Have a shoutout party! At the moment of GW’s speech at the RNC next week (On September 2nd, 2004, at approximately 10 pm), open the window, go out on your front porch, and shout, “fuggedaboudit!” or some other, more appropriate shout of dissapproval that works for your region. 🙂 Fun!
Here are some ideas;
1. We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more!
2. Up yours, Bush!
3. Lick Bush!
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“I really marked the end of the Republic when the election ended without a public outcry” –Gore Vidal in Unprecedented."
Last night I watched the film Unprecedented, directed by Richard Ray Perez, and Joan Sekler. The film came out in 2002. I had never seen it before. It is about the 2000 election, some of the events leading up to it, and then the days following. I’ve read some really good writing regarding the 2000 election by Alan Dershowitz and Vincent Buglosi (I found these editorials in a book that I pulled off the “new book” truck several months ago and don’t recall the name of it. If I can remember it I will post it here because it was really good). I remember, four years ago, witnessing the drama that unfolded beginning election night and the days following the election. I remember getting angry at Gore for not fighting harder when all was said and done. I was disappointed. But I told myself that it would be okay. I mean, George W. Bush was the son of a pretty good president, one that I voted for against Clinton. He couldn’t be all THAT bad. Well, if only I had known the whole truth at the time.
This documentary, Unprecedented, reports on some of the activities of the Florida election board in the months before the election. 27,000 African American voters were denied their right to vote. Many very smart people speculate that it is because 90% of African American voters vote Democrat, and so denying the voting rights of a large chunk of the African American population takes away a large chunk of votes from the Democratic party. The fact that the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, was a Bush supporter, makes this suspicious. The fact that Bush’s brother is governor of Florida, makes this even more suspicious. When Bush came to Washington to take over the White House, there was a huge protest. I didn’t know about this protest. I found out about it later by reading about analysis of the 2000 election. Isn’t that sad, that the media didn’t give these protesters a voice?
The documentary also goes over the lead-up to the Supreme Court ruling that gave the presidency to Bush. Gore, as was his right, requested a hand recount of ballots in four counties. Hand recounts are considered more accurate than machine counts, which is why this method is used when there is a discrepancy. The Supreme Court stopped the recount, essentially stripping Gore of his rights.
The thing that was really good about this movie was that it blames the democrats as much as the republicans for what happened. The democrats should have fought harder for the truth. Instead, they just let the presidency slip away into the hands of a soundrel who has ruined this country. It is seriously depressing when the great minds of our time make statements like the one Gore Vidal makes above.
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I’m laying down some ground rules. First of all, if you read my blog please don’t read another word until you go to this site and read this disclaimer.
Okay, now that you have read that, I have a few rules of my own to lay down.
1.This is my online journal. It is not a doctoral dissertation. I will not back up my opinion with researched material, unless, of course, I feel like it. This blog is my outlet. It is a place where I write freely on things that I see around me.2. If you post a comment on my site, be polite. Don’t come here and pass judgement on things that I write, on me, or my opinions. At least, don’t do it in the comments. It’s rude. It’s like me going to your home and telling you how to raise your kid. This website is my domain. Please respect that.
3. If you don’t like what I write, you can choose to not visit my site. What I write might offend you. If it offends you, and you feel the need to post a rude and inflammatory comment, then you might want to refrain from visiting this site.
4.Don’t offer me unsolicited advice. If I want advice I will ask for it.
5. I reserve the right to delete a comment if it is inappropriate.
6. I will deal trolls with appropriately.
I mentioned in the comment of another post, I am not here to constantly defend myself against nitpicking conservatives. This blog is my writing outlet. It is my online journal. I write to make sense of things going on around me. If you have a differing opinion, that’s fine. But please be polite and respectful when posting comments on my site.
Thanks.
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I’ll post some instructions for knitting the hat (boy my mood has soured considerably in the last two hours. Mandrake, Daffodil, I don’t know how you do it.)
I need to sketch out the intarsia on some graph paper and scan it and put it up here so look for it later. I learned to knit this hat from reading Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop, which is an excellent book.
Materials:
1 16 inch circular needle, size 7.
Double pointed needles, size 7.
Worsted weight yarn. You need 1 ball for the main color of the hat. You will also need white yarn and red yarn for the words (of course, you can choose to knit the words in one color. It’s up to you). For my hat I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease.Cast on 84 stiches LOOSELY (note, you might want to cast on a few more stitches if the person you are knitting for has a larger head. Don’t overdo it though.) Knit one row, put a place-marker on your needle and join, making sure your knitting is not twisted. Knit 42 stitches, then put another place marker on the needle. Finish knitting the row to the first place-marker.
Now you are going to start your pattern. (this is where I need to insert the graph). Remember that you will knit this the opposite of the way you read it: right to left and bottom to top. This pattern has five rows.
Continue knitting around and around until you have knitted about 4.5 inches. Now you will start decreasing. On the first decrease round you will knit 10, knit 2 together, repeat all the way around. Knit one round plain. The next round: knit 9, knit 2 together, repeat until you get to stitch marker. The next round; knit plain. The next row: Knit 8, knit 2 together, repeat until you get to stitch marker. (Noticing a pattern here). Continue decreasing in this way until you have 7 stitches. (At some point you will want to put your stitches on double pointed needles.) When you have reached 7 stitches, take yarn off needles, cut yarn, thread the tail through a yarn needle, and weave in on the underside of the cap. You’re almost done!
It’s a good idea to weave in all of your loose ends at this point just to get them out of the way.
To make a hem. put the 84 stitches that you originally cast on on your needes. Thread them in through the back of the loop. Knit the constrasting color into these stitches. Knit another round. On the next round, you want to decrease slightly, so Knit 8, knit 2 together, and repeat until you get to the begining. Knit around and around until to reach 1.5 inches. Don’t cast off. Instead, cut your yarn, weave the end in. Then take the yarn off the needles carefully. Take a long piece of your contrasting yarn and tack your loops to the inside of your hat.
Viola! it’s done. If you have questions, feel free to post them in the comment section below.
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I was inspired yesterday to knit up a watch cap. Take a look:
It’s supposed to say “Kerry 04” BTW 🙂 .
Anyway, I decided to make it because I was angry and i need to get out my aggression somehow, and I tell you what, knitting is a great way to relieve stress (oh, and if you are interested, you can read all about my knitting adventures at Black Sheep). I was driving to Trader Joes, where I do my grocery shopping and I was listening to this local talk radio station. They used to be really cool, in that they were really balanced opinion-wise. Lately they have gotten really conservative, which wouldn’t be bad at all except when I turn it on I hear nothing but liberal bashing. And then they wonder why liberals don’t call in Anyway, the owner lets his 70 year old mommy read her editorials over the air. They are really, really lame. They are lame because she bases her opinions on things like urban legend e-mails that get passed around the internet ( remember how I said the spread of mis-information urks me?) I kind of roll my eyes when she comes on. Well this editorial I heard yesterday I couldn’t get through the first few words of before I turned off my radio. She said, “the thought of John Kerry as our president for the next four years frightens me.” What? What on earth about John Kerry could possibly be frightening?!? The man has been a public servant all his life. He served his country, fighting for people like this old bat, in Viet Nam, and has served in the United States Congress and she is saying she is frightened by John Kerry being president? Frightened is the last thing anyone should be. I mean, come up with different reasons to not want Kerry in office. Being frightened of him should not be one of them.
Why do you think this woman thinks this? I don’t know. I am not really paying all that much attention to the propaganda that Bush is spewing out from the rovemachine. I probably should be, but I am soooo sick of it that I’ve taken a break from it. But i wonder if his spin masters have something to do with this seed of fear that has been planted. I wouldn’t be surprised. He seems to use fear a lot to manipulate people.
