One Who Is Lost

I've been on a kick of getting my online life organized. I'm trying to clean out my RSS reader at work into some Delicious bookmarks, trying to go through my backlog of entries here and tag them, etc.

Have to admit, tagging here is fun, if only to go back and see my Oh. Dear. God. No. entries re: Palin and chuckle in satisfaction.

In other chuckle-worthy news, something makes me suspect that the coal industry is getting marketing advice from The Onion. Cause...I mean...come on! Really? Too funny. Their Facebook page is even better. It has fans like Black Lung, Mercury Mel, and Asthma Al. They've (oh-so conveniently) removed the section where you could "review" them. I guess it doesn't pay to advertise a bunch of one star reviews that call you out on your BS. Wheeee!

more funny politics

So yeah...one week later and I don't think things have sunk in for me yet. I still get a little teared up reading certain articles. Just....wow. WOW!

I'm slowly weaning myself of Huffinton Post at least, though my work listservs/feeds are still all abuzz with the tech/organizing behind this historic campaign.

If you haven't checked out the transition website, change.gov you should. Though one troubling catch people have made is the recent disappearance of the in-depth info in the agenda section. The disappearance itself isn't so bad, though the lack of explanation does twig a few concerns.

The things I really like though are the participatory sections: Share your story and Share your vision as well as the focus on service ("Ask not what your country can do for you..." anyone?).

The only things that will keep me sane over the next 30 or so hours are things like this.

In my head, this is totally what Obama HQ is like tonight:



ETA Forgot to say: Totally stolen from sheafrotherdon

My clock radio is set to NPR. It really just makes me completely tense up any time the story happens to be covering the McCain campaign. It's just such a total repeat of the Bush show: Fear, fear, fear, be afraid, fear, fear. Can we be done with that now? Please?

Just imagine the kind of uproar an atheist bus ad would cause in the United States.

(Or should I have not pointed that out and thus proved myself anti-America...or whatever the latest twaddle is. My bad...)

The Supreme Court meme

Gacked from liz_marcs:

In an upcoming interview with Katie Couric to be aired this week, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) FListers, please take the meme to your LJ to spread the fun.

So totally not out of character for me, I'm going with the very recent Massachusetts v. EPA. Shockingly a GOOD decision out of the Bush-era SCOTUS. Basically, the Bush-era EPA was un-shockingly trying to avoid doing anything about global warming. They claimed they had no authority to limit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions from vehicles, which, according to them, were not covered by the Clean Air Act.

Well, let's see...the Clean Air Act states that an air pollutant is any "physical, chemical, biological (or) radioactive substance or matter [that] is emitted or otherwise enters the ambient air." In addition, it authorizes the EPA to regulate any pollutant that the agency determines to "cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." The act specifically defines "welfare" to include adverse effects on "weather" and "climate."

In a surprise move, the Court sided on common sense and said that yes, heat-trapping emissions are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and, in order to actually, you know, protect the environment as they're supposed to, the Environmental Protection Agency does indeed have the authority to regulate them

So yeah....go SCOTUS!

---

Adam Sandler Politics

The above was the rare Bush-era good political move...the below is one of the more all too common *headdesk* moments.

Seems that a Bush appointee used, and I kid you not, the asinine Adam Sandler movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry as an example of why federal employees with same sex partners shouldn't get equal employee benefits. No, really...he did. If you happen to want to tell him that you'd prefer policy that wasn't founded on Adam Sandler movies...you can let him know here.

---

GOTV

And finally...Get out the vote...clocks ticking down on when you can register:

I'm just....shocked.

This President...discussing personal responsibility...personal sacrifice...conservation...I just...wow. Never thought I'd see the day.

Of course then you get to this parapgraph:

In Washington, two House committees are expected to consider proposals this week that have been blocked in the past by environmental objections. Beyond making it easier to build new refineries, one proposal would allow states to opt out of Congressional bans on coastal oil drilling, and another would allow drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has been controversial for years.

and realize that nah, it's still the same old administration.

And I'm in Reverse Christmas Mode...yet again.

Although it felt like a long weekend, I'm still not ready to face work again tomorrow. Friday evening was...ok, I'm having to think harder about this than I should...oh yeah! Watching Dead Like Me. I do enjoy that show, though the lead actress has a very oddly-shaped mouth. I've already discussed my Saturday. Today I did some budgeting and went grocery shopping. Went to the movies and then watched more Dead Like Me while doing some homework (again, they shouldn't be allowed to give you homework from a full-time job *whine gripe moan*)

The movie I saw was Murderball. Boy Roommate had been gushing about it for about a month so I finally decided to go. It was indeed quite good. It's a documentary about quadriplegics who play wheelchair-rugby. The stories are told really well and it's just a terrific film, but I really lost it at the last five minutes. By then, the "plot" of the movie is over, but it ends with the team going to a veterans hospital to show the kids coming back from Iraq with missing limbs that there's still an active life ahead of them. I was crying then and I'm tearing up now because these veterans really are kids. There's one who doesn't even look old enough to drive and he's there missing a leg cause he got sent off to war. I just...I have no words to describe how that scene made me feel. Totally not the point of the movie, but definitely the image that is sticking with me right now. Anyway, if you get the chance, you should definitely check out the movie.

Bush gave a speech yesterday about the economy:

"In order for us to have the security we all want, America must get rid of the hangover that we now have as a result of the economic binge we just went through,” he said. "There was endless profit, there was no tomorrow when it came to the stock markets and corporate profits. And now we're suffering a hangover for that binge.”

Considering the news his daughters are always making, I'm not sure if that's the metaphor I would have gone for.

Yesterday my coworker was telling me about an article on Fred Thompson and how he's the Kevin Bacon of the Hollywood/DC set; the whole six degrees of separation thing. Like:

Former U.S. Rep. Ben Jones, D-Georgia, who played Cooter on "The Dukes of Hazzard" and is running for a House seat in Virginia, was in "Primary Colors" with John Travolta, who was in "Pulp Fiction" with Bruce Willis, who was in "Die Hard 2" with Fred Thompson.

Well, that reminded me of The Oracle of Kevin Bacon. I haven't futzed with that since freshman year of college when I'd use it as a study break. I forgot how addicting it could be. One cool thing I found was a friend from high school is 3 degrees from Kevin Bacon and is actually in the International Movie Database (also addicting). I was moderately impressed.