derivative work

an upsetting day. so, reading the news. Farewell to the crown, farewell, the velvet gown, won’t you all come tumbling down? Goodbye to the crown! (Chumbawamba, “Farewell to the Crown”) Nepal votes out their monarchy and institutes a republic. Gyanendra has to vacate the palace within two weeks or face eviction. Also, he had to [...]

Two things annoyed me in the last 24 hours. Well, two media things. First, this morning in an article about same-sex marriage in the NYT, there was utter stupid cluelessness that led me to conclude the article must have been written by a straight person. And indeed, But then I just looked at the byline [...]

Accusing someone of plagiarism is the latest version of pointless distraction from the real issues. Much like the brouhaha about the infamous Lewinsky/Clinton blowjob, it relies on an overwrought anxiety approaching paranoia about an issue that is of interest to politicians only insofar as it serves to distract people from substantive issues. Like Ann Coulter [...]

Salon.com WarRoom did a good job of excerpting from Ted Kennedy’s speech @ the National Press Club [kennedy website transcript], so I’ll just take their excerpt: I categorically reject the deceptive and dangerous claim that the outcome last November was somehow a sweeping, or a modest, or even a miniature mandate for reactionary measures like [...]

altercation / 2004-08-17 Name: Brian Thomas Hometown: Portland, Oregon Eric, I’ve been out on the streets of Portland, Oregon five days of every week registering progressive voters. Today I met up with Portland’s most famous author and anarchist, Ursula K. LeGuin (The Dispossessed, The Left-Hand of Darkness, The Earth-Sea Trilogy, etc.) while she was buying [...]

Dan Savage’s 11/10 column advises us to enjoy our urban islands and hold out for midterm elections, being grateful that the Republicans will have no one else to blame but themselves. If that doesn’t work: But, hey, if this cold-comfort analysis is wrong, SSF, if we all live to regret the gay marriage issue coming [...]

As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, “My Romanian grandfather used to say to me, ‘Remember, Morton, this is such a wonderful country   – it doesn’t even need a president!’” — Michael Moore, Election 2004: 17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists, 2004-11-08, AlterNet

Well, I’m starting to look around, groundhog-like. It looks like four more years of winter. Small mercies: Thank the dark lords that Shrillblog keens on. After scraping the residue of election obsession from my life, I found all I had left were Jon Stewart & Shrillblog. And my Buffy DVDs.

sorry everybody . com – photos of americans & their hand-drawn apologies to the rest of the world. [hattip to salon.com warroom 11/9] fuck the south: yet another rant that makes the point that the south is hypocritical w/r/t (a) values and (b) taxes. [link courtesy of shrillblog 11/9] … as it turns out, they [...]

Overwhelming emotion on Wednesday: I’m hurt that so many americans don’t have a problem with TORTURE and 100,000 DEAD PEOPLE in iraq and incompetence and graft and destruction of the environment. Make that disappointed and ashamed and embarrassed and angry. I’m not surprised that the anti-marriage propositions won in every state. I’m just surprised by [...]

I have many thoughts about the last few days, and hopefully I’ll begin to articulate them soon. But I can’t. Not just yet. In one of her novels, Ursula Le Guin says something like: When you can do something, act. When you can’t act, gather information. When you can’t gather information, sleep. Well, yesterday I [...]

Voters Complain About Misleading Calls Mon Nov 1, 6:03 PM ET By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer LANSING, Mich. – Some Michigan voters have received phone calls falsely claiming that Sen. John Kerry (news – web sites) would make gay marriage legal. In New Jersey, some voters have heard a man claiming to be [...]

Salon.com News | “Nobody should have to go through so much to vote” Reminds me of waiting in line to be married in San Francisco, February 13, 2004.

the bush campaign dropped the song “Still the One” after the songwriter protested & said the campaign hadn’t asked his permission. [y!] ha. this follows the olympics brouhaha. [athens olympics blog 8/26] [ZNet Blogs 8/26]

flyer circulated in Milwaukee’s African American neighborhoods [dkos, 10/29] letter claiming to be sent from Ohio sheriff; tells folks who were registered by Democrats, ACT, etc., that their registrations may not be valid [lawgeek, 10/28] sheriff says letter is fake & he will investigate [wkyc, ohio]

[T]those of us who argued that there was really no difference between Bush and Gore look pretty stupid now. None of that reflects especially well on Al Gore, by the way; it simply wasn’t evident at that early date that the then-Texas governor was the real-world version of Greg Stillson, the born-again, world-destroying future president [...]

me & some friends, on sunday, celebrating with joss whedon & hoping to get bush out whump (the organizer) has pictures. so does the high stakes 2004 website. i had promised to bring one of our anti-war posters from last year ["Buffy, help! there's a vampire in the White House!"] but since everything i own [...]

regarding the stolen cache of explosives, wonkette reports that rove is upset that it’s even being discussed: Rove: “Kerry, by so rapidly embracing the story, is going to end up being tarnished by it. What would he do as president? Get up every morning and say, ‘I’m going to govern based on what I find [...]

georgewbush.com: one website’s story 1999-may-21, the bush campaign thinks “[t]here ought to be limits to freedom” (at least for website satirists gwbush.com) [but see georgewbush.org which bravely soldiers on] in 2004, the bush website looks like it was designed of, by & for microsoft products in 2004, the bush website put up the popular but [...]

plaid adder: the immoderator – some truths were spoken.