STFU already, McCain/Palin

Has everyone heard yet about how Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig? Lets do something that the mainstream media hasn't done and display the context:

"John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics. That’s just calling the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years."

This sounds a lot like something McCain said in 2007 about Hillary Clinton's health care plan:

But when asked about Mrs. Clinton his speech, he said her proposal was “eerily” similar to the plan she came up with in 1993, when she headed a health care reorganization effort during her husband’s administration. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig,” he said, “but it’s still a pig.”

And when McCain said it, he was actually addressing something a woman said. Obama was talking about McCain. Yet Obama is sexist now? Give me a break. This makes me sick.

Here is the lastest McCain/Palin campaign commercial:



They STILL keep up with the "saved millions by vetoing the 'Bridge to Nowhere'" claims, even though there is sufficient evidence to show that she originally supported the bridge.

But Gov. Palin's claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

"We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge," Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, "and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." The bridge would have linked Ketchikan to the airport on Gravina Island. Travelers from Ketchikan (pop. 7,500) now rely on ferries.

Here is something a resident of Wasilla has to say about Palin's position on the "Bridge to Nowhere:"

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

I encourage you to read the letter in its entirety. It's just one person's opinion of Palin, but who knows her and her policies better than the people she governs?

And then, of course, there are the lies the McCain campaign is spreading about Barack Obama wanting to teach five-year-olds about blowjobs. Here is their campaign ad regarding this issue:



The purpose of Obama's sex education legislation was to provide age-appropriate education about what is inappropriate as far as touching, to help defend against child molestation and to teach the proper names of certain body parts so that, in the unfortunate instance that a child was molested, he or she could describe what happened.

Of course, the McCain campaign favors teaching abstinence rather than awareness. How exactly is that working for you and your family, Sarah Palin?

There are important issues that need to be addressed, and instead the media is pimping the McCain campaign and the ignorant masses are enthralled by Sarah Palin.

This is interesting - under Sarah Palin, Wasilla rape victims had to pay for their own forensic exams? Why stop there? I'd like to see the families of murder victims charged for the investigations. Yes, woman, come be in charge here!

And what about how Palin went into office in Wasilla with a surplus and left it in an enormous amount of debt and pending litigation just because of a hockey rink she had built on land they didn't actually own? So - in the decision of what gets priority with the taxpayer money, a hockey rink comes before rape victims?

As far as her supposed "experience" is concerned, here is something that I find interesting...

The republican party has said that Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden because, while serving as governor, she had been commander of the Alaskan National Guard. However, here is what Major General Craig Campbell, the actual commander of the Alaskan National Guard, had to say about that in an AP story last week:

But, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, (Campbell) said he and Palin play no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.

Yet here he is only a few days later in an interview with Fox News, singing an entirely different tune:



Is it a coincidence that, three days after this interview, Campbell was promoted by Palin to the rank of three-star Lieutenant General, making him one of the two highest-ranking National Guard officials in the country?

And speaking of experience, I'm really tired of hearing people throwing around the term "Junior Senator" when they're trying to paint Barack Obama as a man with no executive experience. If a person is a "Junior Senator," it only means the other Senator from that state has been serving in the Senate longer. And since we have Senators who have been serving in the Senate for over 60 years, it's very easy to be a Junior Senator and still be perfectly respectable. It doesn't mean that he hasn't passed some kind of initiation, and it doesn't mean that he's in some kind of trial period before they make him an actual senator.

Too late for sleep

My head is full and I can't sleep. It's full of silly things. Politics, mostly. And people. I'm so in love with people right now that I can't even stand it.

I work with some of the greatest people of all time. You don't even know. Sure, I might not get much out of my job. Besides pay, of course. Oh, and free medical insurance. So just pay and free medical insurance. And a shitload of vacation. So just pay, free medical insurance and a shitload of vacation. And a discount on my groceries. Pay, free medical insurance, a shitload of vacation and a discount on my groceries. And a bunch of free t-shirts. So just pay, free medical insurance, a shitload of vacation, a discount on my groceries and a bunch of free t-shirts. And $600 off the foreign language program that NASA uses. So just pay, free medical insurance, a shitload of vacation, a discount on my groceries, a bunch of free t-shirts and $600 off the foreign language program that NASA uses. And also the time and flexibility I need to figure out what I want to do with my life. So I just get pay, free medical insurance, a shitload of vacation, a discount on my groceries, a bunch of free t-shirts, $600 off the foreign language program that NASA uses and the time and flexibility I need to figure out what I want to do with my life. But if I got nothing but those things out of my job, it would be worth it just for the people I've met. It makes me want to move into a giant house with a bunch of them so we could sit around and talk about produce codes all day.

Seriously. My head feels like it's going to burst.

Sarah Palin baby scandal?

For those who haven't been following the election coverage, Sarah Palin, who was somehow chosen to be John McCain's running mate, recently had a baby who is afflicted with down's syndrome. However, there is some growing speculation that the baby is not really hers but Palin's teenage daughter Bristol's and that she tried to cover up her daughter's pregnancy because of her political career.

Of course it sounds like a giant conspiracy, but there's been a lot of research put into this and I think anyone who looks into it with an open mind might find that it makes a lot more sense than Palin being the mother does. Especially when there are so many images like this one of her, supposedly during the latter months of her "pregnancy," looking decidedly NOT pregnant:

From Blogger Pictures

Sarah Palin, supposedly six months pregnant

I first read about it on this blog, which I find entertaining and read on the rare occasion that I'm reminded of its existence. Apparently "Cajun Boy" and another blogger, after reading some initial reports about this scandal, did a large portion of the research. His past couple weeks' worth of blog posts contain a lot of information/speculation about the scandal, all of which can be found, here. However, as far as spelling out the information concisely and in an order that makes sense, I think it is best summed up by the other blogger here. And don't miss the part about Bristol being pulled out of school for several months leading up to the birth due to "an extended case of mono." Or the part about how the doctor who reportedly delivered the baby doesn't even work at the the hospital the baby was reported to have been born at. People - this is grassroots journalism at its best.

Of course - it could all be false. It's not like politicians lie very often...

On pulling my eyes out

Dear friends,

If you ever go to a grocery store and think you can try to sneak through the express line with a few extra items, that they won't mind making an exception, please keep this in mind: probably half the people there are trying to sneak through with a few extra items. You aren't an exception. You're just one more more asshole who thinks they're above the rules. And if you walk up to the cashier and say "I might have nine or ten items," first of all - lets be honest - you know perfectly well that you have more like 14 or 15. And second, if you're expecting the cashier to smile and say "sure, that's okay," that's probably just what you'll get. But not because it really is okay. Because they probably aren't allowed to tell you it's not okay and while they might appear to be smiling, it's probably just them gritting their teeth while thinking "I hate you" or "you're a douche bag" or things of that nature. The sign says "Eight items or less." It doesn't say "About eight items, but 11 or 12 is fine too." It doesn't say "Whatever you managed to fit into the basket." And it certainly doesn't say "For those who are in a hurry and don't feel like waiting in a regular line like everyone else."

Thanks, and have a nice day.

The obligatory political edition

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to politics. Think what you want of me, but I've come to accept that nothing major will ever happen because it will have to pass in both the Senate and the House and it just seems logical that nothing ground-breaking ever would. There will never be an anti-abortion law because the democrats won't vote for it, just like the republicans would never approve making guns illegal, or whatever it is that republicans care about. You may or may not agree, but that's how I see it. Just because a conservative might be elected president doesn't mean we're all going to be sent to church and forced to have our babies.

I did vote in the '04 general election since I'd just been granted the right to vote and I thought I should, but I didn't vote in the recent primaries and until now I hadn't really been planning to vote in the general election.

I assume it's obvious that I would vote for Obama. My views tend to run to the left. But I am so completely shocked and disgusted with McCain's choice of a running mate that I'll be sure to vote just in case it makes the slightest difference. Policy differences aside, I just don't understand how this could have happened. McCain regularly bashes Obama for his "lack of experience." And while he may be inexperienced compared to some, he's like George Washington to Sarah Palin's Marge Simpson. He received a B.A. in political science with a specialization in international studies from Columbia University, and she received a B.S. in communications from the ever-prestigious University of Idaho. He went on to receive a Juris Doctoral (J.D.) at Harvard Law, where he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, and she did her graduate work...wait, she never pursued any graduate-level studies. In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate. That same year, Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla, Alaska - a town of 8,000 people. In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate and also wrote and delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, at which time Palin was serving as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the "Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act," of which Obama was the primary sponsor. During that year, Palin was elected governor of Alaska. And here we are now, in 2008 - Barack Obama has a mere four years' experience on the U.S. Senate, and Palin has absolutely ZERO experience with federal government of any sort.

According to insurance statistics, a man McCain's age has only a 50% chance of living another four years and a 33% chance of living another eight. There is a very real possibility that, if elected, McCain would not live through his term. And if elected for a second term, his chance of surviving to the end of that term is even less. If McCain were to be elected, Palin could very conceivably become president of the United States at some point. The fact that she has somehow been put in the position of possibly becoming our president is grossly inappropriate.

Different people have different policy views, and obviously my views don't match those of the McCain/Palin ticket. Some people's do. That's fine. But hopefully people can see past the partisan differences and realize that she is just not up to the job.

And lastly, I know it probably makes me a bad person but I'm enjoying the irony of Miss Religious Fanatic's teenage daughter being knocked up. Hate me if you want.

Oops, vacation

Something amazing happened. A few months back Nick and I wanted to take off two extra days the week of Sept 8-15. We were going to set it up so we had Thursday through Tuesday off and we'd only need to use two days of vacation pay. There was a judo workshop in Portland that Nick wanted to go to, and we thought it would be fun to take a little trip. Those days, though, had already been blocked because of too many requests. So whatever. We totally forgot about it.

But the schedule for that week just came out, and we still got those days off. It's too late to go to Portland, and we've unfortunately used up the few vacation days we had. Still, we were only scheduled three days that week so there isn't much we can do. We'll have to take a smaller paycheck, but we get six days off!!

Has it really been two weeks?

Not much has happened during the past couple of weeks. We worked, went swimming, played video games and watched Arrested Development on DVD. And like everyone else, I too got sick. Luckily, though, I could feel the symptoms beginning and I was able to drown them in orange juice so they didn't get much worse. Also, somewhere in there I became a responsible vegan and jumped on board the supplement train. I now take a multivitamin along with extra calcium, iron and B12 daily.

About that, though - vegans tend to get flak for having diets "prone to nutritional deficiency" or something like that. And while the rapidly-expanding selection of vegan junk food makes it easy for a person to follow a very unhealthy vegan diet, in general I think most non-vegans are just as prone to deficiencies as vegans. How many people out there, regardless of whether or not they eat meat, pay attention to their intake of calcium or vitamin D or whatever? Just because a person's diet includes meat and milk doesn't mean it's automatically nutritionally adequate.

So anyway, today was our two-year wedding anniversary. We decided we'd celebrate by spending the day in Seattle. Specifically, we wanted to spend some time in Capitol Hill because it's the most current place we're thinking about moving to. I'd never been to Capitol Hill before. My mother was the one who would occasionally drive to Seattle with me, and since she's pretty conservative I guess she didn't have much interest in the gayest part of Seattle.





We parked on Capitol Hill and walked downtown. Then we walked to Pike's Place Market. Then we walked over near the Seattle Center. Then we walked back to Capitol Hill, where we continued to walk around. We Google Mapped it, and we apparently walked over five miles. Along the way, we found the Whole Foods we'd hopefully transfer to. It's at the base of the hill, pretty close to downtown.



We stopped for lunch at a place called Julia's, which apparently turns into a drag theater at 10:00 pm on Fridays and saturdays.



Then we went to this bowling alley called The Garage, which we will probably visit pretty frequently if we move there. It's pretty small - only eight lanes - and the equipment malfunctions constantly. It would try to place the pins upside down, and my ball got stuck behind the pins almost every time and then I'd have to use a different ball for my second roll. I'm moderately superstitious about things like that, by the way, and I don't like switching balls. But whatever. It was a lot of fun, and they have cheap drinks during happy hour. Oh, and their happy hour covers most of the day.



I took a bunch more pictures that I'm not going to post. I happen to love pictures, but not everyone wants to see billions of them I guess. If anyone happens to be interested, though, those pictures along with all the other pictures I've taken since 2005 can be found here.