Jon Stewart Pwns Glenn Beck

Okay, this is just hilarious. Enjoy.

When the Going Gets Tough, the GOP Get Gone

Democrats have been referring to Republicans as the “Party of No” since every House Republican voted against the stimulus package earlier this year. But these days, it’s less the Party of No and more the Party of No-Show.

Since they haven’t been able to effectively stop most of the legislation they’ve been against – including the stimulus package, more extensive hate crimes legislation, and health care reform (in the House, at least) – they’ve now decided to just boycott the votes altogether. When Senator Boxer brought her climate change bill to a vote in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Republicans didn’t vote against it. In fact, they didn’t vote at all. They boycotted it – no Republican was present for the vote. They refused to even vote on the bill, even to vote against it. The bill, predictably, passed the committee vote 11-1, with only Senator Max Baucus voting against it because he doesn’t like the idea of the EPA regulating carbon emissions.

It confounds me that the congressional Republicans think this is a good tactic. Umm, if you’re not there to vote against the bill, then the bill’s going to pass. And then it’s your fault that the bill passed by such a huge margin because you weren’t there to speak up. Do you actually think you’re doing your constituents a service by refusing to vote altogether on a bill they may or may not support? Unless a majority of your constituents have no interest in a bill, you have no business not voting on it.

And then there’s Sarah Palin, who quit her job as Governor of Alaska halfway through her term so she could write her book and do interviews with people who won’t grill her (a list of interviews she’s set up for herself is available, and Katie Couric is understandably not on the list. None of those tricky “Gotcha Questions”).

Apparently the GOP is so bitter about being in the minority that they refuse to even participate in the political process until they’re back in power. Well I’ve got some bad news for you: it’s your fault. You did a bad job of running our country, and the American people voted enough of you out of office in 2006 to put the Democrats in the majority. And until you can get your act together, you’re not even going to win a Republican stronghold like NY-23; that’s right - in a bad year for the Democrats, we actually picked up a seat in the House because your party is all over the place.

Well, while they battle within themselves and boycott going to work (in this economy, they should be happy they have jobs at all), the rest of us are going to get things done – important things like providing health care for the people who can’t afford it; like passing substantial legislation that will effectively lower climate change-causing carbon emissions; like passing a law that will make it illegal for employers to discriminate against their workers based on who they are or what they are. And if you’re not there to fight against it, well, then you’re just making our jobs easier.

So thanks?
-A^LASKA

Election 2009 Detox

You’re going to hear a lot in the coming days about last night’s elections and what they mean for the Democrats and the Republicans. You’re especially going to hear a lot about President Obama, and how this election cycle was a referendum on him and Washington Democrats. That’s a bunch of crap. Let’s look at the races and see what exactly happened here.

Virginia

Republican McDonnell beating Democrat Deeds by double digits shouldn’t surprise anyone. First and foremost, we’re talking about Virginia, a purple state if ever there was one, a state which has a long history of electing for governor whichever party isn’t in power. And that’s exactly what happened last night. And furthermore, Deeds was a terrible candidate. He shouldn’t have even won the primary to begin with, and then he ran a lousy campaign. He never made a transportation plan, he actually admitted to considering raising taxes (during the recession??), and he spent way too much time and money on negative ads. I don’t even want to go into his debate performance which was just grossly incompetent. Virginia wasn’t a referendum on Obama: it was a good candidate cruising to victory against a bad one.

New Jersey

Despite being a blue state, Governor Corzine wasn’t very popular: he was associated with raising property taxes through the roof, and he – like pretty much all governors these days – was getting blamed for his state’s current poor economic standing (whether or not it’s true, I don’t know, but that’s what public opinion dictated). And despite what polls were showing, it’s well-known that independent candidates receive far less support in the election than they do in the polling. Independent Daggett was taking supporters from Republican Christie, which is why Christie had more support on Election Day than he did in the weeks leading up to it. Ergo, Election Day surprise.

A lot of people think of the defeat in NJ as a referendum on Obama because he spent a lot of time campaigning there, and so the fact that the Democrat lost is now seen by some as a failure for him. Quite the contrary, I believe that if Obama hadn’t spent so much time there, Corzine probably would have been not just defeated, but trounced. To prove my point: Obama still maintains a good level of support in the Garden State, and most NJ and VA voters said that Obama had nothing to do with their Election Day decisions. This election cycle had nothing to do with Mr. President.

NY-23

A lot of liberal pundits are going to say that Democrat Owens winning in a district that hasn’t voted for a Democrat since the Civil War marks the beginning of the end of the tea-bagging movement – after all, conservatives like Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson (don’t worry if you don’t know who that is), Rush Limbaugh, et al rushed to support conservative candidate Hoffman over apparently-moderate Republican nominee Scozzafava. But Hoffman wasn’t even from the district, and he proved throughout the campaign that he knew nothing about the district and its issues. At the end of the day, the people want a representative who’s going to represent them and do good things for them, not for his or her party. I’m sure Owens will lose in two years; it’s a very Republican district. So I don’t think that this race is too significant at all save for the fact that the House now has one more Democrat and one less Republican.

Washington and Maine

As I mentioned in my post below, it is a well-known fact that civil unions and domestic partnerships are more palatable to moderates than gay marriage itself. It is also true that a state which has been living with one of those things is far more likely, having seen that it doesn’t change anything at all, to support it than a state that hasn’t. Maine never got a chance to experience gay marriage, so the people were afraid to vote for it and were more susceptible to the lies from NOM. Washington, on the other hand, was just voting to expand the benefits of the domestic partnerships that already existed there. Is this the end of the gay marriage movement? No. It’s a setback. There will be more battles next Election Day, if not sooner (Lame Duck gay marriage bill in NJ, anyone??).

In Summation

Virginia was a classic case of one candidate just running a better campaign than the other. New Jersey’s election was a referendum on an incumbent who fell victim to an economic crisis, magnified by the fact that he is a known tax-raiser. NY-23 was a happenstance election that will have little to no consequence on anything, despite what pundits on both sides will say. Gay marriage has always been more difficult to get support for than domestic partnerships.

You know, these off-year elections aren’t so exciting, are they?

Keeping Maine in Perspective

A lot of people are, understandably, very upset about what happened in Maine last night, about Maine voters rejecting gay marriage by a 6-point margin. I was liveblogging on Pam’s House Blend last night as the returns came in, and things went from great (urban votes were counted first so it looked like we were pulling off a huge victory) to bad (as suburban/rural votes started coming in and we were tied with the bigots) to worse (as the bigots started pulling away). Basically, we went from hoping we would win in a landslide, to hoping we would win, to hoping it would be close enough to have a recount, to hoping the pundits wouldn’t spend too much time on Maine.

This blog post is meant to delve deeply into what happened in Maine, why it happened, and why we shouldn’t be so upset as to contemplate suicide (I wish that was a joke, but some on Pam’s were doing just that).

It was an uphill battle from the start.

Gay marriage has something like a 0-30 track record. Maine is not the democratic stronghold like much of the rest of New England is – they have two Republican senators, and up until earlier this year their governor didn’t even approve of gay marriage. Mainers are independently-minded, so to assume that they would want gay marriage just because most of the rest of New England does is naïve. Winning gay marriage anywhere – be it in the courts, the legislature, New England, the South, the West, etc, etc – is not, was not, and will never be easy. It takes a lot of work. And we did put in a lot of work. But this was a long shot from day one. Time and time again, voters have rejected gay marriage, and it was going to take all we had to even come close in a state that had never even experienced gay marriage before.

On the other hand…

Despite it being an uphill battle, there are still some mysteries associated with how the vote went (specifically, how we managed to lose by the margin that we did). The state legislature and the governor were on our side. No on 1 raised a hell of a lot more money than Yes on 1 did – something like $1 million more, which in a state like Maine should go a long way. We were better organized than they were – we had thousands of volunteers pouring into the state by the end of October, overflowing the HQ’s. Major newspapers in Maine – as well as the New York Times – endorsed us. Polls showed us leading or in a dead heat – one poll (which I now believe to be total crap) even showed us leading by 11 points. This all should have added up to a gay marriage victory. So why no victory?

Gay Marriage is a Threshold.

I know that sounds weird, but the truth of the matter is that gay marriage is a threshold that a lot of otherwise good people are just afraid of crossing. An institution like a civil union or domestic partnership is much more palatable to moderates (that is, people who are on the fence about gay rights and haven’t already made up their minds) than gay marriage is. After all, Washington state’s “Everything But Marriage” bill is currently up 51-49% (we were expecting this one to be close, unlike in Maine) with only the mail-in ballots (most of which come from liberal counties) left to be tallied. Referendum 71 in Washington is proof that the best strategy for achieving full marriage equality is incremental: start with civil unions, and then expand them until those partnerships are given the same rights as heterosexual couples. People will be more willing to accept gay marriage when they have something like it already in their state, and they see that it isn’t negatively affecting their lives. Until we show people that gay marriage isn’t going to be a big deal, it’s going to be seen as one, and the lies spread by the far, religious right will continue to be accepted by the public.

There were victories.

Pundits are going to concentrate on our loss in Maine because that was the high-profile race, and we lost it. But don’t let that take away from the victories that we had last night. At the risk of jinxing it, it’s looking like Washington state is set to expand its domestic partnership rights to basically be gay marriage without the name. Kalamazoo, Michigan, voted by a huge majority to enact nondiscrimination laws for homosexual and transgendered people. Members of the LGBT community have won local elections all over the nation, including a town in North Carolina (of all places); and lesbian Annise Parker is leading the pack in the mayoral race in Houston (yes, that Houston), which will go to a run-off. We suffered a big defeat last night, but there were loads of little victories that we should be no less proud of.

A Final Thought:

The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of people (even in New England) who support LGBT issues – repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, hate crimes laws, non-discrimination laws, and even civil unions – who just aren’t ready to support gay marriage yet. We might call them bigots when we’re angry, we might call them homophobes when an election doesn’t go our way, but these are the people we need to be courting, not spurning. What we did was not in vain: every phone call that was made in Maine may have changed someone’s mind; every door that we knocked on may have opened the door for one person to begin accepting something they didn’t think they ever could. And if you changed even one mind about gay marriage this year, you have done something that can never be taken away from you.

Look, had this vote taken place ten years ago, we would have lost by double digits: we were within 6 points of having marriage equality in a state that had never had it before. We will get closer and closer with each election until we start winning. And when that day comes, nothing's going to stop us.

But until then...

NaBloPoMo Day 3: Go Vote!

Today is Election Day, so go do your civic duty! Especially if you live in some of the states whose elections the media have been closely following, including the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, the gay marriage proposition in Maine (remember: No means Yes!), the civil union referendum in Washington state (Yes means Yes!), the congressional race in New York's 23rd district, etc. etc. But even if your race(s) isn't being extensively covered, it's still important that you vote if you feel strongly about something. I'm not voting this year because my ballot would just have a bunch of local elections and securing an absentee ballot is a whole lot of work for something that doesn't affect me (I'm away at school so local officials don't exactly have a significant impact on my life), but if you're free to vote then do so!!

This is a short post, but later on tonight I'll do some blogging about today's results. No live-blogging the returns this year...

Go Maine!
-A^LASKA

NaBloPoMo Day 2: Enter The Story

I’ve blogged about Enter The Story before, but I wanted to do so again because of an exciting new opportunity that game creator Chris Tolworthy extending to the public.

“Enter the Story” allows players to participate in some of the world’s most famous pieces of literature, including the already-released “Les Miserables” and Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” and future releases such as Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” “Treasure Island,” and many more. Tolworthy is currently working on Theogony, which translates to “Genesis of the Gods.” It’s not a well-known book, but it tells the story of many of the Greek Gods and Goddesses that partake in some of the oldest stories known to man, such as Hercules, Zeus, Poseidon, and many more. Consider it a game about Greek myths.

But what’s exciting about this is that, not only is he letting you “enter the story” and play the novel in the form of a challenging yet beautiful computer game, but now he’s also giving players the option of literally being in the story: that’s right, send your picture to Tolworthy, and he’ll use your face in the game as one of the Gods and Goddesses. Click here to see the (easy) guidelines for participating. You can find some examples of humans-turned-characters here, here, and here.

Imagine, being immortalized as a God…

Another exciting bit about the upcoming game: the game is set to begin at a modern-day school (I can’t tell you why or that would ruin the surprise!), and Tolworthy (at my suggestion) has decided to use the George Washington University as that school! So if you’d like to be a student at GWU in the game (preference given to those who actually attend the school because Tolworthy wants it to be realistic), you too can send him a picture of yourself and he’ll be happy to put you in the game.

Speaking of which, if you’re interested in purchasing the game, I believe it’s still just $15 for “Les Miserables”, “the Divine Comedy”, and “Genesis of the Gods” when it comes out… all three of those games for just $15 is a REALLY good value.

Enjoy!

-A^LASKA

NaBloPoMo Day 1: Blogophobia

Well, it's that time of the year again, and I just can't resist partaking in National Blog Posting Month, an event in which, every November, bloggers from all across the world blog every day for a month. So, even though I said I wouldn't be blogging here much anymore, it turns out I lied.

I was actually considering starting a new blog instead of posting to this one, for several reasons: first, most of the older stuff on here is on the more personal side of the spectrum (shows I've been in, vacations I've taken, etc.), and I decided a while ago that I wanted to take this in a different, more politically-oriented, direction. So, basically, the first half of this blog is stuff I'd rather not have people who come here to see my opinions about the political news of the day see. Second, I feel the title is a bit bitter: it was originally named after a letter (aptly named "A Justifiable Anger") written long ago by a Native American who said his anger towards the American government was justifiable. I liked the title, but I now feel like it's a little too confrontational, and I'd rather be less confrontational and more intelligent and nuanced (think of the difference between Rush Limbaugh and Rachel Maddow). Third and lastly, it's just nice to have a fresh start every once in a while without having to worry about the clutter.

My new blog would have been called Politicophobia, and it would have focused on the strange, intriguing, and often ridiculous stuff going on in politics, highlighting some of the ludicrous things our politicians do. When I went to create it just now, I couldn't: the name was already taken. Politicophobia has already been made, so I can't use it. And guess how many blog posts there are? None. The person created a blog, using the title that I now want to use, and then never updated it.

My second idea was Politics As Unusual, and it would have a similar focus. That name, too, was already taken. That blog, too, was completely blank.

And this leads to the main point of today's blog post: the problem with the blogosphere.

The problem with the blogosphere is that everyone's doing it, but no one's actually doing it. Everyone thinks it's so cool to have a blog, so they go and make one (heck, why not, it's free). But then they don't actually blog. They don't actually put in the really-quite-minimal effort involved in having a blog. They make a blog, and then they leave it. And while it's not like the internet is going to run out of room - there are pretty much an infinite amount of domain names that can be made - they're taking some good (well... I guess that's subjective) site names and using them for nothing. They're just making them unavailable to the people, like me, who really want to do this.

I still want to make a new blog for the aforementioned reasons, but I guess it's going to take a bit longer to do so because I'm going to have to think of a third, and hopefully final, new idea.

Happy NaBloPoMo to anyone actually using their blog.

-A^LASKA

Done, For Now

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, and I just wanted to write to say that it's probably going to stay that way: I recently signed a contract with Scoop44.com, and as part of my duties as Washington Correspondent, I will be writing five blog posts a week for their "What is Change?" blog. Because of the contract, I can't exactly post them on here as well, so since there are only so many ideas out there to blog about, I'm afraid my blogging for the time being will be strictly for Scoop44.

That's not to say that I'll never blog here again: if something major comes up that I want to write about I'll definitely check in every once in a while, and when my contract ends (although I plan and hope to work for Scoop44 for a long time to come) I'll go back to blogging on here, or perhaps make a new blog. But until then, you can read my work (including my blog posts and full-length articles) on Scoop44.com.

By the way, June 2009 marks the third anniversary of creating Justifiable Anger. I think blogging for three years, however consistently, is a pretty major accomplishment for a student.

Take care,
-A^LASKA

I Will Never Support A Draft

According to this Washington Whispers article, reinstating the draft has another supporter in the form of Republican James Baker, who believes that "when you have a draft, then everybody's got a stake in it." This is true; everyone does have a stake in it, because everyone (that is, everyone who is male and within a certain age range) spends their lives wondering if they're the next one who has to go off and die in a war they may not even agree with. Another thing they have a stake in is making sure the people responsible for the draft itself are never again elected to national office.

I greatly admire and respect our men and women overseas, but I will never, ever, support a draft. I love my country, but I refuse to allow someone to tell me to die for it.

This is actually sort of a moot point: right now, there are only two people in Congress who openly support a draft, and they are two people who are basically completely uknown and have virtually no say in anything. But the fervor with which I discourage a reinstatement of the draft remains: I absolutely refuse to allow it to happen.

God Bless America, and the freedoms it gives me. Please allow me to keep those freedoms.

-A^LASKA

Obama's First 100 Days

President Obama’s first 100 days are over, and according to Gallup he maintains a healthy 63% approval rating. Pundits and journalists alike have been conversing on these first 100 days and what some of his biggest accomplishments were, and while I think this whole 100 days thing is just a ploy created by journalists (who, as I learned this semester, love to cover something with an end date), I figured I would give my opinion on the matter as well. However, I’m not going to limit myself solely to acts made by Obama and those closest to him. I’m going to name the things that occurred in the past 100 days that people are really going to remember, and that they’re really going to be talking about a long time from now. And there isn’t going to be any mention of a dog.

Stimulus Package Passed– For better or for worse, Congress passed – and Obama signed into law – a gigantic and extensive stimulus package very early on in the new administration. The passage of this package stirred debate between Republicans and Democrats – and some Conservadems – over fundamental economics, and how best the government can help bring the economy out of this recession. This is the type of bill we will certainly be talking about in the future – particularly with regards to whether or not the stimulus, stimulated.

EPA Declares CO2 Dangerous – Personally, I say about time. The EPA declaring CO2 dangerous to public health is a gigantic step forward for those of us who believe – correctly – that carbon dioxide emissions are responsible for climate change (via the greenhouse effect). Where things go from here isn’t perfectly clear yet: Congress is trying to pass an environmental bill that will, among other things, put into place a cap-and-trade program that will help greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but whatever happens, it’s probably going to affect us all.

Torture Memos Released – Many in Congress (although there is certainly no consensus) are pushing for an investigation on members of the Bush administration involved in the torture memos, which the Obama administration has been making increasingly public in the past few months. These memos bring to the limelight the acts of torture condoned by Bush’s Department of Justice, and their rationale for such acts (it was the Nixon, “If the President does it, it’s legal” defense). Torturing our prisoners – even if they are suspected terrorists and thus do not at all deserve our sympathy – is hypocritical, given we scold China and other nations for their human rights abuses and expect that our prisoners overseas (such as the two journalists being held prisoner in North Korea) will be treated fairly. These torture memos provide insight into an administration that truly believed it was above the law – international law, no less – and I have a feeling we’re going to be discussing these memos – and seeing more of them – in the future.

Gay Marriage in Two (Three?) New States, 42% Approval – This is one of those things that’s going to be remembered from the first 100 days that has absolutely nothing to do with the Obama administration itself. But two new states – Iowa and Vermont, within one week of one another – joined Connecticut and Massachusetts as the only states currently offering same-sex marriage. Importantly, Vermont is the first state to allow such a thing by legislative action, as opposed to a Court decision. On the 100th Day, the New Hampshire state congress passed a bill (very narrowly) allowing same-sex marriage, but as I write this it is unclear as to whether Governor Lynch will veto the bill. Whether these are isolated occurrences or the start of a long trend is yet to be seen. But given the fact that public support for gay marriage is at an all-time high – 42%, 9 points up from just last month – it’s likely that the momentum will continue. The gay marriage issue isn’t going away anytime soon.

Order to Shut Down Guantanamo Bay – Obama signed an order to begin the process of shutting down Guantanamo Bay very early on in his administration, sparking fierce debate about whether this was a safe decision, and what we should do with the prisoners currently being held there. Attorney General Eric Holder just announced that 30 of them are going to be released. Long deemed a stain on America’s international reputation, the shutting-down of Guantanamo Bay – and its legacy – will definitely be remembered.

Swine Flu Outbreak – Like the Avian Flu but worse, the Swine Flu has the capability of transmitting itself from one human to another, making it much more dangerous than its avian counterpart. Many cases have been reported in New York City, and it has already left Mexico City in virtual lockdown. In the coming weeks, we’ll see just how deadly this disease will get, but the outbreak of yet another potential pandemic is something that will be on our minds for a long time to come.

Arlen Specter Switches Parties – Specter’s leaving the Republican party, regardless of the reason, highlights the fact that the Republican party, in searching for relevancy in the minority, has turned away from moderation and has become more and more conservative and unwelcoming to independents and moderates. On the brink of becoming a regional fringe group, the Republican party has an important choice to make, and it’s going to have to make it before the next election cycle. We may not remember his decision specifically, but what caused it and its implications will play an important role in future politics.

Those are the things I believe are truly going to be remembered from Obama’s first 100 days in office. Did I leave out anything really important? Let me know!

-A^LASKA