Least Likely To Vote

Ah, my fellow Asian Americans, it is you who are least likely to vote in this country. That is not only sad, it is infuriating, since our demographic is one of the groups that benefits the most from Democrat domestic policies.

But don't take my word for it. Go here to see for yourself. More than five pretty Asian American actors can't be wrong...

Tempered Idealism & A Dime's Worth Of Difference

Let me say this again: Politics is about winning.

I have no patience for political idealists who live and die by their candidates, especially if they supposedly are "pure" and their cause is "just". Especially lefty third party nuts who espouse Ralph Nader. They blindly think that a protest vote for Nader will affect anything in their favor. It is infuriating that we on the left are so splintered, while the right is so disciplined and on-message. If Bush wins, it won't be because the right is publicly airing its infighting.

Most of this idealogue blather is endorsed by Counterpunch, Alexander Cockburn's left wing paper. This rag is definitely a good place to take the pulse of those much leftward of my own views. Not only do they give Bush a good smackdown, they do so with even more glee and venom to moderate Democrats like Clinton, and this time around, Kerry.

So it was to my surprise that I found this. Albeit this is a "on the one hand" and grudging appeal for votes for Kerry, it is refreshing to see that there is a voice of reason at Counterpunch. Perhaps it's a tiny indication that they're starting to see things "real world". Yes, people, a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. And don't you forget it.

UPDATE: If you didn't think Counterpunch would actually let Lindorff's view go unchallenged, here's the reply. Idiots. The thing about the political spectrum is that it's not a straight line. It's a circle. Idealogues and radicals from both sides are closer to each other than they realize. Counterpunch and its following sees itself as so left, they've gone around the bend and crossed over, doing a lot of the dirty work for the right. Kudos, fuckers...

Biting the (liberal) hand that feeds you

Feel free to pass around to all the conservatives you know who hate and think they understand "big government" and liberal virtues. Especially the ones who think their successes - real or perceived - are due to the thought they are "self-made". You know who they are.


"A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN"

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

Link via South Knox Bubba

Tim's Greatest Hits, Volume 1

Happy Birthday, Tim.

I'm done.

The artwork is done, the booklets made, discs printed. All that's left to do is burn 'em and send 'em out.

This has been quite an experience for me. At first, I just wanted to get a compilation of songs and have a professional graphic artist do the artwork. It looked like a lot of work, and I didn't know if I had the time or energy to do it. But as I read the stories that everyone shared and I knew that I couldn't have someone who didn't know Tim do the artwork. It was too important.

A lot of effort went into this project. Lisa was a huge help. She came up with a lot of the design, and she gave good advice on composition and concept. And she did a lot of the grunt work, like scanning pictures, ripping music, and folding the back tray inserts. I don't think we would have gotten this far if it wasn't for her.

My responsibility was to get the pictures we borrowed organized in the booklet in a reasonable pattern, and to get the quotes to fit without obscuring the pictures. Not too much when you think about it. But you'd be surprised how long it takes to do this. All of this was done with a relatively old version of Photoshop (v5.5): the cropping, application of lighting effects and colors. This is one piece of software you can't do without. But even with this valuable tool, it still took forever. And I didn't get heavily into the artwork until last week, just days from Tim's birthday. I had to get the art to the CD printer and to the laser printer for the booklets. So this meant staying up until after 3am, and one early morning until 7am.

That said, I can't tell you how rewarding it was to do this. Tim was my closest friend, and he was the most beloved person I've known. You could tell just from the stories of his relatives and friends. And to a smaller degree, the inspiration behind this project -- sharing memories -- touched everyone who heard about it. We have to thank our printers who got behind us and gave us good deals because they believed it was a worthy project.

And I can't finish this off without talking about the music. Man, that was quite a list to go through. There were a lot of suggestions there. A lot of it I liked, and lot of it I didn't. If you know me somewhat, you know which ones I'm talking about. But I wouldn't have put any other songs on the CDs. These songs are so important to those who suggested them. They're important to me now. I miss Tim, and I cherish my memories of him. I can't tell you how much it means to me for us to share our respective memories of him with each other. There's good stuff in there.

Long Time Gone

Sorry, due to laziness and other things completely under my control, I haven't blogged. I'm currently working on some old posts that I haven't submitted, so there are things coming soon.

For now, you can read more on the whole Swift Boat Vets for Bullshit thing on Beau's blog. My first response here. And now my second (this one's more shrill):

Wait, where are all the Kerry supporters? Ah, I see: I'm the only troll here. But unlike right wing trolls, at least I can form a thought out argument.

c baughn: I went to a great deal of trouble to cite my arguments. FactCheck.org is a credible non-partisan organization. Look it up. It checks on both sides of the aisle. The Kerry campaign gave them more records to peruse, and those records are available at the campaign website. Those are valid Navy records, certainly as valid as Bush's Guard records (more on that later). As for the other 250 vets that support the SBVfBS testimony, many of those have not only disavowed allegations against Kerry in the letter, the book, and ads, their "signatures" were put there without their knowledge or consent. So no, I'm not calling them liars. The liars in the group, well, their lies have been refuted and disproved by actual Naval records, other witnesses, and their own quotes. Let's see, was that John O'Neill on the Nixon tapes telling the president that he was in Cambodia? Shouldn't he have been court martialed?

Gerry: I love this "flip flop" thing. Did the GOP send you all a memo reminding you to parrot that phrase every time you get the chance? I also like the Clinton connection. It's amazing. If Kerry has lied more in the last two years than Clinton did in eight, then the lies must be easy to cite. I'd love to hear 'em. And do please make sure to give me something credible, other than littlegreenfootballs or captainsquarterly. Something from a valid news source, not a blog. As for blaming Bush for the SBVfBS and not the group itself, you're wrong. 527s don't officially work for any politician, but they do follow the marching orders of the group they support. Kerry and his supporters have criticized the group directly. But how do you argue that Bush's people or Bush himself is not involved when some of the vets in the SBVfBS actually work for, or are large contributors to the Bush campaign? Finally, now that it is coming into sharper focus that Bush did everything he could to avoid even minimal required service, how does that sit with you? You said:

"I feel that it is an obligation of every true American to serve their country when called."

I'm sure it galls you to no end then that the Commander-In-Chief of this country supported military involvement in Vietnam but did the following:

-- Pulled strings to put himself highest on the list, ahead of others before him, to get into a unit most unlikely to get called up
-- Refused a direct order to take a physical
-- Improperly left his unit before arranging a transfer
-- Didn't even finish his service before his commitment was up
-- Is quoted as saying that if the Guard would have been called up, maybe the war would have turned out different. Is that a backhand to the soldiers in the field, or is he suggesting that the part of military the did his best to do his least be called up? Not that it matters: he wouldn't have gone if his unit did get called up. Papa Bush would have thrown the safety net anyway.

You can read the AP or watch the 60 Minutes rerun for more details. There's a time gap in Bush's service records because he wasn't there to be on record.

I'm not going to contrast that with Kerry's service records because I already did that. How's about I use Clinton? Yes, Clinton used his connections to get out of going to Vietnam. But at least he was consistent. He was against the war. Bush was not. Cheney was not. They didn't go because they felt they had better things to do. True, Bush isn't basing his campaign largely on his military service, but he is the one who is always eager for a fight but hides and is willing to let others fight for him. Funny, it is now as it was then: using soldiers and vets. If you want your leaders to be "true" Americans, then Bush and Cheney aren't your guys.

Ashley: Your anger with Kerry is understandable, but I'm going to have to disagree with the reasoning. I'm too young to actually have been able to comprehend public opinion on the war back then, so I'll go on what I've read and have been told by protesters, vets such as yourself, and politicians who were alive then. Kerry's testimony isn't something that was instrumental in "losing" that "war". It wasn't a betrayal. Your buddies' names are on the Wall because of bad diplomacy, stubborn arrogance, fear mongering, and an underestimation of the enemy (all that sound familiar?). Please tell me how winning a tiny country in Southeast Asia would have been pivotal in beating back the "threat of Communism". What Kerry did was do his part so that as many of your buddies could come home. Yep, atrocities happened on the part of our guys. It happens in *every* war, especially when you're dealing with guerillas who can hide amongst or exploit the innocent. If you think that bringing back as many soldiers as possible who weren't among the many tens of thousands that already died as losing, then fine, we lost. If we had "won", it would have taken more time and many more troops do it, since we weren't going to nuke the place. The longer we would have stayed, the more names would have been on that wall.

I guess to you I'm against freedom and liberty, and all those cliches that your side is used to flinging around. If you want to actually discuss this civil-like, I'm game. But please, if you're going to tell me that Kerry lied or "flip flopped" then please back it up, rather than just shout it out like you think you know what you're talking about. I'm pretty sure I have a reply for every one of them, and I definitely have some Bush flip flops and lies for you to munch on, too.