linkage to his blog and to his predictions. He was right about the Seahawks, sadly, who really are rebuilding this year, despite what some people seemed to think.

What Kerry Said...

"We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as."

How the rethuglican hatriots reacted:

"Kerry's third attack is the whole Mary Cheney thing. That's been hashed over enough. But remarkably, Kerry has not apologized. You use somebody's daughter to attack the father and his running mate."

Huh?

Exactly how is that first statement an attack? Seriously? Kerry didn't even out her, she was a lesbian activist for years before this election cycle. Why are the rethugs so upset at this minor comment? What does Kerry have to apologize for? HE SAID NOTHING WRONG. Apparently, treating your opponent's daughter (who is actively involved in the campaign, and therefore a legit topic of discussion) with dignity and respect is an attack in whatever world the Bushies live in. If there is any sanity in this world, the Bushies won't be in power much longer.

Two weeks.

Via This Modern World.

Please Check This Out

Please check out this post on my regular blog. It's a good cause, and the effort involved on your part is extremely minor.

What If Bush Had Been Elected?

I want to live in their world.

via Neil Gaiman.

Mystifying Campaign

Parker joins the campaign.

Heh. Lightning. Cool.

Conservative Family Values To The Fore!

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT check out this page and do not read the whole thing. Unless you have a really dirty mind and want to read about a disgusting little man's wet dreams. *shudder* This is what the ultra-conservatives consider acceptable behavior. And ultra-conservatives control the Republican party right now.

No votes for repubs until they take their party back from the extremists.

Bush's Back

Tom Tomorrow has figured out what that thing on Bush's back is.

Doonesbury Links part 3

Wednesday's Link - "...a reasoned critique of the Bush record by a Reagan Republican..." - Wednesday's Strip

WNBA Champions Seattle Storm

I'm still peeved that the NBA has put women's basketball into the ghetto, playing off-season. But I've been impressed with the few games I've watched. And frankly, it's really nice that Seattle has another championship. It's been awhile since our last one.

I miss the ABL.

More Politics

Sorry about this. I can't vent on my other blog, so I'm venting here. I really don't expect anyone to read the political stuff.

Anyway, two items of note.

First is from Daily Kos. Regarding voter registration fraud: GOP firm shreds Dem voter registrations. That's right. If the party marked was "Democrat", the voter registration firm ripped up the forms so the Democrats will not be officially registered (even though they think they are) and won't be able to vote on election day. This is a sick tactic from a sick group of people, and I hope all the people behind it are punished to the full extent of the law. Since the action is a felony in Nevada, hopefully they will get punished.

The other item is the October surprise. It's apparently been sprung by Homeland Security, which is warning law enforcement of an imminent attack of 9/11 proportions. If I actually trusted the rethuglicans, I might be worried... but the thugs have shown that they are completely incompetent and only care about staying in power, not protecting the people, so I have my doubts that this is anything other than an effort to scare the populace before election day. The only false note here is that when they've raised the terror alert before, it's only led to an increase in Bush's ratings for about a week, and we've got three weeks to go before the election.

If it is real, it may well be the only thing the administration has done right since stealing the 2000 election.

Doonesbury Links (part 1 & 2)

Here's the links from the first two Doonesbury strips:

Monday's Link - "An overview of how well Bush has served Republican principles by Dwight Eisenhower's son!" - Monday's Strip

Tuesday's Link - "This astonishing letter from Baghdad was written by a reporter from the archconservative Wall Street Journal!" - Tuesday's Strip

Protesting the Media

There's a right way and a wrong way to protest the media when they do something you don't like. The wrong way, as shown in the attacks on the Crawford paper, involves threats of violence. The right way is shown in the efforts to stop Sinclair Broadcasting from airing a fraudulant hit piece on Kerry.

Why can't Republicans show the same sort of restraint this year, and write polite letters instead of death threats? Oh yeah... rethuglicans don't believe that anyone who disagrees with them is human. I forgot.

My turn to rant

Okay, so here's someething I don't get. I have a Wizard of Oz website set up (www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/), and part of that is an extensive FAQ list. (For those who may not know, FAQ is an acronym for "frequently asked question.") I wrote the FAQ list so that I wouldn't have to answer the same dopey questions over and over again. So naturally, if someone asks me a question I've already answered there, I direct them to the FAQ, since that's why I wrote it. So today -- and this is not the first time this has happened -- someone got all snarky with me for sending her to the FAQ instead of directly answering the question. Oh, come on! Like I have the time to do that for everyone. Like I didn't spend a lot of time writing the FAQ just so I can tell you because you're too busy or lazy to lok yourself. Sheesh. Then she got even snootier, like I owe her or something. Yeah, right. The website is just a hobby, lady, I have to actually work for a living and to get it up for you to find in the first place. This came on the heels of another, more persistent person who asked me a question that not only wasn't in the FAQ, but that I couldn't answer at all. So I sent him some information about where he might possibly look for the information himself. He mailed me back a couple of times and insisted that he had no time for that, he wanted me to answer his question. (It was very obvious that it was some sort of homework assignment, and he was trying to get me to do the work for him.) I finally had to lay it on the line, told him flat out (once again) that I didn' t have the answers he was looking for, and not to e-mail me ever again. Gads, the Internet has made some people even more stupid... or lazy... Grumble, grumble, okay, I'm done now...

Political Free Speech

I'm extremely angry at the people who have recently attacked Republican headquarters across the state, stealing computers. Assuming they are Democrats, and not just thugs stealing for money, these people are scum (if they are thugs stealing for money, they are an entirely different kind of scum, by the way). However, it would not at all surprise me to learn that the perpetrators for all these attacks are Republicans trying to get people on their side by playing for sympathy. The number of scummy tactics the rethuglicans have used in this race so far tells me that stooping so low as to damage their own headquarters simply wouldn't be beneath them. In any case, whoever it is, I hope they are caught and punished to the full extent of the law.

One reason I tend to suspect rethuglicans for those attacks is the number of attacks on Democrats recently. There is a fairly large minority of the republican party that seems to believe that free speech is illegal. They attempted to threaten the Crawford paper that endorsed Kerry into retracting the endorsement. They are trying to take down the Electoral Vote Predictor: "The site has had technical problems repeatedly in the past several days and has been down several times. I didn't want to discuss this, but I don't want anyone to think the problem was an incompetent hosting service. Just the opposite. The site has been subjected to a full-scale, well-organized, massive attack with the clear intention to bring it down. The attackers have tried repeatedly to break in, but the server is a rock-solid Linux system which has stood up to everything they threw at it and hasn't crashed since I got it in May. While our troops are fighting and dying to bring freedom of speech to the Iraqi people, there are forces in America who find this concept no longer applicable to America. I don't know who is behind this attack yet (although we are working it), but it is too professional to be some teenager working from a home PC. Given that all the hate mail and threats I get come entirely from Republicans, I can make an educated guess which side is trying to silence me, but I won't say. And I won't surrender to cyberterrorists."

Again, I hope the attackers are caught and punished.

I guess the republicans shouldn't be surprised at the escalation, even if they aren't behind it. After all, the tactics of the rethuglicans recently are pretty scummy... and they've been steadily getting worse and worse. Amazingly, even though they are technically in power, they still find it necessary to use smear campaigns and baseless attacks against Democrats. The amount of sheer bull being produced by the rethuglicans is amazing... enough to fertilize the entire breadbasket region of the United States if you spread it around.

That was Unexpected

So the Seahawks, who had the game won with six minutes left to go, somehow managed to lose.

It's the curse of being a Seattle fan.

I'll try to write a bit more on this later, but in short, the Seahawk defense apparently stopped playing, leading to the Rams pounding the crap out of them at the end of the game. The game went into overtime, sudden death overtime (which is a pretty stupid concept for American football) and the Rams won. Boom.

Now I'm sort of watching the Seattle Storm, who are in a must-win game. I may not watch the end. Endings have been very disappointing lately.

Seahawks Update

So they might be winning, but the Seahawks REALLY need to improve their receivers. They keep dropping passes that they should never miss at that level. I can understand one dropped pass in a game... but I've seen many missed passes in this one. Passes that go right into the receiver's hands... but don't stay there. Passes that flit through the receiver's fingers like he has a hole in his hands. Passes that bounce off the receiver's chest. Is this a pro football team? The Seahawks are winning on great defense. Their offense still needs work. Particularly the passing game.

Football - American

So I'm watching the Seahawks now. Not a particularly normal experience. My gut feeling is that they'll lose, but Eric pointed out that I'm a Seattle Sports fan, which means I'm used to losing. Winning isn't exactly a normal experience.

I'm keeping an eye on Johnny's Predictions. Except for the Minnesota/Houston game (which is tied with less than 2 minutes to go), the first chunk of games are finished, and Johnny is 4-2 so far this week.

More later...

Political Parties

So some idiots decided to challenge Washington State's blanket primary, and that resulted in the primary being declared unconstitutional for no good reason. See, according to the judges who idiotically decided this, political parties are more important than individual voters. Which sucks, but it's the way the system works.

Anyway, because of this stupidity, the blanket primary is gone forever. The major political parties have managed to pull one over on the voters and take away voter choice in the primaries forever.

The question now is what will replace the primary. Unfortunately, there is no option that allows voters real choice. All the options either involve being forced to choose a party (and thus support the very scumbags that took away our choice) or with I-872, to narrow down the choices in the general election to an unacceptable level.

There are also options for "instant runoff" elections, but the nature of such elections makes them difficult to implement and unlikely to be understood by the average voter.

Perhaps we should just outlaw political parties in Washington State. Say you can't belong to a party, but you can have the endorsement of one (or more). None of those crappy "R"s and "D"s after somebody's name, just the name of the wannabe politico. As tempting as that is, it's a really stupid idea too, isn't it?

I don't like the initiative to go to a top two primary... but it does seem like the least objectionable of the options currently out there. We already would have that for our primary if we didn't have a moral wimp for a Governor. I don't know if I'll be voting for it... but I know what we have at the moment is crap.

A very large part of me is for abolishing primary elections entirely. If the political parties are so intent on hijacking our vote, then maybe we should just take the ability away from them entirely. It would save the state a lot of money... and with this awful Bush economy that's nothing to sneeze at. Some people fear that it would limit Washington State's voice in the decision-making processes of the parties... so what? If I believed that the internals of the parties weren't already rigged beyond redemption, I might care. But they are already so screwed up, not having our input simply makes no difference.

And for a final note: As far as I'm concerned, being forced to register for a party in order to vote - to have your affiliation be made part of the public record - is unconstitutional and ought to be banned throughout the United States. It's immoral to insist that people belong to a party. It's contrary to the very idea of having a secret ballot. It values the political parties over the individual voter. It's wrong.

The Plame Problem

So there was a reporter who, using some sort of inside source, outed a secret CIA operative... putting her life and the lives of other operatives in danger. The reason for this outing was apparently a bit of political revenge against the husband of the agent. That's the set-up.

Now there are some reporters being told to reveal their secret source for the information, and being threatened with jail if they don't.

I've got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think the whole "secret source" thing is very important in reporting, and forcing a reporter to reveal an anonymous source seems to me to be very wrong. I can't help but respect a reporter who is willing to go to jail rather than reveal a source.

However. The crime the reporters committed by printing that information was severe enough, I think the reporters, and their editors, who reported that information should go to jail for endangering American lives. They should all do hard time for their crime. And don't get me wrong, revealing a secret operative out of petty revenge is a horrible crime.

Maybe if they are faced with hard time for their immoral and illegal act, they might be more inclined to name the name of the scumbag who gave them the illegal information so he can spend some time in prison with them. It also might make some reporters think twice before printing information that can hurt people. But I'm absolutely convinced that no matter what they say or who they implicate, the reporters who reveal Plame's name should spend time in jail for their crime... but not for protecting their source.

Tim Ryan Tells It Like It Is

Via Pacific Views:

RYAN: I thank the gentlemen. I rise in opposition of this bill. But I would like to clarify something. We're not trying to scare kids. This president's foreign policy is what's scaring the kids of this country. And if people have said today, "Why are people believing this, why are people believing this big Internet hoax?" - well, it's the same people that told us Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Same people that told us Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Same people that told us we were gonna be able to use the oil for reconstruction money. Same people that told us that we'd be greeted as liberators, not occupiers. Same people, same president, that told us the Taliban is gone. Same president that told us that Poland is our ally two days before they pull out. Same president that tells us Iraq is going just great.

Same president that tells us the economy is going just great. Same people that told us the tax cut was gonna create millions of jobs. Same people that told us that the Medicare program only costs $400 billion, when it really cost $540 billion.

So please forgive us for not believing what you're saying. Please forgive the students of this country for not believing what you're saying. Not one thing, not one thing about this war that has been told to the American people, or that has been told to these college students, has been true. Not one thing. Bremer says we need more troops. The Pentagon says we need more troops. And this president can't get `em from the international community. There's only one option left. Let's be honest with the American people. I yield back the balance of my time.

Exactly. The reason we don't trust Bush when he tells us there will be no draft is because the scumsucking dress-up AWOL idiot has lied EVERY OTHER TIME he's said anything of importance. If he's lied about everything else, why on Earth should anyone believe anything the cocaine-snorting war-deserter says now?

Can't People Read?

I have a "no soliciting" sign on our house. It's there for two reasons. The first is that we don't have money to spare, so door-to-door salesfolks are just wasting their time coming to our house. The second is because I really hate answering the door to people who are asking me for something.

Last night two people came to our door. The man had a clipboard, always a bad sign. As he started his spiel, I asked him flat out if he was soliciting something. "No, no!" he said, "I'm not selling anything!" That wasn't exactly what I was asking, but I let him continue on for a couple of seconds about his "free service" before I told him I wasn't interested and closed the door.

He was soliciting. I think now that maybe I should have explained to him that soliciting doesn't always involve the exchange of money. Perhaps I should have explained that I put up the sign to keep people like him away. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so polite. I don't know. But I'm still a little miffed about it, so I'm writing about it to get it out of my head.

NFL Predictions

It's Johnny B's Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications!. Week 5. Seattle is playing again this week, and again he's predicted a win.

I have a gut feeling that the Seahawks may lose this week, but until the game is played there's no way to know if I'm just being pessimistic or if there's something there. I suppose if I had to explain why I felt that way, I'd say it has something to do with them having a week off while St Louis didn't. Momentum counts in this game.

Ah well. We'll find out in a couple of days.

Oh my

Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik was arrested during a peaceful civil disobedience protest of the presidential debate.

Wish List 2004

So when Eric and I first got married, we had fun putting together Christmas/Birthday wishlists every Fall. Nobody ever paid attention to them except each other, but it was fun to do as well as slightly silly. I expect no one will pay attention to this one either... it's not like I'm particularly expecting any gifts this year with the economy so bad. Anyway, this is my wish list for both Christmas and for my birthday (Jan 20th) in no particular order.

• Edgar Martinez Special DVD - this one is pretty obvious, I guess.
  
• Amazon.com gift certificates - one size fits all, and I guarantee I'll be happy with it. If you want to pick something out instead, anything on my Amazon wish list is a good bet.
  
• Other Gift Certificates - Biggies would be grocery and restaurants, so Eric and I can eat and eat out. If somebody wants to make me really happy you could go to my comic shop and get me a gift certificate there.
  
• New "purse" - I'm not inclined to carry a purse, but I wear a Mariners "fanny pack" as my purse instead. The fanny pack is a giveaway from the 2001 FanFest, and it's getting a bit beat up. I would like a replacement fanny pack. I'd like one that has a front pocket that can hold my digital camera and a main pocket which can hold my wallet and other stuff. I wouldn't mind a change pocket of some sort. It's got to be sturdy, and I'd prefer it in a dark color... black or dark blue. Let me reiterate: I don't want a normal purse, I want a sturdy fanny pack.
  
• Gloves - A nice pair of warm gloves for driving.
  
• LEGO - yeah, it always makes the list. Any Harry Potter set, any Star Wars set, and any of the Make & Create sets.
  
• Penguins - anyone who knows me knows the drill. They must be able to sit on the telly.
  
• New bed. Eric and I don't get much sleep at night. A new bed might help a lot. Eric and I agree that we need a larger bed, so we want a King Size bed, although a California King would also work. We haven't had a chance to look deeply into the brands/styles of beds, but we would lean toward Tempurpedic if we could swing it. I guess we'd also need new sheets.
  
• New stove. Our current stove is one of the few holdover appliances from when we bought Frankenhaus, and we really need a new one. While I put the bed at a higher priority because if we got a good bed we would both sleep better and therefore be able to get more done... a new stove would mean cooking would be a whole lot easier.

I want a very special gift for my birthday. My birthday is inauguration day. You know how my politics lean. If I get that for my birthday, I don't want any other gift at all. That's enough. Of course, the whole nation has to help get me that gift, it's not something my family can do alone. But it would be enough.

George Bush - Murderer

George Bush shoots and kills D.C. Police Officer. In 1889. The criminal was then killed himself by the officer he shot before the officer died. Via MetaFilter.

This is in honor of David Allen Jones recent creepy run in with search engine requests for a murderer with his name.

Interesting Driving

As I was driving to work the other day, I noticed that the driver of the car in front of me seemed to be doing something strange. At first I thought she had a cellphone, but then she started making a motion with her left hand that... well... it looked like she was brushing her teeth as she drove. She even turned her head to the side to apparently spit a couple of times (not out of the car, but toward the passenger seat). Intrigued but worried, I backed off a little and kept one eye on her as she drove. I nearly drove off the road when a pug jumped up onto her shoulders. At first I thought it was an optical illusion, but after sneaking a few more looks in between watching traffic, I realized that yes, the pug was on her shoulder. And it blended in nicely with her, making her look like a mutant two-headed puglady. The pug distracted me from her toothbrushing, so I didn't see if she tried to floss. But she did appear to be putting on makeup as I watched. Luckily for me, she changed lanes and turned off, so I wasn't distracted by whatever she had planned for a followup.

Swimmingly

I really like the fact that ESPN2 is showing swimming tonight. I've been enjoying watching it. I love the look of male swimmer bodies.

Do I Really Care?

Of course not. Baseball is over for me this year. But I gotta admit I really want to see Minnesota smash the Yankees. Sadly, it looks at this moment, the bottom of the seventh, that the Twins are in bad shape in game two. Still, I shouldn't be upset... a split in Yankee Stadium is pretty good.

As for the other three races, I want to see Houston beat Atlanta, the Dodgers beat St Louis, and Boston beat Anaheim. I guess I would prefer Houston in the World Series, but I'm not sure whether I'd prefer Boston or Minnesota for the AL. For harmony at work, I think Minnesota.

Minnesota Wins!

The Twins beat the evil empire in game one, in New York. Peggy is going to be happy at work tomorrow.

Basketball Game

I tuned into the first moments of the Vice-Presidential Debate, heard Dick Cheney utter an out-and-out lie, and decided not to bother. The Seattle Storm are playing tonight in a must-win game to get into the off-season basketball league's championship. As much as I hate the fact that women's basketball had been pushed by the NBA into the off-season gutter, I'd rather watch this than just about any other thing on television at the moment.

It's Been Proven

Raising the terror alert gives Dubya a small but significant jump in poll numbers, lasting about a week. Anyone want to take bets on what day in late October the terror alert will be raised?

Mt St Helens... is it really a terrorist plot?!??

Pacific Views has the story.

Kerry Saves Lives

It's true.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Former U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht of Nevada is a staunch Republican, but he thanks his lucky stars for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

On July 12, 1988, Hecht was attending a weekly Republican luncheon when a piece of apple lodged firmly in his throat.

Hecht stumbled out of the room, thinking he might vomit but not wanting to do it in front of his colleagues. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., thumped his back, but Hecht quickly passed out in the hallway.

Just then, Kerry stepped off an elevator, rushed to Hecht's side and gave him the Heimlich maneuver -- four times.

The lifesaving incident made international news, and Dr. Henry Heimlich, who invented the maneuver in 1974, called Hecht to say that had Kerry intervened just 30 seconds later Hecht might have been in a vegetative state for life.

"This man gave me my life," the 75-year-old Hecht said Thursday.

Hecht said he was amazed that Kerry acted so quickly -- some people were assuming that he was having a heart attack.

"He knew exactly what to do," he said. "But a lot of people know what to do. They just don't size up the situation immediately."

Honestly, the more I learn about Kerry, the more I want to vote for him because of him, and not because he's just "not Bush".

It's Hard Work!

So says The Poor Man. It's such hard work that our sitting president has taken more vacations than any other president. Poor man. Such hard work.

Fired?

As I read this article, at first I was horrified at the thought of a teacher being fired for putting up a picture of a sitting president. That shouldn't cause her to lose her job, no matter how scummy the sitting president is.

But then I read the rest: Recently, the school administration began receiving complaints from students and parents that Ms. Pillai-Diaz was using her position, classroom and teaching time to engage in partisan politics. Students reported that she had made statements which denigrated one party over the other. The conversations included Ms. Pillai-Diaz telling some students who offered opinions contrary to her statements, that she was "glad they were not old enough to vote." Other comments to students, including such statements as, "you should be ashamed to be a Democrat" have been verified through student interviews.

In other words, she wasn't just putting up a picture of a scumbag president, she was harrassing students who showed a different opinion than her own and using her position of authority to intimidate students she should be encouraging to explore different opinions.

But that's not all... On Friday morning, October 1, Ms. Pillai-Diaz was directed by the Assistant Principal to remove bulletin board materials because they were being viewed as contributing to an ongoing disruption of the teaching-learning environment. She refused. She then met with the Principal who repeated the directive. At this point, Ms. Pillai-Diaz abruptly left the building, abandoning her post of duty and her classroom responsibilities. In other words, she was NOT fired. She walked out when she was told to remove materials that were assisting her in harrassing her students' political opinions.

At no time was she told to leave, asked to leave or given authorization to leave. School was still in session. At no time was she told she was suspended or fired. With professional responsibilities of a classroom teacher waiting, Ms. Pillai-Diaz chose, of her own volition, to walk out of the school, contact various media sources and claim she had been fired.

Another Rethuglican, claiming that she's been fired when she wasn't... claiming persecution when she was abusing her position. Is it any wonder that people are sick and tired of Bush Republicans when this woman is the type of model citizen they adore?

A Day In The Life...

Here's a good one for Republicans to chew on:

"A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN"

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

What if the Whole World Could Vote...

...on the United States president? Take a look. Not definitive (or even particularly meaningful), but interesting anyway. Here's the Results.

Final Ichiro Watch

Two more hits in the last game, bringing his grand total up to 262. And that's where the record will stand... until next year at least.

Debate Spin - The Earpiece Scandal

Is Bush using an earpiece so he doesn't have to think for himself? The question has been raised yet again after he said, "Let me finish" when no one was interrupting him during the debate.

TalkLeft has more.

Daily Show Torrent

If you wanted to see the live Daily Show episode from right after the debate, Boing Boing has a link to a torrent of it. I saw it that night, so I think I'll pass.

Mt St Helens

There's an alert bar on the bottom of the screen letting us know that the state is on full alert (level three) for the volcano because there was another steam eruption and large earthquakes. Then they said that if it does go, the ash isn't likely to go any further than 10 kilometers. Considering that ash from the 1980 eruption made it as far as Florida, I'm thinking this isn't going to be a "major" eruption by any standards except for the media.

About the Debate

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire comes the quote of the debate:

"No president who has presided over Abu Ghraib should ever say he wants to put anyone on a leash."

-- Andrew Sullivan

Jeopardy

There's a category for Blogs on tonight's (Friday's everywhere else) Jeopardy. I'm waiting to see if they select it...

Lawrence Lessig was mentioned... and Howard Dean's and Margaret Cho's blogs. Otherwise, pretty tame for a category.

Ichiro Watch

Number 260 in the bottom of the 5th. He's establishing a new record. George Sisler's daughter is still in Seattle and is at the game tonight. The Sisler family presented Ichiro with a signed St Louis Browns cap before the game. It was too small to fit Ichiro. I hope he gave the Sisler's signed Mariners caps in return.

NFL Watch

Johnny has posted his Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications, which don't include the Seahawks this week because they have an annoying bye, which I guess means they aren't playing.

Today's M's game is a tribute to Edgar Martinez who is retiring after this season. Only one more game after tonight's...

Ichiro Watch part 2

Another hit, this one in the bottom of the 6th, establishing the record at 259.

Ichiro Watch

The M's batted around in the 3rd, and Ichiro got a second at bat that was nearly a double but for a spectacular catch by Laynce Nix. Ichiro is still at 258.

Mariners Watch

As if the record wasn't enough, then Edgar drove in Ichiro for Ichiro's 100th run of the season!

Then Raul Ibanez tied the game with another RBI!

THE RECORD IS BROKEN

Top of the 3rd inning, second at bat. A single right up the middle. The entire team is out on the field congratulating him, and George Sisler's daughter was cheering and clapping for him as well. Ichiro went up to her and shook her hand.

We've had precious few cheerful moment in Seattle sports this year, this one feels pretty good.

The Record Is Tied

In his first at bat, a nice single to a standing ovation at home at Safeo field. In front of Sisler's daughter and grandsons.

And for those of you who are thinking "well, he had more games than Sisler did!" I say, yeah, and he also had to face modern pitching... including relief pitching, which Sisler never did. Different times, different hitters, but don't scoff at Ichiro's accomplishment in breaking this record.

Thar She Blows

Mt St Helens burped today.