Republicans Win, Government Defeated

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Wednesday April 06, 2011 · 12:44 PM PDT

2011/04/06 · 12:44

GOP House leaders accept President Obama's unconditional surrender.

The great political discourse between big government liberals and small government conservatives is over. On Friday, the federal government intitated by the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and maintained through two-and-a-half centuries of wars, depressions and revolutions will grind to a halt. By preventing a legal framework for the funding of national programs and institutions from taking shape, the Republican Party will claim ultimate victory over the American public's greatest enemy: itself.

sydiot

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Saturday December 04, 2010 · 3:39 PM PST

2010/12/04 · 15:39

I know I do. I remember when I first saw this picture circulating the internet during the worst financial crisis in living memory. Credit for businesses was freezing, the value of pension funds and government bonds were tanking, and the US auto industry was about to close its doors for good. Our newly elected President, a constitutional scholar and former community organizer, had just won a convincing victory and stepped into office in one of the most crisis-frought transition periods for any American administration.

sydiot

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Tuesday April 21, 2009 · 5:00 PM PDT

2009/04/21 · 17:00

He announced it via his Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/...

I admit that I was not previously a follower of the good mayor's feed, although I will add myself to the ranks now, if only to see how his campaign uses this tool outside of constant fundraising adverts. So far we've got some @thanks and they've raised $15,000. Not bad!

I wonder how he'll do. Here in Los Angeles he's most recognizable as the smugly defiant man who was trying to shove same-sex marraige down the throats of minority voters in the Yes on 8 campaign ads. With a bevy of retired CEOs running on the Republican side and a popular yet inneffective social liberal in office, I wonder if he'll be our strongest candidate or if Villaraigosa is the better call. Or perhaps someone who isn't the mayor of a major California city, maybe?

Gavin Newsom's Twitter Feed

Poll

143 votes Show Results

Is Gavin Newsom a viable candidate for CA governor?

143 votes Vote Now!

Is Gavin Newsom a viable candidate for CA governor?

Yes

76 votes

52 votes

Pie

15 votes

Mayor Booker is Annoying

sydiot

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Friday November 21, 2008 · 9:53 PM PST

2008/11/21 · 21:53

I'm sorry, but he is.

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Don't you think? He's got these crazy "chorus of deliciousness" and made up word platitudes. He might be a smart guy and a good Mayor, and maybe someone who lives in Newark knows him better, but these last couple weeks have been the first I've seen of him. He always comes on TV and the host serves him up a "are we living in in a post-racial society?" and he gets to say no no no.

Stephen Colbert just called him out in a great segment for his "luxuriating" metaphors, then had him on the show. Booker went on to plow through Colbert's softball funnyman questions and recite an over-excited epistle to the multi-culti cause. I love the message, but you have to admit he needs to relax for a second and play it cool. He's already a rock star and he's trying to sell me a CD outside of Amoeba.

I'll add some transcripts of his TV appearances below.

sydiot

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Friday November 21, 2008 · 3:24 PM PST

2008/11/21 · 15:24

A reminder that, in some countries, snark and humanitarianism have a steep price.

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BBC reports:

A popular comedian active in Burma's democracy movement has been sentenced to 45 years in jail by a Burmese court.

Zarganar was found to have violated the Electronics Act, which regulates electronic communications.

He's accused of criticizing the government for talking to foreign reporters and distributing emergency resources to victims of Cyclone Nargis. Imagine if making fun of Bush over Katrina while helping people in need landed you in jail for life.

More of the BBC report below the fold.

sydiot

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Wednesday November 12, 2008 · 3:12 PM PST

2008/11/12 · 15:12

Sundance Film Festival, possibly the premier film festival in the United States, is facing pressure from gay rights proponents to cancel or move out of Utah. This is to protest the influx of money from the state in support of California's Proposition 8, most from the faithful of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. I have friends in the programming and planning departments of the festival, who said they're receiving hate mail over it. The idea, I guess, is to punish the Church of LDS and other Utah businesses over their support for the measure. More below:

Poll

262 votes Show Results

Do you support a boycott of Sundance Film Festival if it doesn't move out of Utah?

262 votes Vote Now!

Do you support a boycott of Sundance Film Festival if it doesn't move out of Utah?

Yes

128 votes

123 votes

Pie

11 votes

Civil Rights Protest Shuts Down Hollywood [pics]

sydiot

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Sunday November 09, 2008 · 1:54 AM PST

2008/11/09 · 01:54

West Hollywood has been aroar for the last four days. People I talk to speak openly about the discrimination against gays and lesbians from Prop 8. I hear people carelessly stereotype black people as intolerant, others blame the Mormon Church and religious activism for interfering in their lives with no cause. There has been a peaceful protest every night since Tuesday, and they've gotten bigger every night.

Here's what shut down Sunset and Hollywood Blvds from Sunset Junction to Beverly Hills tonight, just in time for the night clubs to empty:

sydiot

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Wednesday September 03, 2008 · 6:57 PM PDT

2008/09/03 · 18:57

As I watch this year's quadrennial Republican Nation Convention the GOP is smart to remind me of their primary selling point. That party's biggest claim to fame after fiscal conservatism and manifest jingoism is the idea that most people are like them. They are "regular people", or as brownsox referenced in an earlier blog from today, "reg'lar." That missing "U" is no coincidence.

I searched around and found a website I've looked to in times of need. It is an example of one of my favorite uses of political polling graphics. It's a webpage credited to Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman from the University of Michigan. They show the familiar red-state/blue-state map of the election results and how there are only these tiny pockets of blue in a bleed chest wound of red. When you look at these results, it's easy to feel like maybe we angry left are an isolated few, that we are a minority who believe this country is being run poorly.

I think for a moment, maybe we don't have a right to lead?! So much of the people disagree with us! Maybe us liberals only invented democracy just to see ourselves voted out in the end. Maybe. (too far to claim the invention of democracy?)

Link is below.

sydiot

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Saturday August 30, 2008 · 12:37 PM PDT

2008/08/30 · 12:37

Please excuse another Sarah Palin related diary, but I'm writing this to address a wider issue that is being taken for granted in the commmentary about our new GOP VP pick.

From a comment on the New York Times 'Ms. Alaska' story:

I fail to see why abortion and her child with Down’s Syndrome are being so quickly linked. It appears to be almost an attempt to associate abortion with eugenics.

Much is being made about the fact that Sarah Palin is pro-life, and rightly so. This is a galvanizing issue for the GOP's idealistic base and will help them in their get out the vote measures this year. A comment I've noticed alot about how her infant son Trig has Down's Syndrome and that because of her strong beliefs against abortion she carried the child to term anyways. An "admittedly pro-abortion" commentator on Hannity and Colmes last night (I watch because I hate myself) made a big deal about how he cries when he sees pro-lifers with developmentally disabled kids. I have to speak out against the assumption that hides under Palin's canonization.

sydiot

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Wednesday August 27, 2008 · 3:16 PM PDT

2008/08/27 · 15:16

Watching C-Span today, caught the Republican Party Platform proceedings. I witnessed a little friction over anti-immigration tweaking in the GOP's position on basically everything, but specifically the census.

Saw an amendment proposed that would reform the census and its effect on the apportioning of congressional seats to states. The focus was on how the immigrant population is artificially skewing them toward states and districts with large undocumented populations. They complain that the legal voters in those areas have "heavier" votes because they are represented more per capita in Congress and local and state govts. They're already doing it in their state efforts. Below is an example of the language from the Texas Republican Party Platform:

RSS

Republicans Win, Government Defeated

Remember This?

Gavin Newsom is officially running for Governor. [poll]

Mayor Booker is Annoying

Comedian Jailed in Burma, Sentenced to 45 Years

Boycott Sundance over Prop 8? [with poll]

Civil Rights Protest Shuts Down Hollywood [pics]

Parenthesis and America in the middle

Abortion and Eugenics

Codifying Anti-Immigrant Policy into the GOP Platform