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Archives for category: democracy inaction
best election ever! i can’t remember the last time i cared about politics or actually believed that things in this country could change for the better. i can only hope that everyone in the US, no matter who they voted for, will do their best to move the country forward, help neighbors and communities, and help to improve our standing in the global arena. congratulations USA!
damon weaver asks joe biden about the duties of the vice president. the voice over is amazing. the end is the best. this kid is MY homeboy.
apparently now the border of the US, and therefore the area wherein random (and otherwise illegal) searches are allowed to be conducted, now extends 100 miles inland all around the perimeter of the US. This means roughly 2/3 of the population of the US is subject to these kinds of searches. WTF. the 4th amendment suddenly doesn’t apply to 2/3 of the people living in the united states?! how are we allowing this to happen? i don’t even have words to express how outraged/disgusted/disappointed i am by this.
- ACLU press release
- ACLU factsheet
- percentage of state populations within this ‘constitution-free zone’
- map of this 100 mile perimeter where it’s now ok for you to be stopped and searched at any time
i encourage everyone to read cory doctorow’s young adult (but very relevant to all ages) book, little brother, which tells the story of a high school student and his friends in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on san francisco. they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, kids are tortured (waterboarding is torture no matter how the US government tries to sugar-coat it) and the whole city is stripped of privacy rights. frankly the whole book is pretty chilling because it’s so frighteningly plausible, and moreover – probable. you can download the book here.
finally, eric’s theory, accompanied by a handy visual aid.
i watched cnn all of yesterday evening, then pat and i went to big wangs after the gallery 1988 opening, just in time to see (although not hear) obama’s speech. numbers are still being tallied and each democratic camp is claiming the delegate win – i never thought i’d be this excited about an election!
an excerpt from where have all the leaders gone?
alert: rant ahead! close browser window if you are offended by my political beliefs, which really – you should be familiar with by now anyway.
off the AP wire:
“The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow convicted terrorists to be imprisoned or put to death using hearsay evidence and coerced testimony.”
WHAT? am i…am i having a fucking nightmare over here? wake up america – can’t you see what is happening? what has happened? it’s like we’re living a twilight zone episode where we realize we’re becoming the very thing we hate. except – surprise! – minus the whole realization part.
i don’t know why i’m surprised by any of this. no – actually, i’m not surprised at all. i was horrified about 7 years ago and completely at a loss about 3 years ago and it’s been a steady slide into incredulous apathy ever since. i guess i pretty much gave up a long time ago, but i’m still holding on to this naive hope that things will get better – that this is only the united states’ teenage-rebellion phase and it’ll work itself out. emphasis here on the ‘naive’, since apparently a great deal of americans can’t even grasp the basics: nearly 40% of americans think evolution is fake. look at the countries above the united states on that list! latvia? estonia? SERIOUSLY? i know nothing about these places, but i can tell you this – i certainly don’t hear ‘estonia’ and think, ‘the people of estonia have more common sense and are better educated than the people of the united states’ but i’m having a hard time thinking anything else when i look at that graphic. also, clearly this has nothing to do with religion since some of the most catholic countries EVER are on there. ok, now i give up. i’m moving to northern europe or japan. seeya suckers.
i voted this morning at the humongoid high school down the street from my apartment. i came armed with 6 bills, past voter registration cards, my passport and my lease, just in case some pesky republican poll watcher tried to interfere. my first impression of this, the most hallowed experience of the democratic process?
anticlimactic.
the part when i first got in there and they looked up my name and signature in the big book of signatures and pulled out my form with my name on it from the big book of voters was cool. the part where i punched #4 (?) for john kerry was sort of cool. the rest of the voting where i was confronted with the names of about 500 judges that i’d never heard of in my life…that wasn’t so cool. my second impression of this, the cornerstone of democracy?
embarassing.