"Political Scientist"

Last night, hanging out at Denny's I was trying to talk to Mark, but the two tables near us were talking so loudly it was hard to hear. The were talking politics. I couldn't have had a bigger smile on my face.

I don't care what your politics are. No honestly I don't. I like to talk about politics with intelligent people who agree and disagree with me. Just ask my girlfriend, the right wing/wants to get married in the church/still talking about joining the military/daughter of a Coastie/granddaughter of a career Army officer/The Korean war is still ongoing/FDR was one of the worst things to happen to the US kind of conservative. Or you can talk to my best friend, the Obama loving/current president mocking/agnostic for socialised medicine.

Now the vast majority of you, my tiny tiny readership is currently based, or has been based in the DC area. Many of you have traveled, or are living elsewhere. Different cities, some in different countries... so really, I'm asking what you think about the level of political discourse where you are, or have been, compares with DC.

I lived in Richmond VA during the time period that Rudy McCollum was mayor. You may remember him as "that guy between current Governor Tim Kaine, and current Mayor and previous Governor Doug Wilder". You may also know him as "the four year mayor of Richmond with a smaller wikipeida entry than many swedish deathmetal albums released on independant labels and handed out in malls". Suffice to say, that Richmond, particularly at that time, was not too big on talking about national politics. Everyone I knew hated the PATRIOT ACT yet didn't care enough to do anything about it.

Here people talk politics on the Metro, around the water cooler, and obviously, at Denny's. It helps that our local sports teams are all choking dogs and we all know that if they make the playoffs, they ain't makin' in past the first round; so people rarely pay attention. Except the Washington football franchise. People would sell their children for the chance to sit on the 50 yard line and watch them lose. Which they do. A lot.

So politics becomes something that the local guy can talk about. The two free papers that are handed out on the Metro come from the Post and the Times. So everyone who walks past or uses a Metro station has no excuse not to be up to date.

Do you talk politics with your family? With your friends? Do people in your city/town talk local/state politics, or national politics; both, neither?

"I'm Gonna Send Your Vote To College"

I literally have four posts as drafts and I'm writing on this one instead.

Two are shells, holding places for future posts, one is another quiz but I can't post it until I've posted the answers to the last quiz which I'm still not done filling with video!

But I needed to write about something today, because it is how this boy gets through the long day of mind numbing work. So I pointed the old fox down the Tubular Highway towards the McPaper. Pop Candy has been on vacation this week, so I have had a lack of interesting ways to waste my time. Sure, there's Foucalt's shared items, and links on other's blogs, but Whitney has nothing better to do all day than find me interesting things to do and I love her for it.

Like I said, I was searching McPaper and found a candidate match game. You should all try it. The Link is in the last paragraph. It takes almost no time at all. They ask you 11 questions, and then you get to play with some sliding bars to weight the questions you find important or not. The best part is finding out I share the most positions with a guy I've never heard of.

I'm not here to talk about my political beliefs, or who I support in the upcoming elections. I'm here to share who USA today says I agree with.

1. My number one guy is Mike Gravel. I said Mike Gravel. Yep, I haven't heard of him either, and I talk politics with people on a very regular basis. I'd say 6 days a week I have a conversation of at least 15 minutes, and twice a week I have one of at least 30 minutes. About once a week I have one averaging 2 hours our so. So Mike Gavel is supposedly my man. He has been polling at about 0.5% lately. Less than one percent. Wow. My views are popular. Not!

2. Big step up here. Dennis Kucinich. What?! I've actually made fun of this guy, and he's polling in the low single digits. Seriously, I didn't think my views were that out of touch, but apparently I'm an extremist. But for which side? Sure, my number one and number two guys are low scoring Dems, but...

3. Mike Huckabee. An ordained Southern Baptist Minster. Apparently I think its time for another man from Hope Arkansas to be President. Before I changed the weight sliders, and all questions being equal, he was my number one guy. He fell to third when I pushed the bars around.

So What I'm proposing is that you, my loyal readers (all five of you) tell my not so loyal readers (all five of them) to get their asses to this little "game" and share here. I'm betting more than a few of you end up finding yourselves having to look up at least one of your three candidates you "share" the concerns of.

" I Feel Pretty"

I'm headed back to the NCC next week, and this time I have no laptop. So new posts, and comments will be few and far between.

I just heard that Tony Snow is resigning. Honestly, up until this point, I was sure that everyone leaving was normal, just what happens at the end of a presidency as everyone is off to help the next guy get elected or write a tell all book; but seriously: how many people around the President are going to retire this year?

I'm going to Wolftrap tonight to see West Side Story. My girlfriend paid way to much for good seats, but I like the show, so I'm excited.

I thought I would link to a post called Thirteen Blog Cliches. Read them over. We'll wait.

Done yet?

So I think I do some of those things and still have a good blog. Not a great blog, not a OMG you have to read it blog, but still a good blog. And most of the blogs I like to read break a number of those rules as well, yet they are still my favorite blogs. Any particular thing you guys find annoying about other bloggers? Or how about things on the list that you like, rather than dislike? I'll give you an open honest example. I honestly don't like blogs with black backgrounds. It's a little hard to read, but mostly, I can't sneak read them at work because it is patently obvious to anyone that wanders past that I am not doing work. Something that I like that is on the list as bad is all the stuff going on at the side of Dave's blog. His shared items and library are a constant source for me. I like that Jeff's blog postings go on for like four times as long as mine do. It is also a perfect example of a diary blog. He doesn't break things up all the time with bullet points, and he has some long paragraphs, but because of this, I get a real treat of an insight into the actor and creative talent that is my friend. If he curtailed his posts, or if Dave didn't let be know what else he was reading I wouldn't know as much about either of them. We all blog about blogging. For some people, it's the first shared experience we have. I don't have kids yet, and I'm just barely in the same league creative cooking wise as the two women I regularly read, but we all blog. And now I can read all the updates about family and feel a little closer, even if I haven't shaken everyone's hand yet.

His Cliche number 11 is ridiculous. Yes, of course I read news sights, I had heard about the spiders in Texas before Dave posted about it, but I hadn't seen a picture yet. We like to talk about things that happened today because they just happened. Plus, all of us being interested in different things, and yet also similar things means I heard about Michael Bay sticking his foot in his mouth just a few hours after he did it, and many hours before he apologized because Lykaon was on point. And because he likes movies, just like I do, I have now read more about cryptids than I have before (cool subject) and I have someone else to mock for playing WoW! (My roommate is getting really upset at the daily berating). I like the fact that for a really long time (I admit I didn't do a lot of research) hemisphere was a complete mystery to me. Boy? Girl? Old? Young? Multiple people? Who knows, and that's alright. The internet is anonymous, and that's cool.

So, I'm going to break another rule and apologize for not being around for a while next week. But I'll be back before you know it, with more pictures in my articles, more links, more lists, and the as still as yet undelivered yet promised post on Extreme.

"Yankee Doodle"

Alright, in the interest of full disclosure... My girlfriend loves Gone With the Wind and has told me that I must watch it, making it more like an assignment. I'm sure I'd like it if it was something I chose to watch. Also, she and I both thought the answer to the first question was 1960's Kennedy vs. Nixon.

What is up with the Google brand lately? Last week I couldn't get on to any of the blogspot blogs and today Youtube is slower than any site on the entire Internet. Yes, I checked.

I'll have another post later this week on the glory that is Extreme. Or not. I mean, there will be a blog posting, but... well, you'll see. Let me just say I have roommates, and I love them. But I hate the way I don't get everything I should on the day I should.

Alright here are the answers to the Presidential quiz.

1. 1952 Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson was the last time neither big party nominated a previous President or Vice. In 1956 Ike ran again, in '60 Nixon was Ike's VP, in '64 Johnson ran again, in '68 Nixon ran again, in '72 Nixon again, in '76 Ford was Nixon's VP, in '80 Carter ran again, in '84 Reagan ran again, in '88 Bush was Reagan's VP, in '92 Bush ran again, in '96 Clinton ran again, in '00 Gore was Clinton's VP, in '04 Bush ran again. In the case of the 1952 election, Truman, who was eligible to run again, declined, so the Democrats looked around. The VP was considered too old at 74. Other candidates were favored, but eventually they chose Adlai Stevenson, even though he reportedly told people no. The Republicans selected WWII hero Eisenhower. The same two men faced each other 4 years later. Something that hadn't happened since the election of 1900.

2. A poorly worded question at best, but that's what I get for not having an editor. I meant to ask which President had enlisted but never attained an officer's rank. Gotta give some credit for thinking outside the box to Hemisphire, but Grant actually went to West Point, so was never an enlisted man. James Buchanan was a private during the war of 1812, and was never promoted. 15th President of the United States, a bachelor, and consistently rated in the bottom 5 as far as "all time rankings" lists. So let's just move on from this blunder of a question.

3. Bush 41 it is. George Herbert Walker Bush was 19 when he was flying. He also got more than a few medals; he got shot at and shot down a lot. The man saw a lot of combat, and ran the CIA and yet, will most likely be remembered for "No New Taxes" and being a President and father of a President who both went to war against the same guy.

4. Taft-FDR. Presidents 27-32 1909-1945 So that means WWI and II not to mention a lot of other things as well, were all presided over by men with no Military experience.

5. I thought this was an interesting question. Nixon, while Eisenhower's VP cast 8 tie breaking votes. Bush the first only cast 7. The number one VP who cast tie breaking votes and then went on to be President, is also the VP with the most tie breaking votes ever, with a record 29 (some sources say 31) votes than will most likely stay a record, the first Vice President, and second President of the United States: John Adams.

6. Maren really knocked this one out of the park. Wilson graduated with a PHD in political science before working at four different colleges and becoming governor of New Jersey. Can you imagine either party nominating a college professor now?

7. Federalist and Whig and... Democratic-Republican. Sort of the Anti-Federalist party.

8. I can't believe no one got this. I guess you are all better people than me. I always wanted one. Wilson. Woodrow Wilson was on the $100,000 bill, which was only in print for 6 years.

9. Ford is a good guess. But he was fifth shortest in office, serving out 895 days. The second shortest was indeed Garfield. Killed in his first year, and only serving 199 days in office. I think he gets remembered an awful lot for someone who served less than 200 days. I blame the fat tabby who loves lasagna.

10. As far as assassinations go, it sounds like everyone knows Kennedy and Lincoln, the other two are McKinley and Garfield. Garfield we already talked about, McKinley died after he was reelected. In an odd twist, his VP from the first term had died of heart failure and was not replaced until Teddy Roosevelt was sworn in after the reelection. We were without a VP for over a year. The Constitution had no provision for replacing the post until after Kennedy was killed. Had the assassin struck during that time, well, therein lies a story. The VP, Hobart, died in late November 1899; the speaker of the house had retired in March. A new one was sworn in in December, but Speaker David Henderson was born in Scotland. William P. Frye was President pro tempore of the Senate during that time. Had the Assassin struck early, this man would have become President. As for the list who died in office: William Henry Harrison, who died in a month, Zach Taylor, who died in 16 months, Harding who only served 29 months, and FDR who served longer than any other US President.

11. Ford it is, died December 26 2006 and buried January 3rd 2007

12. Taft. He was born in Ohio, but due to the fact that he was President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

13. 1888 is correct! Harrison lost the popular vote but won the Electoral Congress, four years later Grover Cleavland was elected to his second term, a non consecutive term. The only time in US history that ever happened. Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn met on set. I still get some of the songs stuck in my head, but that's the Sherman Brothers for you.

14. John Quincy Adams was President when Stephen Foster was born and Lincoln was President when he died.

15. James Madison was President when Chopin was born, and Zach Taylor was President when he died.

16. Harvard is correct. Two Addams', two Roosevelts and a Kennedy.

17. Nixon was President, for a few more months anyway. Aaron broke the record in April, and Nixon was gone in August of 1974.

18. Johnson it is! Hemisphire is really shining on these sports related ones.

19. Right all around with FDR. It came out in 1939.

20. Anthony Hopkins in Nixon is also correct.

Good strong showing at the end there for Hemisphire. Plus he found this gem of a video.

Also, If you have the time, check out this video. It includes the trailer for the Disney movie with the long name I mentioned earlier. It's after Davy Crockett.

" I Like Chinese"

Dave's comment about Flash Gordon villain "Ming the Merciless" on Maren's post, and her own mentioning of the old serial version got me thinking.

The ethnicity (please not "race" we are all the same race) of villains in our popular media. Who are our go to villains though the years, and who gets pushed aside for a new crop?

I don't have a coherent thought on this one. I'm kind of rambling here. So let's start with the Yellow Peril. As Dave pointed out, the new version of Flash Gordon has Flash face up against Ming as always, but he is not Asian, as he has typically been portrayed. Now, in this particular case, Ming is supposed to be an extra-dimensional, or alien, but still; the Yellow Peril has been whitewashed. Other recent examples of this whitewashing include the movie version of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Batman Begins. In Mr. Moore's graphic novel, "The Doctor"; a Fu Manchu stand in b/c that name is still not in the public domain, is a major villain. He is Chinese, has the moustache, and has hoards of Asian followers. In the film, no such character exists. They give us a bland, and yet over the top masked figure named the Fantom. In the recent Batman reboot, we are presented with one of the Dark Night's most enduring and interesting characters, Ra's al Guhl. According to DC Comics, Ra's is of Arab/Chinese descent, and is usually portrayed as such in the comics. After teasing us with Ken Watanabe, an odd, but at least Asian casting choice, instead the give us Liam Neeson. A man so white he's Irish.

Like I said, I'm rambling, sorry, just gonna have to go with me here.

For a long time, before most of us were born, the bad guy was the "Injun". Westerns of the 50's and beyond perpetuated the Native American as a vile killer and only interested in scalping good honest settlers who only wanted a place to raise their children. Now a days, a studio wouldn't dream of a plot like that.

For a good while there, we had the Eastern Bloc with the biggest bad of them all backing them up, MOTHER RUSSIA. Ah the misspent days of my youth. I swear every movie with a gun had a Chech or a Russian "Ivan" behind it. Red Dawn mixed it up a little with the addition of some Cubans. For a long time, we beat the Commies. But not anymore. Now they aren't the bad guy anymore. I'm not 100% sure we're done with them though. Keep your eyes open. Commie plots are everywhere.

Let's talk about "The Arab". For generations, all we needed to know was white turban good, black turban bad. Just like Cowboys! "Arabs" help Indiana Jones fight the Nazis in the first and third movie. They helped Peter O'Toole defeat the Turks in Lawerence of Arabia. And in two I really want to touch on, they helped James Bond beat the Russians in The Living Daylights; and Rambo beat the Russians in Rambo III.

Who were these heroic brown people who could assist All-American Rambo, and Her Majesties Finest? The Mujahideen of course. We loved them in the eighties, funded them, trained them, and then after a few more years, they won. Then they fought amongst themselves, finally founded an extreme religious state, and became cannon fodder in movies and video games. Of course by this time they had changed their name and become al-Qaeda. So now we can use "The Arab" as a bad guy. But I think we will tire of Arab bad guys soon. It's too complex for most Americans. The current war in Iraq has soured all of us on a simple "turban bad" mentality.

Then we have the Nazis. Always the bad guy. Can't go wrong with beating on Nazis. The aforementioned Dr. Jones kills Nazis. Hellboy gets his hate on regularly. Bogie shoots one at the end of Casablanca. Cap fights them accross the decades. We've shot them up in video games since Castle Wolfenstein and continue to do so in modern World War II shooters like Call of Duty. Heck, in the new Tom Cruise film, Nazis are the bad guys, and the good guys.

So I guess, what I wanted to ask was where do you think we are headed? Hugo Chávez seems to be looming. Korea could be a problem soon, but I'm not talking about the real world, I mean in movies and video games. Aside from the obvious, Nazis and Aliens; who else are Americans going to be shooting at in the next decade?

"Politics as Usual"

Rove.

Karl Rove.

I'm not going to demonize him, talk about his politics, or his role in various political campaigns. I'm going to prognosticate.

Karl Rove used to live in Austin Texas. He was registered to vote there even though he lived in DC. This is a very common practice and not at all suspect. He owns a very large home in DC, and in fact also maintains a large home in Florida. Still not odd really. His home of residence since he sold the place in Austin is in Ingram Texas, a city in Kerr County. He rents this home out, b/c he doesn't live there. Still not that odd. He's never lived there, and in fact the largest of the two rental cottages is 814 sq feet, smaller than your average one bedroom apartment here in VA. Now that's a little odd.

Kerr County is west of San Antonio and Austin Texas. It is part of the 23rd congressional district. Here is a picture of the 23rd
.


Now the 23rd was recently (2006) part of a Supreme Court case involving gerrymandering of districts. It was held by Democrats from its creation in 1967 till 1993. No issue here, politics change, people change, not every districts is a lock forever. So the Republicans had a lock on the districts from 1993 until 2002. In that year, a Democrat came within two points of taking back the seat. In 2002 the Republicans won the State legislature for the first time in over 100 years. They began the process of redistricting. OK, sometimes things need to change, but this might have crossed the line. Read the article if you want more details.

Two years after a Democrat almost took back the seat, and one year after a redistricting that would be struck down later by the Supreme Court, the Republicans won the seat by a huge margin.

In 2006, after the Supreme Court made its decision, the district had an open primary and after a somewhat confusing elections, the incumbent lost, a Democrat was back in the seat.

Now please, don't think that I only attribute stuff like this to Republicans. In my personal opinion, if you have risen to the level of State government, you are a bad person, and if you have made it to the National level, Congress, appointee, etc.; you are evil in a way that most people have never met. I'd rather live next to an ex-con than a politician.

So what does all this have to do with Karl Rove? Henry Bonilla, the former congressmen is now with a business consulting group. So the GOP is looking elsewhere to challenge the Democratic incumbent Rodriguez . I found this article claiming the GOP is targeting him, but the people they have so far are a lawyer, a businessman, and a County Commissioner. The lawyer from San Antonio appears to be where they are hanging their hat. But check out the map of the 23rd again and you'll see that San Antonio is outside of the 23rd, and that all of his business contacts in the city wont do him any good in a district that goes so far West of San Antonio.

I'm going out on a limb. The next time you see Rove in the paper, will be the formal retirement at the end of August. He will mention going back to Ingram and building a home. He'll help the current crop of Republicans try to unseat the Democrat in the 2008 election, and then he'll run in 2010.

Then in 2012 he will contact his dark master and the world will come to an end.

D-mn, and I said I wasn't going to demonize him. Hehehehehe

" I Say a Little Prayer"

Inspired by posts on /. and many other sites for years, I thought I'd ask a rather obvious question. Where do you go everyday? Online I mean. What are your must see sites. We've talked music and movies plenty, and I've given up a few of my favored time wasters. But I want a good long list from many sources.

Do you read the news online? MSN? Yahoo? Google News? Do you read music reviews, check out early news on comic books, read celebrity blogs?

Here, in no particular order, is a list of sites I find time to visit as often as I can, and why.

First off, for general news I hit a bunch of sites. Drudge, FoxNews, CNN, NPR, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor NewsBusters. I read as many versions of stories as I can, because most news is totally biased one way or the other, and the only way to know the truth is to assume they are all lying to you. That way you have to find the facts that they all mention, you can presume that to be truth, and assume the rest is fluffy garbage.

I read a bunch of people's blogs now, which is fairly new. The only person not linked in one or three degrees from this blog is my friend Jill in NYC. Thanks to the rest of you for constantly making my day go by easier.

I read pop candy all the time. Its on USA today. I don't read the rest of the site. It hurts my brain. I'm sure it's hard work printing a national newspaper at a third grade reading level, but it doesn't mean I have to read it. Pop Candy is a shiny gem. She is thirty, lives in this area (DC) grew up around here and has the best job in the world. She blogs about pop culture. Whatever she wants. Celebs, comics, movies, TV, live shows, albums, and ignores whatever she feels like. I would intern for her in a heart beat. But then I'd be working for USA Today. Also I wanted to marry her when I was younger. It's a blog now, but back in the day it was a weekly column. The one where she says she was getting married was such a sad day for little ol' me.

For random knowledge it's wikepidea. I love to hit the random button. And I love to read the discussion tab. People get so angry! For movies it's got to be imdb. IMDB has gone through a number of style changes over the years, but before google was google, before Wikipedia was a twinkle in somebodies eye, IMDB was the most organized site on the web, and it's still one of the best. For music I use allmusic.com not to download mind you, but to research. Great stuff.

I read Penny Arcade and xkcd every day. Order of the Stick too. Questionable Content I like to save up and read weekly. Everything else can wait. Sure I read userfriendly back in the day, and PvP and Mac Hall and tons more, but the only web comics I still read regularly are those four.

For light articles I like Slate and Salon. I'm not really sure I know when I'm at one and not the other. I'm sure they don't like to hear that, but it's the truth. I like them both. And one of them has Doonesbury!

As an aside, I love Doonesbury. Fairfax County History always stopped after WWII. Gary Trudeau taught me US history after that. Vietnam, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Civil Rights, Iran Contra. The list goes on. I know for a fact that I can trace my absolute disdain for the Federal Government, no mater who is leading it, to Doonesbury.

ESPN for sports news is kind of a gimme. Rolling Stone gets at least one read. Pitchfork is where I go for album reviews. I read slashdot a few times a day for that hard to define "tech" news. I go to comic book resources for comics news, and ain't it cool news for the latest movie stuff.

I'm sure I've forgotten plenty, but how about a few from you guys?

"Bad Idea"

There will be plenty of time for thoughtful witty repartee on political issues. For now, let me just wonder what the hell the Hillary campaign was thinking when they picked Celine Dion as theme music. Any woman who is going to be swayed by the fact that Hillary is a woman does not need further swaying. Every man who was thinking "it doesn't mater if she is a man or a woman I'll vote for the best person" is now thinking "really? Celine Dion? damn... maybe she is to girly to run the country" And let's not forget this little tidbit: Celine Dion is Canadian. Big deal? Not really, but why give the scary barking heads at FoxNews anymore reason to talk about "losing jobs that should go to Americans" or Democrats "not loving America" enough.

Stupid Hillary staff. You get a D in my book. The only reason you did not fail was the cameo by actual Soprano actor Vince Curatola