Things I'm excited for

In honor of my impending return to the District (I move down towards the end of next week, still jobless, mind you), a list of the things I am looking forward to:

1. A high-speed internet connection, and not having to use my mom's Juno dialup

2. Adam's Morgan/Woodley Park area - this is my new home. I am pumped to be able to walk 10 minutes to the best bars in DC and be able to stumble home a few hours later.

3. Living in an apartment. Living in a house was fun, with a backyard and all, but we actually had to take care of shit. This way, we don't have to worry about shoveling, don't have to put the garbage out every other day.

4. The Nationals - this is huge. I love baseball and not having to sit through shitty Orioles games (although with Sosa they may become a bit more fun) after 45 minute drives is clutch. Also, I don't have to worry about whether or not to root for the Nationals. With the O's there was the whole NY thing and I couldn't root for them, even if they were as sad as they've been the past few years. Nats, good or bad, will be my team.

5. Getting out of this house - I have been stuck in reverse life for the past 2 months. I wake up at 2 or 3pm and stay up til 5 or 6 am. While this is fun on a Saturday or Sunday after drinking the night away, it's fucking disconcerting 7 days a week. I barely see sunlight, and hardly know what day it is. I'm a vampire. And while a return to DC doesn't mean immediate changes to my schedule, I'm heading in the right direction.

6. Friends...well people I hang out with at least. Hard to say wehther many of them are actually 'friends.' But people here in my hometown are few and far between, and people I care for are even more so. I'll be sad to leave my friends, but very excited to get back to the ones I have in the district.

7. A...........JOB?? Well no guarantees, as that would make the unemployed democrat an employed democrat (unless I have to join the Greens or something for a job). While I have no solid opportunities right now, I am just one interview away from getting something good. Optimism is difficult in this market, but I somehow believe in my strengths. And with the knowledge I have of some of the people I know having jobs that can't spell on a fourth grade level - I should be a lock...to at least be a shitty assistant... ha.

White House Press Passes, aka free passes given out to porn proprietors

The whole Gannon/Glickert thing is really quite amusing. A man solicits gay military porn sites (which as a liberal I couldn't care less about stopping), receives a White House press pass after being unable to receive one for Congress, has the president call on him for questions, gets to look at classified information and actually plays a role in the Plame affair, resigns after the '"left-wing blogosphere" threatens him and his family', and there's not much uproar about it.

What would have happened had this occurred during the Clinton years? Somehow I sense Ken Starr would have already issued a few subpoenas.

Now, I realize some, like Slaughter, have sent FOIA requests to get to the bottom of the press pass issue. The Plame side of the story, however, is just as important. Look what's happening to Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper. They're being threatened with jail time for not revealing their sources, while Novak, the guy who wrote the initial story, has had no spotlight shone upon his head.

DAMN LIBERAL MEDIA!!

Academic Freedom

I've been checked out the past week, but here's some fun news from the Center for American Progress' Daily Grill:

"If you have your rights abused in a college course (e.g. unfair grading, one-sided lectures, stacked reading lists), please report this abuse." – David Horowitz's Academic Freedom Abuse Center

VERSUS

Description of complaint: "I know the paper was pretty much great because I spell checked it and proofred [sic] it twice. I got an [sic] D- just because the professor hates families and thinks its [sic] okay to be gay." – Database Entry, Anonymous Ohio State Student, 2/9/05

Horowitz is the muse behind a recent Ohio initiative to remove free speech from the classrooms by placing the academic oversight of Ohio universities into the courts and state governemnt because of the 'liberal bias' on college campuses. This comes from a man who, according to CAP,

has a distinguished history of intellectual defamation, historical inaccuracy and political bullying. He has freely compared American liberals to Islamic terrorists, slandered the Democratic Party and John Kerry for criticizing the war in Iraq and made a habit out of accusing his detractors of racism. Most recently, when African-American historian John Hope Franklin questioned Horowitz's 2001 claim that black people benefited from slavery and owed a "debt" to white America, Horowitz responded by calling the eminent historian "a racial ideologue rather than a historian" and "almost pathological." Horowitz has no academic credentials and routinely distorts facts – exactly the crime he accuses "liberal" professors of committing – to fit his political bias. (Share your thoughts on David Horowitz at ThinkProgress.org)

I feel all warm inside. David Horowitz, this lynching is for you!

Deficit reduction?

Speaking of ridiculous, from the Washington Post:

Bush's budget, which is only a blueprint for Congress to follow or ignore, proposes reducing health care programs, farm subsides and scores of other programs but produces only minimal, if any, deficit reduction next year.

However, the Post apparently has a soul on this issue

In a broad economic speech touching on issues including tax cuts and trade, Bush said Congress has a responsibility to confront long-term financial problems facing America, such as the solvency of Social Security. But his budget does not account for the huge costs of creating personal Social Security accounts, making permanent the tax cuts enacted over the past four years and continuing the war in Iraq.

(emphasis added)

It's funny how Bush enjoys following the starve the beast model of conservative rule, yet somehow still manages to come up way over budget fiscal year after fiscal year. It's even funnier how the rest of the conservatives fawn over him, apparently suddenly unconcerned about the 'fiscal responsibility' they and their party have continued to lose a hold upon over the past few decades.

Can I really fault them, though? They unite behind their president much as we (progressives, liberals, democrats...smart people) were behind a very flawed, pro-Iraq war Kerry.

Dean may have been a lot of things, but pro-war and fiscally irresponsible he was not. I did not throw my support behind Dean in the primaries, mainly because I didn't know enough about him, but retrospectively, I'm disappointed by his loss. I truly feel as though he may very well have stood a better chance against the Republican Noise Machine than Kerry. Aside from his early anti-war stance, he's a better, more passionate speaker, can much more easily articulate his points, and would have been harder to tag as a rich northeastern liberal. Now, yes, he is a rich northeastern liberal, but his background as a doctor may have been more appropriate than Kerry's 'career politician, silver spoon' label.

Dean's run as chairman should be a step in the right direction. His status as a reform Democrat, and his belief in the decentralization of the party to the state and local level should prove prosperous. There is without a doubt a continued movement from Dean's candidacy, and having him as the new chairman represents an overturn in the party from within. While some of the big donors used to the old ways of the party may be turned off, I am confident that the new machine will run as smoothly, if not more smoothly, than the McAuliffe years. I read a study showing that over 20% of the Democratic party donated to the committee this year, representing something like a three-fold increase from the previous presidential cycle. And, most of these were from donors giving less than $100. These people are new to the political game, new to donating, and new to the progressive cause, at least an organized one. If we can utilize our power, from the 'netroots' to the streets, and actually figure out a proper use for blogs, internet technology, and the traditional campaign styles, we'll be on our way...big if I guess...I'll be working on it, whether employed by the party or someone else.

Pea - Tear Griffin

Well, looks like I wasn't too far off on my SB prediction. Had the winner right, but they didn't beat the spread. Overall, pretty boring game, and the lack of entertaining commercials really stunk...I mean honestly, what happened to the days of the Bud Bowl, the frogs, anything even mildly entertaining. Instead we're left with Dennis Rodman in a hot tub and monkeys and children galore.

I had been watching those old highlight reel shows on ESPN2 and realized that the mid-90's games up until 2000 with Dyson almost making it into the end zone but being stuffed on the one really were some great games. I'm not sure what it is, maybe since the Giants blew up their chance at winning a championship in '01, or my lack of a rooting interest in tonight's game - really hating the Eagles but not particularly wanting the Pats to win either - made for a bad game tonight.

And American Dad - what a disgrace. First of all, for the guy to be a hardcore conservative is upsetting in its own right. Secondly, the jokes were so far off the mark, it wasn't even funny in a bad way. It was the worst kind of Family Guy ripoff from the show's own creator - who woulda expected that. It's not like he doesn't have access to the same material for both shows.

At least it's a new week, right!!! Whoo. Three more weeks til my birthday (and the mid-20s - sounds like shit) and my return to DC. Should be fun when I am essentially broke and have to pay rent. However, I'm excited to get back down there, where I will have an opportunity to lead a normal life.

Ah well, three more weeks of movies, video games, books and maybe some temp work, interspersed with more job searching.

Super Bowl, or how i learned to stop worrying and hate the super bowl

I'm sick and tired of hearing about the Super Bowl. How many stories are we hearing about the following topics?

-Return of TO
-Vinatieri's specialness
-Incredible coaches
-Last year's halftime show and this year's censorship

I find it perhaps most ironic that a network that has previously aired "Who's Your Daddy," a television show about a woman trying to find her biological father, "World's Scariest fill in the blank," and every other piece of disgusting garbage is censoring Mickey Rourke's ass, a Bud commercial about Janet Jackson and who knows what else from the Superbowl. What kind of shit ass hypocritical society do we live in? I couldn't care less what kind of crap is on the Superbowl's halftime or commercials. More power to the commercial advertisers who think an 85-year old man's ass is going to sell more cold medicine. I understand, I don't have children, but can't our society handle censoring our own fucking children? For God's sake, the fcc really can go to hell.

Oh and as to the game - I'm going back and forth on how it's going to go. Pats can really kill them, but then again, it could be a real close game. I gave the Colts and Steelers the benefit of the doubt, so I don't know if I should do the same for the Eagles...the Pats are from such a superior conference, it's an embarassment. Then again, Superbowls often don't go as scheduled (see Pats upsetting Rams)...with that said, I also don't know who to root for. Eagles are in my team's (Giants) division, so it hurts to root for them, but Pats could end up being far too dynastic for my liking. Yankees should be the only recent dynasty, but I'll be rooting for the Nats to begin a new late 2000 decade string of championships. All this leads me to go with the following prediction:

Pats 34 - Eagles 24

Gonzales

From the Post:

The six Democrats who voted for [Gonzales] were Mary Landrieu (La.), Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Kenneth Salazar (Colo.). All but Lieberman are from states that Bush carried in November.

Only six - good news, I guess. But these six, especially Lieberman...come on now. Lieberman is extremely far to the right on cultural issues, we know this. But to vote in favor of torture is pretty inexcusable. This guy is from a safe state, and has no excuse to be kissing the president's ass this much. Did you see him at the SOTU last night? He was pretty much the first guy to jump up and hug Bush after the speech. I thought he had turned down a spot in the Cabinet? Still auditioning?? Lieberman is going to be targeted in primaries, and unless the guys a certifiable wacko, I'll be supporting him.

An...interview?

Had a phone interview today. For a small consulting firm, lady that is in charge of Democratic GAIN, which I've previously been offered a position within. Only problem? Solely administrative work. Just not interested in that kind of paper-pushing stuff unless it's on the hill - even then I'm going to be looking for substantive work attached to a staff assistant position. Maybe it's asking a lot - but a guy that has gone through four years of schooling, has a decent internship and work history should be capable of handling something better than a secretary position...here's hoping.

SOTU

Flowery language + simple ideas + appeals to emotion + manipulation = Bush

This equation appears to be the much repeated, often successful strategy for our current administration. Now, this has been done before, no doubt. I appreciate flowery language. I appreciate simple ideas. I even appreciate the occasional tug at the heartstrings. However, manipulation angers me. Using 9/11, coupled with the improper war, to justify the desecration of our domestic policy is immoral. This president has succeeded at starving the beast. Conservative policy welcomes war, because, with a focus and extensive funding on war, it's that much simpler to cut programs and entitlements to the people that actually need it back home. $300 million for Palestine, $80 billion for Iraq, billions for Afghanistan - all well and good, but what the fuck is going on back home? Oh yea, sorry we can't fund those programs. You have to do it on your own. So while the rich enhance their wealth and close ranks the middle and poor class continue to have their testicles cut off.

Additionally, is it me, or is Pelosi just not really the right person for our message. I understand she's been there before but tonight really seemed exceedingly mechanical, robotic...she looks like a bad mannequin. I'm willing to give Reid some time - he's off to a good start, and has certainly reined in the party.

On a sidenote- Salazar, CO's new senator, is a piece of garbage. I knew it since I saw his MTP debate with Coors. He's a moderate Republican, not a conservative Democrat. I'm happy to have his vote on organizing matters and such, but a guy that votes for Gonzales, a guy that speaks in favor of Gonzales, is not a Democrat. You just got in, Salazar. Show some balls and vote against a guy that has endangered our troops and the future of our nation by endorsing torture by the US, or admit that you're a damn Republican.

Anyway, I'm moving down in T-minus 20 some odd days, and still no good job prospects. I'm still optimistic...I am a democrat after all.

Yeesh.

This past week has been something out of a tax code...long and uneventful. Being unemployed is boring. It's insomnia, constipation, and vomiting mixed into one long expulsion of energy and wasted mental capacity. I mean for godssakes, I know that I would do a better job than 33% of the current population of DC's entry-level employed population without more than a 50% effort 35 hours a week. Yet I'm on the other side looking in, after four years of going to school in DC, about 7 internships, and a campaign job. Tight job market? Apparently. I've applied to a shit-load of jobs, some not even government relations-related. Problem is - few things even seem that appealing. The excitement and unbridled enthusiasm (forgive the cliche) of the past five months of my employed life seem to tower over any job opportunities I've thus far been presented with. Picky? I suppose...but I haven't even had the chance to be picky with job offers, because I haven't been offered a job. Here's to hoping that some of these hill jobs and other random craps that I've applied for hits big, or that I come upon some sort of inner-epiphany matched with an outer-explosion of that 'perfect job' or at least one that I'll apply to because it pays well. Because if not, I can see it now...waitering/serving/temping for a few months, here I come.