Category: Politics

Posted on

Christensen


Christensen
Originally uploaded by rynosoft

Yesterday morning I was in the midst of making a movie of the Iraq Names Project when I was stopped dead in my tracks by this. It’s unlikely that it is someone that is related to me and even less likely it’s someone I know, but the name “Christensen” always draw my attention. Here, moreso than ever before.

Posted on

May Day 2007

When I was a kid, May Day meant that we made treat baskets for the other kids in the neighborhood and left them on their doorsteps. In Portland, May Day is celebrated as an international labor event. I happen to work on Broadway in Downtown Portland where the annual May Day March passes by. I snapped a few pictures as they passed by this year.

Posted on

First election, last election

I still remember the first time I voted. Voting in Riceville was always at City Hall, where there were probably two or three booths. The helpful election volunteer explained the whole process and what I needed to do. There were levers, I remember, and there were two big levers. One you could pull to vote all-Democrat and the other you could pull to vote all-Republican. At the time, I thought that was handy but something I would never use. I scrupulously considered all my options for each race and voted according to my conscience. Something I have done in every election since.

But yesterday was different. Yesterday it seemed like there was a message to be sent and the only way for the intended recipients to hear it would be a massive Democratic victory. So I voted Democrat in every single race that had a Democrat running. Now the message has been sent. Will it be heard and heeded?

How was the message sent? Let me count the ways:

  1. Democrats will now control the U.S. House of Representatives
  2. Democrats are guaranteed at least a tie in the United States Senate, with a very good chance of taking control (depending on how the recount goes in Virginia)
  3. Donald Rumsfeld resigned
  4. Rick Santorum lost
  5. Ted Kennedy won
  6. Democrat Ted Kulongoski won a second term as Oregon governor despite heavy negative campaigning by his opponent in the waning days of the election
  7. 28 states now have Democratic governors
  8. Four out of five U.S. House seats up for election in Oregon went to Democrats
  9. Democrats prevail in 10 of 14 Oregon Senate races and retain control
  10. Democrats win 24 of the 42 available seats and gain control of the Oregon House
  11. Oregon turnout is expected to reach 71 percent when all votes are counted
  12. All but one of the state-wide ballot measures went the way I voted
  13. No local ballot measure I voted against won

There were a few downsides:

  1. Joe Lieberman won his Senate race. Can his vote be counted on?
  2. Same-sex marriage bans were approved in six more states. Either people don’t understand the whole freedom concept, or I’m missing something.
  3. Hillary Clinton won by a large margin possibly encouraging her to run for President in 2008
  4. Harold Ford lost his Senate race in Tennessee but did you see his concession speech? Wow!
Posted on

Republicans Don’t “Fall on their sword”

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, I think it was pretty perplexing for many people why the Bush administration never fired anyone when mistakes were made and, in some cases, rewarded perceived incompetence., and getting legal help for this is important, and you can navigate to this website to find more information about this.

There’s an understanding within the administration that everyone knows where the bodies are buried. Furthermore, the understanding seems to be that nobody will do the “honorable thing” and “fall on their sword.” Michael Brown appeared to sacrifice himself so the administration could keep credibility, but when he was subsequently called before Congress, he promptly threw his boss, Michael Cherthoff, under the bus.

So, too, it appears with Scooter Libby. The administration might have thought Libby would be the fall guy for the Valerie Plame affair, but his lawyers seem to think otherwise.

Of course, both of these are minor players. What would happen if Cheney or Rumsfeld was fired? Or Karl Rove? Then we’d find out some real shit about Bush. Because nobody wants to take the blame and everyone wants to place it.

Posted on

Illegal Immigration

We’re having immigration demonstrations in downtown Portland today and we had an impromptu debate about it in my office. I think people are resentful of illegal immigrants and fear that they are taking part of America from each of us, whether it be jobs, services, etc. I think those are valid concerns if those things are being taken away. I’m actually not sure that is the case. Don’t most government services require some sort of proof of citizenship? For example, when I recently renewed my license, I had to have two different pieces of citizenship proof. And doesn’t everybody agree that most of the jobs in question are low-paying jobs that most Americans don’t really want?

Here’s a couple of things to think about:

  • Jon Stewart joked about how he was going to have a hard time telling his son that he wouldn’t be able to live out his lifelong dream of becoming a hedge-trimmer or the guy who hands out towels in the men’s bathroom.
  • The local news interviewed a couple of illegal immigrants at a rally in Salem. One had been here for 25 years and the other had been here for 18. They have tried for years to become citizens.
  • When we talk about building a wall along 700 miles of the Mexican border, do we consider whether the cost of building/maintaining that wall is roughly equal to however much illegal immigrants are costing us in government services now?
  • Although illegal immigrants don’t always pay income taxes, they definitely pay other taxes like sales and property taxes. Also, those who are paid by legitimate employers put in social security and medicaid money that is a gift to us – they will never collect.
  • There are approximately 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today. Does anybody deny that most of them are among the hardest working, yet lowest paid people in our country? Does anybody consider the economic impact of removing these people from the economy? What if lettuce farmers and meat packers and landscapers had to start paying real wages? Higher prices is what it means.
  • Without a local and cheap workforce, I’m pretty sure that more jobs would be moved overseas. While the loss of those jobs doesn’t directly impact American workers (since the jobs are currently occupied by illegal immigrants), there is an ancilliary economic impact.
  • Liberals tend to throw out the racism accusations a bit too easily. While I think there is an undercurrent of that, I don’t think wanting to limit immigration automatically makes you a racist.
  • WWJD?
Posted on

Jon Stewart and the Oscars

Have I mentioned how much I like Jon Stewart of The Daily Show? The shows I missed the most when my Tivo was broke were The Daily Show and Countdown. Here’s a few random thoughts:

  • One of Stewart’s specialties is taking something a politician says recently and then going back through old footage and finding contradictions and straight-out lies. He makes it funny but why can’t the “real” news do this? It seems so obvious.
  • Jon Stewart himself describes his job as “making faces at the camera.” This may be true, but he is the best face-maker in the history of television.
  • It’s hard to decide which I like best: the fake news at the beginning of the show or the correspondent story in the middle. After Steven Colbert left, the new crop of correspondents they got seemed like they weren’t as good, but last night I saw a story about a women’s prison in Minnesota that was incredibly funny. The interviews with the ridiculous questions are enough to make anybody laugh.

Sour PussBTW, despite the ill-humored Hollywood denizens (Joaquin Phoenix, I’m talking to you) there that obviously didn’t appreciate his humor, I thought Jon Stewart was really funny at the Oscars. I think they were expecting a bunch of Republican bashing and when he started tipping their sacred cows, they just didn’t find it funny for some reason. For example, he said Walk The Line was a remake of Ray with white people. Or that you normally have to go to a Democratic fundraiser to see so many movie stars. Comedy gold!

For me, other parts of the program had negative entertainment value:

  • I counted at least three “reminders” about how the theatre-going experience beats watching movies in other venues. DVDs were specifically called out for their poor recreation of the theatre experience. Telling your audience how they are supposed to enjoy your product is condescending, but many would also argue that viewpoint is very flawed. Sometimes you just want to curl up at home in front of your TV and DVD player. Who the hell do they think they are to tell you that’s the “wrong” way to enjoy a movie? Total bullshit.
  • The film editing union must be very strong this year because the number of montage sequences was totally out of control. The worst was a montage about films that “change the world” (or something) which included The Day After Tomorrow. I liked that movie, but I don’t think it changed the world.
  • Aside from Dolly Parton’s performance from Transamerica, none of the other songs grabbed me. I thought they ranged from boring to over-the-top unbearable. BTW, how cool is Dolly? Despite the fact that she looks like total white trash, she’s got to be the coolest member of country’s “old guard.”
  • I’m a George Clooney fan and really dig when he sticks it to blowhards like O’Reilly, but his tirade about being “out of touch” early on was very self-righteous and hypocritical in the historical facts he mentioned. For example, he said Hollywood talked about AIDS when everybody was whispering about it, but Hollywood never made an AIDS film until 1992.
Posted on

Watch Keith Olberman

Last fall while I was following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, I stumbled upon quite a few excellent resources for the liberal-minded thinker. One of these was Countdown With Keith Olbermann, a news and commentary show on MSNBC with a liberal slant. One of the features that attracts me is that the format is very Tivo-friendly.

As the name implies, the show counts down the top five stories of the day, providing a summary followed by analysis by Keith, staff reporters and guest commentators. Each story is covered in one of the show’s six segments over the hour that it is aired (twice a night):

  • The first two segments are usually political stories and, although numbered “4” and “5” in the countdown, are generally the most important stories of the day.
  • The third segment is called “Oddball” and features quirky stories from around the world including the “Top 3 Newsmakers” for the day.
  • The fourth segment features the #3 story followed by the “Top 3 Soundbites” of the day.
  • The fifth segment has the #2 story followed by “Keeping Tabs” which features celebrity news and gossip. This is followed by the “Top 3 Worst Persons in the World.”
  • The final segment, which Keith often calleds “The story my producers are forcing me to do”, is usually about some lighter subject matter and often brings in a guest commentator to make funny for three minutes.
  • Keith signs off with “Keep your knees loose.”

If I’m not in the mood for the political stories, I go right to “Oddball” in the middle of the show and then proceed to the “Worst Person in the World” award which very often goes to Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly presumably has gotten sick of this and recently called for MSNBC to fire Keith and bring back Phil Donahue, who used to occupy the time slot on MSNBC. Although Keith does throw out an occasional reference to the sexual harrassment lawsuit against O’Reilly, mostly he merely quotes O’Reilly’s words in order to show how he is the worst person in the world for that day. I totally dig it.

Olbermann was a favorite of mine when ESPN started out and now I often find myself in agreement with his political sensibilities. I recommend the show highly for all my readers, right or left, conservative or liberal.

Here’s a few related links:

Update 2/28/06: Someone started a petition to replace O’Reilly with Donahue. Here’s what bloggers are saying: