twincityhacker | Entries tagged with politics

Watching CNN coverage most of the day, when I was not at historical linguistics. I skipped syntax to go to a viewing party in the dorm lounge, as watching Obama get sworn in > syntax. I probably should have gone somewhere else as there were only six other people in the center-wide lounge. I cheered a little when noon rolled around, enjoyed "Air and Simple Gifts", disliked "Praise Song for the Dead", and raptly watched the speech. I'm also wondering what the significance of the big bible the Biden's had. I think it's the family Bible, but I'm not sure. Someone tried to tell me it was the Bible Lincon was sworn in on, but I and another woman shut him down.

I found nothing really objectionable with Rick Warren's speech, but since it takes blunt brimstone and fire talk to get me up in arms, this is not surprising. The Benediction was 1000% times better, except with the small problem the reverend had at the beginning with less than clear diction.

We talked about the speech in historical linguistics a bit, and the swearing in, and got geeky over Robert's limited set of prepositions ( to to is on the line of awkward and normal and one day "to" could be the only preposition ) and Obama's habit of not lengthening the final word in his sentences/phrases/paragraphs which is also pretty unique.

We also talked about the importance of face-to-face communication to get the real snitch in the sority/fraternity of science, as yesterday my professor gave a really talk about a experiment found in "The History of Communication" in an biology conference, where afterwords he was taken aside by one of the group and told that the researcher who published the experiment stole the data from his grad student and then falsified the data.

That, and take into account the information written in the margins of library books by the readers before you.

I've been working on hiragana for the last few hours. I know the alphabet, but I'm not able to write a big chunk of the syllabary. Quiz is tomorrow, and I hope it's easy. I'm considering stuffing it in for the night as I'm nursing a headache, as well.

I also can't believe that rail cargo service is touted in commercials as the transportation of the future, when it's just the way everything used to get shipped on.

PS: Also, there is not a single peanut butter cookie to be found on campus. *shakes fist at Bush Administration*

Current Mood: contemplative

I was watching bits of John McCain speaking at the third presidential debate and a rally he held in Indianapolis on election day for a group project on discourse during the presidential race. Other people are doing Obama, Biden, and Palin - I volunteered for McCain so I wouldn't get stuck with Palin.

It's been much easier doing this project after the race ended. I have no desire to push my fist though the screen into someone's face!

The project, btw, is to list out when someone uses -ing or -in'. It took a half hour of speech to use 50 tokens of ing or 'in, and seven of those were -in'. And five of those occurrences were in the debate.

Current Mood: contemplative

*headdesk* *headdesk* *headesk* I'm turning off the debate.

Current Mood: blah

I took advantage of early voting to, well, early vote. The line was about an hour long, but the voting process is pretty simple. And electronic. The only unknown I voted for was for govener, as I don't like Mitch Daniels. Which is a sucky reason to vote, except I really, really don't like Mitch Daniels.

So, I've done my bare-minimum civic duty, and am now proceeding to hide under the covers until November 5th. Or the apocalypse, whatever one comes first.

Current Mood: nauseated

...Oh, god, has it only been twenty minutes of the debate? I. I. My BRAIN.

Current Mood: bitchy

From Wordle.net:

I put some of my favorite stories though Wordle. Books are from ProjectGutenberg.com, Fairy Tales are from LiteraturePage.com

( War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells )( The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum )( The Twelve Dancing Princesses as told to The Brothers Grim )( The United States Declaration of Independence )

Current Mood: enthralled

I have accomplished things today. I am happy, even if my feet and back are not, as the things required three laps around campus.

Today was also the last History of Theatre and Drama class. = (

I voted yesterday, and it's odd to think my vote might actually matter on who will get the nomination, even though the primary in Indiana takes place in May. I want Obama to will, but will accept Clinton. I didn't go to Hillary Clinton's stump speech. Because I voted yesterday, and officially don't care anymore until October where I'll make a quick reassess to make sure the surviving Democratic candidate hasn't done anything completely insane like propose invading Canada. Or Iran. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Or Mr. Rogers rises from the grave and runs for president. I'd totally vote for him first. = )

Current Mood: accomplished

Transcript of Obama’s Remarks at San Francisco Fundraiser Sunday

OBAMA: So, it depends on where you are, but I think it’s fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people are most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre…they’re misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to ‘white working-class don’t wanna work — don’t wanna vote for the black guy.’ That’s…there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it’s sort of a race thing.

Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is so we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — to close tax loopholes, uh you know uh roll back the tax cuts for the top 1%, Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to uh middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide healthcare for every American.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you’ll find is, is that people of every background — there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you’ll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I’d be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you’re doing what you’re doing.

This was thing that set off the "OMG! Obama is slamming small town America!" hysteria. No, this elucidates that, yes, he understands that the economy in many of these places have been devastated over the last thirty years - with both Democrats and Republicans in power - and that people are bitter about this. So people are either apathetic to politics as the government hasn't made their lives any better or as faciliated in making their lives worse. Or when people vote they vote on issues that do have a chance in hell of passing - and since life here sucks, we should vote the way we think God would like us to. Because if we have nothing, we still have principles.

"Obama Responds to McCain and Clinton attacks in Terre Haute"

Current Mood: enthralled

I saw Bill Clinton stumping for Hillary Clinton today. Once he arrived - two and a half hours late - he gave a quite persuasive speech. The healthcare and the 'No Child Left Behind Act' admendments were in particular quite shiny. And recognizing that corn is a poor source of bio-fuel, and farming waste would be a better source ( like the corn stocks from the corn we already grow. )

Though I'm still probably voting for Obama, but now I just really, really, really want a Obama/Clinton ticket. I think they'd make a good political partnership as their ideologies are the same, but their methods of getting their ideologies accomplished are dissimilar and complementary.

I mean, when you vote the same way 95% of the time, it's pretty damm hard to see where those differences are. And when you co-sponsor the majority of each other's bills. Ect.

AND I just got my new DVD/CD burner, and I'm about to install it. Hopefully everything will go well - it's not like I can break the one that's in Leo already any more than it already is.

Current Mood: determined

Watching politics and reading a Doctor Who book - in this case, the 9th Doctor The Deviant Strain - turned out to be an highly enjoyable evening. The weather didn't even turn out to be all that bad.

Okay, so there was eyerolling at the speeches, but other than that, it was good. Especially the "Huckabee is so conservative he doesn't believe in evolution, gravity, or photosynthesis!" line.

Current Mood: recumbent

My Response to the State of Union: Where the hell did I just put the Firefly DVD I just rented? My mind needs cleansing.

I think Nacey Pelosi agrees with me. 'Cause she was flipping though the program the entire speech.

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Music: PBS: State of the Union

I just looked up when my state primary is: May 6th. And here I was all excited to get to vote for the nominee and my only choices will be $WINNER and Dennis Kucinich, because if it's not all tied up by then I'll be very, very surprised.

Current Mood: aggravated

from:

madscience

86% John Edwards
84% Barack Obama
82% Hillary Clinton
81% Chris Dodd
81% Bill Richardson
77% Mike Gravel
72% Joe Biden
69% Dennis Kucinich
46% Rudy Giuliani
41% John McCain
38% Mike Huckabee
38% Tom Tancredo
31% Mitt Romney
26% Fred Thompson
20% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Current Mood: busy

Yesterday, Lakota tribe withdrew from their treaties from the US, and have declared sovereign nation status. They are also seeking diplomatic relations with Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela, and South Africa.

Rapid City Journal

Sioux Falls Argus Leader

AFP

Fox News First "major" news source to pick this up.

The Lakota leaders has been apparently working on this since 1974, since they drafted a document stating their continued independence. Reasons given is constant treaty breaking and continued theft of land, resources, children, and way of life.

Lakota treaties with USA

As seen from

quizzicalsphinx.

Current Mood: blank

This has been irritating me for awhile - or a few days - and I'm putting this here to see if I can work this out.

In ethics, we just read an article my Micheal Walzer called "Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands." In it, he advocates that in politics, one must surrender some if not all of one's moral precepts to preform the greater good. In other words, he's framing the argument that one has to do the right utilitarian thing with having all the sins of the dentolgical system. I think this is crap - why must the politician feel guilty for doing the correct thing? If one saved five hundred innocent people by ordering the death of one, why must one feel guilty for doing the wrong thing of killing the one man when five hundred others lived because that one man died?

Then there's the more academic reasons that it's just plain sloppy to combine two completely diametrically opposed philosophical view points where one is judged by the end results and the other by the first action.

Though it is kinda obvious that I'm at least partly utilitarian, huh? Well, that and I really wanted Karl Rove's job when I was little, only the front man would be competent so people wouldn't be able to identify the power behind the throne. And the actually ruling bit would probably be boring after awhile, so after capturing the world/presidency, I could go bugger off and retire in Scotland or Maine or something.

Wow, this completely wandered from the point, didn't it? The idea is that don't like the idea is because from my viewpoint - which is mostly utilitarian - is that there is no actual dilemma here. Nor does Walzer have an actual dilemma if he didn't kept mixing up incompatible ethical viewpoints.

Firstly, check Hell for snowballs. Most if not all of the close races in Indiana went to Democrats. Though I'm pleased.

Dr. D said that there was a women in computing lunchen sometime soon in Infomatics class today, and said that it was alright to be late because of it. Some idiot asked why there wasn't a "Men in Computing" group. Thankfuly for myself, Dr. D provided the verbal smackdown and described said while enrollment in the computer sciences is down, if you took the number of women in the room divided by the number of men the number is near zero. I know I saw a few other heads counting females with me when I said that - and it's really closer to 1/6 or 1/7 as there where ten women in class today.

And on House...

( Insert amusing statement here )