Ok, so we were in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner with the TV on in the background. The dog show was on. As we're passing the food around, we hear the news person break in and announce that Bush has just been in Iraq visiting the troops. Here's how the conversation more or less went:
Me: It's just another stunt. I'd rather hear the dog show.Sharon: I wish he'd just send the troops home.
Chandra: Yeah, but he can stay there.
Me: Actually, I hear he owes the military some time...
Ted Rall likes Dean. No surprise there, but this bit about 3rd party candidates (apparently Ted voted for Nader last time around) struck me (emphasis added):
Heretofore I have opposed strategic voting tactics. When citizens vote for candidates because they seem likely to win, it creates a winner-takes-all aggregation of support. That subverts democracy's underlying assumption: that people vote for the man or woman they'd most like to see win. At its worst, pick-the-winner voting elevates any candidate lucky enough to enjoy an early jump in the polls to premature, and possibly undeserved victory. Let the electorate vote for politicians whose ideas they like best and let the chads hang where they may.
Now back in the day, I remember learning in my Intro to Political Science course that the US has a "winner take all" system. It's got nothing to do with who you vote for. It's got to do with the system. There are other systems in the world where people get proportional representation, so that you end up with a bunch of smaller parties, which then tend to join into coalitions, etc. So the Greens get 10% of the vote, they get 10% of the parliamentary seats, and maybe get a say in who's prime minister. News flash to Ted: that's not the way it works here in the good old US of A.
Now I'm all for voting your conscience, and in a state like New York Ted's vote for Nader wouldn't have hurt Gore's chances any more than my vote for him in Georgia would have...albeit for different reasons. But it's important to realize that in this country it truly is a "winner take all" system, and the guy who's both the closest match to your views and has a chance of winning is really the person who should get your vote.
I haven't seen the new Republican ad that everyone's talking about (the one that claims "Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists"), but from everything I hear, it's a doozy. Here's what Josh Marshall has to say:
Democrats are reacting to the RNC ad with a mixture of outrage and poorly concealed fear. They shouldn't be, because this is a line of attack that a strong, wily Democratic opponent could parry and turn to his advantage. This new line from the president also shows why -- in a certain sense -- an effective Democratic contender next year will want to -- indeed, will have to -- run to the president's right on the all-important issue of terrorism.
There's more, so go check it out.
I'm still in 30 second mode, and am pondering this myself on this quiet day before the holiday. All the claims in the RNC ad are ridiculous, but how can we ridicule them effectively in 30 seconds? Hmm...
I've submitted my entry to the Bush in 30 Seconds contest. Apparently online voting starts December 15, so look for a reminder from me then. Heh.
Mitä on "PHB" suomeksi?
Kysy sahkopostilla jos haluat tietä edelleen.
Looks like the faculty of Franklin College here at UGA are going to weigh in on the whole Adams thing:
The faculty senate of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Georgia's largest college, will poll faculty members in the school about whether they retain confidence in UGA President Michael Adams.
If I had to guess at what happened at the senate meeting, I'd venture that they wanted to indicate "no confidence" in Adams, but were to chicken to come out and do it themselves. So instead they'll have a nice anonymous vote. Of course, another read might be that by getting the vote of the entire College they'll be sending a stronger message. Either way I'll be very interested in seeing how this plays out, and how big a headline the paper gives it if faculty vote against Adams.
Another one bites the dust. Sounds like all that noise about foreign fighters streaming into Iraq is just so much hooey.
From Maureen Dowd:
There was a dispiriting contrast between G.W.B. shutting out the world and avoiding the British public, and the black-and-white clips this week of J.F.K. reaching out to the world and being adored by Berliners.There was also a dispiriting contrast between the Bush administration, hiding the returning coffins of U.S. soldiers and avoiding their funerals, and the moving pictures of the Italian politicians and people, honoring their dead with public ceremonies and a week of mourning.
I couldn't have said this better myself:
In any case, there are a hell of a lot more important things going on right now than a possible Michael Jackson molestation trial. You all got solemn and promised after 9/11 to focus on the important things. Haven't seen too much of that lately, I have to say. I'm glad life goes on - I'm not one who thinks "everything changed," or that everything should have changed, after 9/11. But, let's face it - you pretty much blew it before 9/11 and then you pretty much blew it for the prelude to the Iraq war and you're pretty much blowing it now.
Ever wish that software had a neck just so that you could strangle it slowly in a bathtub? That's how I feel about Movable Type right now. Every once in a while I lose entries here just because the software feels like flaking out. Today's episode wasn't too bad-- at least the whole blog didn't go blank, which it has been known to do. Still, it's irritating.
His caricature of W still creeps me out, but I do like the latest Ted Rall cartoon.
Lots of stuff out there, but this is from the NY Times (emphasis added):
The announcement of a firm date to create an interim Iraqi government and end the formal American occupation -- though not the American military presence -- promises the Iraqis the sovereignty they have clamored for, and offers President Bush the political symbol he needed: the beginnings of an exit strategy that he can explain to American voters.
This should be an interesting few months coming up. While I think it's great that things may get turned over to the Iraqis, if American troop levels don't go down I can't imagine that anyone is really going to be happy. My guess is that whatever the situation is, as long as there's a significant American military presence in Iraq, folks are going to view it as an occupation. It won't matter whether we're there at the "invitation" of the Iraqi government or not. What's more, people in the U.S. will be unhappy because they'll be told on the one hand that things are being turned over to the Iraqis, and then on the other that Johnny still needs to stay. That's going to cause some cognitive dissonance, to say the least.
There are some who say that this all smells of an administration trying to sweep something under the rug so that Dubya can stay in the White House. They may be right, but I find it hard to imagine this working out that way. My personal hunch is that the situation in Iraq will just get uglier.
Yes, I'm still here for anyone besides Chandra who reads this thing. I won't say that my new job has me pressed for time (because so far that wouldn't be true), but it has put a crimp in my reading/writing time. I'm still adjusting to the new schedule and trying to work in the job along with exercising, playing with the cats, etc. I expect to settle into a routine (a.k.a. fiber for the mind) soon, and then I'll get back to more regular posting.
This is neat. I'm sure Flanders would approve.
I'm anticipating having to send a certain few identical emails out in the course of my new position. So, I can either store a draft in my mail app, and when it comes time to send one of these puppies out copy the draft, open it, type in the recipient, and send it out. Or...I can use a shell script to just type canmail message_name recipient_email. I'm choosing the second approach. Whether this actually saves time and effort in the long run is debatable, but writing the shell script was at least an interesting challenge since I don't do that very often.
Getting settled in to the new job, and just learned that I've got a little money for new software. Key word being "little." As a result, it looks like I won't be able to have my old stand-by BBEdit handy due to other priorities. So...I'm giving something called JEdit a try. Hopefully it'll serve the purpose.
Since I frequently rant about the waste of pissing money away to commercial companies when there are perfectly acceptable alternatives out there, I guess it's about time that I did something like this. Not that I'm equating the good folks at Bare Bones with Microsoft, mind you. It's just that for cash-strapped operations it makes sense to pursue alternatives whenever possible.
Not the Jessica Lynch thing- the bit from the medic on ABC:
But through no fault of Private Lynch's, she may not be the antidote to bad news in November that she was in April. The steady drumbeat of casualties is making it harder for those who pushed her into the limelight at the time of the rescue to control the stories butting against her happy ending. In broadcasting the first reports of "Chinook Down" last Sunday morning, the normally unflappable Bob Schieffer of CBS News raised his voice as he said, "If this is winning, you have to ask the question: How much more of this winning can we stand?" Later that day, on ABC's "World News Tonight," the correspondent John Berman captured a "M*A*S*H" moment when a military medic attending the American wounded looked directly at the camera and said, " 'All major combat operations have ceased' " � after which he winked and, with a roll of his eyes, added a sarcastic, "Right!"
We have got to get these a-holes out of power. Check this out-- now the Bush administration is going to quit answering questions from Democrats about the budget.
Turns out when you don't have a server farm like the good folks at Pixar, ILM, etc. do it can take a really long time to render out an animation. My computer's been cranking on a 30 second clip now for nearly three days solid. 767 frames down, 133 left to go. I had hoped that it would be done by now, but the last frames must be more work to draw. Looks like it'll be tomorrow morning.
Started a new job at UGA today. Nothing special happened, mostly administrative stuff. I did enter the twilight zone at one point, however. Check out this mandatory loyalty oath. Here's an excerpt:
3. Are you now or have you been within the last ten (10) years a member of any organization which to your knowledge at the time of membership advocates or has as one of its objectives, the overthrow of the government of the United States or the government of the State of Georgia by force or violence? Yes____ No____
Then it gets better-- if by some chance you do advocate the violent overthrow of the State of Georgia (and who doesn't?) you're not only supposed to be dumb enough to admit it, you're also supposed to be dumb enough to list the name of the organization, current membership status, and any offices held in it.
All of this is thanks to the "Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1953." Just think, if they'd had that act 100 years earlier we might have been able to avoid that whole Civil War thing. Better late than never, I guess.
Confederates...communists...terrorists...whatever.
A thought from Talking Points Memo:
We hear again and again how all the bombings and mayhem are obscuring all the good things that are happening in Iraq. But this is like how the thunderstorm 'obscures' the underlying sunny day.