Notes from the Under...stimulated

I have nothing to add*

John Kerry Is A Douchebag, But I'm Voting For Him Anyway.

*except thanks slade for the link!

OK. I know he's an unabashed liberal. and maybe it's just cause he was my 14.02* professor

but this article by Paul Krugman seems written specifically to address some issues of contention that were being heatedly discussed over in broccoflower land.

some quotes:
"...The Bush administration, which baffled the world when it used an attack by Islamic fundamentalists to justify the overthrow of a brutal but secular regime..."

"The truth is that Mr. Bush, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan."

"It's now clear that by shifting his focus to Iraq, Mr. Bush did Al Qaeda a huge favor. The terrorists and their Taliban allies were given time to regroup; the resurgent Taliban once again control almost a third of Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda has regained the ability to carry out large-scale atrocities."

sure- it's an opinion piece and shouldn't be treated as fact. and whether you support bush or not, some of his [krugman's] claims are based on WHAT happened and how the administration handled things. but really? War on Terrorism? Weapons of Mass Destruction? Imminent Danger? they lied to us already, we don't have keep lying to ourselves about this.

*MIT for Macroeconomic

so, i didn't have time to answer my own questions today, but, some things:

- i agree that giving people who blow things up what they want <> good idea. that just encourges more blown up things. i mean, the first rule of International Fight Club is don't negotiate with terrorists. let's take that as a given. but, what're the implications of the election in Spain? it's not a big REAL impact, there are only like 1000 spanish troops in Iraq and they also pledged to take part in the peacekeeping if the UN passed a resolution on the Iraqi transitional government... but. let's take stock. France and Germany declined to join the invasion. The Spanish PM decided to be a staunch supporter of Bush. going against what 90% of his electorate believed/wanted. (this leads me to ask a different question: in this case we supported the leader doing "the right thing" even in the face of popular disapproval. however, isn't the job of the a politician to do what the public wants - i don't necessarily believe that - and if not, where's the line? when is it dangerous? when is it necessary? when is doing what the public DOESN'T want necessary?) turns out that the intelligence was faulty and thus the premise for our attack on Iraq was non-existent. and now spain's paying the price.

-will an increase in global terrorism in the end rally support around the US War on Terror, or demolish the already shaky international resolve?

-how desensitized have we become to violence over the past two years? A MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK occured in the heart of spain, in western europe ,and while there's been a reaction, that reaction is nowhere as close to as vehement as it would have been a few years ago. how much horror and violence is already fully priced into our expectations for life (did i really just say that? priced into our expectations... FOR LIFE? ick. i'm annoying)

-anyway. i'm very interested in seeing what the longer term international relations effects of this are. but not interested enough to stay at work and think about it. i'm off.

don't touch me.

Watch Kerry Suck Things Up.
And i'm not just talking about his wife's forehead.

CAMPAIGN DRAMA ROCKS DEMOCRATS: KERRY FIGHTS OFF MEDIA PROBE OF RECENT ALLEGED INFIDELITY, RIVALS PREDICT RUIN [link via Drudge Report. hence the ALL CAPS]

ALL THINGS ELSE ASIDE: learn the subjunctive.
From the President's interview on Meet the Press yesterday:

That's very important for, I think, the people to understand where I'm coming from—to know that this is a dangerous world. I wish it wasn't. I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind. Again, I wish it wasn't true, but it is true. And the American people need to know they got a president who sees the world the way it is. And I see dangers that exist, and it's important for us to deal with them. … The policy of this administration is … to be realistic about the different threats that we face.

i wish it WEREN'T true.
weren't.
were not.
were.

*sob*

Sometimes when I read/watch the regular news...
...I have to double check to make sure it's not the Onion/The Daily Show. and even then, i don't know whether to laugh or cry.

For instance, today:
- Laz is going to be on tv. that's neither the Daily Show/The Onion, it's just funny.
- This morning while preparing my VCR to immortalize the Laz's debut television performance, i hear Rumsfeld testifying on the alleged intelligence failure. HIS argument was as follows, "The hole we found Saddam in was big enough to hold enough biological weapons to kill thousands! (raises eyebrows and dares the senate committee to mull THAT one over)" my response is: SO FUCKING WHAT? we could probably store a dirty bomb or two in our apartment (yeah, it's pretty big) if the elevators in our building weren't acting up; not to mention when i lived in boston, we definitely had some sort of biological agent growing in our cabinet for the entire year (in fact we kept it there on purpose, and even named it. it was a like a little alien pet. that could kill us. back me up here trey...) does that mean that i'm an imminent threat? granted, i have been feeling slightly emotionally unstable lately, but c'mon! how can those words seriously have come out of Rumsfeld's mouth???
- now the NYT is reporting that Bush is going to back a constitutional amendment that protects the sanctity of marriage from corruption at the hands of activist judges. a constitutional amendment? don't we have more pressing issues? not to quote meryl streep, because quoting an actress' Golden Globe acceptance speech is just kind lame, but to quote meryl streep, is our biggest problem that people want to spend their lives devoted to each other, til death do they part? and honestly, i think reality TV shows like "Til Death Do Us Part" (Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra) and "Newlyweds" and "My Big Fat Obnoxious Finance" and "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" and whatever one that dwarf is on has really already done more damage to the sanctity of marriage than any activist judge up in the 'chusetts can ever do.
- hey guys! guess what! remember the hydrogen car that had the "steroids slot" in LAST year's state of the union (about which we've heard nothing since?)? the WSJ journal reports that a "scientific panel says the Bush administraton's $1.7bn plan to help develop cleaner, energy-saving cars is 'unrealistically aggressive' becuase major scientific problems remain unsolved." they report goes on to say that "a 'lengthy transition period' is needed before the US can switch from gasoline and natural gas to hydrogen to run motor vehicals, and that a full transformation could take until 2050." so, like, wait. you're telling me that a total pipe dream proposal, that sounds good but also like something out of Back to the Future (II), is completely unrealistic and was just hot air on the part of the president? kind of like No Child Left Behind? and he's throwing money away because the science isn't there? like the fabelled Space Program? wha??? not possible!

and now i need to go watch Laz on the Boob Tube. (bwah! that's funny for more reasons than one.)

It's not like we didn't know he was lying to us, but believing him felt so good.

who wanted to be called a pussy footing, unpatriotic, LIBERAL, allah worshipping terrorist? NOT I! so i believed and even didn't not defend (how's that for a double neg?) us going into Iraq BECAUSE OF THE IMMINENT THREAT OF BEING ON THE VERGE OF A NUCLEAR WINTER. The thing is, when i read something like this, USA Today's list of actual words that Pres. Bush uttered on Iraq and WMD, i'm appalled, but in a numb way, not an irrate way. blah blah blah. i forgot what my point is. i'm too bored to write, and although i was just told not to tell this to anyone, i'm so bored that i'm sitting here exfoliating my lips with scotch tape. READ THESE LIPS, buddy. I just found a 61st use for the sellotape that keeps on givin': 60 Uses for Scotch Magic (TM) Tape

Heh. apparently they were just SO BORED in the 50s that they made an actual real life Scotch Tape Game. Thank god for technology, even though right now, i'm not even playing a board (BORED?) game with this sticky stuff. sad.

Lefties, Righties and Ambidextrous Folk

Judy-shake-her-booty and some of her cohorts have set up a good website that provides opinions, updates and links on all things Politica. so. go check it out. and if you have something you'd like to contribute (i know some of you have some pretty wishy-washy opinions on things), send in an email, they're looking for submissions.

The Dogwood Papers. Go there. Now.

Ask not what dogwoodpapers can do for you, ask what you can do for dogwoodpapers -- M.E.B.

What do:
Congressman Robert Menendez
Congressman Tom DeLay
My Grandfather's ex-girlfriend
The Ambassador to the UN from Latvia
all have in common?

they all had dinner with me last night. well, ok. they were all AT the AIPAC benefit/dinner i went to last night. I did sit next to the Latvian man. He was very nice, and had a red bow tie on and a carnation pinned to his lapel. Of course, I felt compelled to discuss the LAT and the status of when it is joining the euro, but we also had more (and less) substantial conversations concerning the US view of Europe and how expensive it is to live in NYC (even though i could barely understand him). I also caused my mother to almost shoot wine out of her nose (what a feat that would have been!) by asking her to repeatedly picture my grandfather's ex-girlfriend accidentally, but forecefully, burping into the mics while she was giving the opening speech at this dinner. oh, how sweet a little gastro-intestinal disruption would have been. "I'd like to welcome the Senator from NY, Chuck *BELCH* Schumer..." hee!

Tom DeLay is just as ugly in person as he is on TV. and just as creepy. and his reasons for supporting Israel are about as suspect as, well, they're suspect. i can't think of a good metaphor. simile. whatever.

THE BEST PART OF THE EVENING (definitely NOT the food. Glatt kosher <> to haute cuisine): watching 1300 (mostly older) Jews drunk on alcohol and pro-Israel speeches trying to figure out where their coats were and on what floor, and subsequently seeing the increasingly frustrated coat check people as they realised they'd have more success trying to explain that the "yellow coat check ticket is for the second floor and the BLACK coat check is for up here" to a Latvian ambassador who hardly spoke any English. Oy vey.

i also shared a cab home with a [totally random person] who was just about to start a 12-month expedition around the world, beginning in TAHITI in 5 days. that's when i turned green. green with envy. (although it was hard to tell beneath the deathly pallor of my half-frozen skin).

"I just flew in from DC and boy are my arms tired..."

President Bush decided to do a bit of stand up at the Alfalfa Club dinner (hee! what can top that?) reports the NYT.

he said things like "I think Kerry's position on the war in Iraq is politically brilliant.... In New Hampshire yesterday, he stated he had voted for the war, adding that he was strongly opposed to it."

The line got a big laugh, a guest said, as did this one about Howard Dean's "I Have a Scream" postcaucus speech in Iowa: "Boy, that speech in Iowa was something else," the guest reported Mr. Bush as saying. "Talk about shock and awe. Saddam Hussein felt so bad for Governor Dean that he offered him his hole."

eee-ewww. offered him his hole? yeeeeeaaaaaauuuuuggghhhh, indeed.