Monday, August 30, 2004

UNITE HERE!

UNITE HERE! Is one of the many websites that have popped up in reponse to the RNC in NYC:

The RNC is not Welcome is another one which is comprised of Local New Yorkers and other related anti-RNC individuals. Not much here that I haven't seen elsewhere.

RNC Watch Is a blog that will be updated by the registered users of the site. It varies because it is wholly controlled by the users. I don't believe that that it has a moderator...should be interesting

NYC Indie Media: is another open forum (yet mediated) website with news, blogs, bulletins, radio and live feeds from the RNC and the Protests in and around NYC.

burning man...

Next week it will happen. And as per-usual, I feel a little strange about it. When I attended it was the second annual one - over at baker beach. And it was a hippie-dippy love/art fest with a dance party at the end.

Now its a nation-wide event. With rather strange implications

I kinda liked it better when it was a small "insiders-only" event. When it felt like we were the only ones who were there. It was great because it was "nice" that's the best approximation I can give. Now...well now it feels huge, looming and generally overwhelming.

Nevermind the fact that now there are people who are bringing their kids to the event.
I haven't been since then. Although it was cool...I am a little sad that I feel too grown up now to attend. Although maybe all I need to do is to have a kid of my own?

How I so love Irony,

sfweekly.com | March Radness | 2004-08-25 They're all pdfs so you'll have to click the link to see, but its worthwhile

san francisco's response to NYC being the center of the current protestors controversy.

hmm. think we're a little sore?

OOH the RNC - PROTESTS



this one made me laugh, a nice good little laugh. Its the kind of good natured -free thinking ideals that normally pervade our modern society.

Its things like this,

that keep me awake at night. How could someone holding a sign require so many police?

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

The arrogance of "dissent is unpatriotic"



not sure how to feel about this one... (from the Portland Tribune)
"An unidentified supporter of President Bush tries to silence protester Kendra Lloyd-Knox (right) outside Southridge High School in Beaverton. Elsewhere in Portland, supporters of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., rallied on the waterfront"

hmmm...is this what Bush supporters must resort to? Christ..they already have the most powerful mouthpiece in the nation (popular media)

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Charter Schools Lagging Behind U.S. Test Scores Reveal

For those of you who don't know, this was my seniors thesis in college.

Nice to know that the report I filed with the DOE (Department of Education) nearly 8 years ago has finally been properly released to the public...not that it'll get the attention it needs.

"The first national comparison of test scores among children in charter schools
and regular public schools shows charter school students often doing worse than
comparable students in regular public schools.

The findings [were]
released without public announcement. And have dealt a blow to supporters of the
charter school movement, including the Bush administration.

The data
shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing about half a year
behind students in other public schools in both reading and math. Put another
way, only 25 percent of the fourth graders attending charters were proficient in
reading and math, against 30 percent who were proficient in reading, and 32
percent in math, at traditional public schools.

Because charter schools
are concentrated in cities, often in poor neighborhoods, the researchers also
compared urban charters to traditional schools in cities. They looked at
low-income children in both settings, and broke down the results by race and
ethnicity as well. In virtually all instances, the charter students did worse
than their counterparts in regular public schools.

Charters are expected
to grow exponentially under the new federal education law, No Child Left Behind,
which holds out conversion to charter schools as one solution for chronically
failing traditional schools."


Free-market fix, my ass.

A Halliburton Has More Time to Verify Costs

Halliburton Has More Time to Verify Costs
By JENNIFER BAYOT

"Government contractors normally cannot be paid more than 85 percent of their invoices until they fully account for their costs. Twice this year the Army set this rule aside for Halliburton as the company cataloged its costs and explained how it was billing the government. The most recent reprieve expired on Sunday"

- basically we're still paying them the $8 billion they've been promised even though they've already bilked us for approximately $4.2 (if not more) on a no-bid contract.

seesh....if this were any other small business in America, every one of the executive officers would be in orange get-ups.

A new political web site...Daily KOS

Daily Kos (is a website I found courtesy of Air America, Online!) has posted this very interesting article from the LA times. The article is about Colorado and their recent decision to have a ballot intiative that would immediately split the states electorial vote based on the popular vote, Rather than by a winner-take-all...

Here's what this means to you and me: Gore would have won!

Quote: (from the LA Times)

"If the proposal had been in place four years ago, Democrat Al Gore would have earned enough electoral votes to go to the White House...

Only two other states do not have winner-take-all systems of casting electoral college votes. Nebraska and Maine give two votes to the winner of each state, and
remaining votes are cast to show who won each congressional district.

Republican Gov. Bill Owens and Republican State Party Chairman Ted
Halaby have criticized the Colorado proposal, saying it would lessen the state's
clout in presidential elections. They warn that candidates will ignore the state
and its nine electoral votes if the measure passes.

Julie Brown, campaign director for the Make Your Vote Count effort that supports the measure,dismissed their concerns. 'It begs the question on which is more important -- a two-hour presidential stop at a tarmac at Denver International Airport or true representation by the voters.'

Katy Atkinson, a spokeswoman for the opposing Coloradans Against a Really Stupid Idea, promised to challenge the measure if it passes and it is applied in this year's presidential race.

The proposal's backers want it to take effect immediately, before Colorado's electoral votes are cast in December. 'They are ripe for a court challenge on this,' Atkinson said. 'If this is a close race like the one four years ago, we could be thrown into a situation where we are the Florida of 2004. We'd be the laughing stock of the country. All those Florida jokes would be applied to Colorado.' "

Now this brings up a particularly interesting discussion because we are taking what is an already convoluted system and adding an additional layer of confusion/dilution. The argument goes thus: by splitting a states electoral votes, you actually create more dissention by allowing the states electorial vote to be swayed by popular opinion.

The oposite opinion is of course that it is a better representation of the actual popular vote and hence should be put into place than then current Electoral Voting system that we have now.

However after some remeidal investigation I came across this bit of information regarding the electorial college and it's usefuleness in regards to democratic protection. (Its a dense article which goes into the historical and mathematicall properties of the electoral college...its a good read.)

Electors were supposed to consider each candidate’s merits more judiciously, not
blindly follow the popular will. Nowadays, of course, whoever wins the popular
vote in any state wins all the electoral votes in that state automatically... We no longer need human bodies to cast electoral ballots, [Alan] Natapoff [PHd.] says. That part of the system is indeed archaic. But it has worked beautifully, he insists, as a formula for converting one large national contest into 51 smaller elections in which individual voters have more clout. The Madisonian system, by requiring
candidates to win states on the way to winning the nation, has forced majorities
to win the consent of minorities, checked the violence of factions, and held the
country together



All in all - its a good discussion... the a gist is distilled to in a national election where we KNOW that it's going to be a close race...(e.g. 2000) then a direct vote would be best. However because we can't predict the future and the probablity that MY (or Your) vote would be the deciding vote is so miniscule ( say less than .00000002 %) in a direct vote; then we in fact have more power in an electoral college (or voting district.) Makes sense right?

Sorta...but then I start scratching my head and begin to think then how in the hell did 2000 happen?

I'm apt to believe that if it were an issue of a Blue state Versus a Red state... I'm not sure I'm all in for a purple state of being. Although my Frito-lay and Cheetos stock would make me an instant millionare.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

How late is too late?

And how late should you be willing to wait?

It's now an hour and a fourty minutes late and it has driven me to make note of it, here, now... in the middle of the Barns & Noble store, while using my blackberry device. (God I'm a geek)

Anyhow, personally I would have thought beyond the hour mark we'd be saying F*ck it and just eating instead of waiting...interminably waitng. All while being forced to listen to suedo-cool music from 1960 - 1995. This must be what purgatory is like.

Christ, can we at least go have a beer?

Friday, August 13, 2004

AL QAEDA PLANS TO DROP GAY BOMBS

"Men within 30 miles of the blast will instantly turn queer!

By Nick Jefferies

EXTREMIST Muslim scientists are developing a bomb that turns anyone within a 30-mile radius of its blast into a homosexual, say U.S. Intelligence insiders...They believe that making more Americans gay will start civil war between gays and ultraconservatives," says one highly placed intelligence officer. "They also figure it will lead to a decrease in the U.S. population."...The explosive device is a foot long and shaped like a cigar with a pair of land mines at one end. Planes carrying the weapons will drop them on all major U.S. cities, except, of course, San Francisco, reveals the source.

The Gay Bomb will detonate the instant a heterosexual male steps on one of the mines, releasing potent waves of the female hormone estrogen into the air.

Within hours, heterosexual men will experience terrible urges like: "I'm dying to make out with my buddy in the next cubicle," and "I want a divorce from the witch I married," and "I wonder if I should redecorate the living room."


I'm shitting myself this is so hilarious....You've got to love the weekly world news. At least you've got to belive that they don't take themselves seriously. good good this is bad. But you;ve gotta read the entire article...if only for the picture.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Andy Dick - has lived up to his name

New York Post Online Edition: gossip Regarding TV Comic Andy Dick is that he went on a randy rampage at Suede early yesterday that ended after he burst into tears over the death of his friend Rick James and was thrown out of the Chelsea club by "Little Shop of Horrors" star Joey Fatone.

Dick, the star of MTV's "The Assistant," was desperately in need of a minion to get him under control as he tried to kiss any man or woman he bumped into, including "Austin Powers" actor Seth Green, rolled around on the men's room floor, and asked clubgoers if they had cocaine.

The vodka and cranberry-swilling comic then barricaded himself in Suede's dishwashing room and began sobbing uncontrollably about James, who died last week, reports an eyewitness who witnessed the meltdown. "My best friend is dead!" Dick wailed. "He's gone! He's dead! You don't understand! All my best friends die!"

Dick then handed a dishwasher a stack of $100 bills so he could "live in the room." When Fatone — whom Dick taunted as "Fat One" — and Suede owner Eytan Sugarman tried to coax him to leave, Dick said, "You don't want to push me around, because I'm perfectly capable of doing this" — and punched an unidentified friend standing next to him in the face.

Finally, Fatone, the former *NSYNC member who co-hosts a Tuesday night party at Suede with promoter Brandon Marcel, dragged the blubbering Dick outside with the help of Sugarman and loaded him into a cab in front of a crowd that included Green, Mets outfielder Cliff Floyd and MTV veejay Vanessa Minnillo. Green was overheard sputtering, "That guy tried to kiss me," as Dick was hauled past him.

But Dick's rowdy romp wasn't over yet. The former "News Radio" star, who has battled drug and alcohol abuse in the past, headed downtown to Plan B on Avenue B and promptly commenced smooching and slapping the people inside.

"He was obviously obliterated," Plan B co-owner Josh Boyd told us. "He jumped on the back of Jason Battle, my co-owner, and kept trying to kiss him. Then he started getting violent and bitch-slapping people.

"We finally quarantined him and put him in a separate room. But then he slipped outside and skipped out on his $300 bar tab. The last anyone saw of him, he was rolling around the street on Avenue B."

Dick's manager declined comment.


Our Great Intlelgence failure

For me... I am always more and more surprized about the growing littany of information that is building against the 2nd Bush administration and their intentional actions to tear us down. (to our smallest parts)

I came across this after looking at Air America Radio page, and it is the type of thing that drives me mad. We know about a man, well before his election to the position, and yet the bureacracy that is supposed to help us has kept our hands tied, rather than to ensure that we are being "watched out for"

I am spitting mad about orOur new CIA cheif. But I'm left feeling like "What can I do?"

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

bored, bored, bored!

I am trying to amuse myself with letters to editors of strange and far-fetched publications. (there is a greater possibility that I will get responded/printed to)

so am I bored. No more IM'ing allowed at work, and now I find that I have nothing to do. It makes for a very, very looooonnnng day.

maybe instead of sitting on my ass and complaining. I should try to work. Novel idea, though it is, it still feels pointless...futile, and generally useless.

Monday, August 09, 2004

Teen Bitten By Piranha In Fountain

For all those times when I thought I could just dive into the Fountains for money...not once did I ever think this would happen.

Teen Bitten By Piranha In Fountain Taken from the AP wire: Thursday, August 5, 2004

"HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong teenager reached into a fountain hoping to scoop up a fish but ended up being bitten by what turned out to be a man-eating piranha, officials said Tuesday.

The 14-year-old boy required three stitches to his left index finger but was not seriously injured in the attack early Monday morning, Housing Authority spokeswoman May Tham said.

A cleaning crew drained the fountain the next morning and found it had contained two piranhas -- apparently pets that had been abandoned in the fountain at a public housing project.

Ming Pao Daily News ran a photo of the dead piranhas and one of the boy, with his left hand in a sling and blood on his short pants."

Olymic Blog banning...

Som interesting news about the lack of Proper - unFiltered news regarding the Olympics...it's an interesting trail.

The news was posted from within Bloggers "offical" Olympic Blog that there wouldn't be any blogging alowed by any particpant.

It's related to the 2000 olympics. The IOC says it was a no-no back then. Stating that if a participant (say swimmer, or amature) did keep a "journal" that it would be tanamount to acting as a journalist...and that it would get you kicked out of the games.

Referenced from David Akin's Blog

Thursday, August 05, 2004

bushisms - plain and simple...

Kinda strange how that sounds very much like a four letter word.

bushisms is a pretty good telling of the idiot the idiots in the supreme court decided to run this place.

- i guess they figured that they hadn't asked us to grab our ankles enough. So they gave us this village idiot.

- great. Thanks guys

YAY! OUTFOXED is Now in Theaters!!!

Fox News wishes Outfoxed would just go away. Instead, Outfoxed has been so popular -- selling 100,000 copies in two weeks -- that it's coming to a theater near you this weekend.

You can help make Outfoxed a box-office success by coming to see the movie anytime this weekend -- and bringing a friend!

When:
Starting Friday6:15, 8:00, and 9:45 PM
plus matinees on Sat., Sun., and Wed. at 1:00, 2:45, and 4:30 PM

Where:Roxie Theatre
3117 16th StreetSan Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 863-1087
Tickets are $8. Groups of 20 or more are $6 each.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

California's SUV Ban - The Golden State has outlawed big SUVs on many of its roads but doesn't seem to know it.!

California's SUV Ban - The Golden State has outlawed big SUVs on many of its roads but doesn't seem to know it. (article from Slate.com)

"Here's what few people seem to realize: By weighing in at more than 6,000 pounds, big SUVs are prohibited on thousands of miles of road in California. Cities across the state including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Santa Monica use the 3-ton cutoff for many or nearly all of their residential streets. State law gives them the ability to do this for very straightforward reasons: The heavier the vehicle, the more it chews up the roads, endangers pedestrians and smaller vehicles, and makes noise. "

hence the reason why I'm doing a little happy dance right now. (sort of) This would go hand in hand with my ultimate joy of joys...A REAL graduated tax that would immediately take 45 – 50% off the top for any individual who makes over 100,000 a year.


ahhhh... a girl can dream, can't she?

Monday, August 02, 2004

Fametracker :: The Farmer's Almanac of Celebrity Worth

Fametracker :: The Farmer's Almanac of Celebrity Worth

Admittedly this is the Main reason why I happen to believe that modern media is the pitts...I still can't seem to look away. It is hard to deny the pull and polarity of celebrity.

nevermind the fact that very few of them are acutually qualified to be a mouthpiece to the nation for the nation. (leave that to the intelegencia...they may not look as good...just more experience at sounding puffed up)

Will Ferrell - A message from White House West

heheheeh...

Actually if it weren't so horribly true, it probably wouldn't be so absolutely funny. But the simple fact that we have a simple man leading us all into a simple war, well....it's simply funny.

I've gotta laugh. Because if I don't I'll put a gun to my head.

Will Ferrell - A message from White House West