"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt
I went to the worlds largest outdoor cocktail party today, and I woke up from it in the garage this evening. My dad and I went to the annual Florida Georgia Game at Alltel Stadium. We started the afternoon at a party not far from the stadium. I had a few beers and a bit to eat. We then drove to the stadium and were fortunate enough to be able to sit in the sky suites at the stadium. The food was good, but the bar was free. In college football, no alcohol is sold in the stadium, but if you have a suite you can bring some. I enjoyed Coronas and Makers Mark Whiskey, and we left the game after Florida won. That is the last I remember, I woke up in the back seat of my dad's SUV in the garage of his place. I am not rich, but I can say it is entertaining to have rich relatives.
One of the traditions that we have in Jacksonville of any national importance, other than NFL football is the annual Florida Georgia game weekend. For more than seventy years both the University of Florida and the University of Georgia have been meeting at the stadium at the bend of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. This is an overused phrase, but it is a tradition like no other. On the Tuesday before the game, RV's start showing up in the parking lots that surround Alltel Stadium. The site of the former Gator Bowl, is the center of a non-stop party until sunday of that week. The Jacksonville Landing, which sits on the banks of the St. Johns in downtown Jacksonville is flooded with people and they spill out onto the surrounding streets. Myself and Biggus Rickus drove down to the landing tonight and the Landing was a bit too crazy for us, oh and also the fact that they were charging admission. What is this? Guavaween? We decided that if we had to park the monstrosity that I drive for ten dollars, we should walk down to Bay Street and go to the Dive Bar. So we made the walk and beat the rain. We watched the last innings of the World Series and drank Newcastle and Cognac. I felt like a rapper. It was interesting, me being a UF grad and Rickus being a Bulldog among the revelry and competition. I'll be in the midst of the gigantic cocktail party tomorrow afternoon, so look for me on the tv.
Yes, I used the dreaded question mark.
Watching the polls and pundits, bloggers and columnists, I had been lulling myself to the belief that Democrats were actually capable of retaking congress. Republicans complain that the Democrats have no plan, that they run on hate for the other side. Let's be completely honest though, they have more of a plan than the Republicans did in 1994 before they threw together a document that they now would scorn. Finding affordable heath care, and term limits are two features of the Contract with America that current republicans would claim as almost socialism. Never the less, with all the euphoria and partying some voices of reason on the left are warning that this is all a smokescreen, and that it would clear just in time for elections. We now have conservative columnist Robert Novak predicting a blue house and a red senate, and Eric Alterman claiming neither changing at all. I tend to think Alterman is a bit of a pessimist, and that there should at least be a blue house and a red senate by one or two seems the best prediction. I'm really not a betting man, but people are very confusing in their voting patterns. Goth girls voting republican, Evangelist's with donkey lapel buttons, where does the cunfusion end.
I wrote this some time ago, and you can tell by the Terri Schievo mention. I've always hated any activist who abhors activism.
Conservatives are fond of saying that they abhor "activist judges."
They mainly rail against activist courts and activist judges that, in
their words, legislate from the bench. In typical conservative fashion,
what is said is not exactly what is actually meant. From a conservative
standpoint, judges should not poke their noses into matters that have
already been decided. Yet conservatives have no problem with judicial
activism if it is in their favor. The judicial activism that made
George W. Bush President does not raise the ire of conservatives the
least bit. Many backers within the conservative movement would love for
judges to become activist and reinsert the feeding tube of Terri
Schievo. If the Supreme Court decided tomorrow that abortion was to be
banned, nary a conservative would be crowing about judicial activism,
they would be praising it. The reality of the situation is that
conservatives don't have a problem with activist judges; they have a
problem with anyone disagreeing with their deeply held beliefs. Whether
or not their beliefs are the least bit constitutional does not seem to
register. This is much the same as their view of the media. Alleged
liberal bias in the media is horrible, but the sixth grade crush Fox News
has with the Bush administration is no problem in any way.
Conservatives should be wary though. They are starting to sound just
like the Democrats of the 1980's, and we all know what happened to them.
I just want to take this moment to be a bit self-congratulatory. I was in on the ground floor on this "fuck whoever said stay the course, don't they know that's un-American" attitude from Bush. I posted a blog right after our confused Chief executive told us that what he'd been saying for the last ten months, is not really what he meant. As my good friend Jolemite might say if he wrote this blog, that is The Sunshine Empire difference. Check out The Thoughts of Biggus Rickus for a fabulous portrayal of the morman religion, cartoon style. Joseph Smith would be proud.
Think Progress has a link to ABC news video for the "we've never been stay the course" comment from G-Dub.
I'm currently watching Dubya interviewed on ABC This Week and he was asked about the current Baker commision looking to find something in between "stay the course," and "cut and run," on the Iraq War. The President actually said, "We've never said stay the course."
Music videos stopped getting better after this video, they just started to regress and get horrilbe. I still think this is the greatest music video of all time.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Lindsay Graham is continually a puzzle to me. There are times he appears to be nothing but a lackey, doing the White House bidding. Other times he can raise the ire of the conservative right with a quickness. He seems to be on both sides of this issue though. He is one of the Republicans that I tend to believe when I hear from him, much like Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. But this issue his hard to argue with either side. Most of these men are truly horrible people more than likely, but I shudder by the thought that we change our rules just because the other side does not pay attention to them. Due process is an American right, and many conservatives claim that foreign terrorists do not deserve constitutional rights. Yet these same people claim that American rights are being spread to the world in our new world order, our global fight with Islamic extremism. What better way to spread the wonder that is American democracy than to treat everyone the way we treat ourselves. That's a golden rule that conservatives will understand. So, this Mclatchy article discusses the legal ramifications of the new bill passed by congress.
I wrote this right after the 2004 Presidential election. I wrote it for a locally published online zine. It was for the local Jacksonville audiecne but I tried to reflect how everybody seemed to be voting against their interests that year, no matter the party. I refered to myself as The Drunken Irishman.
The events of November 2, 2004 brought feelings of both monumental joy, and miserable failure to many of us here in the river city. Like many all across this great land, we discharged all of the energy, emotion, and egregious indignation we had felt this past year onto a sheet of paper while standing at one of those peculiar blue stands. Years of campaigning came down to hours of counting, and the moment of truth. Many of us know of the difficulty we had waiting to know the outcome, and hanging on the decision of each red and blue state. For many of us the emotions of the campaign were unbearable, but the pressure on the men themselves was even greater. The Drunken Irishman, and the many around town who saw them both, know of the election night that both John Kerry and George W. Bush spent here in Jacksonville. I know many of you are casting a critical eye upon this page and doubting what the Irishman tells you. You may be thinking that the Irishman has been consuming too much of beverage of the Motherland. The Irishman has used his many contacts to piece together the story of Bush and Kerry, and Jacksonville’s election night.
The two candidates for President of the United States arrived in Jacksonville late in the afternoon of November 2. John Kerry flew into town aboard a private helicopter to the grounds of the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island. Harrison Redstone, shipping magnate and orange baron of North Florida, greeted Kerry. As part of the top one percent of income earners in the U.S., Redstone stands to lose a bundle if Kerry’s tax policies become law. However he seems fine with this trade off if it stops the Iraq war that he detests. The President meanwhile entered Duval County to the south by limousine. When Karl Rove insisted that he had to use the little boy’s room, the limo pulled into Waffle House. Bush felt this was a perfect time to fit in some last minute glad handing so went in as well to chat with the ‘fellas. Once inside Bush met Donny Sutton as he sat finishing his daily ration of hash browns and gravy. Sutton was recently laid off from his truck driving duties, and cannot send his 18-year-old daughter off to college due to skyrocketing tuition rates. Yet Donny loves the President because he’s a good churchgoing man, and Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11. With Karl done, the President quickly bid farewell to the group with the exclamation, “Remember, we love freedom, and they don’t.” With the polls coming to a close, and dusk settling over Jacksonville, the two candidates began their tumultuous election night.
Many do not know that the Senator from Massachusetts has only two needs on any election night to calm his nerves and sense of superstition, a bowl of clam chowder and the Wu-Tang Clan. To this end the Senator sat quietly in the back seat of his Tahoe, with his I-pod surrounding him with the fury that is Enter the Wu-Tang, as it sped down I-95. At that same moment the President found himself passing UNF on the way to Crazy Horse. The President had insisted that his aides find a mechanical bull for him to ride. The exit polling was beginning to look bad for him and he wanted to reinvigorate himself. “I betcha John Kerry can’t ride the bull like I can,” exclaimed the Connecticut born Bush. The President was greeted like a hero once inside Crazy Horse, and was able to stay aloft the bull for a full four seconds. Once he was thrown from the bull, he picked a fight with an Arlington man and left the club with a newfound head of steam.
Still trying to find the steaming bowl of chowder he desperately needed, and now through Wu-Tang Forever, Kerry pleaded with the owners of Cotton’s Barbeque to no avail. It was at this point that the Senator felt his momentum slipping. Kerry’s wife Theresa then called and suggested that he look up Doreen Merryweather, an Avondale socialite and her boarding school friend from Switzerland. Merryweather’s millions could afford her the freshest of clams, but it was too late. Red states were falling like dominoes and the hour was drawing near. With the longest of long faces, Kerry then headed for Five Points. He quietly slipped into Fuel Coffeehouse, and took his Trois Pistoles to the back to be alone. He logged onto his website with his username, Democratmackdaddy, and thanked friends for their efforts. He had fought the good fight, but his journey was over.
The President’s journey is still ongoing. After getting a tattoo of a puma on Beach Boulevard, the President drove through downtown with his head out the top of his limo. He yelped and hollered and even lassoed a young bystander with his, “ropey rope thingy.” The President was on top of the world, and there is only one place to go from there. The events of the election moved some closer to the rapture, and others to the edge of total despair. This great battle of 2004 is over, and the Irishman is thankful for that. Many on both sides have much harder work than came before on their horizon. As clichéd as it might sound, the Irishman hopes the country as a whole wins out in the next four years. Whether that is in spite of Bush or because of him.
A difficult concept for some, mainly conservatives, to wrap their head around.
Just in case any of you have noticed that I have a label for my posts termed "polictical views," I am not misspelling anything. Here is an explanation
Something I wrote March 13th of this year. It's a bit of a political rant, but I hate the media bias crutch.
With the three year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq passed, and more than 2300 brave American youths dead in the endeavor, many all across the country seem to be looking for answers to our situation. Many seem to want to find who is responsible for our plight in Iraq. The answer is clear to many conservatives; it's obviously the media. If it were not for the media, majorities of Americans would not believe that going to war was a mistake, and that President Bush has grossly mismanaged what should have been a walk in the park only costing 1.2 billion dollars. If it were not for the media, the peaceful, picture perfect, Jeffersonian democracy in Iraq would be apparent to people swayed by a paper in New York City and not facts. It is purely the work of MSNBC that Americans feel building a school in Tal Afar is great, but would prefer ones be built in Talladega. The powers at CBS are clearly the ones killing 1,100 people a month in Baghdad, not a civil war. The reporters and anchors at CNN are most defiantly the ones that elected a theocratic government that has created death squads and begun torturing Sunni Muslims around Iraq. It was the New York Times that moved those tons and tons of promised WMD and made them disappear into thin and dry Iraqi air. If only they would tell us more about the three ancient helicopters they found buried in the desert. Lets not forget Moveon.org and Air America Radio making sure that no one involved with the September 11th attacks had any relation to Iraq, and that not one Iraqi hijacked any plane that day. This is all clearly the media's fault. Why can’t we just believe our conservative friends, and appreciate the tune they seem to be whistling past the graveyard of our fallen soldiers.
Has U.S. foriegn policy made us more or less safe?
I hate the Tennessee Titans, and this just proves I'm right
From Charlie Cook at the Cook Political Report:
"It is no longer far-fetched to see how Democrats could win six Republican seats, or even seven -- which would be necessary for them to gain a majority if they lose one of their own seats...
Four weeks is a lifetime in politics and the tide still could shift. But for Republicans to salvage their majorities in the House and Senate, quite a bit would have to change."
These guys are welcome to perform in The Sunshine Empire any time. In fact the one time they came to town I was not in town, so come back Shirley, please. For my sake.
I haven't had a chance to watch any of the game tonight, but I was glad to here that this year's American League Championship Series will be be Oakland vs. Detroit. Not that Detroit is some long suffering loser sports town like Nashville, but the Tigers have sucked royally for a long time. And Oakland with it's wonderboy GM and all the talent that's left there. Who would have thought after the White Sox's won it last year, that Frank Thomas would have the outside chance to play in the World Series this year. Plus, this takes a little bit out of the sails of those who said that Baseball had become the Yankees and nobody else. With the Marlins, Diamondbacks, Angels, and White Sox having won World Series Titles in the last couple of years, Football's vaunted parity seems meager at best. My Marlins fired a damn good manager and are out of it so I don't even care anyway.
I'm starting to think that Florida could win the SEC this year. Yet if they fall just once they will be eaten alive by Tennessee. That 1 point loss has got to suck for them. The ACC is a tattered mess with both Florida State and Miami out of the top 25 for the first time in 24 years. My guess would say either Virginia Tech or Clemson will come out on top. I'll probably be wrong. As for the Big Ten I would guess Ohio State but I've watched very little of them and don't know much about them. I can only hope that my Gators can end up playing them in the desert this January.
Elections are always big in America and they don't come much bigger than this November's mid-term election. Many sources are biased and a good analysist is hard to find in the days of Foxnews. But look over to my links section for your sources of information for this campaign. The Rothenburg Report is a great long form article blog with great information about what races are close and what the advertising wars are like on the Nation's local tv sets. Taegan Goddard's Political Wire is a great site for those of us with ADD. Short and to the point bullets from all corners of the Republic. The Cook Political Report is great when there are new articles, but most of the site is subscription only. The front page is worth the look though. Congressional Quarterly's CQ Politics site is great for their nationwide chart for both the House and Senate races. Of course if you are sheep, watch Foxnews.
Am I the only one in this fine Republic that thinks the commercials for the product "Head On" are an indication that we have finally waved goodbye to the boat as it left the harbor only realizing that reality was onboard? Were the marketing people just constantly screaming about the segment of the market that just could not understand the whole, swallowing a pill with a glass of water. For those who could not eaven grasp chewables, we just desperatly needed a product. This market was untapped. I think marketing people are brilliant, but this product has me agreeing with the late Bill Hicks in they should shoot themselves.
Recently I have found myself in a bit of a career transition. I decided to go to a career fair, which should be reserved for a special part of hell, but I am in need so I made the trip. I handed out my resume and made the meet a greet a special place. I stopped at a table for a company that shall and probably is nameless in the wider corporate world. I had a nice conversation and left my resume and that was that. Later that evening I recieved a call from a gentleman that had an accent that sounded British, but that kind of british that only an American can do badly. He said he would like to have me out for an all day interview. I was in need so I decided to take him up on it. I arrived for the interview session at a bland office park on Jacksonville's southside and entered the kind of boilerplate office that is the unique relm of the outside sales force. I have done outside sales and as a Catholic I understand it for what it is, penance. God places you in these situations to help you to work off your sins to the world. Along the couch on one side were three ladies obviously there for the same endevour as I was cursed to. I made small talk with them and the receptionist who was wearing a skirt that was only suited for an adult film, and as we spoke I sat close to a closed door. Behind this closed door was what could only be described from sound as a dance party mixed with a touch football game. To top off the professional feel of this situation was a dog. Now I am not a dog person, but I am perfectly comfortable with little pooches. Yet I do not tend to see them roaming around professional offices where I am about to have a job interview in a suit. Little by little they pair us off and start to talk with each person individually as they send each person out with a salesperson. I have yet to understand what exactly this company does. They give a speech to each person as if it is tailor made for the individual, but I hear it each time and it is the same each time. When they finally come to me I could repeat it verbatum. I am paired with a salesperson and a "trainee." We climb into this car that is even shittier than mine, which is a tall order to imagine, and start off into a random direction in town. The gentleman starts to talk to me in what he thinks is a general get to know you tone, but I am not a schoolgirl and I know I am being interviewed. At this point I feel I am being indoctrinated into a cult. Questions from him are such as, "Matt, when you think of marketing, what comes to mind?" I ask him what exactly it is that the company does, and he replys with the same response that a parent tells a child when he asks to go to McDonalds, "You'll see." It is amazing when morons attempt to be sly. I notice that we are heading toward Beach Boulevard, and we turn into a neighborhood that time forgot. The type in Back to the Future II, used to be ok, but it turned into a shithole. We park and start trying to sell phone service to people that allready have it. At one point this guy starts to try to sell a woman who cannot speak English. He attempts to speak with her in a form of broken english that a bad comic might try to express in a failing standup act. At this point I feign an illness and get them to take me back to my car. When they get to my car I tell them thanks but no thanks and head on my way. If someone attempts to give you a job at Three Lions Marketing, You Run, and you run fast.
I sit at the closing chapter of a fine weekend with a feeling that all is right in the sports world. I was in attendance at The Swamp in Gainesville for Florida's hard fought and fortunate win against LSU. That win thrust my Gators to the #2 position in this week's AP poll. The AP poll is not used to determine the national title game, but it still is nice that people have noticed what a quality team they are. Further north the Jaguars pounded the Jets 41-0 to redeem themselves of the horrid preformances of the last two weeks. I think I can say that Maurice Jones-Drew is the real deal and absolutley electrifying. Too bad they lost Mike Peterson. Indianapolis still churns on and wins though. Meaning as longs as we keep this pace Jacksonville will be the wild card again. Of course pre-season favorite Miami lost again, proving those magazines that come out before the season are not worth the paper they are printed on. My High School also beat their longtime rivals for the first time in 15 years on Friday as well.
Please check out the next couple of entries, which are some classic thoughts of mine from days during the summer. Also, check out the thoughts of my good friend Biggus Rickus. You can find him at biggus-rickus.blogspot.com
With the mid-term congressional elections fast approaching, the old adage about the campaign not really starting until Labor Day is proving true. So man events are caught in the whirlwind that we as Americans have reaped, and the Foley matter could be the tipping point. The American people in their infinite wisdom have chosen that we should have Republican dominated government for the last four years. We all see what a wonderful gem the country has turned into in that time, but that is not so much part specific. The war in Iraq, volatile gas prices, revelations about intelligence, have all served to dent the once lustrous shine on the Republican party. Yet they have stood firm and always regained the people. Even in the face of all of the calamities that have bestruck the Nation, they were going to keep Congress. The polls have been every which way but loose all during the Summer. With Bush down, usually challenge proof seats were starting to be competitive. The usual chasm that separates the two amounts that the parties raise in campaign funds had even narrowed. But Republicans still looked like they would hold on. Then Foley.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218043,00.html
This is interesting for me. I left the rebellious days of my youthful indiscretion as a Grand Old Party member in part because of the strangle that religious zelots had on the party of Lincoln. For all the peace and economic prosperity across the board that Bill Clinton gave to the Nation, it was all for not because he was nothing but a redneck pervert to them. But now the immorality has an elephant lapel pin on his breast. Conservatives often would denigrate women's groups that stuck by Clinton as selling their souls. Yet if we watch the news we see evangelical after evangelical minister and leader come out in support of Denny Hastert. Et Tu Denny?
Also ironic is that with all they were given, Foley is what may put them over. But paraphrasing Howard Fienman from Newsweek, if this isn't enough to push them into the majority, they deserve to go the way of the Whigs.
