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Tuesday, October 5, 2004
factcheck.com

Vice President Dick Cheney recommends you go read this site: factcheck.com

Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they’re trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false.
They know that if you go, for example, to factcheck.com (sic), an independent Web site sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.

full text

[Note: He really meant you should go to factcheck.org. It’s still funny.]

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Posted by alan to politics at 11:13 pm PT | Link | Comments (1)
Friday, October 1, 2004
Presidential Debate

I only have one thing to say about it right now: =http://www.youforgotpoland.comYou forgot Poland[/url].

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Posted by alan to politics at 2:21 pm PT | Link | Comments (0)
Thursday, September 2, 2004
By the way…

Most of the news I’ve watched this week (besides the Daily Show), has been Fox News. Just so I, too, can be fair and balanced.

I especially loved the part where Bill O’Reilly told Sean “P. Diddy” Combs he should be a Republican, because he was a self-made man. Because, as we all know, Republicans, like our President, are all self-made men.

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Posted by alan to politics at 11:26 pm PT | Link | Comments (0)
NYC Police

I’m sure everyone’s heard about this by now, the cop in NYC who was assaulted in the middle of a protest group. There are some things people might not have heard. First of all, the guy who was later arrested for the assault was not a member of the group protesting. Let me repeat that. He was not a protester. He was just some guy with a long arrest record, who found his way into the group of people, and decided to beat the cop up. The people were protesting peacefully.

While no one deserves an assault like that, neither does anyone deserve what the police officer was doing. First of all, he was a plainclothes cop, so no one knew he was an officer. With that in mind, take a look at this video: link (Unfortunately, you need Windows Media Player for that.) How would you react if someone in plainclothes, that didn’t identify himself as a police officer (he may have, I don’t know) was riding through the crowd on a scooter and running people over? He didn’t deserve the beating he got, but I certainly wouldn’t be upset if people tried to get him off the scooter and stop him, if only in self defense.

And let me state again, for the record, that the guy who assaulted him was not part of the protest group. It was not a politically motivated beating. Unlike, say, this one. Now, there’s no excuse for what these protesters did. I’m not at all supported them making their way into the RNC when they shouldn’t have been there. Still, that’s no excuse for what was done there. Wonderful advertising for monster.com, too.

As for the rest of the police in New York City, they don’t seem to be doing such a great job, either. It’s nice to know we’re not living in a police state, where people can get arrested for just walking down the street. Er, I guess that’s only when the Republicans aren’t in town.

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Posted by alan to politics at 11:01 pm PT | Link | Comments (0)
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
Flip-Flop

Senator Zell Miller, 2001

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its “Digital Dozen.”

http://miller.senate.gov/speeches/030101jjdinner.htm

Good stuff. Found over at Wacky Neighbor

Update: Much of what Miller said Kerry voted against, Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, also worked to cut. Others, Kerry didn’t actually vote against. He voted against the Fiscal Year 1991 Defense Appropriations Act, which wasn’t a vote on those individual weapon systems. Just like Kerry voted against $87 billion in body armor for soldiers, with $20 billion of that earmarked for Halliburton.
(Source: http://slate.msn.com/id/2096127/)

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Posted by alan to politics at 11:53 pm PT | Link | Comments (2)
Activist Judges

Multiple choice question. The title of this post refers to:

  1. Judges who disagree with Republicans
  2. Judges who uphold the Constitution
  3. All of the above

Elizabeth Dole, in a speech at the RNC said:

Two thousand years ago a man said, ” I have come to give life and to give it in full.” In America I have the freedom to call that man Lord, and I do. In the United States of America we are free to worship without discrimination, without intervention and even without activist judges trying to strip the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance; from the money in our pockets; and from the walls of our courthouses. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The right to worship God isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

She couldn’t be more wrong. Freedom of religion means exactly freedom from religion, for those who don’t believe in God, or want to practice any religion. For those that do believe and want to practice, they’re free to do so as well. It means the State does not sponsor any specific religion, or type of religion (ie, monotheism). If she wants to say “under God” when she says the Pledge, that’s just fine. Forcing children at a public school to do the same, not fine. Similarly, if she wants to write “In God I trust”, on her money, that’s just fine with me. Having it printed on the money, not so much.

Personally, neither of these things actually bother me at all. I don’t care that “under God” is in the pledge or that “In God We Trust” is on our money. What does bother me is that these people think they have the right to force it on people who do care about it.

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Posted by alan to politics at 12:20 am PT | Link | Comments (1)
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
We’re Doomed

I was watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire tonight (I was at the bowling alley, it was on the TV. I had no choice. Honest!), and the following question came up (as best I can remember):

Vice President Dick Cheney was the head of what company?
A) I don’t remember B) Halliburton C) I don’t remember D) I don’t remember

The contestant didn’t know. He had to ask the audience. When anyone living in this country doesn’t know the answer to this question, how can we expect them to make educated decisions voting for our President? To be fair, I don’t know when this show was taped. The audience, however, very clearly knew the answer, and Cheney was obviously already Vice President. Some people did vote for choices A, C, and D, though. Maybe they were relatives of other people waiting to be the next contestant. I can always hope.

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Posted by alan to politics at 1:31 am PT | Link | Comments (1)
Monday, August 30, 2004
In the News

My Terror Alert has made the news. The St. Petersburg Times, anyway. I didn’t actually come up with the design, but that’s besides the point. Hopefully, this won’t bring anyone down on me for copyright or trademark violations. 🙂

Does anyone know if this was actually printed in a physical newspaper, and if so, how I can get one? Thanks.

(Also, thanks to Google Alert for finding this for me.)

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Posted by alan to [meta, politics] at 2:58 pm PT | Link | Comments (0)
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Good Article

Here’s a nice article about the state of the media in the US: Only the jester speaks the truth.

As American voters prepare for arguably the most important election in two decades, The Daily Show’s influence is growing. With a blend of scathing satire, comedic brilliance, gonzo hijinks and incisive commentary, the show attracts more than a million viewers a night in the U.S. and has emerged as a force to be reckoned with on the national stage.

I get most of my news (including the article linked here) from Google News. The only news I watch on TV is the Daily Show.

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Posted by alan to politics at 6:50 pm PT | Link | Comments (0)
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
I love the Internet

Where else could I find things like these to compare?

Today’s current electoral vote prediction: http://www.electoral-vote.com/jul/jul28.html (That’s a link to July 28th’s. Here’s the current updated one.)


Pop vs. Soda map: http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

Looks like Kerry has a few more Pop/Coke states than Bush has Soda states.

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Posted by alan to politics at 4:46 pm PT | Link | Comments (3)
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