Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Quick GOP Homophobe Test. It's so simple!  Just ask yourself these little questions.  See how you do. Gay men should go to jail if they have gay sex.  (Yes/No). States should be able to decide if they want gay men to go to jail for having gay sex.  (Yes/No). Women should go to jail for having gay sex.  (Yes/No). Straight men should go to jail for having "bad" sex with their wives.  (Yes/No). The government should monitor people to determine if they are having "bad" sex. (Yes/No). Throwing gay men in jail is better than permitting Civil Unions (Yes/No). If you're six for six, run right over and start donating to George Bush.  Better check to see that you're the same denomination of Christian that he is, though, because before long that'll be the only "American" denomination left!  6:06:06 PM    comment []

Improving Dean Campaign Contributions. I believe that you can enhance donations, encouraging people to encourage people!  The way to do this is to assign each donor a donor number or code.  Then, when they recruit a friend to donate to the campaign, that friend can enter the referrer's donor number.  This builds the referrer's "karma" with respect to helping the campaign.  In effect we create a tree of donors, and an individual donor can see just what their donation and referrals and hard work have led to! It will also lead to competition to see whose "tree of donations" is the biggest!  Dr. Dean might want to call a few of the best tree-builders... 2:07:32 PM    comment []

The Elephant in the Room. Bush: "Less than two years ago, determined enemies of America entered our country, committed acts of murder against our people, and made clear their intentions to strike again," he said. "As long as terrorists and their allies plot to harm America, America is at war." Maybe Bush hasn't been reading his talking points. Or maybe he has, and for some reason his advisors continue to think that Americans are stupid enough to buy this crap. Haven't any of them been reading the newspapers lately? The previously tenuous connections between Iraq and terrorism have pretty much become vaporous. Let's just go ahead and admit the truth at this point, shall we? We didn't invade Iraq because of terrorism -- Wolfowitz has said as much. We're in Iraq because Bush and his advisors want to remake the Middle East. I'm not going to use the Q word, because I'm not sure that we're there yet. America is not at war. Somebody needs to pull out a dictionary and jam it in front of the politicians...yes, it's a nice little soundbite, but it's not factually correct. Serious politicians and serious observers will use the words correctly, because war and the constitution demand rigor. Rigor and ethics are notably lacking at the highest political levels today, as the speed of television democracy and the dumbing-down of the populace have driven the debate down into the gutter. If WMD are present in Iraq, they're in marginal or irrelevant quantities at most. We've got a hugely expensive occupation force sitting there, and an Iraqi population taking potshots at them. We seriously underestimated the capabilities of the Islamic political wing, who have been able to foment substantial resistance to American occupation and efforts. Maybe with more rigor, with more control over the population, we can forcibly cement some kind of democracy in place. The fundamentalists will continue to tear away at a democracy from the inside, though. As long as Arabs perceive themselves in religious terms first, and political/human terms second, we will have great difficulty defeating this. Let's not forget that 49% of Americans are fairly religious themselves, and have elected a majority government that favors altering the constitution to reflect Christian preferences and dogma. The middle easterners are not the only ones suffering from the intersection of state and religion. 1:44:15 PM    comment []