Sunday, November 07, 2004
BABY X23'S PRENATAL BLOG IS ONLINE
Some news is more important than election results. Much more important.
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Some news is more important than election results. Much more important.
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Monday, November 01, 2004
WHY I VOTED FOR KERRY
(I went out and did it a week and a half ago)
So I may not have mentioned it here, but I am a Californian and have voted here in every election since I turned 18 in 1988. The funny thing about being a Californian in a national election is that for some reason it has become a given that we are going to vote a given way (fortunately the correct way) for president and for our senators. So much so that the only campaign commercials I have seen are wither on national cable or the internet. Now I understand we live in a big state and its hard for time and money to be spent here, knowing the outcome of our vote, when three or four EVs in a rural state might be at stake. After all, people who don't know what they are going to do until the last moment need far more attention than people who make up their minds in advance. I understand I won't have as many opportunities to meet the candidates and their families. That's why I have the internet...
Another little bit of unknown Mercury history was that I had to vote absentee in 2000. You see, I have made a few short films and one of them happened to be featured in the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in November of 2000. I didn't know it at the time, but I'd be sitting in a historical flashpoint. I just thought I was down there to shmooze. I was so disinterested in the election that I cam very close to writing in Bill Clinton's name on my ballot (I e-mailed him to that effect and I got a nice form letter on White House stationary and a sign picture of the Big Dog). At the last minute, however, I got faked out by Bush's feint at California and voted for Gore (although I did write in my cat for Senator...I hate Diane Feinstein and she was running virtually unopposed...much as Boxer this year).
[FUN FLIFF FACT: Then Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris introduced FLIFF keynote speaker John Waters (director of films such as Pink Flamingos, Crybaby and Hairspray)...I often think back that if he knew he was onstage with such an evil wench, would he have been less...nice]
At the time, I knew that I didn't want Bush, but I was angry at Gore for running away from Clinton. But I knew that I didn't want Bush. One of the few times I thought something with absolute certainty that I later knew to be right.
Flash forward to now and I am somewhat more informed. I credit Bush with waking up my interest in politics to a sometime addiction and driving me from a registered non-partisann with somewhat centrist moderate politics to a fairly left of center liberal Democrat. (Way to go, Dubya!). For the first time ever, I gave money to a candidate, Howard Dean. I really liked Howard Dean. Still do. If not for Dr. Dean taking the heat for the beginning of the election cycle, I think the Bush machine might have done more damage to Kerry and Edwards. Dean ate up valuable time and dollars. In the California primary (somehow a meaningless event...we have the most delegates, but we are less important than Iowa and New Hampshire), I still gave Dean my vote as a symbolic gesture. However, I accepted that Kerry was my candidate.
No I really didn't like him at first. He didn't excite me. But, unlike Bush, I allow myself to learn and grow. I can change my mind, much as Kerry has done effectively over the years. I think Kerry could have been a better candidate, but I'm unsure if the Democrats (with apologies to Howard) could have fielded a better candidate. Bill Clinton made you want to hang out with him and tell him what was wrong and you believed he would fix it. Kerry is different. I'd rather write Kerry a letter that he would give study to and examine the finer points. I believe he would factor my concerns into policy that satisfied me and my neighbor. He's not going to make us feel better about everything and, unfrotunately, without at least a split congress, he's not going to get as much done as he should rightfully be able to do. He's going to tax my father and, hopefully, me at some point in the near future more than others. I accept that because I know he wants to fix things.
More than any other candidate this year, I truly believe that Kerry sees the problems we face and, giving them all the thought they rightfully deserve, attempts to enact policy and law to fix them. The repairman ain't pretty, but if he's got the right training, he'll ge the job done right.
Bush broke the country. I'm hoping Kerry is given the opportunity to fix it.
Vote for the repairman.
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(I went out and did it a week and a half ago)
So I may not have mentioned it here, but I am a Californian and have voted here in every election since I turned 18 in 1988. The funny thing about being a Californian in a national election is that for some reason it has become a given that we are going to vote a given way (fortunately the correct way) for president and for our senators. So much so that the only campaign commercials I have seen are wither on national cable or the internet. Now I understand we live in a big state and its hard for time and money to be spent here, knowing the outcome of our vote, when three or four EVs in a rural state might be at stake. After all, people who don't know what they are going to do until the last moment need far more attention than people who make up their minds in advance. I understand I won't have as many opportunities to meet the candidates and their families. That's why I have the internet...
Another little bit of unknown Mercury history was that I had to vote absentee in 2000. You see, I have made a few short films and one of them happened to be featured in the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in November of 2000. I didn't know it at the time, but I'd be sitting in a historical flashpoint. I just thought I was down there to shmooze. I was so disinterested in the election that I cam very close to writing in Bill Clinton's name on my ballot (I e-mailed him to that effect and I got a nice form letter on White House stationary and a sign picture of the Big Dog). At the last minute, however, I got faked out by Bush's feint at California and voted for Gore (although I did write in my cat for Senator...I hate Diane Feinstein and she was running virtually unopposed...much as Boxer this year).
[FUN FLIFF FACT: Then Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris introduced FLIFF keynote speaker John Waters (director of films such as Pink Flamingos, Crybaby and Hairspray)...I often think back that if he knew he was onstage with such an evil wench, would he have been less...nice]
At the time, I knew that I didn't want Bush, but I was angry at Gore for running away from Clinton. But I knew that I didn't want Bush. One of the few times I thought something with absolute certainty that I later knew to be right.
Flash forward to now and I am somewhat more informed. I credit Bush with waking up my interest in politics to a sometime addiction and driving me from a registered non-partisann with somewhat centrist moderate politics to a fairly left of center liberal Democrat. (Way to go, Dubya!). For the first time ever, I gave money to a candidate, Howard Dean. I really liked Howard Dean. Still do. If not for Dr. Dean taking the heat for the beginning of the election cycle, I think the Bush machine might have done more damage to Kerry and Edwards. Dean ate up valuable time and dollars. In the California primary (somehow a meaningless event...we have the most delegates, but we are less important than Iowa and New Hampshire), I still gave Dean my vote as a symbolic gesture. However, I accepted that Kerry was my candidate.
No I really didn't like him at first. He didn't excite me. But, unlike Bush, I allow myself to learn and grow. I can change my mind, much as Kerry has done effectively over the years. I think Kerry could have been a better candidate, but I'm unsure if the Democrats (with apologies to Howard) could have fielded a better candidate. Bill Clinton made you want to hang out with him and tell him what was wrong and you believed he would fix it. Kerry is different. I'd rather write Kerry a letter that he would give study to and examine the finer points. I believe he would factor my concerns into policy that satisfied me and my neighbor. He's not going to make us feel better about everything and, unfrotunately, without at least a split congress, he's not going to get as much done as he should rightfully be able to do. He's going to tax my father and, hopefully, me at some point in the near future more than others. I accept that because I know he wants to fix things.
More than any other candidate this year, I truly believe that Kerry sees the problems we face and, giving them all the thought they rightfully deserve, attempts to enact policy and law to fix them. The repairman ain't pretty, but if he's got the right training, he'll ge the job done right.
Bush broke the country. I'm hoping Kerry is given the opportunity to fix it.
Vote for the repairman.
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“The White House (Is Such a Nice House!!)”
by Wayne Coyne & Adrian Deevoy
(A kind of protest/anti-Bush song from the leader of the Flaming Lips)
Verse 1
Hope you remember, come this November
The world as it’s spinning
When your guy is winning
But if ya come up losing
It’s just a matter of choo-oo-sin’
But this world won’t change for you and me
Verse 2
’Cause all of your ragin’
’Bout all the devastation
That’s come down through the ages
or at Least since Ronald Reagan
Will keep on persisting
But you’ll keep existing
’Cause this world won’t change for you and me
Verse 3
This world is what you make it
A simple vote don’t change it
You are your own governor
You are your own god
You are your own candidate
You are your own President
That way the world can change for you and me
Middle 8
We’re movin’ into the White House
’Cause this White House is such a nice house!!
And this nice house
Is really my house!!
All right…
© 2004 Lovely Sorts of Death/EMI Blackwood Music Inc. BMI
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by Wayne Coyne & Adrian Deevoy
(A kind of protest/anti-Bush song from the leader of the Flaming Lips)
Verse 1
Hope you remember, come this November
The world as it’s spinning
When your guy is winning
But if ya come up losing
It’s just a matter of choo-oo-sin’
But this world won’t change for you and me
Verse 2
’Cause all of your ragin’
’Bout all the devastation
That’s come down through the ages
or at Least since Ronald Reagan
Will keep on persisting
But you’ll keep existing
’Cause this world won’t change for you and me
Verse 3
This world is what you make it
A simple vote don’t change it
You are your own governor
You are your own god
You are your own candidate
You are your own President
That way the world can change for you and me
Middle 8
We’re movin’ into the White House
’Cause this White House is such a nice house!!
And this nice house
Is really my house!!
All right…
© 2004 Lovely Sorts of Death/EMI Blackwood Music Inc. BMI
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