eclecticism

A very interesting thread popped up on MetaFilter yesterday (though I just found it this evening) after Las Vegas weatherman Rob Blair fumbled during a broadcast:

KTNV-TV, Channel 13, fired weekend weather anchor Rob Blair on Sunday, a day after he made an on-air racial slur about Martin Luther King Jr.

Jim Prather, vice president and general manager of KTNV, said Blair “stumbled” during a weather update at 7:55 a.m. Saturday but added that “this kind of incident is not acceptable under any circumstances, and I’m truly sorry that this event occurred.” Blair was delivering the extended forecast when he said, “For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s.” About 20 minutes later, Blair told viewers at the ABC affiliate, “Apparently I accidentally said Martin Luther Kong Jr., which I apologize about — slip of the tongue.” He offered a full apology during Saturday’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. At 6:11 p.m., co-anchor Christina Brown, who is black, announced, “Right now we want to pause for a program note. Rob?” Blair, seated at the news desk with co-anchors Brown and Shawn Boyd, said, “On a weather report earlier this morning, I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way intended to offend anyone. I’m very sorry.”

MetaFilter user wbm$tr posted a link to the story under the title “Unforgiveable Dumbness”:

Weatherman fired for on-air MLK day racial slur. I hope someone has video because I wouldn’t mind seeing this dood go out like a sucka.

I kind of doubt he intended to say it. Who would think they could get away with it? Who would do it to make a point? Nobody, really. Seems like an honest, unfortunate slip of the tongue. The apology was definitely warranted, but it sounds a bit reactionary to just fire him. I guess I’d have to hear the audio to be sure, though.

From the article “I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way intended to offend anyone. I’m very sorry.”“

I love how no one actually admits anything anymore (there was a recent ask metafilter post about this). There is a difference between saying ”I said something offensive and I’m sorry“ and ”what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive… I’m sorry“ (emphasis added). I love that we’ve come to this. The message suddenly becomes ”I said something that some people found fault with, and for just those people, I’m sorry if you were offended.“ Real big of him.

— mathowie

As much as I suspect it slipped out because he uses that term in private, I should mention it is possible that he joined ”king“ and ”junior“ and caught himself midway. I once called an (Asian) friend a ‘gook’, because I blurred ‘geek’ and ‘goof’. I assure you, I was mortified, and until I clarified (and I think my horror made him believe me) he wasn’t too happy either.

God forbid if I ever said something I didn’t mean too.

It is certainly reasonable to think that he wouldn’t do this on purpose. Can you imagine how you would have felt to realize that not only did you screw up, but that you just said what you did on television on this holiday? I am sure he was miserable. And, I would be too.

— UseyurBrain

I love how some people can be so sure this guy is a racist because of an article that gives no indication of whether the slur was intentional or a slip of the tongue. Without a video (or some corroborating evidence of him being a racist in some other facet of life), there is absolutely no way to tell whether he is deserving of the label.

The Closest I came was, ”Martin Luther Jing Kunior“

But what about ”Martin Luther Kun— (i mean) King Junior.“ Need video evidence, and I tend to suspect it was innocent.

— rooftop secrets At this point, it probably would have just eventually petered out, with some people convinced that Blair was a closet racist, and others equally convinced that it was an unfortunate slip of the tongue (for the record, I fell into the ”unfortunate slip of the tongue“ camp, being quite prone to similar slip-ups on a not irregular basis). Then another MeFite came forward — and this time, it was someone who actually had some ”insider knowledge“ of the incident.

It’s interesting how quickly folks are willing to assume the worst without having seen the video clip. Our PR guy (who is black and gay, for what it’s worth) is the weatherman’s best friend. He is in the process of writing an op ed piece in defense of his friend which I will post when it is ready. Briefly here is the version I was told by our PR guy: This was the weatherman’s first on-air job. He is part American Indian and was raised going to black churches. He didn’t say what he was accused of saying, he simply got momentarily tongue-tied and wasn’t even aware that there was a problem until the station received one (1) phone call complaining. He then apologized on three separate broadcasts. The first he heard of being fired was when he opened the Sunday paper that morning.

As promised, here is the op ed piece from Linton Johnson Chief Spokesperson, Department Manager, BART Media & Public Affairs. I would post a link, but it hasn’t been published yet.

As a black person, I am stunned, outraged and completely appalled with these so-called ”African-American leaders“ and everyone else who is joining in to call Rob Blair everything short of a racist. And I know Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be appalled, too.

During Dr. King’s ”I have a dream“ speech, he said that he wanted his children (and everyone else) to ”…not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…“ Well, as the son of a family heavily involved in the civil rights movement, and the nephew of a board member of the national NAACP, and most importantly, as a close and longtime friend of Rob Blair, I know the content of Rob Blair’s character. I can attest to the fact that he embodies the spirit of Dr. King, Jr. The baseless outrage people are expressing is a classic example of reverse racism. I say baseless, because people, including these so-called black leaders, are condemning Rob based on an incident even they admit they never saw! They presume Rob is a racist, or harbors racist feelings based only on what a few people thought they heard him say. First of all, if you look at the tape, it’s impossible to even understand what Rob said when he stumbled over Dr. King’s name. But because Rob looks white (for the record, he’s part Native American) they rushed to judgment and automatically assumed that Rob said the word, ”coon.“ Then they rushed to judgment once again and are now saying that clearly anyone who says ”coon“ must either be racist or harbor racial issues. Think about it! Had a black person stumbled over the same word, do you think anyone would’ve heard ”coon?“ What’s more would they demand the black person’s termination? No! Why should it be any different for Rob? Everyone who knows him can attest to the fact that Rob Blair embodies the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If you knew Rob, you’d know he grew up singing gospel music in a black children’s choir. If you knew Rob, you’d know he’s a man who most of his life has worshiped in Black churches. If you knew Rob, you’d know he’s a man who made not one, but two trips to Jamaica to help rebuild the country after Hurricane Gilbert destroyed parts of it in 1988. If you knew Rob, you’d know he’s a man who as a radio personality in Indiana, worked on projects to help bridge the racial divide in schools. That is the content of Rob’s character. Judge Rob by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin. I assure you, Dr. King would.

— agatha_magatha Being able to have someone with actual knowledge of an event like this happens all too rarely, and I’m very glad that agatha_magatha was able to come forward with the information they did. While the thread dies out soon afterward, there was at least one MeFite able to come forward and apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusion earlier.

well, based on what agatha_magatha has reported, i regret my earlier condemnation of the man.

it’s just that i’ve seen far too many people make ”slips“ like this and then swear up and down that b/c they’re friends with a few black people that they couldn’t possibly be racist or ever think any racist thoughts. which is absurd: i’ve yet to meet a person who is truly free of biases based on the construct known as race. so i’ve stopped giving people the benefit of the doubt with regard to this sort of thing, though, as always, if someone apologizes and is sincere, i’m ready to move on. anyway, if it means anything, a_m, here’s one mefite (and black, though not a leader) who will look in the general direction of las vegas and say, ”i apologize for unjustly convicting you in the court of public opinion, mr. rob blair.“

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p>— lord_wolf

As of when I’m posting this, wbm$tr has yet to make another appearance on the thread.

”Sunchyme (Sash Extended)“ by Dario G from the album Sunchyme (1997, 5:40).

It’s official: after two years, the search for WMDs in Iraq has been called to a halt.

The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley.

In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas. Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG’s final conclusions and will be published this spring.

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p>(via Atrios)

My lord — I hadn’t even heard about the disaster around the Indian Ocean until I started browsing through headlines this morning, and now they’re putting the death toll at somewhere over 33,000 people.

Scary stuff.

What ever happened to concepts like tolerance and respect of others? Polite disagreement? Discussion as opposed to argument? Open minded acceptance of other people’s views, even if they differ from your own?

This may not be my most coherent or well-organized post, but a couple things popped up today that have been rumbling around in the back of my head, and I wanted to at least make a stab at getting some of them out.

Yesterday, I posted a link and excerpt from a story in the Seattle Times about a local Native American burial ground that has been uncovered due to construction on the Hood Canal bridge. The story caught my attention both for the archaeological significance of the find, and for the care and concern that the local tribes have for the spirituality of the site and their ancestors.

This morning, my post got a Trackback ping when Paul Myers of Pharyngula posted about the article. When I read his post, though, I was more than a little taken aback at what I felt to be the cavalier and rude tone he took in regard to the tribe’s religious beliefs.

There’s a fair bit of religious hokum in the article; goofy stuff such as the claim that pouring a concrete slab would trap the spirits forever (piling dirt and rocks on top of them doesn’t, apparently, nor does rotting into a smear), and spiritual advisors on site and ritual anointings to protect people from angry spirits. That’s all baloney…

The religious/spiritual crap cuts no ice with me…

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p>It wasn’t that he didn’t agree with the spirituality of the tribe that bothered me (I don’t know Paul’s personal religious beliefs) — rather, it was the utter lack of respect in how he addressed it. It was the old stereotype of the scientist so convinced of the utter righteousness of the purely scientific world view that he’s utterly contemptuous of those fools who believe in any sort of higher power (see Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan’s Contact, for example).

That bothered me, but I wasn’t quite sure how to start expressing it, so I just filed it away on the back burner to percolate for a little bit.

A couple of days ago, I’d posted a link on my linklog to a Gallup poll which showed that only one third of Americans believe that evidence supports Darwin’s theory of evolution, and had added the comment, “how depressing.” This morning, I got a comment on that post from Swami Prem that raised my eyebrows:

What’s depressing about this? There is no evidence that supports Darwin’s theories. No scientist has ever shown that there exists a link between humans and apes. Darwin’s theories are theories afterall.

Suddenly, I found myself coming dangerously close to stepping right into Paul’s shoes, and had to wait a while before responding to Prem’s comment. My first impulse was surprise and, quite honestly, a little bit of, “oh, here we go again…” — Prem and I have had strong disagreements in the past, and while I don’t believe that he’s at all unintelligent, his earlier espousal of viewpoints that are so diametrically opposed to my own strongly colored my initial reaction to this new comment.

After taking some time to let that roll around in my brain I did respond, and Prem’s responded to that. As yet, I haven’t taken it any further, both because I want to do my best to respond intelligently and because I’m somewhat stumped as to just how to start (I probably need to take some time to do a little research [this site looks like a good place to start] — as I’ve never progressed beyond attaining my high school diploma, and I was never that good in the sciences to begin with, I’m not entirely comfortable with trying to engage in a full-on creationism-vs.-Darwinism debate without a little brushing up [and actually, Paul would probably be far more qualified than I to tackle Prem’s question, judging by his obvious interest in both biology and evolution — just check out the links in his sidebar!]).

Anyway, both of these items have been bouncing around my head all day.

I think a lot of what’s been bothering me about the exchanges is that I try hard to be polite and respectful in my discussions with people, even when (and sometimes especially when) I disagree with them, and that seems to be a trait that has gone by the wayside far too often these days. Sure, I don’t always succeed — I’ll fly off the handle and rant and rave from time to time — but I do make an effort to keep those instances to a minimum.

Unfortunately, it seems that we’re living in a world where differences are all anybody sees anymore: us vs. them, me vs. you, religion vs. science, liberal vs. conservative, democrat vs. republican, urban vs. rural, red vs. blue, etc. Nobody’s actually listening to what anyone else has to say — we’re all so sure that we’re right and everyone else is wrong, too busy banging our shoes on the table to really listen to anyone else.

It’s a pretty sad state of affairs, all told.

Bouncing back a bit, but touching on both of the incidents that started all this rambling, I think the thing that frustrates me the most about the science vs. religion debate — and creationism vs. Darwinism in particular — is that in my mind, there is absolutely nothing that says that the two theories are incompatible. It’s never seemed to me as if it was an either/or equation — coming back to Carl Sagan’s book, and most pointedly the end of it (and if you haven’t read or don’t want to read the book, feel free to watch the movie — it’s one of the single most intelligent science-fiction films I’ve seen in my lifetime), why is it so hard for people to wrap their heads around the concept that it’s entirely possible that both Ellie Arroway and Palmer Joss are “right”?

I’ve always found it interesting that the most commonly known of the two creation stories in Genesis fairly accurately parallels the scientific view of the formation of the universe, our planet, and the life upon it. First space, then stars, then the earth, then oceans, then plants, then fish, then animals, then man. Two different ways of telling the same story — one measured in days and one measured in millennia, but the same story. Of course, this does hinge on the ability to accept the Bible without taking it literally (which is probably another subject for another time, but it’s probably fairly obvious that I don’t subscribe to a literal interpretation of the Bible), which trips up a lot of people.

Meh. I don’t know…and I think I’m starting to run out of steam. As I warned at the beginning of this, probably not the most coherent or well-organized post I’ve ever made here.

Had to get some of this out of my head, though.

Questions? Comments? Words of wisdom? Bring ‘em on…

“Brandenburg Concerto for Violin in G Major, No.4, BWV1049, III. Presto” by Rees, Jonathan/Scottish Ensemble from the album Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos (1998, 5:03).

This week’s Stranger cover:

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I hinted at this in one of my linklog posts last week, but this whole situation with Arafat keeps reminding me of the Schrödinger’s Cat quantum mechanics paradox.

Maybe he’s dead, maybe he’s alive. Nobody seems to really know, and nobody wants to open the box to find out.

“OK This is the Pops” by Tones on Tail from the album Night Music (1991, 3:07).

I don’t know how long this will last — probably not very long, but as of right now if you go to this page, right click on the image of George and Laura Bush and save it to your desktop, you’ll get an amusing suprise… Read the rest of this entry »

An excerpt from an e-mail from Prairie this morning that she’s granted me permission to post:

I think my biggest fear now is that all of the momentum that was built before the election will vanish now.  People will become apathetic.  “What’s the use of trying—there isn’t anything I can do.” The post on your website from the guy saying we should support the president terrifies me.

If we don’t continue to protest with every breath, to fight with every weapon granted to us, if we decide it’s a lost cause and surrender, we will be the cause of the downfall of at least the country, if not the world. There is no way that a country so divided can continue in the manner in which our country is trying to function.  The potential that was once possible for our country is vanishing before out eyes, and unless we fight with all our strength, it will disappear before most people even realize it’s gone, never to be retrieved, into an abyss so deep and so permanent that that wonderful potential will never be recovered. To surrender, to blindly support someone just because he is the president, is the equivalent of saying we don’t care about the future.  “Damn all of those who may come in the future.  I’m going to offer support for policies I know are wrong, for policies I know are hurting people, just because I’m too afraid, too ignorant to stand up to authority.”  We cannot allow this to happen, and yet I fear that we will. People will go back to believing that their votes don’t count, that they are helpless to fight the oppression they see coming, that they have to support the president just because he’s the president.  Will we allow ourselves to be led like sheep toward hatred and fear? I won’t. I’ll go out fighting in whatever way I can.

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p> “Rusty Nails” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Rusty Nails (1994, 1:04:04).

Josh Marshall:

This isn’t 1964 or 1972 or 1980. This wans’t a blow-out or a repudiation. It was close to a tie — unfortunately, on the other guy’s side. Let’s not put our heads in the sand but let’s also not get knocked of our game. Democrats need to think critically and seriously about why this didn’t turn out 51% for Kerry or 55% for Kerry….

Take time to feel the desolation and disappointment. But I remain confident that time is not on the side of the kind of values and politics that President Bush represents. It took conservatives two decades to build up the institutional muscle they have today. Though I was always nervous about the result, I thought we could win this election. But it was always naive to believe that that sort of institutional heft could be put together in 24 or 36 months. President Bush and the Republicans now control the entire national government, even more surely now than they have over the last four years. They do so on the basis of garnering the votes of 51% or 52% of the population. But they will use that power as though there were no opposition at all. That needs to be countered. Leave today for disappointment. Tomorrow, think over which of these various groups and organizations you think has made the best start toward what I’ve described above, go to their website, and give money or volunteer. After that, okay sure, take a few more days for disappointment, maybe a few more weeks. But this takes time. And you shouldn’t lose heart. The same division in the country remains, the same stalemate. The other side just got the the ball a yard or two into our side of the field rather than the reverse. And we have to deal with the serious consequences of that. Tomorrow’s the day to start.

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p>

Apparently, Jeff Jarvis is proposing a ‘Post Election Peace Pledge’.

After the election results are in, I promise to:

• Support the President, even if I didn’t vote for him.
• Criticize the President, even if I did vote for him.
• Uphold standards of civilized discourse in blogs and in media while pushing both to be better.
• Unite as a nation, putting country over party, even as we work together to make America better.

Hmm. Working my way backwards, up the list.

“Unite as a nation….” Sounds good. Not sure if it’s possible. Bush, while billing himself as “a uniter, not a divider,” has done so well at tearing this country apart that I fear it’s going to be a long, long time before the wounds really start to heal (and I doubt they’ll have much chance to start healing if Bush stays in office).

“Uphold standards of civilized discourse….” I’ve done my best to do that for a long time now. I may not always agree with everything I read, and the people who come here may not always agree with everything I say, but I’ve done my best to keep things civilized around here. Easy to sign on to this one.

“Criticize the President….” You bet your sweet bippy (and I’d do this were Kerry to win the office, too).

“Support the President….” This is where I have problems. I can certainly recognize and accept the final results of the election, even if I don’t end up liking them. But should Bush win (as looks likely) — support? How can I support someone whose ideology is for all intents and purposes diametrically opposed to my own?

How can I support someone who wants to declare some of my closest friends to be second class citizens merely because they love someone of their own sex? How can I support someone who cares more about lining his pockets and those of his cronies than doing anything to help the millions of poor and homeless in this country? How can I support someone who actually thinks cutting trees down is a viable way to save them from forest fires? How can I support someone willing, even eager, to plunge us into a war that, contrary to the Republican propaganda, was not connected to 9-11, and has cost over 1,000 American lives and as many as 100,000 Iraqi lives?

Answer — I can’t.

Later, Jeff updated his post after people asked him about this “support” issue.

Commenters ask me what I mean by “support.” Right question. I do not mean blind support, love-it-or-leave-it support, with-him-or-against-him support. I mean acknowledging that the president is the president and especially in a time of war, we need to stand together against our enemies — namely, Islamofascist terrorists — and not act, as too many have during this administration (and the one before it) that the enemy is in the White House. No, we’re on the same side.

At this point, I’ll turn the reins over to Shelley, who responds to this far more intelligently and rationally than my first impulse was to do.

That’s a little like the logic of saying to a person, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Jarvis has framed the question so that it reflects what he considers our most dangerous enemy: Islamofascist terrorists. I can’t agree with his call for support, because I can’t agree with the definition of the enemy.

You see, I consider our worst enemy to be intolerance. Intolerance on the part of some Muslims about other non-Muslim people from the west, true. But also the intolerance demonstrated in this country – towards gays, towards women, towards people of color, towards those who don’t follow what others deem the One True and Right Way. When Jarvis says will I pledge to support the President as he combats the enemy, my answer has to be, yes, if we can agree on what is the enemy.

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p>And there’s the rub — if we work on the assumption that Bush will be keeping his hold on the Oval Office, than we’re in a Catch-22, for if the President agreed with me on what the enemy was, than Bush wouldn’t be the President. In many ways, Bush is the enemy, preaching his message of bigotry, hate, intolerance, and America über alles.

I don’t doubt that Jarvis means well with his pledge. But this is one pledge I won’t be signing on to.

On the bright side, though, Seattle voters have (for the fourth time) given the local monorail a go-ahead.

Chanting “Let’s build it, let’s build it,” Seattle monorail supporters last night celebrated the defeat of a measure that could have stopped the 14-mile line in its track.

City voters yesterday endorsed the project by a comfortable margin — the fourth time a monorail issue has come before the electorate in recent years. They defeated Initiative 83, a measure that would have killed the proposed line by banning its construction on city streets. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, 63 percent of voters rejected I-83 yesterday. The vote followed one of the costliest city ballot measure campaigns ever, and the vote counts showed I-83 losing by a wide margin.

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p>Nice to have some good news to wake up to.

“Disco Death Race 2000 (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Disco Death Race 2000 (full mix) (1996, 1:13:48).

Ugh. This is not looking promising.

I spent most of last night watching Angel episodes, doing my best to ignore the results coming in — but, of course, I couldn’t stay away entirely. Unfortunately, every time I checked in, things looked worse and worse. Eventually, I just had to head to bed and see where things stood in the morning.

Right now, things stand at 254 to 252 Electoral Votes, with Bush in the lead. New Mexico, Iowa, and (most critically) Ohio are still too close to call. Much as I’d like to believe that we could pull a rabbit out of our hat and pick up Ohio’s twenty Electoral Votes, it really isn’t looking terribly likely.

Even more discouraging is that even were we to disregard the Electoral College and look at the popular vote, Bush is leading there, too. It’s tight — about a three and a half million vote edge — but it still puts Bush ahead.

I’ve got to admit, while I hadn’t come out and said so flat out, I was pretty optimistic yesterday and in the weeks leading up to voting day. I really hoped that there were enough unknown factors &dmash; a mobilized youth contingent; the number of new, first-time voters; blocks of cell-phone users that hadn’t been factored into polling data — that predictions aside, Kerry would end up the clear winner. I thought there was a chance that we’d pull through with more than just a few percent here and there, but that there would be a definite, decisive win.

Basically, I made the mistake of forgetting one of my dad’s favorite maxims: “You will never lose betting on human stupidity.” I let hope and optimism push aside my customary cynicism. I actually thought that for once, this country would vote with its head and heart, rather than letting the fear, paranoia, and xenophobia so omnipresent in the Bush campaign to take control.

I really find it mind boggling that so much of this country’s population can support Bush. How they can look at what he’s doing to the country — politically, socially, environmentally — and what he’s doing to the rest of the world and honestly think that he is the best man to be in charge.

But it looks like that’s the case. Unless a miracle comes through in the next day or so as absentee ballots are counted, provisional votes are checked, and Ohio’s votes are sorted through with a fine-tooth comb (and Kerry, don’t you dare concede before it’s absolutely clear where things stand), Bush will continue his single-minded, blindingly theistic reign over our country.

Which scares me more than I really want to think about.

But even if Bush wins, the battle is not over. As Meteor Blades says at the Daily Kos:

Not a few people have spoken in the past few hours about an Americanist authoritarianism emerging out of the country’s current leadership. I think that’s not far-fetched. Fighting this requires that we stick together, not bashing each other, not fleeing or hiding or yielding to the temptation of behaving as if “what’s the use?”

It’s tough on the psyche to be beaten.Throughout our country’s history, abolitionists, suffragists, union organizers, anti-racists, antiwarriors, civil libertarians, feminists and gay rights activists have challenged the majority of Americans to take off their blinders. Each succeeded one way or another, but not overnight, and certainly not without serious setbacks. After a decent interval of licking our wounds and pondering what might have been and where we went wrong, we need to spit out our despair and return – united - to battling those who have for the moment outmaneuvered us. Otherwise, we might just as well lie down in the street and let them flatten us with their schemes.

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p>The battle for the presidency may be lost.

The battle for this country must keep going.

“Disco Death Race 2000 (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Disco Death Race 2000 (full mix) (1996, 1:13:48).

Some of the very first early exit polls have been released. As such, take these with a large grain of salt — we’ve got a long way to go today.

       AZ  CO  LA  PA  OH  FL  MI  NM  MN  WI  IA  NH
Kerry  45  48  42  60  52  51  51  50  58  52  49  57
Bush   55  51  57  40  48  48  47  48  40  43  49  41

(via Atrios)

$3 million Amount the White House was willing to grant the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 11 September attacks.

$50 million Amount granted to the commission that looked into the Columbia space shuttle crash.

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p>Many more scary numbers here.

(via Jonas)

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (full cd)” by Chaykin, Maury/Jarmusch, Jim/Stanton, Harry Dean from the album Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (full cd) (1995, 1:16:00).

Thanks to the joy and convenience of voting by mail, I’ve just filled out my ballot, and will be dropping it in the mail momentarily.

For the record, my votes on two of the most important issues that I’ve been watching over the past few months: Kerry/Edwards for President and No on I-83.

“Not in My Name (Pledge of Resisitance) (Coldcut)” by Williams, Saul from the album Not In Our Name (2003, 5:37).

Want to vote on Tuesday, but don’t think you’ll have the time? Think again — thirty states have laws giving workers the right to take time off to vote.

According to the Census Bureau, the number one reason why registered voters did not vote in the last two presidential elections was because they could not get time off from work. That’s nearly 4 million registered voters who did not have time to vote in the 2000 election where the presidential race was decided by 537 votes. The time crunch especially keeps women, minority and low wage workers who have the most rigid work schedules and the least amount of control over their time from voting.

The good news is that while there are many things that could go wrong that is out of our control this Election Day, this is a problem that ordinary citizens can fix. Thirty states have laws giving workers the right to take time off to vote. For example, Illinois voters are entitled to two hours leave, Minnesota voters can take election morning off to vote, and Ohio voters cannot be fired or penalized for taking a reasonable amount of time off to vote.

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p>Here’s a summary of voter leave laws for those states that have them:

The following states have laws giving employees the right to take time off from work to vote. Many states require employees to give employers notice about taking leave before Election Day and some states require employees to provide employers with proof of voting. In addition, while employers cannot prevent employees from voting, most states give employers the right to specify the time during the day that leave can be taken.

NOTE: This information is for background purposes only. Readers should seek legal advice before taking any specific action.

Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Georgia Hawaii Illinois Iowa Kansas

Kentucky Massachusetts Minnesota Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Mexico New York North Dakota

Ohio Oklahoma South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

On my way back to work from lunch I passed one of The Stranger’s distribution boxes, paused a moment to check out this week’s cover — and probably startled a couple of the people around me when I burst out laughing at the cover photo.

This week’s issue has a feature on 2004’s Scariest Halloween Costumes, and it is so not ‘politically correct’. It’s also really damn funny (if you’ve got a sick enough sense of humor, I suppose, a category that I easily fall into).

This was the costume they used for their cover. It’s so wrong, and so perfect — I love the combination of one of the most widely-seen of the horrific images from Abu Ghraib and the smiling, innocent face of a child.

Your child will be the hit of the neighborhood costume parade in this recreation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal’s most indelible image. As an added bonus this easy-to-make costume will remind everyone on your child’s trick-or-treat route of our national shame! Simply roll a cone from a sheet of 24”x38” black cardstock, making sure to cut out a hole for the face. Drape with two yards of black felt, and add leftover wires from your last lamp-rewiring project. Voilá! So easy, so quick, and so terrifying!

I’m quite sure that Dan Savage, David Schmader, and John Hollingsworth are going to be going straight to hell (do not pass go, do not collect $200) for this piece of work.

But I’m going right along with them for laughing.

21 reasons for war with Iraq, by 10 key players, circa September 2001 through October 2002 via a study by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign student Devon Largio (now graduated).

The table below illustrates who deployed each rationale.

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(via BOP)

“Injected With a Poison (Pat Krimson)” by Khan, Praga from the album Injected With a Poison (1998, 4:49).

Though, I certainly hope this gentleman doesn’t end up dying for his country — he’s a 70-year old retired doctor who’s been called into service.

Dr. John J. Caulfield was incredulous about the Army’s “unsolicited communication” inviting his return to active duty toward easing increasing wartime demands on military medical treatment facilities.

He disregarded the first postcard last December and the second and subsequent phone messages on the answering machine, not from any unwillingness to serve — “My government has never asked me to do anything I ever refused” — but figuring they used the wrong mailing list, it’s not really me they want. The Army persisted. Would Dr. Caulfield, oral surgeon and Vietnam veteran, retired from military service in 1980 and civilian practice Jan. 1, be willing to return to active duty in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan? The negotiations began with Dr. Caulfield asking, “Do you know how old I am?” They did, and age doesn’t matter, “We want you.” Dr. Caulfield, who turned 70 Aug. 7, reports to Fort Benning, Ga., Oct. 17 for what he and the military describe as “voluntary deployment” with the 325th Combat Support Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan.

At least it’s good to know that Bush has assured us that our military isn’t overstretched and that there won’t be a draft. After all, why in the world would we need a draft when we can just re-enlist 70-year old retirees? (via Terrance) Update: It’s all a hoax.

So there was Wallace on television Thursday night, telling KNTV (Ch. 11) how excited he was at the prospect of serving his country. A friend of his had called the television station.

The only problem is that the whole thing was a joke — a big one that got out of hand. “It went a little bit farther than I’d planned,” said Wallace’s son-in-law, Mark Flaa of San Jose. “It was supposed to have been a family thing, one of those things you get ribbed about for the next 10 Christmases or something.” Flaa had gone to great lengths to make the joke work — getting copies of a friend’s orders to serve in Iraq and mailing what he wrote to his brother in Seattle, so the letter could be mailed from Fort Lewis in Washington. And he knew his father-in-law would call him, which he did. What he didn’t count on was Wallace going on TV. Flaa didn’t find out until a few minutes before Wallace’s interview with KNTV aired on the 11 o’clock news Thursday night.

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p>Thanks to Mike for the update!

“You’ll Be Under My Wheels ” by Prodigy, The from the album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (2004, 3:56).

President Bush stopped by the small town of Jacksonville, OR last week while campaigning. As tends to happen, this brought out both pro- and anti-Bush sentiment…and as also tends to happen these days, it was the anti-Bush side that got the worst treatment.

From Jacksonville’s Mail Tribune:

Police ordered about 300 people to clear a section of California Street in front of the Jacksonville Inn, where President and first lady Laura Bush were dining after holding a rally at the Jackson County Expo.

Two protesters were arrested and police fired rounds of pepper balls when a “small group became aggressive with the officers,” said an Oregon State Police press release issued Friday. […] “I was in front of the riot police and we started moving slowly backwards,” said Moss. “I saw a man get hit by a baton. He went down. With my back to the police — as I was picking him up — that’s when I was shot.” Moss lifted his shirt to show the quarter-sized welts and abrasions on his back. Moss said he used his body to shield an older man who had been pushed to the ground by police. “It felt like a branding iron,” Moss said. “I talked to (the man) briefly afterwards. He thanked me, but was so shaken up he could hardly talk.”

And from Crawford, TX, the Lone Star Iconoclast (Bush’s hometown paper, who recently endorsed Kerry for President) prints Jacksonville resident Trish Bowcock’s account of the ordeal:

The main street was lined with people gathered to witness the event. Many supported the president. Many did not. Some came because they were simply curious. There were men, women, young and old. The mood was somewhat festive. Supporters of John Kerry sported signs, as did supporters of George Bush. Individuals, exercising their rights of free speech began chanting. On one side of the street, shouts of “four more years” echoed in the night air. On the other side of the street, chants of “three more weeks” responded. The chants were loud and apparently could be heard by President Bush. An order was issued that the anti-Bush rhetoric be quieted. The local SWAT team leapt to action.

It happened fast. Clad in full riot gear, at least 50 officers moved in. Shouting indecipherable commands from a bullhorn, they formed a chain and bore down upon the people, only working to clear the side of the street appearing to be occupied by Kerry supporters. People tried to get out of their way. It was very crowded. There was nowhere to move. People were being crushed. They started flowing into the streets. Pleas to the officers, asking, “where to go” fell upon deaf ears. Instead, riot police fired pellets of cayenne pepper spray into the crowd. An old man fell and couldn’t get up. When a young man stopped to help, he was shot in the back with hard pepper spray balls. Children were hit with pepper spray. Deemed “Protesters” people were shoved and herded down the street by the menacing line of armed riot police, until out of the President’s ear-shot. There the “Protesters” were held at bay. Anyone vocalizing anti-Bush or pro-Kerry sentiments were prohibited from venturing forward. Loud anti-Bush chants were responded to by the commanding officer stating: “FORWARD,” to which the entire line of armed police would move, lock-step, toward the “Protesters,” forcing backward movement. Police officers circulated filming the crowd of “Protesters.” Some were people like me, quiet middle-aged women. Some sported anti-Bush signs, peace signs, or Kerry signs. A small group of youth, clad in black with kerchiefs wrapping their heads chanted slogans. A young woman in her underwear, sporting a peace sign sang a lyrical Kumbaya. Mixed among the “Protesters” were supporters of the President. One 19 year- old man shouted obscenities at anyone expressing dissatisfaction with the president, encouraging the police to “tazar” the “Stinking Protesters.” Neither the “Protestors,” nor the police harassed this vocal young man. Across the street, individuals shouting support for the president were allowed to continue. Officers monitored this group but allowed them to shout words of support or hurl derisions toward Kerry supporters, undisturbed. Honking cars filled with Bush supporters were left alone. A honking car full of Kerry supporters was stopped by police on its way out of town. The standoff with “Protesters” continued until the President finished his dinner and was secured in his hotel cottage for the night. Only then were the riot police ordered to “mount-up,” leaping upon the sideboard of a huge SUV, pulling out of town, and allowing “free speech” to resume. In small town American I witnessed true repression and intimidation by law enforcement. I saw small children suffering from the effects of being fired upon by pepper bullets. I felt legitimate fear of expressing my political opinions: a brand new feeling. Newspaper accounts state the chaos started when a violent “Protester” shoved a police officer. No one I talked to witnessed this account. It is reputed that President Bush and his staff will not allow any opposition activity to occur within his ear or eye sight. I can confirm, that in tiny Jacksonville, Oregon, this was true. Physically violent means were taken to protect the president from verbal insults. Freedom of speech was stolen.

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p>(via BOP, via bloggg)

“Killer Queen” by Queen from the album Queen: Greatest Hits (1974, 3:02).

Finally, some good news — for once, a court has upheld our Constitutional rights over the current wave of paranoia over terrorism.

Fears of a terrorist attack are not sufficient reason for authorities to search people at a protest, a federal appeals court has ruled, saying September 11, 2001, “cannot be the day liberty perished.”

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Friday that protesters may not be required to pass through metal detectors when they gather next month for a rally against a U.S. training academy for Latin American soldiers. Authorities began using the metal detectors at the annual School of the Americas protest after the terrorist attacks, but the court found that practice to be unconstitutional. “We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War of Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over,” Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote for the three-member court. “September 11, 2001, already a day of immeasurable tragedy, cannot be the day liberty perished in this country.”

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p>(via Boing Boing)

I was going to put up a lot of links to discussion about Jon Stewart’s recent appearance on Crossfire — but then Safari crashed (it’s rare, but not unheard of) and I lost all the tabs I had open.

However, on the off chance you haven’t heard about or seen this yet, you really should watch the video.

We need more people like Stewart on the airwaves.

“Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix) (1998, 52:53).

Almost time for tonight’s Presidential debate, the last of this election season’s round. Will Bush actually look like a President? Or, more likely, will we get to see him stumble and fall yet again?

As before, I’ll be watching on C-SPAN, and will update this post with my usual random babbling after the debate’s done with. Read the rest of this entry »

Y’know what I’d like to see in tonight’s debate? I’d love it if the moderator had a “kill switch” for the candidate’s microphones, so if Bush tried to railroad a statement through (as he did in the last debate), the moderator could just turn him off.

Considering how he flew off the handle last time when the moderator was already planning on letting him have rebuttal time, can you imagine how furious he’d get if he was actually penalized for breaking the rules of the debate? I’d bet we’d see a real Presidential-quality tempertantrum if that happened. Heck, I’d pay good money to see that happen.