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Happy Halloween!
Originally uploaded by joeszilagyi
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The current time is I’m on vacation.
Originally uploaded by joeszilagyi
Sent from my mobile phone.
It looks like the New York Post, Washington Times, and Dallas News were asked to leave Obama’s campaign jet, to make room for documentary film makers. There is only so much room on a plane, obviously. It was pointed out that the three newspapers are second or third tier publications in their markets (New York City, Washington D.C., and Dallas) and none of the three are up for grabs–the NY and DC metro areas are double digits ahead for Obama and have been for some time, and Dallas is McCain’s.
There is no benefit for America for these smaller newspapers to take multiple seats on the campaign jet that can be used for more important local newspapers in swing states and the national media. An Obama spokesperson said,
“We’re trying to reach as many swing voters that we can and unfortunately had to make some tough choices. but we are accomodating these folks in everyway possible,” he said.
If anyone actually believes this is political, it’s a laughable idea. There is simply only so much room on the plane, and the staff for these newspapers are not valuable for the Obama campaign now. They’re local papers in markets that have been won, one way or the other. If this was a political “purge”, like Matt Drudge made out with his usual tortured and over the top hand-waving, why is Fox News still on the Obamaplane? Stupid. Political purges from your plane would be the fact that John McCain has long barred Maureen Dowd, a prize-winning columnist, from traveling with him.
Also, if you didn’t know about these newspapers, they are mouthpieces for their owners:
The Washington Times is the equal of the New York Post, a garbage rag sponsored by a rich person that is a mouthpiece for their pet conservative and Far Right ideologies (New York Post is Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News), and The Washington Times is the money sink of the Unification Church.
I just noticed this on my site…
Happy Halloween. Scared corn, from Serious Eats:
Via Kos, the robots must be stopped:
This is probably one of the greatest inventions ever. Netflix, if you have an account, lets you watch films on-demand. I’m watching Bad Boys right now. Why? Because I can. I love it.
If you hadn’t heard, there’s now discord in the McCain-Palin camp over the handling of Sarah Palin by McCain’s people, and also over Palin’s own rogue behavior.
Palin has even, apparently, been angling and fishing for positioning and saving her (slim) political bacon to possibly angle for a Presidential run of her own in 2008. Even Bill Kristol, conservative arch-troll and son of the founder of the Neo-conservative movement that includes such charming personality types as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, considers the Palin situation bad.
If Palin is actually thinking that she is cut out to be President, America has reasons to be very afraid. How much should you be afraid, and how much should your Sarahcudaphobia be spreading? According to this, very much so:
In the waning hours of the campaign, otherwise known as the end days of Republican rule, acolytes of Sarah Palin are preparing the way for her triumphal return after the dust of defeat has settled. She is the future of a re-born party and the flag bearer for a new populist Conservatism - so they say - an American Thatcher.
If you’re not sure who Margaret Thatcher was, she is the British female Ronald Reagan. Are you terrified yet, of another Reagan of any form getting anywhere near the Oval Office? A man who did more to damage the world than few others? I’ll grant that one-time cigarette pitchman did help to take down the Iron Curtain and the more corrupt elements of the USSR regime (who I have no love for). Ronald Reagon also did irreparable and catastrophic damage to the early fight against HIV/AIDs:
Following discovery of the first cases in 1981, it soon became clear a national health crisis was developing. But President Reagan’s response was “halting and ineffective,” according to his biographer Lou Cannon. Those infected initially with this mysterious disease — all gay men — found themselves targeted with an unprecedented level of mean-spirited hostility.
A significant source of Reagan’s support came from the newly identified religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination. Falwell said “AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals.” Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is “nature’s revenge on gay men.”
Do we want another person driven by religious fueled goals (and biases) near the highest position of authority in our Constitutionally sectarian nation? Do we want a peer of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson as President? Do we endorse these people?
Can Sushi Cat defeat Spaghetti Cat?
Sushi:
Spaghetti:
You may want to read this, if you are.
Contrary to popular belief, a large percentage of Republicans are unhappy not because of the Bush administration itself, but because of the recent clear revelations of what direction the Party is heading. Actually, we’ve started realizing the problems began all the way back in Reagan’s presidency, and the only thing that has remained “Republican” has been the talking points. Let’s quickly review the Republican Principles listed on the GOP site itself.
Republican Principles
I’m a Republican Because…
I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.
I BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.
I BELIEVE free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.
I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.
I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.
I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.
Is that your Republican party? Yes? No? Maybe? That article is an interesting dissection of the Republican principles on the GOP site itself. My parents were Republicans. That sounds like what they believed in, and believed in deeply. I used to be much more conservative and to the right myself, at least on fiscal matters and national security, in the early to mid 1990s. But really–is this your own Republican party, or has it been stolen from under you by zealots? Read that article carefully. Maybe it’s time to force some people to fork off to a third, religious party, if you care about your true Republican ideals.
Speaking of humiliation… watch this–it’s very short, and probably worthy of appearing on Failblog.com. It’s astonishing stupidity and shows how desperate things have become.
McCain was told that Joe would be in the crowd for a campaign event–but he never showed up. Oops. Pretty much the last thing that McCain can afford is any screw ups, especially this close to Election Day.
Found by Warren Ellis, creepy Wil:
From Slog and Andrew Sullivan.
I think some of them will never even be looked at by myself, but some of them do sound pretty useful. Maybe one for you?
A Shenendehowa student who alerted his principal that he could steal private employee information now is facing felony charges.
The 15-year-old sophomore allegedly breached the district’s system while in computer simulation class and gained access to 250 names of past and present Shen transportation employees. He used his student password to view their Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and more, Shenendehowa officials said.
Then he allegedly sent an e-mail at 1 p.m. Tuesday to High School Principal Donald Flynt, saying he had the database.
The student informs the school of the security hole he found, and in turn is arrested. Well done–that’ll encourage him to be helpful in the future.
Via the Slog:
Want to see the depths Republicans are stooping to, in order to defeat Democrats this year and hold on to their failing and dwindling power? Read this. Republican operatives in Minnesota have sent a short comic book to children, all but accusing Al Franken of endorsing the rape of women.
Absolutely disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. This is why these people political creatures need to be driven out and kept out. They’re a danger to our children for sending out inappropriate mailings like this and unfit for any kind of office, let alone national ones. A bit more here.
The nice Beta Society people made a local slasher flick! Premieres tomorrow! Buy tickets! See the trailer and cover your junk!
(trailer is NSFW!)
They are also showing and Mystery Science Theatering the Friday the 13th where Corey Feldman kills Jason at the premiere, at the Market Theatre, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 8:00 PM.
UPDATE AND REVIEW, 10/30/08: We saw Junkbucket last night at the Market Theatre. Like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, it tells a simple, yet inspirational story. Junkbucket is an ultimately uplifting tale–it cuts to the literal boner of human emotion, and the simple need we all share and long to offer to our fellow people: that we are all, in the end, the same, and that we can all effect positive change on each other. The film additionally offered gentle, tender slasher film “kills”, which were handled with a loving, humane, and lingering attention to detail, and a positive and affirming respect for human life. The ultimate message I took away, from Junkbucket, was that human life is a special, and curious thing. Except when Junkbucket cuts off your motherfucking junk, in which case you’re just fucked. Also: STICK IT IN HER DUPA PFFT.
If you don’t know what Spaghetti Cat is, spread the word. We saw it first on The Soup, which we’re addicted to:
Spaghetti Cat would not leave, however:
Early predictions: Republicans–no idea who they’ll field in the end. Democrats–Edwards for President, Clinton for Vice-President. When all is said and done, afterwards, if Clinton gets to run for full President… if no one else rises up in the next eight to ten years, Obama will be her VP canidate. Barring total screw up on that level, I can see a safe twelve years of Democratic ownership of the White House due to the Iraq War, and general disgust by intelligient people in the United States. 2008-2016: Edwards/Clinton. 2016-2020: Clinton/Obama.
Some official polling numbers from around then are here. Maybe I wasn’t too far off, then?
Does he have a bad temper that makes likely to not be a good leader? Well…
For the World of Warcraft players out there, this player here named Lume wrote an angry piece here about the zombie invasion of the past week that got picked up by big Warcraft blogs like WoW Insider (yes, the game IS that big that it has lots of dedicated news media–tens of millions of players!). Lume said,
Do we really want to give so much power to people like this? Especially on a PvE ruleset? I sure hope not. Notice how he tries to berate me for killing him by justifying that the event is for killing people. “y u kill me fagg” definitely reeks of maturity and social validity. I’m only doing what a lot of people would do on a PvP server when someone griefs and camps lowbies. There are repercussions for being a dick!
What’s more, there doesn’t seem to be any purpose to becoming a zombie other than to kill and infect other players and NPC’s. If there was actually a quest to perform as a zombie, and if lowbies could actually defend themselves, I’d be a whole lot more forgiving and inclined to view the event in a positive light. I definitely think it has its place as a fundamental concept. But the specifics are broken.
The short version of what happened in-game, is that these multi-player games often have persistent universes that rarely change significantly in-game. They get expanded, or grown periodically with new content (new characters, new areas and places, new “quests” and things to do). World of Warcraft is unique in that it’s a shared universe (think Star Wars, between the films, novels, comics, etc.) that began with the original Warcraft video game in the 1990s. The story has progressed forward, and one of the “big moments” in the Warcraft game story was when one of the biggest heroes in the game world, a certain Prince and Knight of All Things Good And Holy, basically totally lost his shit in the face of a massive Zombie Apocalypse happening in his homeland (its much more involved and complex than that, of course).
This now growing crazy Prince, like Darth Vader–although this story actually predates Star Wars Episode 3–ends up giving into the Zombie Dark Side, and aligns with/becomes the supernatural force that was making all the people in his homeland die and rise up to eat their neighbors. The Good Prince killed his father and left the world, and became the Lich King. Hence why the second for-sale World of Warcraft expansion ever, due out November 13th this year, is called Wrath of the Lich King. The new king of all the very nasty undead fled to lick his wounds way back in the Warcraft III video game, in 2003, and is now back to, well, kill all life on the world.
The in-game Zombie Apocalypse event was basically the story-driven warning shot. It felt like a nice, simple analogy to what happened to the United States (although that could be my reading into it too much) back in 2001 with our being attacked. The Lich King expansion will show the retaliatory war on the undead, at long last. This event, that the guy is so mad about (and a LOT of people in-game were very upset about it) was simple: the Lich King baddie took out the various nations before with a plague that killed you, and made you a flesh-eating living dead monster. Story-wise it ran it’s course swiftly, and was a highly transmissible magical disease. Five years later in-game, they came back with an even more virulent version this week. The trick, though, was that they made it so that PLAYERS had the opportunity to play the bad guys this time. A neat twist–I was a zombie, running around, eating people, and spreading plague. I loved it, and it was a hoot playing arguably the worst bad guys in the entire history of the game universe–in a Star Wars context, this is like getting to play evil Sith, dark Jedi, and just running around lightsabering everything in sight. It lasted just less than one week of real time. And boy oh boy, were people upset. People didn’t want to “participate”. People didn’t want to walk into some city, or town, or village, and immediately be set upon by dozens and dozens of zombies, all trying to eat them.
Well… duh. What exactly were all these people complaining about? It’s been a key component of the entire story mythology, in-game universe, and action for over FIVE years. Of course you’re going to have to deal with it when they do these once-in-a-lifetime special events. That’s the point–they’re advancing the story of their game in a major way, which has only happened in such a major way when they moved from the old Warcraft III game to World of Warcraft in 2004, when the Burning Crusade (the first major expansion, in 2006, came out–demons invaded the world then, zombies now), and now, when they get ready for their second big expansion in 2008. Heaven forbid–you had to run away in fear a couple times per day for less than a week because of a story-based event that they let players run. It wasn’t abuse or “griefing” if a player zombie bit you and you died (which, important safety tip for non-players: dying by zombie meant you became one yourself, which you could instantly abort out of to escape, causing you to lose perhaps a whopping 30-60 seconds of your time). It was exactly what happened in the story non-stop a couple years ago, and it was back for a special story event. Would it have been acceptable if they just had non-player controlled zombies swarm the cities by the hundreds, as if it were a George Romero film?
This is why some game players can’t have nice things. I’m glad I bit all of you.
Found via Kos, there is a neat article here talking about the massive fight Elizabeth Dole has on her hands.
So how is it that Dole may well be toppled next week because of a pair of old guys in rocking chairs at a country store?
Because the men were actors hired by the Democrats this summer to star in one of the year’s more talked-about television spots — an advertisement that, by its very existence as well as its apparent effectiveness, symbolizes the extraordinarily strong position the Democratic Party has put itself in for the final fortnight of this year’s Senate and House campaigns.
The ad crystallized, in 30 seconds, four of the party’s main arguments against Dole. One actor asserts that she “is 93,” then points to her ranking as one of the least effective senators in a survey by a nonpartisan political Web site. “I’ve read she’s 92,” says the other, citing a calculation that she’s voted that high percentage of the time in support of President Bush. But the implications, of course, are that the senator (who’s actually 72 years old) is way past her prime and a carpet-bagger more comfortable in Washington, and they are hammered home in the final lines. “What’s happened to the Liddy Dole I knew?” says one man. “She just not a go-getter like you and me,” says the other.
Those sites make some great points. Mine is simpler, and goes in line with the simple point of what Obama has said again and again, and that the Republican machine and McCain haven’t been able to refute: eight years of failures. Either years of bad comedy, bad leadership, and bad policy, from end to end. That is what it comes down to. And this is nice to see, that people are taking it to them with good old fashioned bare knuckle honesty.
Yes we can
Originally uploaded by joeszilagyi
Has pure cane democracy!
Sent from my mobile phone.
