Yesterday, while I sloughed about with tissue in hand, watched scary movies and ignored all political discussion and will do so until I don't get physically sickened by 'poll numbers', I had a visitor on my patio a small red cheeked squirrel just kinda hung out on the patio all day. The squirrel would hang around the flower planters, then to the patio chair then on the the table; he would stare into the apartment and just watch me, watch the cats going apeshit while he just kicked back and stared into my life. And then it happened, he tired of just watching the fun and wanted to participate...I turned to see his little squirrel paws pressing on my the glass door. He backed away from the glass, ran up the arm of the chair and tried to jump through the god damned glass, *thunk* I guess he didn't notice the screen door to which he held onto for seconds before sliding down.

Stunned but not deterred, he attempted jumping into my apartment for the next four hours! After the first attempt, he just hung out by the flowers for awhile and then while making soup, I see him jump--thunk--slide--thud. My Siamese went crazy, my little black cat chattered like I've never heard her chat before; double glass panes be damned, that squirrel was coming in despite the frothing kitty's that awaited his arrival. Every time the squirrel escaped my thoughts I'd hear the thump and remember he was out there. I watched him for most the day until he finally tired of his quest and went away when the sun faded.

He's back again this morning, just sitting on my table next to the pumpkin, he hasn't attempted a 'jump' this morning and I'm off to work, so I'll miss the show today, but the cats should enjoy it. I on the other hand will be fending off costumed children at the mall, our store isn't participating in the trick or treating, sure its a community event, but it literally costs more money than I'm budgeted for of dollars and we get little return from what we've spent. I have yet to have a customer say that they shop in the store because I gave their kid some candy. Have a safe and fun Halloween.

I have fallen prey to the infamous Blogger-Post-Eater I've read so much about. In that post you would have found out that I am under the weather, but then again, aren't we all under the weather? You may not be "in" the weather but, you're in your homes and in your cubicles, protected from the weather, but, under the weather, all the same...but, I digress and I've got a cold, a sore throat and cough. My nose is raw, I'm achey from a long book-heavy week and I can't muster the energy to care about my email let alone the blogosphere.

Also, the post stated: that in my hazy and snot-drenched evenings, I found little joy in the Al Pieda attack on Coulter, I should have been elated, but I was too busy blowing my nose. I barely tingled with satisfaction as some whackjob attempted to "drive towards" Ms. Katherine "Stop Counting, Mama wants a new job" Harris (threatening, indeed). I faded in and out while watching South Park on Wednesday night so I dreamt that a Douchebag a and Turd Sandwich were running for office. I barely care to get lost in meme, well except this one:

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You've got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. And that's why they read your posts as often as they can!

Right, like I"m snarky, right...watch me snark, look at me, I'm snarkin' crazy. I barely have the energy to post these totally twisted reality-based Halloween Costumes via The Stranger, Its naptime, tissue time, not get lost in the internet time. Snarky and Snarfy! Right....

Okay Blogger, don't fucking lose this one, snarf!

*ah-choo*

So, everyone realizes that Bush isn't a conservative, right? He has a conservaitve social agenda, yes, but every defining moment of his presidency has been incredibly radical. Of course, that doesn't make him a liberal, as his record clearly shows. Bush is just...well, crazy, and no honest person would claim that he has a consistent political ideology. But he's a neo-con, you say. Look at that word for a minute...new conservative. How is that possible? It's not. The Bush crowd doesn't have an ideology, they have a defined set of goals, that include expansion of American power and business into unprecendented areas, and a painfully pragmatic plan on how to achieve them. And conservatives are finally starting to understand this. And so the tide of conservative endorsments are starting to roll on in. Andrew Sullivan, who I truly believe is the only conservative worth listening to (he's still a twit, don't worry), has offically endorsed Kerry. The American Conservative, which is, well, an American conservative magazine, has decided to endorse Kerry. A bunch of traditionally conservative papers in swing states have also started to endorse Kerry. The Washington Post has a pretty tepid editorial in support of Kerry, but an endorsement is an endorsement. More shocking and signifigant is the Orlando Sentinel which hasn't endorsed a democrat since Lyndon Johnson. The Des-moines Register has also gone for Kerry. The paper in my own town, The Oregonian of Portland, has gone for Kerry for the first time in 40 years. Not an endorsement for Kerry, but pretty amazing nonetheless, is Bob Barr's anouncement that he will not vote for Bush again this year. Barr is, of course, one of the most conservative and crazy members of congress. What does this all mean? Who the fuck knows. BUSH IS STILL WINNING. Someone please explain that to me... ugh.

Designers were invited to submit works for an exhibition called 26 Letters: Illuminating the Alphabet.

Each was given a particular letter and asked to create an art work around it.

This particular installation was based on the letter C.

It is the creation of two women designers, Morag Myerscough and Charlotte Rawlins.

Ms Rawlins said: “We had various puns ranging from ‘C U Next Tuesday’ to ‘Has anybody seen Mike Hunt?’

Let's hope Mike Hunt doesn't have crabs, keep in mind this installation is "ART" and that loose lips sink ships *eyeroll*. Have a super day!

Ashleegate-I'm thinking Sir Elton John (the new Cosby) is muttering a few things about Ashlee Simpson's 'out-of-sync' track on SNL Saturday. The Show MUST Go On, you don't dance a fucking lil jig and then walk off stage, you have the stop the pre-recorded song and put the correct pre-recorded song on and lip-sync the crowd crazy or at the least until they forget your lip-syncing. This will be the last time Ashlee asks Jessica to run her lip-syncing-machine-thingy. Support Ashlee's fuck up here.

Anyone can see, Nothing really matters, Nothing really matters....toooo meeeee.
LOL. ;) [via: my sister] lol.

Apparently daddy is a bunch of guys from Boston, ya' silly bastards! I took great joy in watching the Red Sox's sucker punch the wind out of the Yankee's. I enjoyed A-Rod's, annoyed and baffled look when the Sox's won. I enjoyed that it was former Mariner pitchers Derek (hottie) Lowe and Mike Timlin that helped to keep the Yankee payroll at bay, great game.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." -Carl Sagan


(Area of the sky that I'm currently scanning)
For awhile now, my screensaver has been the SETI screen saver. Most of the geeks that download this screen saver are men in the 20-39 age range, so I thought I'd meet some nice single men that way... LMFAO, NOT! Actually, I joined the SETI program because I really admired Carl Sagan, I've enjoyed his books and his philosophy as a whole. Also, when given the chance to find intelligence outside of the blogoshere, politics and say...the WORLD, its only reasonable to assume that the final frontier would be the place to investigate this option. We'd be arrogant to assume, as some have, that we are alone in our Universe: although, "billions and billions" of galaxy's--not unlike our own float above our heads. Yes, their pretty and sparkly, I dig all that, but what if one of them little swirly things had a world that resembles our own? I'm 765 hours into the search for Intelligence life and I've yet to find any, but I'm hopeful.

"SETI@home actually consists of two parts: an "application" and a "screensaver". The application does all the work: it downloads blocks of data through the Internet, performs the number crunching on that data (looking for orderly patterns that might be artificial), returns the results, and gets another block of data."

I help the SETI program by scanning previously recorded files: its fun, its colorful and it keeps me humble.

NARRATOR: The funny thing about "pirates" and "emperors" is that they often start out as pals who get into a tiff somehow and end up enemies.

KID: You mean like Lex Luthor and Superman!

NARRATOR: Yeah, except Lex Luthor was a nice guy before he lost all his hair, whereas Manuel Noriega, Sadam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were all known thugs and mass-murderers when they were on Uncle Sam's payroll. That's why they got the job! Either that, or Uncle Sam is just a really bad judge of character.

Watch this. OUCH, LMFAO, etc. Hmmmmm...

Shit, I hate when the day starts off with the obituary of the undead. ABC whoopsied and posted Sharon Osbourne's pre-scripted obit: I'm certain she has it framed in a gilded gold number by now. [via: Choire]

I had just recently read a raving review of Alan Hollinghurst's new novel The Line Of Beauty: described as a "novel of gay love in the Thatcherite 1980s"; as a matter of fact every review I've read has been glowing. Congratulations sir!
[via: every damn literary blog out there]

In a bid to change their public preception for merely liars to pure and utter evil, Sinclair Broadcasting has fired it's Washington bureau chief for criticizing their decision to air an anti Kerry documentary. Of course, now that stockholders are suing the company and the stock has tumbled 17 percent to $6.28 a share. This is down from $15 in January. Could someone, please explain to me why they thought this was a good idea in the first place? I'm almost glad that they pulled a stunt like this. Maybe it'll force their bankruptcy. In the meantime, though, they've backed off a bit, and are now nothing going to air just the Anti-Kerry film. Instead they are going to force their stations to air something they are calling, "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." They claim that it will be a legit news program, but that's what they said about the first on, remember? My guess is half the show will be a Swift-boat vet's Ad and the other half will be Sinclair whining about being 'persecuted' for their views. God I hate conservatives.

In other news, did you know that Mary Cheney is a lesbian? I didn't think so. See, even though she is a prominent member of the Bush-Cheney reelection team, and used to the Gay community liason with Coors, Mary Cheney is a private citizen and her sexuality is not public knowledge. This whole 'Mary-gate' pseudo-controversy really says far more about republicans than Kerry. They are acting as if his mentioning of an outed lesbian in the context of a question about homosexuality is a griveous act. He may as well of reminded the American people that Bush's niece is a total Crack whore (Noelle Bush). They think it's an insult to even call her a lesiban. Blah. Anyway, read what Andrew Sullivan has to say about the subject (he's been talking about it nonstop since the debate). He's pretty much the only conservative blogger worth reading these days.

TROUT: I’ve never voted in my whole damn life. I didn’t want to be complicit. But is it time I did?

KV: The planet’s immune system is obviously trying to get rid of us, and high time! But sure, go vote for somebody. What the hell.

TROUT: Everybody’s so ignorant.

KV: The overwhelming popularity of President Bush, in spite of everything, finally shows us what the American people, whom we have so sentimentalized for so long, a la Norman Rockwell, really are, thanks to TV and purposely lousy public schools: ignorant. Count on it!

The rest of the interview can be found here. Keep in mind that "Giraffes can only have come from the future. There’s no way evolution in the past would have let something that defenseless and impractical live for 15 minutes."
[via: bookslut]

Tucker Carlson is a dick, a partisan assmonkey for the right, if you will. Follow your bliss (highly recommended by the SpewMistress), whatever, speak you mind, that is, if you got the balls worthy of such; that's all dandy, but have some fucking respect for your own opinions. I'm thinking that's the gist of the matter that Jon Stewart (short, Jewish, hottie-slurp, L'chai-im! *Hump*--what?) was trying in vain to impart on the Crossfire hosts last Friday, is that they have views of their own; not the rhetoric or their respective parties.

Sidenote: Hey, I'm all for men wearing bow-ties, I think their dead sexy; in a geeky, nonconformist way, if you choose to write slash fiction about bow-tie wearing fella's, so be it, but fuck if they aren't hot, yummy.

Anyhoo, I also think what Mr. Stewart was trying to impart on the crossover bitches, is that their show is entirely too partisan, both sides are guilty of preaching the transcripted rhetoric and shoving it down all of our throats by way of the spin sluts of both camps. Don't fucking play the candidates way, the repub way, the donkey way. Take your conservative/liberal beliefs and debate from the platform of your own beliefs; if they follow suit with any one party, okay, but state why you believe. Don't tell me what your Daddy or Mama believed, that's their shit, you have a fucking mind, know it. Stating your own beliefs is far more fucking respectable then reiterating the quotes and empty promises & bullshit from either party.

CNN, Fox, MSNBC and the like, will eventually spin us into a self-hatred unknown and a demise that is so insanely asinine, that ultimately, will be our fall; if your too lazy to ivestigate the facts of your beliefs for yourself, get the fuck over it and get all Google-ish; we have the technology, use it! For the love of fuck know your own Goddamned mind. Know what your voting for, understand why you believe the way you do and back that shit up. That's all Stewart was trying to say, yeah, Tucker Carlson is a fucking dick for playing the game, we all play that game at times in our dildoesque ways; but when playing the game one must be competent and knowing of a winning strategy; if you play the partisan way, know what your spewing, walk the talk, know your mind. You can preach partisan crap till you rot (and we all will), it don't mean shit: that is, until it means something or anything that affects your life directly, that is why I'm a liberal; your God is not my God, my body is my own and I will not have my government tell me otherwise, period.

Educate yourself and with that knowledge spewforth, don't be a dick do what you want, just know why your doing it.

"Jimmy Breslin tries to sell the new Bill O'Reilly children's book. The extent to which vibrators and Thai sex shows are mentioned remains unclear."
-Michael Schaub for bookslut.

I have yet to sell one of these books and based on the performance of O'Reilly's last two books they sent me entirely too many, now their just sucking up shelf space waiting to become remainders. Authors please take note: avoid all sexual harassment cases, when possible, before promoting children's self-help titles; even Madonna has been able to keep her skivvies on while promoting her story books, think about it.

Last September, the original cyberpunk author, William Gibson, stopped blogging to concentrate on writing his new book. We're not told if the book is finished but, he does state why he's returned to blogging; "Because the United States currently has, as Jack Womack so succintly puts it, a president who makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln.".

After his talk, he offers to answer questions. One little boy puts up his hand and the president asks him his name.

"I'm Billy, sir."

"And what's your question, Billy?"

"I have three questions, sir. Why did the US invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?"

Just then the bell rings for recess. Bush announces that they'll continue after recess.

When they return, Bush asks, "OK, where were we? Question time! Who has a question?"

Another little boy raises his hand. The president asks his name.

"I'm Steve, sir."

"And what's your question, Steve?"

"I have five questions, sir. Why did the US invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden? Why did the recess bell go off twenty minutes early? And what the heck happened to Billy?"

Welcome back to the blogosphere Mr. Gibson and I agree "At times, to be silent is to lie.", find his blog here. [via: galleycat]

Lawn gnomes kinda scare me, so one day I'd like one as a gift, to confront my fear and get on with it. I'd even take this gnome as a gift, because its tacky as all hell and I want my neighbors to know that when they stop by to borrow sugar, coffee creamer, my fucking cork screw or potato peeler (yes, it has happened), that my lawn gnome will impose his will on them, liberate them and disable their language skills if they stop by to "borrow" my dry goods & kitchen utensils. Ya' see, the gnome, think twice. (I'm actually quite cordial, but I'm embracing my inner bitch tonight, as I'm tired and experiencing severe anxiety: forewarning; it would be wise to leave me alone) smooch xox. :\ [via: feministe]

A Rose by any other name would be a Pie. Rose/Pie would a very talented friend o' mine: a friend of like mind in some respects, that being she's a loner, a rebel and twisted beyond comprehension. Pie writes brilliant fairy tales and makes fabulous animations, this one, by far, is my favorite.
"Why do birds, suddenly appear, every time, you are near"-The Carpenters

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to
ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

*Warren Buffett

If I thought I could get 60 million for phone sex, I may have played along, with the certified check in my pocket, however, that would make me a phone sex whore, I'll pass. Hell, I charge myself to masturbate, the fee is phenomenal and I'm broke all the time and can't afford myself, what does that tell you? Shoot me. Anyhoo, just how the fuck can you have phone sex unwillingly?

So. While you all were sitting on your asses at home watching C-SPAN, I was sitting on my ass in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland listening to John Fucking Edwards speak. Beat THAT!

Yea, that's right. I got to see the golden child himself, the man that does not age. Was it revelatory experience, a near spiritual orgasm? Well, no. Not at all. Honestly, I've never been that fond of Edwards. Way to inexperienced and just too damn slick. Gimmie a craggy, crudgemon veteran any day of the week. We got there about an hour early and still got shitty 'seats', way in the back. What was really weird, though, was that they were handing out all these "Ethnics for Kerry" signs, when 95% of the crowd was white. The 6 foot tall white dude next to me ended up holding an "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Kerry & Edwards" sign.

Anyhoo, how was the speech? It was fine, nothing amazing. Pretty much a rehash of his acceptance speech at the convention. That Hope is On the Way thing really creeps me out though. Crowds shouldn't chant in unison. Plus, there was this really weird girl standing next to us. It was like she was trying to have a conversation with Edwards. Everything he said, she'd reply to with a, "That's right," or "No!" the really funny thing, though, is that she got it mixed up half the time, and kept on accidentally disagreeing with him.

Ok. The debate. I did watch it, as they had a bunch of giant screens showing C-SPAN set up in the square. I think most people will call it a draw, mainly because Kerry missed a bunch of great opportunities to jab Bush, and because Bush lied through his teeth. The biggest mistake Kerry made was during the flu vaccine question (which was an....odd question): Bush said that he was working with Canada to get more vaccines over the border. This is from the same guy that said he just can't know if Canada pharmaceuticals are safe. But Kerry let that major misstep just pass over, and I was disappointed. Also, when Bush said that he would tell a worker who's job has been outsourcing that the government will help them get education, Kerry didn't jump on the point that many outsourcing jobs these days are highly technical jobs that already require education, and that it hardly solves the problem to just offer more education.

Overall though, I think Kerry did a really good job. Not as well as he should have, considering the fact that he's the leader in almost all domestic issue polls, but a good job nonetheless. I think Republicans inevitably come out looking better in domestic issue debates, though, because all they have to do is say the word "liberal" and most undecided will immediately be turned off. Which is such horse shit, and the Democrats are just as much to blame. When Nancy Pelosi became House Minority Leader, and the Republicans claimed she was a flaming liberal, instead of standing up and declaring herself to be a proud liberal, someone from the liberal tradition that this country was founded on and that saved it from nearly all of it's darkest moments, she caved in and went on the defensive, saying she was not, in fact a liberal. (That was a HORRIBLE sentence) In summary: I don't think this will change much. I'm willing to bet that viewership was way down, and I really just don't think it changed anyone's minds. Probably solidified some "leaning-Kerry's" and some "leaning-Bush's," but I don't think this is going to have any real impact on the polls, and certainly not something like the spike Kerry got after the first debate.

"A culture of life"? Instead of an abortion, woman should abstain from sex or adopt out the bad mistake, the rape, the incest, good times ladies, grab them coat hangers femme-nazi-terrorists, you might need them and keep in mind Dubya doesn't want to impose his religion on anyone.

The medical institutions must embrace "high technology", but don't even think about buying prescription drugs from Canada or off the internet for that matter, its wrong and illegal. God forbid we ask the pharmaceutical companies, or the FDA for that matter, to make these drugs affordable, there are mortgage's on billion dollar homes at risk, so suck up the generic drugs bitches.

Raising the minimum wage is hard work, its hard--work.

(Note: both President Bush & Kerry wore red dotted power ties: Kerry's had a sheen; Bush's did not; just a fact there....pardon the fashionslut in me.)

Ted Kennedy, friend and the most liberal foe (pinky finger to lip) in the whole world!

"God wants everyone to be free", but taxed: if you have children, you save; if your married, you save; if your single and middle-incomed (low-middle/high-middle/middle-middle), your fucked; breed, marry & save, but no one is imposing their religion on you, nope.

Okay, your gay, not that there's anything wrong with that, but marriage is between a man and a woman, but nobody's imposing their religion on anyone.

Litmus tests for judges? Scoff! Any fascist will do, as long as a "culture of life" is prevalent in their mindset, but no one is imposing their religion on you.

Women must vote, Blacks must vote, middle-America must vote, (minority=everyone but white males of a certain tax bracket) you cannot lose your job if you take the time to vote, its the law, your voice matters; if you don't believe that, then the 'man' just beat you down and the 'man' wins. Even the 'man' would concede that they're nothing without the women they listen to: that's the cue ladies, vote.

Blog vs. Blog: nominate your Favorite Bush or Favorite Kerry Blogs, or not.[via: biz]

Philip Roth interview @ nerve. [via: bs]

Shirt folding magic! "Incontheeible!". [via: db]

Novelists represent, yo.

Slate asked a variety of prominent American novelists, ranging from Edwidge Danticat to John Updike, for a frank response to the following question: Which presidential candidate are you voting for, and why? Thirty-one novelists participated, with four for Bush, 24 for Kerry, and three in a category of their own.

Orson Scott Card gets all Zell Miller...mmmkay. [via: old hag]

Because they make my job so, so much easier. I'll be honest, when Theresa asked me to come on as a Political spew guy, I really didn't think there would be enough material and news out there to justify daily posts. Boy was I naive. This next issue proves two things: 1. Republicans will go to any lengths to win. Honesty really isn't a factor (Note: Democrats are also guilty of this, alibit to a much, much lower extent). And 2. CNN really IS a big stinking pile of horse shit.

CNN's "Undecided" Voter Turns Out To Be A GOP Operative

Yesterday, CNN's Bill Hemmer interviewed "undecided" voter, Edward Martos. Martos is actually a GOP operative who is involved heavily with the University of Miami College Republicans' and who has served as the Assistant Editor in Chief of the College Republicans' newsletter. He is such an undecided voter that he actually helped draft the constitution of the University Of Miami College Republicans. Martos, of course, by all measure, is not an undecided voter, but CNN refuses to report that they were duped.

Wonderful quote from the little bugger, regarding Bush: "At the same time, though, I think the problems in foreign policy are so great that -- and he created them himself -- that he's the only one capable of solving the problem."

And if you can't see what's wrong with that quote, you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

"By our estimation, roughly 70 percent of liberals are experiencing some degree of lethargy resulting from a glut of civil-liberties abuses, education funding cuts, and exorbitant military expenditures."

I'm fatigued, disgusted and exhausted and I've barely surfed the web today, lord have mercy.

The Seattle Storm won WNBA Championship tonight, Wooohoo! Those damn Yankee's suck all the joy out of baseball, the fuckers: school will cost a small fortune *gulp* and now the below post! Arrrrrrrgh, snarf.....*anxiety-spaz-out*
[onion link via: bjg]

Seriously, can this election get any more dirty? I'm waiting for the mob to off one of the canidates.

Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

So. Republican operatives create a supposed non-partisan voter registration drive. They sign up hundreds of new votes a day. They then proceed to rip up the registration of anyone who tried to register as a democrat. And they did this in a state that's a swing state by any definition (Kerry has the lead by one point according to electoral-vote.com. How much you wanna bet that, if they're doing this in a little 5 electoral vote swing state like Nevada, they are doing it in big 20-27 electoral vote swing states like Florida and Ohio? How can anybody still consider voting for these people? It boggles the mind that Kerry isn't winning by a land slide. Massive voter fraud! HIGHLY unethical usage of public airways! Midnight rituals to the Dark Lord...I'm assuming! Ugh....

In the meantime, if you registered to vote with any organization like this one (no matter where and no matter what they were portraying themselves as) you should probably make sure that you actually ARE registered.

I should have been knee-deep in Photoshop tutorial wonders tonight, but I was pulled in many directions, one direction being that of the Progressive Alliance's Gang Bang @ the Wizbang site, the other direction was just trying to catch up on blog's that are regular reads. I did find a particularly interesting homage to Jacques Derrida at Ron Mwangaguhunga's The Cosair. Philosophy has always been an interest to me, afterall, philosophy is the seed of progress. Enjoy & Goodnight.

Team America is a statirical movie and should be treated as a 'satirical' movie, a funny "ha-ha" if you will. Sean Penn gets up in the faces of the creators, the same creators the penned great and memorable songs as "Uncle Fucker" and "Blame Canada".

To Trey Parker and Matt Stone,

I remember a cordial hello when you guys were beginning to be famous guys around Hollywood at some party. I remember several times getting a few giggles out of your humor. I remember not being bothered as you traded on my name among others to appear witty, above it all, and likeable to your crowd. I never mind being of service, in satire and silliness.

I do mind when anybody who doesn't have a child, doesn't have a child at war, or isn't or won't be in harm's way themselves, is encouraging that there's "no shame in not voting" "if you don't know what you're talking about" (Mr. Stone) without mentioning the shame of not knowing what your talking about, and encouraging people to know. You guys are talented young guys but alas, primarily young guys. It's all well to joke about me or whomever you choose. Not so well, to encourage irresponsibility that will ultimately lead to the disembowelment, mutilation, exploitation, and death of innocent people throughout the world. The vote matters to them. No one's ignorance, indcluding a couple of hip cross-dressers, is an excuse.

All best, and a sincere fuck you,

Sean Penn

P.S. Take this as a personal invitation from me to you (you can ask Dennis Miller along for the ride as well) to escort you on a trip, which I took last Christmas. We'll fly to Amman, Jordan and I'll ride with you in a (?) 12 hours through the Sunni Triangle into Fallujah and Baghdad and I'll show you around. When we return, make all the fun you want.

Ummm.....I'm guessing he wants to people to vote, I'm thinking I don't really want to see a documentary of Sean Penn with the South Park creators in Iraq on Comedy Central. Vote please. Thanks!

Remember a few months ago, when Ted Koppel spent an entire episode of Nightline reading off the names of American casualties in Iraq? It was presented commerical free, and most agreed it was a tastefully done, respectful piece of journalism. Except, of course, Sinclair broadcasting, who refused to air the episode, calling it politically motivated.

Well, like most conservatives, it turns out they are filthy, lying hypocrites! Quelle suprise, non ? (I kid because it's true... :) ) Sinclair has ordered all 62 of its stations to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal", a highly partisian film detailing Kerry's supposed 'betrayl' of POWs and Veterans during Vietnam, without commercials in prime-time next week, just 2 weeks before the election. Siclair's stations reach roughly 25% of all households in America. Now, putting aside the question of "Why the FUCK does one company own that much media?", it's still pretty clear to anyone that doesn't fellate Bush and Cheney and co that this is essentially 2 hours of free, unregulated political advertising. I mean, I'm not a lawyer, but I really don't see how this even begins to be legal. They claim they are making it 'fair' by having a televised discussion of the film afterwards, to which Kerry will be invited, but I think we all have a pretty good idea how 'fair' that'll end up being. I'm astonished that people aren't making a bigger deal about this. It's everything that's wrong with American media in one little package. I swear to god...if this swings the election over to Bush, I'm moving to Canada. There's only so much one person can take.

Feel free to give Sinclair a big 'Fuck you!' and other constructive criticism here.

Bush leads in Libya, Congor, Niger (spammer central) and our greatest ally Azerbaijan show some love to the President, if the rest of the world could vote it would resemble this picture. :) lol.

[World Vote link via: cul]
[Donkey humping link via: In Search Of Utopia *click pic to view donkey porn]




Enjoy your day!

Pessimism was Christopher Reeves kryptonite, he was the supreme example of optimism. In his mind, through stem cell research, his recovery was inevitable. I myself was skeptical of what science could do to remedy his situation, especially with the current limitations, but throughout, Mr. Reeves was optimistic, science would prevail. I have no links, I just saw the ABC ticker announcing his death.

May 'Superman' rest in peace and may stem cell research, at whatever capacity, continue on in his name. May America and the world understand that such research is benefical for many reasons, learning from the organic source to aid those in need is not a sin or a crime, it's human nature. Superman will continue on, Christopher Reeves does not, but thank you Christopher, thank you for the lesson and a great example of optimism.

She's spewing steam today and the pictures are awesome. Watch the Volcano Cam and see for yourself.

Novelist John Cheever, who was born in Massachusetts but lived most of his life in New York, once said: "All literary men are Red Sox fans. To be a Yankee fan in literary society is to endanger your life."

Congratulations to the Red Sox, you have my permisson to wallup the shit out of my backup bitch the Yankee's when they make it to the play offs, hell, I think you have the worlds permission. A-rod must be denied (wearing the bitter bitch heart on my sleeve again) Gooooooo, Red Soxs! [via: beingjennifergarret]

Its sing-a-long time people! Vote John Kerry: A Patriotic Song by Dominic Sagolla.
Sample Lyrics:

This election,
There ain't no connection
Between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein.
Now they've gone too far;
Administration's gone insane!

[via: Biz]

First off, a Japanese lesson for y'all. It isn't pronounced Key-o-to or To-key-o. "Kyo" is pronounced exactly like it's spelled: make the sound of the letter K then say yo as in yo-yo, and blend the two together. Kyoto, Tokyo. I can't tell you how much it annoys me when people screw that up, and both Kerry and Bush did it tonight.

Anyway...who won? My brain wants to call it a tie, but my gut says Bush won. Don't get me wrong, he's a goddamn lying son of a motherfucking bitch and every word out of his mouth was horseshit, but Americans seem to eat that shit up. Kerry was on the defensive most of the time, which isn't how it should be. It's interesting though, I thought Kerry handled the foriegn policy questions better than Bush and that Bush handled the domestic policy questions better than Kerry, which, of course, goes against "conventional" wisdom. Here are some excerpt from the notes I took during the debate (yes I took notes during the debate...I never deny that I am a true geek):

1. The questions were, for the most part, fantastic. Some of them were stupid (the "are you wishy washy" question to Kerry) and some of them obviously were not written by undecided voters (both the abortion and stem cell questions were clearly written by strong pro-lifers- people that would never vote for Kerry). But for the most part they were very insightful. The question about the draft gave Kerry a great opportunity to talk about the "back-door draft" of the national reserves, an issue that has largely been left out of the debate thus far.

2. During the first half of the debate, Bush was REALLY confrontational. He was so didactic towards the questioners. It was like he was lecturing them. And did you notice that he snapped at the moderator? That ain't good form, especially when you proceed to make a shitty point. Also, it seemed like he never talked to Kerry; never addressed him directly. It was always "my opponent says this, my opponent says that." Kerry, on the other hand, did a much better job connecting with the audience during the first half. He made it a point to respond to each questioner with their name, something I didn't notice Bush do once.

3. Things started to flip around for the second half though. Bush was more personable, cracked a few jokes, and kept the conversation on Kerry's record, not his own. And when he had to talk about his own record, he just lied trough his teeth: "I am a good steward of the land."?!?!?!?!? Does anyone, anywhere, honestly beieve that Bush's enviromental policy has been in anyway beneficial to the actual enviroment? Didn't think so.

4. So. Bush wants a Judge that would be against the Dred Scott Decision. I was very pround that the president tonight took a bold stand against....slavery? What the fuck? It isn't 1864, it's 2004. That was the most fucked up moment of the evening, I think, and one of the few gaffes that will probably hurt Bush's showing in the domestic half.

5. Favorite slips and fuck ups of the evening- Kerry mimed brain surgery when he said "Brain surgeon." Bush called "Senator Kennedy the most liberal senator," when he clearly meant Kerry (freudian slip...). "There's a rumor out there on the Internets.." Bush said "Fastle." I have no idea in what context, and since the word bears no resemblance to any other word, I'm not sure what to make of it.

6. Even though I think the public perception will be that Bush won (and that's all that really matters), on policy issues, Kerry clearly won. The best points he made: 1. In response to the question of Iran's nuclear ambition, Kerry didn't take the easy road and chew out Bush for not being tough enough. Instead, he focused on the much less sexy, but much bigger, threat: North Korea. 2. The aformentioned "back-door draft." 3. His systematic destruction of Bush's enviromental record. In particular, his point that the skies would be cleaner had the "Clear Skies" intiative not been passed. 4 And my favorite: the way he answered the abortion question. He came off as a pro-lifer that doesn't believe in legislating morality, which is about the most main stream position there is. He also brought up Bush's disastorous record in regards to supporting family planning abroad, another issue that isn't discussed nearly enough.

7. Did you notice that Kerry didn't ever explicitly mention his service in Vietnam? He vaguly referred to it once or twice, but, on the whole, hardly mentioned it.

Again, I really, really hope I'm wrong. But I think Bush nailed it tonight. He had much, much lower expectations to live up to this time. He had to not look like a total idiot, and, to someone ignorant of the facts (and how can you be undecided if you ae ignorant of the facts), he came off as calm, intelligent, and more stable leader. Ugh.

Bush came off stronger than last week, but I think he may have swallowed a handful of Viagra before the debate, the bulge wasn't in in back this time, it was in his crotch, which was on fire, all that testosterone shooting throught him was a scary display of power in the hands of the feeble minded. And the look of strain on his face while trying to refrain from making the same cocky smirk's almost made him explode. The debate next week should have him get all St. Helens completely, cool.

Karen Hughes comments on NBC after the debate also scared the shit out me, she is full on fucking delusional, someone must have slipped her a Viagra mickey or something and she's loving the trip, wow, freaky bitch.

The irony continues, the little book store that could and won't in the future, just recieved a Best Of Catagory Award from Mall Management. Being the bitter bitches my assistant Joan & I are, we opted out of the Annual Merchant Dinner at the Marriot last night (first time in years), which is where they would have presented the award to us over lukewarm buffet food. Blah, or um...Thanks, thanks for wanting someone bigger and your welcome, we were glad to stay open all those years while the ghetto mall got their shit together, banned the gang warefare (too gracious), remodeled the funkified out dated appearance and chose a new name, so you could blast our store from your confines. Again, thank you more than you'll ever know!

MoveOverPlease.org

HeyItsPrettyLateImGoingToBedNowCouldYouLeave.org

IdAppreciateChangeButIllSettleForDreadlocks.org

IAmOfTheBeliefThatArmoiresShouldntBeUsedAsGunCabinets.org

ProudAmerican.co.uk

more @ McSweeney's

Google announced the introduction of the service at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the industry's most important annual meeting, where publishers, authors and their agents convene to buy and sell the rights to publish books in countries worldwide.
The new service would allow users of Google's main search engine to search simultaneously billions of Web pages and the texts of hundreds of thousands of books for information on a given subject. They search works by looking for words or phrases in the scanned digital images of the pages of books that publishers have provided to Google.
For each book found, a user would see several pages of the book with the phrase or subject of the search highlighted. The page would also offer links to several online retailers, where the book could be bought. Publishers do not pay to participate in the program; rather, Google would make money from the service by selling advertising on the search pages, and it would share those revenues with the publishing companies.

I can't imagine why the little bookstores are fading out of the picture? Hardy-har. Change is good, change is good, change is good and when I count my small change I'll have some cash to buy food when my job is gone...teehee. ;)

Evan Williams, that hotty-geek and co-founder of Pyra Labs and Blogger, is leaving the Google/Blogger family today! Good Luck, best wishes and thanks for Blogger.

This past week the rumors were confirmed that "the little bookstore that could" would be closing next summer. In August I was given 15 year service award by the very company that is closing my store, its shiny, gold (faux, of course) and is proudly displayed on my 15 year lanyard, the very lanyard that gets caught in between stacks of books and desk draws, leaving me gasping for air and I am quite certain its out to do me in, the bitch. I'm not really shocked by this revelation, the rumors have been rampant for years now and although its 8 to 10 months out, the reality has been draining, because its just not me losing a job I love, its my employees as well and now that its official, dealing with their emotions has sucked my energy. It has been a dreadfully long week.

Over the years staff members have come and gone, but many of my original staffers remain in one capacity or another. The seasonal folks that run the Calendar Store for me 3-4 months of the year and swear each year that their never coming back are even sad. I have a superior crew and they are certain to find places at the big box bookstore moving into the mall. The big-box is actually the same company that I work for, so many ironies, woohoo. I won't be making the move to the big-box, they pay their supervisors significantly less than I make now and refuse at any point in my life to take a step backwards, I can't afford to, especially within the same company I work for now, how fucking lame is that? I do appreciate the fact that my boss respected me enough to be up front about the closure, they never disclose a store closure until a few months prior to the closing, to prevent loss prevention issues and prevent people bailing in search of a secure position in life, (how dare they?). The bosses have even started looking into opening an Outlet store for me to run, I'm flattered and if that comes to fruition, then I may come back, who can say?

The store is running in the top three of the District, the top 15 of the Region and in the top 100 of the company for the first time in years. So, our goal as a team is to continue keeping the numbers high and leave on top of our game. I know my bosses would like me to stay with the company, but I'm ready to get on with the second half of my life. I was too busy with parties and concerts in my youth to be bothered with an education, so I'm going to get me an edjuamakation, most likely in multi-media & web design, I need to create, I have the talent and I'm grabbing the bull by the horns and riding the bitch till it passes out, again, woohoo. I'm looking forward to school, unemployment checks and the severance package. I'm not looking forward to having to pay more for my books, Hell, I'll miss the discount more than I'll miss the job. I won't miss retail at all, I won't miss working 8 gazillion hours a week during the holidays. However, I will miss my peers and co-workers. 15 years is a long time with one company, but these people are part of family and will not be forgotten. 19 years selling books has been a joy, but its time to move on, for me at least. I'm looking forward to the future, I'm scared, but ultimately excited.

Retail is changing, all the stores will be huge and the little guys will go bankrupt so that the consumer can have all the choices their minds, most likely, can't handle. Our society is moving at warp speed and now even Scotty has Alzheimer's and doesn't remember how to slow the engine. In the future, Malls could be open 24 hours for your convenience, Sundays included. I will NOT miss retail. It's a 24 hour world now, as for me, I'll continue taking things at my own pace, like retarded turtle of sorts, slow, methodic, wave at the fast rabbits, draw pretty pictures and animations and while I'm at it stop and eat some foliage just for the hell of it. Yum, life is tasty.

Elfriede Jelinek, has won the nobel prize in literature, and, as per usual, not more than 10 people in America care. It's no real secret that the swedes who choose the nobel winners are dirty, stinking socialists who choose winners based on political concerns more often than not. It's really a shame. Half the reason the choose Jelinek is because she's female. Personally, I was hoping for Philip Roth, who's due, or Haruki Murakami, who will never win the award ever (the only times they have given the award to a Japanese author was right after WWII to signify their reentry into the international community [Kawabata- billiant writer] and on the 50th anniversery of Hiroshima [Oe- dense but also brilliant]).

Okay, so the below post is an example of Andy's work, there a brain in there not littered by the excesses of beer and gluttony, not that there's anything wrong with that. ;) I overslept this morning, call it exhaustion, call it lazy, so I give you muffins for breakfast, enjoy. [via: Irate Weirdos]

It's Andy STEINHEBEL. Seriously. It's in my e-mail address. It IS my e-mail address. But whatever.

Uhm...yea. As cupie said, I'm the new chief political spewmiester. I'm not sure what she's expecting though. Hell, I'm more liberal than her, and that's pretty hard to do without being a communist. I'm probably more 'level headed' though. Not saying a whole lot though, is it? :) Full disclosure: I'm a sophmore at one of the most liberal colleges on the west coast: Lewis & Clark College. I'm an East Asian Studies major, so my political forte is (in addition to America, of course) is China, Japan, Korea, that area of the planet. I'm not sure when the minutiea of the collapse of the LDP/New Kemeito governing coallition will come, up but when it does...

Ok. Let's start with the next frontier of the war on terror: Iran. When Herr Bush troted out the so-called Axis of Evil, I never fully understood why Iran was there. Iraq, yea, sure, Saddam is ebil, he tried to kill daddy, I can buy that. Kim Jong Il (or as Bush would say, Kim Chee Il...he likes his cabbage) is obviously bat-fucking-insane. But Iran...Iran is clearly on the path to reform. Americans are actually respected by many Iranian youths. I'll be the first to admit that the the mullahs are trying there damndest to sqaush the reformists, but reform is a wave that really can't be stopped. It can be acceleratd though. I really dont see how telling Iranians that they are 'evil' is going to defrost icy relationships. But what do I know. ANYWAY....I had a point here - Iran's nuclear ambitions. This article is just about as bull-shit free as you're likely to find. The good-bleeding-heart-peacnik-liberal line to take is that Bush will go after Iran right after he's elected. And while I've parroted that line around like any good anti-Bush student, my heart really just isn't in it, for one reason:North Korea. N. Korea has nuclear weapons and, moreover, there's good reason to believe they'll use them. I'm going to spend next year in Japan, so maybe I'm more worried about the whole Kim Jong Il-being-insane thing that most, but I realy think whoever wins will have to focus exclusively on North Korea and Iraq. Iran is on the back burner and should remain there. They will get weapons, but there isn't much reason to believe that they will use them. Iran wants to be treated as a legitamate member of the international community. They would use the weapons as a deterrent against major Isreali military actions, but I really don't see them isolating themselves by actually intiating a first strike against any country. However, don't take that to mean I believe it is acceptable for Iran to have the weapons. The world can't really afford to have every pissant country think nuclear weapons are an acceptable deterent. The way to solve this? Two steps: 1. Stop saying it's ok for countries like Isreal and India to have weapons, because they are democracies, but it's not ok for countries like Pakistan or Iran to have them. And 2. This. Remember this? We need to actually sign (as to give legitimacy to it) a workable nuclear test ban. Stuid fucking republicans. Read the Iran article. That's all... [via metafiler, btw]