HIDE THE TRUTH, HIDE FEELINGS...THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT AND WE'RE BIZ AS USUAL.

IF YOU SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE BIGS YOU WILL BE HANDLED NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE...

DAN RATHER- IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN AROUND

NOW THIS:

OF COURSE HE HAD TO PAY:MONTEL FIRED!

I have no idea how good his show was frankly I could care less, he obviously was able to stand the test of time.  His audience didn't go anywhere and I heard nothing about his ratings being the reason he was cut.  It was obvious, sometimes silence is all that needs to be said.

Shalom!

I woke up this morning for some reason thinking about first impressions.  The golden rule is of course you never get a second chance to make a first (that sounds weird, you like it though right), but it's stressed without fail as the end all be all and it's no where near the case. 

I was on Rodeo Dr. yesterday finally tying up loose ends and it struck me how nice everyone is on your way into the store but they focused moreso on the way out than anything. 

For some reason, I knew it had to have been more than coincidental.  So I will just come out and say it:

LAST IMPRESSIONS ARE IMPORTANT...

I thought about the way I felt on the way in: very curious and in search of someone honestly.  I was almost turning around until I met Ms. Dash... she did just about everything you're SUPPOSED to do: smiling, being courteous etc.  She took me around and showed me what's new and of course tried to figure me out a bit.  Now even though her suggestions were completely off (she figured me for the gaudy type I'm assuming) it was her closing performance that she executed seamlessly.

Not only was I taken care of but instead of letting me walk away still unsure of my worth to the store she actually walked me out talking to me.  Now I'm sure her impression of me changed once she looked at my history of purchases but that's besides the point.  So umm what is the point?  IDK J/K

Of course they ARE lasting (existing for a long time) but they're also seriously the one thing you'll remember without fail.  Which increase chances of repeat business based on what you felt but it also (key thing) determines what you're going to say (we all realize how important word of mouth is) when asked about the store...seems simple right?  So how come you didn't know that before?  OF course you did lol...

Oh and for anyone wondering how this can be used for the err opposite sex or just daily interactions think a little harder because I made it easy for you dre.

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

Seek truth...

Where do you start?  

Internalize

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

I just thought this was interesting...

A vending machine, instead of tasty delights like Cooler Ranch Doritos, we have granddaddy purp?  Wow only in California, well apparently for now only in LA suckas... Sneakaman Dan will eventually get tired of my jokes along with all of my other non LA residents and move here just for the convenience.

Seriously...

"If I believed what you believe, I'd probably be acting the same way you are..."

Once we realize that it's not a matter of judgment, but a matter of belief, everything changes.

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

RIP BOBBY FISCHER

Check out the atrocity here: CNN

Pour out a little liquor for him today and pause for a sec...

"In 1992, he resurfaced to play Spassky in a rematch in Belgrade, a move that defied U.S. sanctions against the former Yugoslavia.

He won the chess match and the prize money of $3.5 million, but spent the next decade as a reclusive and somewhat mysterious figure who was regarded as a fugitive by American authorities."

"Chess master Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest chess players in history, has died, a spokesman for the World Chess Federation confirmed to CNN Friday. He was 64."

'No cause of death was given."  It's as if he just went into another level of seclusion, I would love to see what would have happened had the US not been so butt hurt over a chess match played in Yugoslavia.  

 "the pioneer, some would say the founder, of professional chess"

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

SHALOM!

I got this link from one of my friends asking for my thoughts... not exactly sure is all I'm gonna say loll...

Thoughts?

Wow I actually knew I would start hearing stories about this just because Obama couldn't have lost New Hampshire.  I don't want to hop on the band wagon but the first thought that came to my mind when I heard Hilary won was some sort of fraud.  Turns out I wasn't too off:

PRIMARY CONCERNS
By Robert C. Koehler
Tribune Media Services 

As the breathless sports coverage of the presidential primaries bursts around me this morning, I’m doing my best to resist surrendering to the contrived drama about “comeback kids” and the flying shrapnel of numbers and hold onto my troubled skepticism about the electoral process, or at least most of it.

First of all, before we get too enthusiastic about feminist solidarity or wax knowingly about New Hampshire Democrats’ traditional soft-heartedness toward the Clinton family, let’s ponder yet again the possibility of tainted results, which is such an unfun prospect most of the media can’t bear to remember that all the problems we’ve had with electronic voting machines — and Diebold machines in particular, which dominate New Hampshire polling places — remain unsolved.

Did the Hillary campaign really defy the pollsters? She had been trailing Barack Obama by 13 percentage points, 42 to 29, in a recent Zogby poll, as election watchdog Brad Friedman pointed out. And the weekend’s “rapturous packed rallies for Mr. Obama,” as the New York Times put it, “suggested Mrs. Clinton was in dire shape.” 

So when she emerged from the Tuesday primary with an 8,000-vote and 3-percentage-point victory over Obama, perhaps — considering the notorious unreliability, not to mention hackability, of Diebold machines — the media might have hoisted a few red flags in the coverage, rather than immediately chalk the results up to Clinton’s tears and voter unpredictability. (Oh, if only more reporters considered red flags patriotic.)

The fact is, whatever actually happened in New Hampshire voting booths on Tuesday, our elections are horrifically insecure. For instance, Bev Harris, of the highly respected voting watchdog organization Black Box Voting, recently wrote that the Diebold 1.94w optical scan machines used in some 55 percent of New Hampshire precincts (representing more than 80 percent of the state’s voters) are “the exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County (Florida)” a few years ago. They haven’t been upgraded; the security problems haven’t been fixed. 

National, or at least media, denial about this situation doesn’t say much for the strength of our democracy.

And there's more. The political blog Prescue showed the difference between hand counted and machine counted votes.

By Percentage:

Method	Hillary Clinton	Barack Obama
Diebold Machines	53.23%	46.77%
Hand Count	47.47%	52.53%

By Votes

Method	Hillary Clinton	Barack Obama
Diebold Machines	82860	72807
Hand Count	18898	20912

By Number of Municipalities Won

Method	Hillary Clinton	Barack Obama
Diebold Machines	54	33
Hand Count	43	77

About 81% of the votes will be "counted" by the Diebold machines.

I've been finding myself listening to this album a whole lot more lately and truly realizing how much of what I say is in this song... so here's the lyrics and for your reading impaired you can hear it at the bottom. Really needed right now, just listen and read what she's saying. But more importantly pay attention to her passion while performing, that's not just a song it's a fucking story.

I've been finding myself listening to this album a whole lot more lately and truly realizing how much of what I say is in this song... so here's the lyrics and for your reading impaired you can hear it at the bottom.  Really needed right now, just listen and read what she's saying.  But more importantly pay attention to her passion while performing, that's not just a song it's a fucking story.

Yo, there's a war in the mind, over territory
For the dominion
Who will dominate the opinion
Skisms and isms, keepin' us in forms of religion
Conformin' our vision
To the world churches decision
Trapped in a section
Submitted to committee election 
Moral infection
Epedemic lies and deception
Insurrection
Of the highest possible order
Destortin' our tape recorders
From here and like under water
Beyond the borders
Fond of sin and disorder
Bound by the strategy
It's systematic deprivaty
Heavy as gravity
Head first in the cavity
Without a bottom
A fate worse than Sodom
What's got 'em
Drunk of the spirits
Truth comes, we can't hear it
When you've been, programmed to fear it
I had a vision
I was fallin' in indescision
Apollin', callin' religion
Some program on television
How can dominant wisdom
Be recognized in the system
Of Anti-Christ, the majority rules
Intelligent fools
PhD's in illusion
Masters of massconfusion
Bacholors in past illusion
Now who you choosin'
The head or the tail
The bloodshed of male
Or confidance in the veil
Conferences of Yale
Discussin' doctrines of Baal
Causin' people to fail
Keepin' the third in jail
His word has nailed
Everything to the tree
Severing all of me from all that I used to be
Formless and void
Totally paranoid
Enjoy darkness as the Lord
Keepin' me from the sword
Blocked from mercy
Bitter than (?)
Hungry and thirsty
For good meat we would eat
And still, dined at the table of deceit
How incomplete
From confrontation to retreat
We prolong the true enemies defeat
Death to the ascendancy
Causin' desperation to get the best of me
Punishment 'til there was nothing left of me
Realizin' the unescapable death of me
No options in the valley of decision
The only doctrine, supernatural circumcision
Inwardly only water can purge the heart
From words, the fiery darts
Thrown by the workers of the arts
Iniquity, shapen in 
There's no escapin' when 
You're whole philosophy is paper thin
In vanity
The wide road is insanity
Could it be all of humanity
Picture that
Scripture that
The origin of man's heart is black
How can we show up for
An invisible war
Preoccupied with a shadow, makin' love with a whore
Achin' in sores
Babylon, the great mystery
Mother of human history
System of social sorcery
Our present condition
Needs serious recognition
Where there's no repentance there can be no remission
And that sentence, more serious than Vietnam
The atom bomb, Saddam, and Minister Farakkhan
What's goin' on, what's the priority to you
What authority do we do
When the majority hasn't a clue
We majored in curses
Search the chapters, check the verses
Recapture the lamb
Remove the mark from off of our hands
So we can stand
In agreement with his command
Everything else is damned
Let them with ears understand
Everything else is damned, let them with ears understand

[Singing Chorus]
It's freedom, said it's freedom time now
It's freedom, said it's freedom time now
It's freedom, I'ma be who I am
It's freedom time, said it's freedom time
Everybody knows that they've lied
Everybody knows that they've perpetrated inside
Everybody knows that they've guilty, yes
Resting on their conscience eating their insides
Get free, be who you're suppost to be
Freedom, said it's freedom time now
Freedom, said it's freedom time
Freedom, freedom time now 

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

Fighting for creativity in an acqusition hungry time filled with journeys of synthesism rather than originality.

I've finally gotten a chance to slow down and think and write clearly.  I've been blocked for a few days even though I wonder what a writer would actually do since I don't consider myself one.  Like how do you actually get that title?  Does something just click one day and you become Duffy McMoron the writer?  

I don't ever want to be called a writer, I'd rather be an interpreter to be honest.  That's what I am from now on, in fact alot of us are...instead of that cheesy movie (some may like it) I'm taking my thoughts and everything in my head all jumbled up and...

Either way, got the dugout straightened up almost for the return and I'm for sure looking forward to that.  Seems like it's been so long because time moves fast and slow but no matter what you do, it's still moving.  I've cancelled about three or five sessions with my trainer in the past few weeks.  I know it's bad but hey let's be honest I find it inappropriate to worry about my physical appearance these days and would rather use that time elsewhere.  Like maybe putting a dent in the bottomless pit of movies to watch or books to read which seems to keep getting bigger by the week.  I'm currently reading a few that I will do at least a synopsis on once I'm finished because they're huge for me. 

I even got a chance to watch a few that were sitting around the dugout*.  Three Colors is soooo good so far but sooo hard to finish and I forget the one with the young Dustin Hoffman and the milf.  After those I know for a fact I'm gonna attack the rest of the pile so don't be surprised if you catch me dropping lines from Humphrey Bogart or Amores Perres.

L'histoire drôle du jour:

LA is a very funny place at times, my friend's landlord just came by right now as I'm sitting here and gave me his card.  I looked up because he had on a pair of my fav jeans (House of Cassette) and I knew something was amiss lol.  He said he worked with a few people over there and after a huge delay (I asked him what he does, never ask that in LA unless you want a can of worms open in your face...especially if you meet them while doing their "side" job) said he worked in fashion as a sales rep but he works in retirement planning.  That right there was all I needed to hear before drifting away even though I still could smell the bullshit that seeped from his pores.  I managed to make out him mouthing that his heart is in economics and he's from... Welp msg of that is this:

In LA just about everyone has something else they're doing but not doing enough of... everyone knows someone and if that's so you'll know it within an hour of meeting them.  Oh and nobody is okay with just being themselves and living how they see fit for the most part.  Like LA doesn't have enough of these types already, noooo we need more cars to pollute this place and make traffic worse.  We need more people discontent with their life goals and aspirations because you don't become famous for it.  They're usually people who move here and leave their morals back home.  Instead of following their heart they prefer to be lumped onto everyone else unhappy with what they get up everyday and do.  All in search of... they don't even know.

Lesson of the day:

Substance and meaning outweighs glamour and a facade anyday!  Never be intimidated to live everyday with that tattooed on your forehead~

*dugout: feel co-op headquarters, birthplace, hangout etc.

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

Okay, I unveiled a totally new blog style for ya'll suckas last time. It felt good. And I wanna keep feeling gooooood.

So I'm gonna keep at it.

My plan is totally illegal. I'm gonna just cut-and-paste like whatever I want from like whatever site I want and then put it on my blog. It amounts to a whole wagonload of copyright infringement. Someone will definitely sue me.

But it's all in fun. And we're gonna learn some stuff along the way I hope.

Most of the time I'm gonna log onto different blogs and say different things and see if people respond to them. My blogging style is sort of bull in a china shop mixed with Ben Franklin so I eat like whole flocks of crow but then blow the crowd away with my science-dropping mouth candy freshness.

Then I'm gonna insert links which will be kind of annoying for your browser having to go back and forth but that's the best I can manage right now. And these links will be amusing but sometimes I'll surprise you with a poignant one here and there. I'm pretty much bitting Colbert's the Word completely but arrrrrrggh, mateeeey! I'm a pirate, who cares!

Or, here's another way to put it, you remember those Captain Morgan ads where there'd be all these young sexy skinny people partying by a campfire or on a boat or something slamming rum like totally horny and one of them has a funny red mustache and the bottom says: The Captain Was Here!

Well I'm the Captain. Pirate journalism. So it begins.



Oh man it's been like half an hour since my last post but man do I have some juicy shit for you! I'm not gonna reveal what website it's from, a smart decision I think. (although I suppose all people think their own decision's are smart) Anyway this guy wrote this ridiculous and totally boring piece so I thought I'd stir some stuff up. People get so angry!

Oh yeah I skipped about a million posts between his piece and my post but, who cares about those anyway.

Don't forget me when I am knee deep in lawsuits! (PS on my blog I ALWAYS WIN!!!)

*****

"Unity" is for Cowards and Fools

by DHinMI

Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 12:13:41 PM PST

This morning I caught a discussion on NPR's Diane Rehm Show with some of the ninnies who attended yesterday's meeting in Oklahoma chaired by former US Senator David Boren. Boren droned on about his wish that the presidential candidates commit now to choosing a bipartisan "cabinet of national unity." Former NJ Governor Christie Todd Whitman prattled on about the importance of finding "middle ground." And when pushed by Rehm on the possibility that the Iraq war was not only a product of partisanship, but also a factor that has increased partisan acrimony, defeated former IA Congressman Jim Leach spread the lie that "the majority of the Democratic party supported it."

I have more respect for Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, David Addington and Dick Cheney than I do for Democratic capitulators like Boren and cowardly Republican "moderates" like Whitman and Leach. Boren, Whitman and Leach shun adversity and conflict. At least Gingrich et al are formidable adversaries.

If the "solution" to hyper-partisanship is to fetishize a flaccid centrism, I'd rather slug it out with the hyper-partisans and let the voters decide between the us and the Republicans. Especially now, as the majority of the electorate has begun to conclude that the Republican party has been captured by extremists and the Democratic party embodies the mainstream of American values, concerns and aspirations, we don't need milquetoast centrism, we need principled partisanship.

I argued a few months ago that there are no bipartisan solutions, because the Republican party, as the evolutionary product of over 40 years of extremist rightwing activism, has become radical and divorced from the mainstream of America:

As [Justice John Paul Stevens] Stevens pointed out in the Seattle schools case, as we see on the Iraq votes, the majority of Republicans are radicals, or are too beholden to their radical leadership, radical money interests and radical activist base to step up and do what’s good for the country. Democrats like Joe Biden, who’ve served a long time in public life, have a hard time recognizing that the Republicans no longer can or care to act in the interests of the country. Therefore, we must recognize that until the Republicans change, the answers to our nation’s most pressing needs and challenges—getting out of Iraq and fixing our foreign and defense policy, combating terrorism, addressing global warming and environmental devastation, changing out energy policy, implementing universal health care, shoring up the economic security of the middle class, expanding opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged, and undoing the damage of the "unitary executive" and the assault on our civil liberties—will not be bipartisan. Demanding bipartisan solutions to our problems requires us to wait for the Republican party to heal itself. We can’t wait, and it’s time all our Democratic politicians and policy wonks and pundits and campaign and strategy people stop expecting the Republicans officials and party leadership to join in and work for the good of the country.

Boren, Leach, Whitman and the rest are blaming Americans' anger and current governmental gridlock on partisanship, when they should be placing the blame where it belongs: the radical right and its Republican allies in Congress and the White House. Boren talked this morning about the "unity" achieved on numerous issues during the Cold War. He's correct that during the Cold War the parties worked much more closely and cooperatively on national security issues. But after the Cold War, Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich unleashed a scorched-earth politics, and Karl Rove refined it to the point that former Georgia Democrat Max Cleland's support of union rights for federal employees to be brought under the umbrella of the new Department of Homeland Security was used by the Republican party to run ads linking Cleland with Osama bin Laden. The Republican party no longer accepts opposition as American; for them, domestic opponents can and are demonized as anti-American.

So, Boren and the other losers waited until now to start preaching bipartisanship?

The American people want solutions, and they are looking to the Democratic party for those solutions. They want to undo the abuses of the Bush administration, not keep just enough Republicans in positions of power to permanently lock in the damage. This election has many, many parallels to the election of 1932, which swept FDR and a huge Democratic Congressional majority in to power and led to the creation of the New Deal, our party's greatest legacy, which created the vast and prosperous middle class. Boren and other fake Democrats more concerned with unity than the good of the country are dupes, because it's exactly this kind of transformative positive partisanship that we need.

To accomplish anything, the next Democratic administration and Congress won't have to work with the Republicans, they will have to prevail over them. To prevail will require people with backbone. We need people who recognize that it was Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol and the Republican party that purposively blocked any attempt at health care reform in 1993 and 1994. It was the Republican party that unanimously opposed Bill Clinton's 1993 budget, which led to the balanced budgets of the late 1990's. It was the Republican party that attacked the foundations of the New Deal and precipitated the government shutdown in 1995. It was the Republican party that in 1998 impeached Bill Clinton, ostensibly because of a blowjob. It was the Republican party that mobilized it's shock troops, lawyers and allies in the media to steal the 2000 election from Al Gore and secure the White House for George W. Bush. It was the Republican party that abetted Bush's lies that led us in to the war in Iraq in 2003. And it's the Republican party that's engaging in rampant and admitted obstructionism to prevent meaningful Congressional action on getting us out of Iraq, passing an expansion of health insurance for children and a host of other issues.

To deal with the Republican radicals in Congress, the think tanks and the media, we need people who are willing to be firm and resolute. We do not need people who seek the "center." Moderation is fine, but "centrism" is catastrophic when the Republican party is so far to the right. The "center" between our two parties is far to the right of the American public, and that's why all current indications are that November will be a blowout election. That apparently scares Boren and his buddies, because now they're acting like a cabinet-in-waiting for Republican Michael Bloomberg, and hoping he will spend some of his $11 billion to muck up the election, keep Democrats from gaining full control of the federal government, and reversing the damage of the last 7 years of the Bush administration.

Ultimately, the problem with the losers who met yesterday in Oklahoma is that they live in fear. They fear conflict, and they are cowards. Leach voted against the Iraq War Resolution, but when did he ever speak out against the Bush administration and his fellow Republicans? Plutocrat Whitman was in the Bush administration, and while she now tries to hold herself above the partisanship of Bush, she blew her opportunity to speak out by resigning over principle. Instead, she claimed the air around Ground Zero was safe and skulked out of DC without speaking the truth about her president and her party. And Boren, where was he when the Gingrich revolution was picking up steam in 1994? He was resigning his Senate seat instead of staying and fighting for the country. The result is that Boren now talks about bipartisanship, while the guy who took over from him, global warming denier James Inhofe, has probably done more harm to the planet than any member of the United State Senate.

Grover Norquist notoriously described bipartisanship as "date rape." That's repugnant, but in the current climate, until the Republican party heals itself and purges the radicals, bipartisanship is stupid. It's cowardly. And if you care about our country and have the guts to look at our politics not as you would like them but as they actually are practiced, right now to preach bipartisanship is preach surrender.

*****

So there was like a million people that commented on that story but I wanted his attention so I went for this really eye-grabbing title:

*****

DHinMI, your vendictive piece is despicable

To begin, don't call the "date rape" comment repugnant if you are obviously enamored by it and employing it to rhetorical benefit. That's repugnant, and sexist. I shouldn't have to explain why.

Unity is for wise and brave men, quite the opposite of cowards and fools. Fear and anger is for cowards and fools. Blaming beautiful and selfless concepts for the shortcomings of completely unrelated ideologies is for cowards and fools.

I know many intelligent, passionate, and decent Republicans. The problems facing humanity, the ones that will hit each younger generation progressively harder, will not be solved without their support.

Blame their ideas. Don't blame bipartisanship, unity, or optimism. And don't call these things surrender. To plunge forever into violence, to forever accept a compromised figure of mankind's ideal, that is surrender.

Bipartisanship is not cowardly. The best quote I ever heard about cowardice came from Gandhi: "My creed of non-violence is an extremely active force. It has no room for cowardice or even weakness. There is hope for a violent man to be some day nonviolent, but there is none for a coward."

That would make a pugnacious, vengeful outlook cowardly.

Bipartisanship is tolerance. That doesn't mean that we must forgo our deepest values. We strive for common ground where through discussion and debate the best views will emerge. That's true democracy. If our values are not bipartisan values then we have not succeeded. That doesn't mean that we accept bipartisanship regardless of consequence, but we understand that ultimately we must understand those that we oppose and would oppose us, that no mandate is legitimate without solidarity. If we are confident that our word is truth, we must believe that the other can understand us, that being human is stronger than any differences that rise amongst ourselves, and that truth will prevail. Therefore we must focus on what unites us.

And get over the Democratic party, please. It smacks of idolatry. There are many shameful things that the Democratic party has done, that Democratic presidents have done, that Democratic congresses have done. That doesn't mean that the Republican party is better. However the common ideology that the supposed division within two party system masks remains both parties' unspoken myth: support for predatory capitalism.

We can't blame the radical right for all of our problems anymore. We must accept our own shortcomings first. As long as the Democrats back neoliberal ideas that gained perhaps their strongest foothold in the world during the Clinton years, they will be working in cahoots with extreme private power and the radical right. But I'm not advocating any particular form of government.

We must strive for a sustainable world. The longer we wait the worse the crisis becomes. Can we achieve a sustainable world through flexible accumulation, or any form of capitalism as we have experienced it for that matter? Can the world continue to prop our rabid, shameful consumption as Americans? I think that nature screams no. Climate change is not false. I don't even mention growing disparity and financial instability, or the perpetuation of homelessness, slums, slavery, sex crimes, and starvation.

So the biggest issue facing our planet is not being addressed by the democrats or the republicans. And that is our unsustainable lifestyles, collectively. And we can never change our collective habits without bipartisanship, not through pettiness and finger-pointing. We must forgive ourselves and one another, and move on. There is work to be done.

by deadondres on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 01:49:28 PM PST

Obviously You're Too Delicate a Flower...

...to hang around here if you think quoting Grover Norquist about bipartisanship being like date rape is sexist.

Toughen up, and get over yourself.

The revolution will not be televised, but we'll analyze it to death at The Next Hurrah.

by DHinMI on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 01:54:23 PM PST

Fine I'll explain. Your frustration is telling.

Ad Hominem won't make your logic any less troubling.

Neither does an appeal to authority. Just because Grover Norquist said it doesn't make it any more okay, nor does it absolve you of any guilt from repeating the quote.

I'll explain why your, or Grover Norquists' if you can't even owe up to your own language, logic is sexist. It will be easy, you called it repugnant yourself. Oh, you meant aside from the sexist implications.

Conceptualize date rape. We will say it is between a man and woman although it can surely occur between a man and a man and I imagine a woman and a man.

A man drugs a woman and sexually assaults her. He has committed the greatest violation towards another human being imaginable, next to torture. To suggest that a political action, bipartisanship, can somehow compare to the indecency of date rape is a completely sexist assumption because it marginalizes the real world consequences when date rape actually occurs. The same occurs when negative implications of date rape is applied to a completely unrelated topic. You would never say bipartisanship is the holocaust, would you? Bipartisanship is the trail of tears? Because it is disrespectful to those that actually endured such hideous events.

I didn't call you sexist but the above quote is certainly a sexist expression of language. Don't hide behind some postmodern reasoning that feigns that your use of words and metaphors bears no significance. No true writer would believe that.

by deadondres on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 02:19:22 PM PST

Like I Said

If reporting what Grover Norquist said about bipartisanship gets your knickers in a knot, and cuts off enough blood to your brain that you conclude that it's sexist to report what he said, you're probably not suited for this place.

The revolution will not be televised, but we'll analyze it to death at The Next Hurrah.

by DHinMI on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 03:24:57 PM PST

Clearly not

The intelligent discussion must be going on somewhere else.

I win!

Adios, badass!

by deadondres on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 4:41:11 PM

*****

Ohhhhh, burrrrned!!! That guy makes we wanna go be a Republican! Who knew liberals were such assholes?

He didn't reply so in my last post I called him a pussy. A sexist pussy.

Till next time dearest friends,

Shalom!

I googled "alternatives to marketing" and all I found were sites for companies that do brainmelting of the buzz, viral, and word-of-mouth variety. I did find this though. Shouldn't we stand up for ourselves a little bit better? Okay, I'm gonna post a long transcript taken from the Washington Post which I use as an avenue of ranting with the world, sorry to push the rest of the posts off of the page but I find it hilarious. If anyone has time to read this I especially loved the movie references, the Planet of the Apes and guess who's coming to dinner lines. As a bonus, insomnia-inspired links included by yours truly.

*****

I am suprised that Obama refuses to defend himself against charges of inexperience. In many ways it could be a plus. I can think of another president that built his reputation in the Illinois state legislature and never served as a US Congressman before becoming president. Interestingly, Obama preaches a similar message: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Posted by: deadondres January 7, 2008 12:00 AM

Experience?
Every candidate in 2008 has ZERO experience in being President of the United States.
The closest occupation is probably candidate. Similar pressure and similar tasks: mobilizing public opinion, communications, managing a lot of money and people, building coalitions, persuasion.
The most successful candidate is probably the best qualified individual.
Posted by: mnjam January 7, 2008 12:03 AM

I agree with optimyst -- I am an Obama fan who is thrilled by the prospect of a truly inspirational and hope-filled candidate this fall and don't want to rub it in to the HRC supporters. But I am also dismayed by the number of HRC supporters who threaten that they'll desert the dems and vote for whoever the republicans put up should Obama be the nominee. I hate to say it, but that is emblematic of the kind of rhetoric and arrogant attitude that imbues HRC's campaign. I don't support her; I think her nomination would be divisive and result in yet one more republican president. But I would sure as heck vote for her over Huckabee et al. and I would never try to damage the future of this country because my ego (and candidate) had been bruised. Grow up people and stop the petty politics of fear and threats!
Posted by: Omyobama January 7, 2008 12:07 AM

For all those criticizing Obama for empty rhetoric, I encourage you to visit the issues section of his website. The policy paper pdfs are more numerous and more detailed than those on the Clinton site. While they're not as detailed what public policy professors would produce, one just can't expect that from a campaign. Please, just give them a look.
Posted by: jpc.murphy January 7, 2008 12:07 AM

I agree, the Democrats will loose. My self and many of my age group are not excited about having a man who has no shame in trying to run for an office he is not qualified for. In addition, he has a wife who jumps around like she is hip hopping while campaigning. If he was so hot, why did he need Oprah? Couldn't do it on his own!
He most definitly is more black than Oreo and it shows because he choose a wife who is black. Listen up, because when he becomes President, African Americans will not be arrested, they will empty the prisons and cause more crime than ever imagined. Our country will be like the "Planet of the apes".
Also, I do not think he is handsome, I agree that his ears are ugly like Dumbos...I think Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are rolling and squirming in their graves.
God Help us!
Posted by: genadoll January 7, 2008 12:07 AM

At long last, a chance for Americans to turn our country around and be proud again to be Americans, instead of ashamed!
I'm so excited that such an honest and ethical candidate has the audacity, optimism and energy to lead us out of this Bush/Cheney/Clinton hell-hole and into a much brighter future!
I'll never forget the day that Congress decided to shine the fact that Clinton had lied under oath. My God, the President of the United States did that; what did that say to our children and grandchildren? That day was the beginning of America's downward spiral, I believe. Now we have a chance to turn it around and carry on as a strong and decent country where no one is above the law, and where we care about each other and work together to solve the challenges that appear.
GO BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!!!!
Posted by: blisssusan88 January 7, 2008 12:09 AM

The Democratic debate yesterday caused me reluctantly to conclude Hillary Clinton is by far the most intelligent, most qualified, most articulate and most capable candidate for president. She has a depth of knowledge and an ability to make connections on all sorts of subjects that none of the others have. Obama is a flavor of the week. He is inexperienced in Washington, he has never managed anything in his life and he has nothing of substance to say. "Hope" and "change" are pretty words, but they mean little in real terms.
I'm reluctant to say I support Hillary because for the past year, I've resented her as the spouse of a former president. However, she makes it clear she is Bill's equivalent (if not superior) when it comes to intelligence and drive.
Posted by: peterlor January 7, 2008 12:09 AM

I continue to hear 35 years of experience. What 35 years? Before her run in the Senate she had been the wife of a President for 8 and 12 years as Governor of Arkansas. This doesn't prove anything and sure we share with our spouses about our jobs but that doesn't make them gain experience. Before that she was a lawyer and her only claim during her husbands tenure which was Health Care was a failure. So again 35 years keeps being mentioned but I don't see it. All I see is her Husband, Albright and all the old Clinton Guard by her side so for someone who says she is her own person her fall back is always to the success of her husband.
I have not made up my mind on who I'm voting for but that 35 years thing after researching is not true. My opinion.
Posted by: robinson.santiago January 7, 2008 12:13 AM

Racists like genadoll who claim that their "age group" is not ready to vote for Obama better be prepared to know that a much younger and more tolerant "age group" is preparing to replace a generation that proved it no longer had any shame in voting by reelecting Bush unequivocally. I am sorry that black people scare you so much unfortunately we now must sieze the country away from such living anachronisms as yourself. And we'll be "hip-hopping" the whole way, haha!
Posted by: deadondres January 7, 2008 12:16 AM

Some have commented on the race aspect. It's not just a race thing, it's what the Republicans will do with this particular black man.
They're passing around a link to his church web site now on the internet, and if the MSM prints what that web site says, you can kiss the Democrats presidential hopes goodbye.
Someone posted the basics of it in the ABC blog similar to this one, so it's getting some air already.
rd
Posted by: ralphdaugherty January 7, 2008 12:17 AM

what happens when Democrats wake up and realize that Barack Obama has never been in a major contested election. He won election to the Senate only after the Chicago Tribune knocked his opponent out of the race. A century ago Democrats had a great orator for a candidate, but William Jennings Bryan became a 3 time loser as a presidential candidate.
Only one Democrat has defeated a Republican without first serving as a governor or inheriting the presidency after the death or a president Barack Obama is no John F. Kennedy and his opponent won't be an incumbent vice president (only two of them have won in the last 200 years).
Obama is the best thing Republicans have going for him. His nomination could make it possible for Michael Bloomberg to become the first minor party candidate to win a presidential election since Lincoln.
Posted by: jalexson0 January 7, 2008 12:19 AM

Oh and by the way if we have the Andrew Jacksons rolling in their graves we must be doing something right...
Posted by: deadondres January 7, 2008 12:19 AM

"But I would sure as heck vote for her over Huckabee et al."
Yeah, but I think they were saying McCain, not any Republican, and certainly not Huckabee.
McCain isn't generally thought of as possible to win the Republican nomination. He's too sensible.
rd
Posted by: ralphdaugherty January 7, 2008 12:23 AM

Looking at these comments, I fear I am in the minority, but I am a lifelong Democrat who, like a couple others, sees a lack of specifics and a lack of experience with Obama. The partisan Republican party will not disappear this next election, nor will the conservative elements of the Democratic party, and I have no confidence he will be able to effectively deal with these elements in DC, particularly if the Dems don't get a filibuster proof 60 votes in the Senate.
I feel he has not been fully vetted by a critical press, and I hope that takes place over the next few weeks. Unlike some of you, I hope Clinton and Edwards stay in the race. I would have no problem going to the convention without a cler nominee.
Posted by: pctheisinger January 7, 2008 12:24 AM

Hillary held her own in the debate and proved that she is a fighter and will not be bullied. The White House is no place for sissies or pretty boys. The President needs to be a fighter, I'll put Hillary up against any world leader or threat that arises and know that she will not back down!
Posted by: jimscorner January 7, 2008 12:24 AM

About Clinton's "experience," she was a director of Wal-Mart during her husband's governorship of Arkansas. How can unions support a former director of one of the most anti-union companies on the planet, Wal-Mart? How could she have squared whatever principles she has to serving Wal-Mart?
Posted by: jabplus January 7, 2008 12:27 AM

The genadoll post above is racist crap, but God help us, it's just a tiny sampling of what;s to come throughout 2008 if Obama gets the nomination.
I'd almost say yeah go for Obama just because of those Republican racists but we would lose the presidential election.
At this point I guess I'm disgusted to have to draw such a conclusion. I would like to think the majority are better than that, and I truly hope we are.
rd
Posted by: ralphdaugherty January 7, 2008 12:29 AM

deadondres --
I believe you said "I can think of another president that built his reputation in the Illinois state legislature and never served as a US Congressman before becoming president."
Abraham Lincoln served one term in the House of Representatives. I believe it was at the start of the Mexican-American War and he voted against it.
Posted by: pctheisinger January 7, 2008 12:29 AM

What is so tiresome about Hillary is the constant me, I, me, I. Obama soars in like an eagle and it's all about WE. Hillary does'nt get it and never will.
Posted by: diabloquick.wa January 7, 2008 12:30 AM

Ah, pctheisinger after further research I see that you're right. So only one term (although it seems he dropped out of politics for a while). So only one term in Congress, an even greater correlation. I appreciate the correction.
Posted by: deadondres January 7, 2008 12:35 AM

I have no problem with Hillary, Obama, and Edwards splitting the vote well into the primaries. Everyone in the country needs to be heard.
rd
Posted by: ralphdaugherty January 7, 2008 12:38 AM

I would rather lose with Obama than to win with Clinton. The rest of you need to get over it. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?
Posted by: rbaile January 7, 2008 12:41 AM

No, genadoll. God help YOU.
Posted by: tommit January 7, 2008 12:42 AM

RE: HRC
Unfortunately, sometimes become become like their enemies; HRC sounds more and more like the Republicans who attacked her ... negative, cynical, and petty
Posted by: davisny January 7, 2008 12:54 AM

Hey, I hate to sound like "What would Obama do" but those of us who support him should follow his example in being respectful and positive in our comments, not taunting or belittling. Read what he's written, listen to him speak...he is a great man and could lead and inspire our nation to be so much better than it is now.
Posted by: pjwright January 7, 2008 01:30 AM

Pjwright although I agree that taunting or belittling is hardly constructive, I can't buy into your WWOD philosophy. His optimism is uplifting to be sure, but the man is not Gandhi. I respect the man, he his upstanding surely but until he puts nonviolence at the forefront of his agenda I won't follow him unquestioningly. He hasn't really said anything that makes him any more decent or inspiring than many brave individuals I interact with in my everyday life. Politically the last three standing all strike me as largely the same, if we wanted something different we would have given figures such as Paul and Kucinich more of a chance. I mean, call me a simpleton but I really can't understand where they disagree on any major issue. What makes Obama different is he gives us the opportunity to quit considering ourselves "masses" that need to be lead by "leaders" such as a Clinton or Edwards - we can choose our own identity and shape our own destiny. It's an old notion but it's playing out in this election - power to the people! Let's not forget that we are capable of many things on our own, if we choose to actively participate in the institutions that guide our lives and are not content to passively allow our world to develop around us.

That being said Obama's idealism, I hope, will give rise to greater accomplishments and compromises. Electing the guy will not solve the tremendous problems facing our world that myself and all other young people I know obsess about on a daily basis. Eventually we're going to have to take a hard look at our habits and lifestyles and accept that they are not sustainable. However generating solidarity behind common values to work together to solve these problems is the first step and Obama sincerely proposes and embodies at least this much.
Posted by: deadondres January 7, 2008 02:12 AM

I cut some of the boring comments out (not my own of course). Sorry about the pink links, if you see them it might be 'cause I'm using Explorer right now 'cause Firefox won't start. Or is that what it always does?

It's aweful how the "qualifications" arguement masks such racist and sexist assumptions. The Hillary and Obama cadres ought to drop that line of reasoning. Oh well gotta sleep now...

"By developing our design concepts in-house, we learn hands-on how to evolve the architecture of the end product. To allow the best solution to emerge." -FYI

That right there sums it up for me right there...

Looking into alot of different things going on in my future place of residence (Montreal here we come) and stumbled onto this. Well not really, I've been reading about them for a while but didn't want anyone else I know to know if that sounds right. Well either way really groundbreaking in my opinion, things like these excite me especially considering the times.

FYI Design Dept.

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

Just found this out, which makes me even more excited!

Shalom!

Why is this discussion going on now, in Jersey?

I know, I know but honestly I still am not exactly sure on how I feel about the whole idea of correcting past wrongs but I'm sure this will ruffle alot of feathers.  I love that!  This is probably the best quote to set the tone reading this:

"If slavery was the price that a modern American's ancestors had to pay in order to make one an American, one should get down on one's knees every single day and thank the Lord that such price was paid." -Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll

Really good timing with the elections going on and everything so I'm anxious to see how this plays out.

A STORM IN LA?   A BLACK PRESIDENT!?

WTF IS GOING ON?  DID I READ THAT RIGHT?  YUP IT'S ABOUT THAT TIME...PEOPLE ARE AFRAID.

Welp I'm guessing with how things are, we could only put a black male or white female (pretty much the same honestly) in office after that genius in need of mowing is gone.  After the summer and dry fall we've had I'm assuming this is exactly what's needed to balance things out.

Storm preps are underway for alot of people around Cali it seems like.  The first I've ever done myself so I'm kinda excited to see what the fuss is all about, who's scared of 10 inches of rain? 

This thing actually has people afraid, PAY ATTENTION TO SYMBOLISM.

So... 

Been missing ALB that's for sure, never actually been to a place that left me sad heading back to LA.  Guess that's the beauty of travel so I'll take my brother's advice and start finally taking advantage of it whenever I can. 

Damn I miss those frickin nanaimo bars that's for sure and I haven't seen A since.  I see he's been keepin himself busy writing which is always good but hmm hurry up and get back lol.

I've locked myself away looking over garments like a surgeon searching for what's missing.  Not sure if that's a great method but one of my many I suppose.  I really feel a big shift happening soon within it all just because it's about that time.  I know that sounds so simple but honestly that's all things are... we add the levels of confusion to distract.  Shh keep it secret for now!

Rouspéteur d'excuse brutalement émoussé

My mom says this is the best she's felt in a year!

Is this feeling real?!!!

I didn't even think it was possible until today. I am so extremist that I was going to only vote for Kucinich and then refuse to vote for anyone. But damn, Barack Obama is for real! Who gives a fuck that his real name is Barry, even more power to him...I imagine many in the Middle East, NTM the rest of world will be shocked when they find out a guy named Barack Obama is the leading candidate in the American elections...speaking of which...I'm gonna follow up on that. Some real research, alright! I've been waiting to do some journalism...

My brother put it this way, this is what 2008 can be - A dash on a timeline in an American history textbook that says: 2008, America elects the first black president

Let's not get carried away, but let's get carried away! Please every, donate something in the next couple days, $50 or $25, just to see what happens. What's $50 bucks? If he makes record money, maybe it will help convince people in New Hampshire and other states that it really is possible.

Obama '08...I hate politics but I almost could get used to that.

BTW The Green Arrows are tiiiiiiiiiight.

Shalom!

Here's a quote from a British poster on the Guardian's website that worded it better than I could have...

"I am surprised Obama did so well because as [a] person [who] has travelled to the USA and seen how much more openly prejudice the USA is compared to the UK. So to see a state that is 95% white vote for a black candidate, especially when more people came out to vote for the Democrats. I am pleasantly surprised and it seems Obama has most of the youth vote. Maybe people around the world have underestimated the American public.

I do think America needs Obama to be president more than any of the candidates on both sides. To me Obama seems to have the charm of a young Tony Blair, but none of his spin. Unlike the typical US Presidential candidates he not massaging America patriotism, by saying how great America is, he is actually talking about the important issues and the problems in America like the War, Economy and the Health services. I still find it a joke that apparently the richest nation in the world doesn't have a national health service, when even African third world countries in debt are start up free health services. I have never in my life seen the USA so unpopular globally and the US Government so distrust across all continents. Due to Bush and his Administration America is disliked in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and the public in so friendly nations like the UK, Australia and Canada have lost respect for America due to Bush. Bush was a man that lacked the ability to be statesman, dubiously won his first term and started an illegal war for oil. But the world lost all respect for the American public when they decided to vote for him in for a second term. He has divided a nation, ruined the reputation of America around the world, ruined the value of the dollar, ruined the American economy and is about to be taken over as the most powerful nation in the world by china. Rather than America being a beacon hope and prosperity for world is now seen as a place of corruption, dishonestly, ignorance, hypocritical morally, where it is okay to torture people, but abortion and free health care is bad and large parts of the world thanks to the Neo Cons view America as a country run by fascist imperialist.

Only one man can undo the amount of damage Bush has done to America's reputation worldwide and he is Obama. The only reason the world cares about this glorified opinion poll is Barack Obama. The world wanted to know whether America has learned its lessons from Bush and wants to vote for a more progressive leader like Obama. You can tell the world wants Obama to be the next President, because his face is the one on all the newspapers around the world. How can Bin Ladin claim America is fascist country out to destroy Islam and the Arab world, when Obama's vote is not Evangelical Christian and he was always against the war? How can Africa and South America state that America is imperialistic country out to make money out of this region not caring about the damage it does to this region with Obama? How can Europeans claim that the USA has no interest in the environment with Obama in charge? The answer is they can't or won't. Bill Clinton was a very popular President around the world, but if Obama becomes President will have a global popularity that could surpass even Bill Clinton. I remember when Bill Clinton went to Africa and he was mobbed with Africans waving American flags (In stark contrast to Bush who was greeted to protest when he visited Africa). If Obama wins you would see these kind of Clinton like scenes all over the world for all his state visits.

At the end of the year if America votes for Obama as president the American nation and public will gain a lot of goodwill from the world it lost with Bush. Rather than viewed as a nation of badly educated, ill-informed, ignorant and backward people would be seen as a country that is still capable of being one of the most progressive nations in the western world."

Which reminds me, it wouldn't only be America to gain it's first black president, he may be the first non-white Western leader ever!!!

DES MOINES - In the end, Iowans voted for a smile.

They chose conciliation over combat, personality over pedigree, hope over fear. They voted for the new, with fervor.

-By Michael Tackett, Chicago Tribune

He goes on to say...

For John Edwards, who had almost lived in Iowa for four years, his neck-and-neck race with Clinton gives him an argument to continue, but not a strong one. Voters did not see him as the anti-Clinton. That might well have been due in large part to the fact that the buoyant optimism of his 2004 campaign was replaced by an angry populism that clearly has its limits.

I keep reposting to add more, so far this is the best article I've read on the event:

Obama entered the race with the belief that the time was right for a post-Baby Boom generation candidate who was not shaped by the defining struggles of the 1960s. It was almost post-racial, even post-political.

Craziness in Iowa last night.

I was gonna vote for Kucinich policy-wise, but I kinda figured Hillary would sweep the primaries so it was gonna be an anti-vote. Now...I'm not so sure. Barack Obama feels like a movement, at least a moment of hope, a display of sincerity similar to 9-11 that the nation and perhaps the whole world is ready for.

Fuck it, go Obama! If you told me when W. was first elected that the next likely president would be black (1/2 black, c'mon, that's significant too) I'd laugh. America, I never thought you had it in you. Imagine what it would show the world, symbolically, if we were to elect this fella. We'd say, Americans are not George Bush, we are not beholden to anyone race creed or religion. (The way I thought it was growing up). Maybe we are finally leaving this dark age, the latent sincerity, almost mauled after 9-11, completely abused and disenfranchised, is rising again, maybe it's unstoppable now...

What is this guy's main message? Unity, humanity, the bond between us all...completely anti-pomo and totally newsie ("Philosophical for those who copy" - Inspectah Deck)

Please please please please vote this guy into office!

Shalom!

Wow, I meant to post yesterday but did a lot of sleeping after catching the Rose Bowl (hell ya!)

Wanna welcome everyone (our millions of readers) to 2008, a little late. Taking things slower, haha.