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Jan. 17th, 2012 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* I see Romney is outright lying about the President's economic record. He is claiming the President hasn't come up with a job bill. I guess he is assuming no one has seen any of the speeches the President gave promoting his jobs bill in the last six months or so. Also, what the fuck did he think the stimulus was? Sure it was too small ad timid because Republicans kept complaining and Democrats caved, but it seems to me that the most blame would go to the Republicans there. Really, the options here are lying or incompetent (or both). Either way, doesn't that argue he's a bad person to elect for president?
* Turkey is one of our oldest and best allies in the Middle East and has a secular government. Rick Perry accused them of being Islamic terrorists last night. *facepalm* The Turkish Ambassador had no official statement but told reports that they knew what he would say. Charming, let's go piss off a friendly government in the Middle East for no particular reason and on zero evidence.
* Re: Santorum vs. Romney in the Republican debate: Unlike them, I believe not only in giving people back the right to vote after they serve their time, but letting prisoners vote. My reasons have to do with systematic institutional racism in charging and sentencing (POC are more likely to get a felony charge than a white person for the same act, and generally get much harsher sentences.), the influence of wealth and class not only on outcomes, but whether or not things go to court in the first place, and the way the pardon system is used to ensure rich white men get slaps on the wrist while everyone else is cut out of the political system. Why should a man who stole millions get his vote back, when someone charged with felony possession doesn't? The disenfranchising of prisoners and former prisoners means large swathes of the population are cut off from any political recourse to change laws that effect them. That's outright not fair.
* I see Newt Gingrich doubled down on the racism and classism late night.
* They needed half a million signatures to recall Union Buster Scott Walker. They turned in more than a million, along with enough to recall four more state senators, and the antenatal governor. A total of 1.9 million signatures. Close to a quarter of Wisconsin signed recall petitions.
* Congress reopened and the Financial protesters showed up to picket.
* They introduced an amendment, which, if passed would overturn Citizens United and get a lot of the money out of politics. Constitutional Amendments are hard to pass and the opposition can spend unlimited money to stop it. It's also a time consuming process. I am not holding my breath, but I wish those making the attempt the best.
* The SOPA protest starts at midnight, so don't be surprised if bits of the internet are not there as usual.
* Thanks to all the kind wishes for Mache. There is still no sign of fever in the paw and I have high hopes for recovery. She's still spending more time in bed than usual, but she was out in the main area for hours, and just generally being herself. The limp steadily decreases.
* Greenwick came over and we watched the infamous Magic Christian, which he had never seen before, while I sorted and he worked on a craft. I fed him my version of hermit cookies.
I'm officially snowed in, as yesterday's powder is now snow over ice and patches of black ice in the road. I called around and most of my must do stuff is now must do next week stuff. I sacrificed a lot of sleep to bureaucracy. (Dial, work through long voicemail maze. Voicemail hangs up. Can't redial as voicemail maze was too long. Type in all digits again. Voicemail hangs up. Rince repeat for half an hour. Finally reach "on hold." Wait and wait and wait and wait. Reach live human half an hour later. Live human takes number. Says they will call back later. Fed cats. Try to sleep. Pounding on door turns out to be for neighbor. It's impossible to tell from my bedroom which door is being pounded on. Try to sleep. Call back and long conversation. Try to sleep despite upstairs banging. You get the idea.
I suspect one or both of the upstairs neighbors moved as there is a lot of thumping, banging, and dropping of heavy things lately.
* I am a long time fan of Christopher Paul Curtis, and have taught both of his previous books (The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 is a common 7th grade curriculum item, and Bud Not Buddy is often 8th grade curriculum and a popular mid-level SSR choice in schools where it's not on the curriculum). He's go a new book out that sounds amazing. I'm linking the review, not just for the info on the book itself, but because the current representation by race figures near the bottom of the review give a pretty good indication of why I think we need more books like this and Hollowstone, which you've seen me go on about previously. We need better representation in books. Kids need access to books with characters that resemble them, and despite decades of these disparities, we are still doing a pretty shitty job at delivering that. Here's the review: http://slatebreakers.com/2012/01/16/review-the-mighty-miss-malone-by-christopher-paul-curtis/
* As much as I hate those Allstate Mayhem commercials, it amuses me that they have Ryan O'Reilly's actor playing Mayhem, given how much Mayhem Ryan O'Reilly embodied in Oz.
* Attn: Greenwick, the Pierce Brosnan movie where he's clearly having a great time deconstructing his image is called The Matador. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365485/
* rm has a piece in this book: http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Diaries-Modern-Library/dp/067964332X
* Turkey is one of our oldest and best allies in the Middle East and has a secular government. Rick Perry accused them of being Islamic terrorists last night. *facepalm* The Turkish Ambassador had no official statement but told reports that they knew what he would say. Charming, let's go piss off a friendly government in the Middle East for no particular reason and on zero evidence.
* Re: Santorum vs. Romney in the Republican debate: Unlike them, I believe not only in giving people back the right to vote after they serve their time, but letting prisoners vote. My reasons have to do with systematic institutional racism in charging and sentencing (POC are more likely to get a felony charge than a white person for the same act, and generally get much harsher sentences.), the influence of wealth and class not only on outcomes, but whether or not things go to court in the first place, and the way the pardon system is used to ensure rich white men get slaps on the wrist while everyone else is cut out of the political system. Why should a man who stole millions get his vote back, when someone charged with felony possession doesn't? The disenfranchising of prisoners and former prisoners means large swathes of the population are cut off from any political recourse to change laws that effect them. That's outright not fair.
* I see Newt Gingrich doubled down on the racism and classism late night.
* They needed half a million signatures to recall Union Buster Scott Walker. They turned in more than a million, along with enough to recall four more state senators, and the antenatal governor. A total of 1.9 million signatures. Close to a quarter of Wisconsin signed recall petitions.
* Congress reopened and the Financial protesters showed up to picket.
* They introduced an amendment, which, if passed would overturn Citizens United and get a lot of the money out of politics. Constitutional Amendments are hard to pass and the opposition can spend unlimited money to stop it. It's also a time consuming process. I am not holding my breath, but I wish those making the attempt the best.
* The SOPA protest starts at midnight, so don't be surprised if bits of the internet are not there as usual.
* Thanks to all the kind wishes for Mache. There is still no sign of fever in the paw and I have high hopes for recovery. She's still spending more time in bed than usual, but she was out in the main area for hours, and just generally being herself. The limp steadily decreases.
* Greenwick came over and we watched the infamous Magic Christian, which he had never seen before, while I sorted and he worked on a craft. I fed him my version of hermit cookies.
I'm officially snowed in, as yesterday's powder is now snow over ice and patches of black ice in the road. I called around and most of my must do stuff is now must do next week stuff. I sacrificed a lot of sleep to bureaucracy. (Dial, work through long voicemail maze. Voicemail hangs up. Can't redial as voicemail maze was too long. Type in all digits again. Voicemail hangs up. Rince repeat for half an hour. Finally reach "on hold." Wait and wait and wait and wait. Reach live human half an hour later. Live human takes number. Says they will call back later. Fed cats. Try to sleep. Pounding on door turns out to be for neighbor. It's impossible to tell from my bedroom which door is being pounded on. Try to sleep. Call back and long conversation. Try to sleep despite upstairs banging. You get the idea.
I suspect one or both of the upstairs neighbors moved as there is a lot of thumping, banging, and dropping of heavy things lately.
* I am a long time fan of Christopher Paul Curtis, and have taught both of his previous books (The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 is a common 7th grade curriculum item, and Bud Not Buddy is often 8th grade curriculum and a popular mid-level SSR choice in schools where it's not on the curriculum). He's go a new book out that sounds amazing. I'm linking the review, not just for the info on the book itself, but because the current representation by race figures near the bottom of the review give a pretty good indication of why I think we need more books like this and Hollowstone, which you've seen me go on about previously. We need better representation in books. Kids need access to books with characters that resemble them, and despite decades of these disparities, we are still doing a pretty shitty job at delivering that. Here's the review: http://slatebreakers.com/2012/01/16/review-the-mighty-miss-malone-by-christopher-paul-curtis/
* As much as I hate those Allstate Mayhem commercials, it amuses me that they have Ryan O'Reilly's actor playing Mayhem, given how much Mayhem Ryan O'Reilly embodied in Oz.
* Attn: Greenwick, the Pierce Brosnan movie where he's clearly having a great time deconstructing his image is called The Matador. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365485/
* rm has a piece in this book: http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Diaries-Modern-Library/dp/067964332X
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Date: 2012-01-19 01:44 am (UTC)