Bird's Eye View

X has a new compilation out, Make the Music Go Bang.
This from the CNN article about it hit home: "Those who were once punkers are now parents, and some may be embarrassed by the contrasts between their youthful, safety-pinned and slam-dancing selves and the responsible adults they've become."
I'm not embarrassed about my punk-rock-groupie youth, nor my current lifestyle, but I do see the irony. For instance, Los Angeles/Wild Gift is my favorite CD to clean the house and do other chores to--not to mention the fact that I found out about the compilation through CNN of all places.

John Kerry is appearing on The Daily Show with John Stewart tonight. Bill and I will have to stay up past our regular bedtime to watch it. God, we've gotten old.

Al Sharpton is coming to Gainesville on Saturday, just a stone's throw away from our neighborhood, no doubt to give another inspiring speech. Finally, I can use my Kerry rally signs!

My friend, Melissa, once wrote a paper on why Rush Limbaugh is successful. One reason is that he makes predictions (usually obvious) that eventually come true.
Earlier this year, I caught Wesley Pruden in a journalistic lie:

Wesley Pruden's Journalistic Dishonesty
02/05/2004 @ 07:10 PM
Last Friday I managed to get through C-Span's "Washington Journal" phone lines to call Washington Times Editor-in-Chief Wesley Pruden on his journalistic dishonesty for using ellipses in the following quote to misrepresent and distort what John Kerry said during his testimony to the Senate after returning from Vietnam:

John Kerry's military record, lieutenant or not, has so far made him a sentimental favorite with many veterans, but it's a military record that won't withstand the scrutiny that's coming. His slander of the GIs he left behind in Vietnam is not yet well known.
"They ... raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power," he told a Senate committee in 1971 when he was just home from the war, and "cut off limbs, [blew] up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
Miserable lies, and he never produced evidence or repudiated the lies. Americans tolerate a lot of hyperbole in election season, but stuff like this will unhorse even a Botox man.
Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.
source: Washington Times

What Mr. Kerry was referring to was testimony from Veterans themselves in Detroit. John Kerry's actual testimony, without ellipses is:

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....
They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.
Source: Richmond.edu

Mr. Pruden, who responsibly admits that The Washington Times is a conservative paper, demonstrates partisan journalism at its worst. Watch for his version of the quote to be picked up by the mainstream media and repeated by lazy or deadline-driven journalists who won't check the quote. I hope everyone, on both sides of the issues, looks more closely at what journalists say this year. If you read a quote, don't take it at face-value. Please look it up for yourself! Do the work that corporate journalists won't. Just like any potentially dangerous product, WE must hold the press accountable for what they sell us.
Check out the 01/30/04 Wesley Pruden segment online at C-Span.org.

Don't call me Rush, but my prediction in the last paragraph came true--kind of. It's not journalists who are repeating the quote dishonestly. It's now in an ad from the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, and it's also been repeated by pundits (who have become pseudo-journalists nowadays) like Bob Dole. At least CNN responsibly pointed out the misconstruing of the quote in a recent article. I guess not all corporate journalists are lazy.

We struck gold this week. Bill dollied home a free Jamboree Organ--with the Magic Genie!
We've been in the market for a piano or organ for the past few months as we try to fill our home with as many instruments as possible for Joe to jam on. (We still need a drum set.) Bill happened to be walking Joe and Bodhi down the street when he passed our neighbor, who was throwing away an organ. A few of the keys don't work, but I'm sure we can fix that.
I was messing around with it this morning and discovered, through the power of the Magic Genie, that I can play the intro to Dead Milkmen's "Bitchin' Camaro," which made me absolutely giddy.
Ah, the joys of a good organ.

We came through Charley without any damage. I did spend Saturday afternoon picking up lots of sticks and small branches that had fallen from the many trees on our lot, though. Gainesville only received heavy rain on Friday and a little on Saturday morning, but our friends and family in the Daytona and Tampa areas got much worse weather--obviously, but as far as we know, everyone is okay.
Bill was in Atlanta for the weekend (which made it doubly nice that we didn't get hit by the storm) and saw lines of utility vehicle on I-75 heading south . As much as I dislike Jeb Bush, it's nice to know our government has its shit together when it comes to dealing with hurricanes.
Bill's weekend away was a gift to both of us, as our relationship is recharged from our time apart. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Oh, what a lovely thing marriage is! (Cue the Sade and candles.)

Joe has started another season of gymnastics at the local YMCA. His face simply glows with excitement when he's tumbling and running around. He has another year before he can start soccer or basketball (we're leaning towards soccer). Thanks to our Fellowship, the Y, and the local parks and recreational facilities, Gainesville really is a lovely place to raise children.

Oh, dear. Julia Child has died in her sleep at age 91.
Can I just say that I loved that woman's shows? Her high-pitched voice was similar to my Grandma's and always gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Baking with Julia is my favorite Julia Child show (Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home is a close runner-up), but my favorite Julia Child recipe is a ham and cheese melt with spicy mustard that she made on Late Night with David Letterman--it's so simple, yet so scrumptious.
I try everyday to live her philosophy: "Eat well and drink well. Everything in moderation."
I hope she's enjoying manna in heaven (if there is one) right now. Bon appétit, Julia!

I watched PBS's To the Contrary for the first time last night. I actually liked it! I've been turned off by most other roundtable pundit shows lately, but this one really spoke to me--perhaps because it's centered around women's perspectives.
As a young-ish woman, sometimes it's difficult to decide where I stand on a lot of feminine issues. I like to think I'm somewhere in the middle on most:
-I don't care for men-hating feminists, but I'll be damned before I "submit" to my husband--compromise, yes; submit, no.
-I think it's important for mothers to stay home with young children as long as possible, but I also crave the independence and self-esteem that a career can provide. I enjoy my time with Joe, but I also wouldn't mind getting started on a retirement plan for myself.
-I think the best candidate should be hired for a job. However, I think society in general must work to make sure women are able to achieve the same high-paying positions men do. After all, neither sex has a lock on being the more intelligent gender.
-I'm pro-choice, but I don't necessarily agree with partial-birth abortion. I'm no doctor, though, and who the hell am I to tell someone what to do with her body--especially if her life is in danger? I do think women (and men, damn it!) need to be as responsible as possible when it comes to family planning. Use a condom, and don't have kids until you're financially and mentally capable of giving them all they need to be a benefit to society.
-I'm married and never really experienced the dating scene, so I guess I'll never understand where the middle road is between being a dirty slut or a good girl. (I'm lucky; I get to be whichever one I want each night.) I definitely think sex is a natural thing--not to mention freakin' great! However, I completely respect modesty and abstinence.
-I think men who prey on women are horrible human beings, but I also believe women have to take a reasonable amount of responsibility for putting themselves in certain situations. Women should not expect men to always be chivalrous, especially when waving tits and ass their faces. Don't get me wrong--I'm not letting men off the hook. Like I said, men who take advantage of women in weakened states disgust me and should be prosecuted.
-I'm also not sure where I stand on the whole sexuality-as-power issue. I can't decide whether the Hooters girls are stupid for allowing their own objectification or are smart for making money off the male gender's weakness for titties. I do think prostitution should be legal. Why shouldn't I be able to sell my skills/talent to another consenting adult? I say license 'em, test 'em, and tax 'em. Just think of all the untapped potential tax revenue lying around out there.

When your record sucks, what do you use to campaign for re-election? Deception.
I got another email (see "A Microcosm..." from July 27th in my archives) from Iowa today that used spin and deception to attack John Kerry's character and paint him as a hypocrite. I found that others had already debunked the email, so I 'm just going to send you here and here to read about it.
With nervous fingers, I clicked the "reply to all" button and sent the Snopes.com article to everyone my Aunt had sent the email to. I hesitated because I didn't want to offend anyone, but I felt I had to in order to fight the deception used by the Bushies.
Everyone has to take a stand against deceit this election cycle--and everyone begins with me.

I just received this update from FactCheck.org regarding the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad attacking John Kerry. Isn't it interesting that the ad came out the week after I received (and debunked) the related email from my uncle? (See "A Microcosm of the National Debate" below.) I can only assume that the email campaign was connected to the ad's release. Perhaps it was an effort to get people to say, "Hey, I got an email about that from a friend. It must be true!" It fits with the strategy the Right uses often: If you repeat something enough, it becomes true--or at least appears to be.
I swear, if I hear Bush say one more time in a stump speech that Kerry-Edwards doesn't have a plan to deal with the issues America faces, I'm gonna scream. I guess he hopes Americans don't read--like him.

FactCheck.org is really a great site, whose mission statement says, in part:

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

And yes, I do read the criticisms of the Democrats. I think it's unacceptable to misstate facts or spin statistics and will always frown upon such tactics--even when it's my side that's employing them. It's important for the members of a party to be its conscience and not stand for underhanded tactics. Otherwise, politics will continue down the low road it appears to be on, and we'll never reach our peak potential.

Today, Bush said, "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." At least we know he's thinking about something.
For your everyday enjoyment of the President's "accidental wit and wisdom," here's a link to the "Bushism of the Day" at Slate.

Richard Cohen has a nice column in today's Washington Post regarding Bush's contention that Kerry is a flip-flopper. Following a laundry list of Bush flip-flops, the last lines of the article sum up the whole issue:

...Bush flip-flops all the time. If he had been in public life as long as Kerry has, his flip-flops would be as legion as the fish in the sea.

But it is the areas in which Bush's convictions have not changed that are the most troubling, and this includes a religiosity that comforts him in his intellectual inertness and granite-like beliefs that are impervious to logic, such as his tax policy and his relentless march to war in Iraq. Flip-flopping, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder. It can be an indicator of an alert mind, one that adjusts to new realities, or it can be evidence of ambition decoupled from principle. With Kerry it's a mix of both. With Bush, who changes his positions but never his mind, it is always the latter.

One should note that I post this not as a defense of Kerrry's re-positioning on issues, but rather as an indictment of the hypocrisy of the Bush campaign.

More musicians are rising up against Bush. Here's a PDF of the Vote for Change tour dates. And Hell yes, they're comin' to G'ville!

Bill turned me on to Propaganda by The Visitations, who have some really good political songs (and one I don't really agree with, but hey, that's Punk and this is America). "Talkin' Hate Radio Blues" is my favorite track on the album, with its irreverence to Rush and its Camper Van Beethoven-esque sound.
I also recommend To the 5 Burroughs from the Beastie Boys, especially "It Takes Time to Build" to energize your inner activist.

Anna Quindlen has a nice article in Newsweek again. She recounts watching Barak Obama's speech and had much the same reaction I did. She also notes that the American ideals that made it possible for Obama to be at that podium came about largely due to liberalism:

But it's worth remembering that today's moderate values were the liberal notions of yesteryear. Social Security. Integrated schools. A war on poverty. In just one generation we have gone from the dark threat of something labeled socialized medicine to the promise of the same thing, called universal health care. We liberals have been shamed into thinking our vision failed, when in fact it has simply been absorbed into the national self-portrait. From the idea that a woman ought to have the same legal rights as her male counterparts to the belief that workers should count on being safe from hazardous conditions, formerly liberal principles have become bedrock democracy.

I guess this is why I've always thought I was a centrist, not a liberal. But, we should also not forget that these now-moderate American values are still under attack by social conservatives. Now more than ever, we should stand proud and back politicians who defend civil liberties and civil rights. Would America still be the "shining city upon a hill," the bastion of tolerance and freedom we know today if we turn back the clock?

This is a week old (forgive me), but during last Monday night's convention coverage, Joe Scarborough said David Alston's speech (see also below) made him think, "Even though I disagree with this guy probably on 90 percent of the issues that he'd have out there, he's a guy that I could trust as president." Okay, so it's not a ringing endorsement, but it's something. I doubt that the character assassination of John Kerry will end from the right--even after he is elected--but it's good to know not all of them are blind or deaf to first-hand witnessing of Kerry's strength and courage.
On a different but related subject, I had a terrific debate with Bill's uncle Al this weekend. We both came away from it for the better--without animosity towards each other, learning something from one another, and leaving the discussion wishing that the bigger debate happening all across America would be as civil ours. Wouldn't it be nice if the right and left could sit down and make progress on the common ground that unites us instead of falling prey to divisive fringe politics?