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Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Country Music as a Deterrence... I really like that when you walk up to Shortstop at night they pipe country music through the outside speakers. I always thought that the night manager must just like Kenny Chesney and Faith Hill or something. Today, a friend told me that they play country songs as a deterrent to people who might loiter outside the building late at night. Apparently it keeps folks from hanging out. Who knows if that's true or not... but as a country fan, it still hurts to hear. | private feedback | (0) public comments Dirty Tricks In The White House... Yet Again All the facts aren't in yet, and the formal probe has just been launched... But a potential scandal is brewing in the White House. Did a Senior Bush Administration Official leak the name of a CIA agent in order to discredit a critic of Dubbya? Not too long ago, Joseph Wilson denounced Dubbya's intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And in order to discredit him, sources say, the White House purposely outed his wife as a secret CIA agent. All signs point to foul play by the White House. And who would doubt Rove and his band of republicons are capable of it when they've also reportedly outed reporters as gay who have written articles and produced news segments that are out of step with how Dubbya wants his war on Iraq portrayed. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, angrily denounced the leak. "What has gone on in this case is one of the most dastardly, despicable things that I have seen in my more than 20 years in Washington and speaks to the lengths of how far some will go to stifle dissent," he said. The senator criticized the White House's reaction. "When was the last time that a covert agent's name was leaked, jeopardizing that agent's life, the life of that agent's network, of informants and the security of this country?" Schumer asked. "This is not just another ordinary leak." Stay tuned... | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, September 29, 2003 DemocraticUnderground.com As you know, if you've read any of the links I provide... Every monday, DemocraticUnderground.com compiles a list of the biggest conservative idiots of the week. I'd like to share this anti-gay conservative idiot... College Republicans Here's a bit of recent news which brings to light some activity which took place at the College Republicans National Convention this summer, specifically the selling of T-shirts containing racist and anti-gay messages. Try these on for size: "No Muslims No Terrorism," "Bring back the blacklist," [featuring a picture of Spike Lee] "Mr. (?) and Mrs. (?) Rosie O'Donnell," [featuring a picture of Rosie O'Donnell and her partner] and just for good measure, "The Clinton Legacy," [featuring a picture of the burning World Trade Center]. Of course, a spokesperson for the College Republican National Committee denied all knowledge and pleaded ignorance (which wasn't much of a stretch): "We sold over 50 tables to vendors. We didn't monitor every single product of every single vendor." Really? Cool, then I'll go to the next convention and sell anti-Bush shirts. But look, ultimately if the Republicans want to run on a racist and anti-gay platform, then they are free to continue to do that. I just hope they don't expect normal people to vote for them. John Kerry targets offensive T-Shirts in fundraising appeal... | private feedback | (0) public comments An amazing phenomenon... When you get mentioned on someone else's site and your web traffic goes up by a third. Wow, thanks! | private feedback | (0) public comments Big changes in store... I'm moving in with my boyfriend. (!!!!) The idea has been tossed around for a few weeks now... little bursts of conversation about what it might be like to live together, what kind of consolidation of stuff would have to happen... whose place would we take... would the cat get along with the dog? This is all very exciting and I have to say I'm downright giddy about it. I have never made a decision to move in with someone before... so this is HUGE for me. We finally decided that we'd move into the BF's apartment because I don't have a lease and he does... and that the cat will have no choice but to to get along with the dog. (I figure she owes me at least this since I saved her life not too long ago when she was on the verge of death.) Also, I have tons of friends that live in his neighborhood, so I'm excited about being closer to them... Really, I think this was a fantastic decision. The BF checked in with his landlord, which went well... and the only thing left to make it official was to check in with mine to see how he'd react to my leaving early. I had that conversation this morning. He was very accomodating and will be helping me try to find someone to rent the apartment. Hooray! (So if you know anyone in Ithaca who wants a fantastic apartment with a jacuzzi tub and a sauna, hardwood floors, skylights and the whole nine yards, let me know... seriously.) Now the consolidation of stuff begins. We'll keep my TV for the bedroom and my shelves from the living room, maybe my bed... and I'll get rid of/store a few things that I don't need in the immediate term. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to prioritize my stuff and shed any number of things that just aren't crucial possessions. Simplification... it's a good thing. | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, September 26, 2003 Proud to be a Democrat in New York State New York State Democratic Party in Favor of Gay Marriage. | private feedback | (0) public comments Another Recall Debate...  "Entertaining" and "annoying" are just two of the words I heard folks using to belittle Arianna Huffington's performance in Wednesday night's Recall Debate. I think that when political columnists, journalists and the media downplay her intelligence and her presence as "entertaining" or "annoying", they're missing the fact that this is the only female in the debate, and potentially the most articulate and with the most interesting perspective based on her life journey from Newt Gingrich groupie to independent-thinking progressive.
Whether or not its what people want to hear, her responses to questions tended to be dead on. (I will agree that sometimes it felt more like she was describing the water California is drowning in than offering up solutions... but she has one simple objective that seems to be as close to a panacea as you can get... special interests have no place in government. Period.) Unfortunately, Ah-nold gets credit for quick comebacks... but while he gets a few laughs, he misses the larger point... and that is that anyone who is running for Governor of any state in these times... is running against their opponents *AND* should be running against Dubbya and the road that Dubbya is leading us down. Unfunded mandates, and reckless tax cuts drain money from state aid funding and *DO* (contrary to what Ah-nold thinks) affect state budgets. And for Ah-nold to bury his head in the sand and tell Arianna to go campaign in New Hampshire if she wants to run against the president is just plain ignorant. Of course a Governor should be an advocate for national economic policy that benefits the state of California and should lobby against such measures that will adversely affect the state. And, in case we've all forgotten, the person in the white house is a republican who has completely ruined our economy and is presiding over the largest job loss of any president in decades... and the largest budget deficit EVER. And the other phenomenon that really pisses me off... is the differing levels of expectations that we have for folks participating in debates... One of Ah-nold's aides said something to the effect of, 'Well, if he can string together a few verbs and a few nouns and toss out a statistic then it will be a success.' Excuse me!? I think he ought to be held to the same standard instead of making excuses for the man... 'He did well, considering...' What does THAT mean!? That's the same thing that got Dubbya into the white house in 2000 (If you remember, he was also handicapped in the presidential debates). And as we've seen.. ignorance, stupidity, and arrogance are dangerous qualities when we rush to make excuses for them. | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, September 23, 2003 The Twelve Tribes Ithaca is in a bit of a tizzy. A religious group (who many call a cult) has made a home out of our modest city. (That's right, our very own cult in Ithaca, NY!) The cult ponied up a whole bunch of money (rumor has it that the money was entirely in cash) to buy a large building very near downtown to turn into a living compound and then another building right on the commons which they are renovating to house a cafe and community center. (I have a friend who lives in said soon-to-be-compound, and he attests to weird goings-on in the hallways outside of his apartment. In the meantime, he's looking for another place to live.) The group/cult, called the Twelve Tribes, is victim to many rumors that I can't verify... one of the worse ones that I've heard is that they abuse their children by making them do ungodly amounts of manual labor. And I've been struggling with this question... Would I patronize the Twelve Tribes cafe? I mean, if rumors are just rumors, and I can't substantiate them, that's one thing... (people often make up stories when they don't know the full truth). Well... my answer came today in the form of an email from a friend... she sent me this link... to the Twelve Tribes FAQ on social issues... (Who would have thought the group/cult had a web site!?) Direct from their site... 'We do not approve of homosexual behavior. We do not regard it as a genetic variation, a valid alternative lifestyle, or a mere psychological quirk. We embrace what God says on this subject without regard for political correctness. Homosexual behavior is immoral and can be mortally dangerous.' I will be avoiding the Mate Factor cafe on the commons, and I'd strongly encourage my fellow Ithacans to do the same. | private feedback | (0) public comments More fun Arianna Movies... Want to see what Grey Davis, Ah-nold, Bustamonte, Dick Cheney and Dubbya look like in thongs? Me neither... but check out Arianna's new movie anyway... It's a riot! | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, September 22, 2003 Arianna Huffington for Governor of California... Arianna's campaign announces an internet game that's funny even if you're not a registered California voter. This game follows on the heels of the super hilarious "Hybrid Vs. Hummer" online movie mocking Arnold... Since when has politics been this much fun? | private feedback | (0) public comments This has international fiasco written all over it... As if the world doesn't hate us enough right now... This time around, FOX's lame reality show Joe Millionaire, in its second season, dupes women from around the world. Apparently they had to cast overseas, since no self-respecting American woman would fall for the 'Millionaire' concept again. Good luck with that, FOX. | private feedback | (0) public comments The latest poll... The new Newsweek poll out this weekend already has Wesley Clark leaping to the head the field -- just days after his late entrance into the contest. The numbers: Clark-14%, Howard Dean-12%, Joe Lieberman-12%, John Kerry-10%, Dick Gephardt-8%, Al Sharpton-7%, John Edwards-6%, Bob Graham-4%, and Carol Braun and Dennis Kucinich tied for last place with 2% apiece. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, September 17, 2003 Workin' on a new look... So, as you can see, I've dumped the purple-lilac-deep-blue-whatever-you-want-to-call-it color in favor of a more clean white... and some retro blue and orange. (Don't worry, Jase... I'm not trying to copy you... I am hopin' to make a new header... and just haven't gotten around to it...) In the meantime I've also dumped the comments. Noone leaves comments anymore for two reasons... A) Y'all don't care enough to leave me little public notes... or B) The comments feature only works intermittently. (I've heard that sometimes it says they're 'full' and no more comments can be left.) This leads me to believe that I need to chuck the idea altogether or get a commenting system that works. So for now, I hope that you'll still send me emails through my feedback form. I love getting those! And... stay tuned... cause more changes are (hopefully) in the works! | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, September 16, 2003 Quote of the Day 'To me, that's not a reality show about gay people. A really good reality show for gay people would be five gay men dying of AIDS.' Julie Millam, Executive Director of the Montana Family Coalition, about Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. Read the article at Gaywired.com | private feedback | (0) public comments And Then There Were 10... There are now 10 candidates vying to be the Democratic nominee for President. Major news sources are reporting that Wesley Clark has made it official and jumped into the race. This most certainly is going to shake things up. (Maybe Kerry will end up being Clark's VP. *grin*) Clark certainly has the pedigree that folks are craving... He's a southern Democrat and a retired General who was against the war in Iraq... Maybe he'll be on next week's episode of K Street. :-) | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, September 15, 2003 Hang in there with me... While I'm trying to reorganize my page... | private feedback | (0) public comments Recall Election Postponed? Stay Tuned... The same court that made it illegal to say the pledge of allegiance in classrooms because the word 'God' is in it, ruled that the California Recall Election should be put on hold until March. I agree with both rulings, but especially this ruling to postpone the recall election... Why? Because a suit was brought against the state alleging minority voters were disproportionately casting ballots on older, outdated, and faulty equipment (akin to the butterfly ballot in Florida). In that case, it was ruled that the equipment must be updated prior to the next election so that minority voters did not become disenfranchised. The ruling held that the voting machines needed to be updated by March 2004, the next scheduled election. In the meantime... along comes the recall election... which gets scheduled for October (i.e., earlier than March 2004)... and the above-mentioned voting machines are still not updated... so the same minority voters are STILL at risk of being disenfranchised if an election is held before the machines are updated. I really don't know how this could be any clearer. The state already ruled that minority voters were being treated unfairly. They already ruled that the problem needed to be remedied by the next election... And the problem will not be fixed by October. How can any court, in good conscience, allow the recall election to go on? Let's see if the Supreme Court interferes within the next week and reverses this decision. If they do, the Supreme Court will once again, be sticking their nose into a situation where they shouldn't have any jurisdiction... and potentially help Republicans in their latest grab for power. | private feedback | (0) public comments Go HBO! Last night, Mom and I came back through Ithaca on our way back from PA... and we spent the evening at the bf's apartment watching HBO. He threw together a little party for the Sex and the City Summer finale. Following, was the premiere of Carnivale and what I was most excited about... K Street. I had intended to have the bf tape K Street for me (I don't get HBO) and then watch it with Lauren, my great friend and political conversation partner)... but got sucked in when it came on. (Sorry, Lauren... but we can still watch it in re-runs this week... I would SO watch it again!) What a brilliant show! James Carville and Mary Matalin are just amazing in it (just being themselves). It's like reality meets fiction, behind the scenes at a lobbying firm in Washington! Way to go George Clooney and the other guy who produces it with you. (You're someone famous, but I fail to remember your name... Stephen Sonderheim or something like that.) *grin* Howard Dean was in the first episode... which was Fab! The main story was James Carville offering to prep him for last week's presidential debate and how that affected potential new business at the new lobbying firm that he and his wife were setting up. (A lot of really funny James Carville/Mary Matalin as husband/wife jokes... Like Rick Santorum, Senator from Pennsylvania asking just how, exactly, that marriage works. I think we've all wondered that from time to time.) You might have to be a political junkie like Lauren and me to get most of the inside jokes, but I think just about anyone could enjoy K Street. Definitely check it out! HBO is re-running it throughout the week, including tonight at 8:30 on HBO2! | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, September 12, 2003 Running off for the weekend... I'm on my way out the door to go to Rochester... to meet up with Mom and go to Pennsylvania to see my new nephew. I'll try to remember to take a bunch of pictures. I have a lot I want to write... like how great my boyfriend is for calling to offer to take me to Rochester so that we could spend some extra time together... and like how sweet my friend Lauren is cause she found a stray kitten and is agonizing over what to do with it (Awwww)... but I have no time... So here's a picture of my cat (speaking of kittens) that I promised someone I would post online as soon as I got around to it... ...And I'll be back Monday!  Thursday, September 11, 2003 Thanks, Lauren!  Wednesday, September 10, 2003 No Big Surprise... Howard Dean has a strong lead among Gay and Lesbian voters. 37% of LGBT voters polled supported his candidacy compared to the other Democratic challengers (and Dubbya), who were all in the single digits. | private feedback | (0) public comments Le Waste of Time I am pretty patient and forgiving when it comes to movies... but I may have seen the worst movie of the year... maybe even worse than Serving Sarah (which was my pick for last year's worst movie).  Le Divorce has all the potential, but never delivers. A great cast should guarantee a much better movie... Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Bebe Neuwirth, Matthew Modine, and Sam Waterston. Surprise! Even the cast couldn't pull this one out of mediocrity. The story was poorly put together, multiple plots tripped all over eachother to be the main storyline, there were sub-plots and characters that had no business being in this movie at all (Hello, Matthew Modine's character and the crazy russian woman who sounds japanese!?!) And then there were weird scenes like various plates being served at a restaurant and a purse (bearing a handgun) floating above the city of Paris that just created a bizarre disconnect. There is absolutely nothing one can take away from this movie... And what was up with Kate Hudson's hair!? Look at that tragic cut in the picture I posted. Yikes! Even after reading a pretty rotten review in New Yorker magazine, I still braved this one... and wished I hadn't. Don't bother. | private feedback | (0) public comments Carol Moseley Braun deserves more attention than she gets...  We all know that I'm pretty much behind Howard Dean's bid for the white house, but there is just something about Carol Moseley Braun that I love. She is so smart, and so eloquent, and has this amazing diplomatic presence that you just can't help but like her. I'm amazed she's not getting more traction considering that she's the only woman running for president. Although the fact that she's a woman, I imagine, is why she can stay in for so long without any money, because she does genuinely offer a different perspective than any of the other candidates.
I saw Ms. Braun on Crossfire yesterday and was pretty impressed that she was able to hold her own against Tucker Carlson... (the fact that she went on the show is pretty amazing, how many other candidates have done that, period?) And I recently talked with friends who had watched the first Democratic National Committee debate... they were in awe of the way Carol Moseley Braun spoke, and advocated for a single-payer health care system. (Anyone who can make single-payer healthcare sound great and easy to follow just might have my vote...) As unlikely as it is, I would LOVE to see a Braun get tapped as the Vice Presidential Candidate in '04. (Maybe a Dean-Braun or a Kerry-Braun ticket.) If only because I would love to see 'The Penguin' (a.k.a. Dick Cheney) debate her. | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, September 09, 2003 Congratulations... ... to Carolyn Peterson for winning the Mayoral Democratic primary here in Ithaca. This win will assure that Carolyn's name will sit on both the Democratic and the Working Families Party lines on November's ballot. Eric (the guy I voted for) graciously conceded... and I assume Beau (who came in third) will continue to campaign on the Republican and the Independence party lines (good luck with that in Ithaca, dude). Throw Paul Glover into the mix and its anybody's guess what will happen in the coming months. Right up until the end I was torn between Carolyn and Eric, so I definitely can get behind her to get our first female Mayor. Unofficial vote tallies at the Tompkins County Board of Election had Peterson with 888 votes, Lerner with 482, and Saul with 364. | private feedback | (0) public comments Introducing Jordan William 
 Protesting LGBT youth... The folks who brought us GodHatesFags.Com (which seems to be down today, unfortunately) actually protested the first day of classes at the new full-time high school dedicated to educating LGBT students. Whether or not I agree that this school should exist (I haven't really landed on an answer for that one yet), the behavior of these 'christians' is really pretty sad. Think about that a second... a group of religious nuts carrying picket signs screaming 'Die fags!' at a bunch of school-aged kids as they go to their first day of class. Doesn't this just emphasize the reason that many of those students feel they need a safe haven such as this school? And what kind of mature adults scream 'Die fags!' at a bunch of high school kids!? | private feedback | (0) public comments New Baby... My mother called last night while I was seeing a movie... to say that Michelle, my brother's girlfriend, had just gone to the hospital in labor. An hour later she called to say that I had a brand new nephew... Jordan William, who is 8 pounds 10 ounces (exactly the same weight as my other nephew, Jason Bradley, was when he was born). Mom is already planning a trip down this wekeend which I hope to be able to join her on... and Andy promises a picture from his new digital camera sometime today. So, I'll share more news as it comes... | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, September 08, 2003 Tomorrow is Primary Day Voters in the City of Ithaca get to pick their next mayor tomorrow... sort of. The Democratic party has three candidates vying for its endorsement... and the Democratic party nominee tends to win on election day, considering that registered Democrats outnumber any other party by a margin of 3 to 1. I've finally made a decision about who to support for Mayor... Eric Lerner. I have been consistently impressed with his background, his intelligence, his ability to think on his feet, and personal follow-up to me concerning issues important to me and the LGBT community. I continue to be impressed. Not to mention, the folks that are running for common council seem to think that Eric will run the best, and most efficient meetings. Who am I to question their judgement? So vote for Eric Lerner tomorrow in the Democratic Primary! | private feedback | (0) public comments Mountain Biking My aunt's shrill voice replayed itself over and over again in my head yesterday afternoon. 'Shane doesn't like to get dirty.' She feels that this attribute of mine was THE reason for my not going to Vet school... 'I knew Shane wouldn't make it to Vet school, he doesn't like to get dirty. You remember all those Sunday mornings when all the kids would play outside and he would rather stay in to keep his clothes clean.' Whatever. If my Aunt could have seen me yesterday... going mountain biking for the first time, hanging in there with friends who go way more often than me... out in the middle of the woods, peddling up gradual and then steeper inclines, down some fun hills, and then my ultimate favorite: splashing through mud puddles, catching myself on my feet so that I didn't fall a few times... my aunt might have changed her mind. Time seemed to race by, but the bf (who also went) said we were on the trails for hours. It really didn't seem that way at all. I was also surprised that my white 'I Love Lesbians' t-shirt had any white on it at all by the time we were finished... my bike was caked in mud. I had a fantastic time... with only a few very minor scratches and abrasions to show for it. I hope I'll be able to go out and 'get dirty' again soon. | private feedback | (0) public comments Dubbya Addresses The Nation This should come as no surprise to anyone, but when I see Dubbya on TV, I get physcially ill. All I could say (after every other sentence) throughout his little address to the nation last night was, 'Fucker!' Our nation is so much more unsafe now than it was before 9/11 and this sorry excuse for a man wants to blame every single problem on terrorists and wants to wrap it all up in an american flag... We are less safe than ever because Dubbya sent us into Iraq. But let me tell you why... Before we went to war with Iraq we were focused on tracking down and routing out terrorists in the Al Qaeda network. Now, that our focused has changed, reports are too numerous to mention that Al Qaeda is reconstituting themselves within Afghanistan (when's the last time you remember Dubbya even mentioning the name of the guy he wanted 'dead or alive'?)... I hardly think that allowing Al Qaeda time to regroup makes us safer... We now are faced with a situation in which extremists, terrorists, and just about any anti-american presence wants to make us flee from Iraq with egg on our faces by carrying out guerilla style attacks on our troops there. Since our war there was never justified, they are looking for ways to retaliate against us for getting involved unilaterally in a situation that should have been a 'world problem' and never just a 'US problem.' We have created the very conditions in which Dubbya himself claims terrorism thrives... I gotta say though, finally, Dubbya realized that he was wrong and that Colin Powell was right. Its too bad that the only decent guy in that administration was so ostracized by the pro-war pack, only to be proven right in the end. So now we're going to go back to the United Nations (as we should have a long time ago) to ask the world to clean up the mess that we made... and we're going to justify asking for help by saying that Iraq is the new front in the fight against terrorism (because we made it so)... and I hope the rest of the world is more forgiving than we are. And on top of it all, even in the shadows of a looming war, Dubbya rammed tax cut after tax cut after tax cut... all for the wealthy, down our throats creating balooning deficits while withholding an estimate for how much this war is going to cost. And now, he's asking taxpayers to shoulder the burden to fund his $87 billion war... but if he was a real man he'd take away $87 billion of the tax cuts from the wealthiest recipients of his tax cuts to fund it and show us how his priorities shake out. Go to war or give tax breaks to the rich... unfortunately we can't afford both. Meanwhile he's running around saying we're in a 'jobless recovery,' which I imagine is not reassuring to those millions of individuals who have lost jobs since he's taken office (myself included)... *deep breath* | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, September 05, 2003 The Candidate Forum is Over... Well, the candidate forum that I organized for the LGBT Task Force was last night. In the end, I had to tweak the format a little bit... I couldn't let the common council candidates answer questions because I just didn't have room for all of them... Overall, I think the forum went well and it was better attended than last year's. I was so focused on my own job as moderator and filling time with questions that I didn't get to hear much of what was being said. And we really only had to ask a few non-LGBT questions, otherwise we had plenty of issues to talk about. All week long I had been going back and forth about whether or not to ask the Mayoral candidates about gay marriage considering that they don't have much to do with that legislation on the local level (and we already have a domestic partner registry in Ithaca). And then someone made a good case to me about the importantance of having Mayors and local officials who will make a bold statement to show that communities in New York support same-sex marriage -- hoping to influence lawmakers in Albany. (After all, we've made local proclamations for and against other national laws such as the Patriot Act and the War against Iraq, so why not Gay Marriage?) So the question did get asked (thanks to some great wording from an audience member), and it turns out all of the mayoral candidates support gay marriage. And, since this is probably the first piece of new information that has come out of a candidate forum in months... that's the headline that ran in today's Ithaca Journal... 'Mayor Hopefuls support same-sex marriage.' So I'm pleased... Many thanks to all my friends and the community members who came to the forum last night. I was so glad to see so many friendly faces there... and how great it was to look out into the audience and see my boyfriend sitting there -- he had rearranged his schedule so he could come, knowing how important this whole forum was to me. I am so lucky to have him... [Insert "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww's" here.] Update And in what might be my proudest moment in organizing this whole candidate forum... FreeRepublic.com, that super-conservative (and super-ridiculous) web site that declared Ithaca is the City of Evil has wasted no time in posting the Ithaca Journal article for comment on their site. Keep tabs on the responses here. | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, September 01, 2003 Another slap in the face... Talk is cheap... apparently. All this rhetoric about concern for the high unemployment rate... wanting to put Americans back to work, blah, blah, blah. All another line of B.S. spouted by George W. Bush and the republicans. Folks, they have sunken to a new low. The republican party is actually outsourcing campaign fundraising calls to foreign companies. From the article: 'This is the first time such a project has been handed out to a company outside the US. The market research and public relations companies engaged by the party usually undertake such projects. [The Company] has put in place a team of 75 people to work on the project out of its call centres in Noida and Gurgaon. According to industry sources, the number of seats could be ramped up depending on the success of the campaign. These operators are required to call up people in the US seeking their support for President George W Bush and a donation for the Republican cause.' Shameful! | private feedback | (0) public comments You see what you've started, California? A recall effort is underway against the republican governor of Nevada. And, still holding on to center stage in the California recall... I was watching CNN yesterday morning and they were mulling over the revelation that Arnold gave a pretty explicit interview some decades ago for Oui magazine. Talking about orgies and women as sex objects. But who cares!? So he said some goofy things, what actor doesn't to get press? There are way better justifications for why the man shouldn't be governor of CA. He won't debate any of his challengers, for one... And he just sounds like a dullard, though, that didn't keep a certain other individual from being elected nationally. And... in another well-publicized gaffe, Arnold said, "Gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." Gee, why hadn't we thought of that solution before? Liberal Bashing... And while I'm making comment. I was also watching 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos (or however you spell it) and got to listen to George Will rant about hypocritical liberals who champion campaign finance reform to prevent the influence of money in politics but then bask in all of Howard Dean's money raising abilities. Let me tell you why that's NOT hypocritical George Will... Because what campaign finance report is meant to do is to prevent certain individuals and certain corporate or business entities from having too much influence over a candidate. From preventing a candidate from being indebted to certain donors because of their wealth. This is what George Bush is doing... collecting HUGE checks from the rich and corporate interests. And he's doing it very successfully. What Howard Dean is doing is much more representative of the way democracy SHOULD work... thousands upon thousands of small donations from people who are excited about his candidacy.. not because they think they're going to get something out of it like the Enron's and Haliburton's of the world... but because they honestly think this man reflects their vision for the country and are honestly excited about his candidacy. And the bottom line is that while George Bush will be beholden to the special interests and the wealthy (i.e. his tax cuts and corporate welfare), Howard Dean will be beholden to his contributors... the people in the middle and lower-class who are donating to his campaign. The good news is, that no matter the wealth of the donors, all donors have exactly the same number of votes at the polls, one. So, let's hope more donors overall translates to more votes next Fall. | private feedback | (0) public comments Hillary Says 'Absolutely Not' in 2004 At the New York State Fair, Friday, Hillary was quoted as saying she will NOT run for president in 2004. What a bummer. I was ready to kick Howard Dean, John Kerry, and the whole lot of the nine contenders to the curb... Apparently, Mario Cuomo is as disappointed as I am. | private feedback | (0) public comments |
Hey! I'm Shane... a proud gay progressive Democrat who has recently relocated to New York City from Ithaca, NY. As I am no longer in Ithaca, I haven't quite decided the fate of this blog. Drop me a line!
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