Saturday, November 18, 2006

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report

Last night, watching Real Time with Bill Maher, I heard Richard Dreyfuss expound upon the lack of civics teaching in schools. I know I am an old fart, but I remember Civics being a subject for my whole freshman year, and I had to take an additional year of American government.

With civics no longer taught in the public schools, TDS and TCR have essentially replaced it, in a fractured and comical fashion. The demographics from the 2006 elections strongly suggest that the two shows on Comedy Central (of all networks!) were instrumental in record voter turnout in younger age groups--up to a 116% increase!

Now Stephen Colbert is doing a riff on his "Better Know A District" segment, doing a "Better Know A Founder" interviewing three different Thomas Jefferson imitators, in the guise of finding the "real" Jefferson and highlighting the real issues of slavery in America from a Founding Father's point of view.

It was brilliant.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Oh Happy Day!

I am singing and dancing for joy today!

I was amazed and moved to tears when Claire McCaskill was declared the winner of the Senate race. Jim (No)Talent was a terrible Senator, not just voting for Bush (rubber stamping) but refusing to listen to his constituents on important issues.

I wrote to oppose the war, the torture bill, NSA wiretapping, and more and got bullshit answers and smug, self important posturing on the issues.

Now he gets to be on the receiving end of the voter's wrath.

Music to mine ears!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Election Predictions

The Republicans have become resigned to losing the House, I think. The evidence? Watching Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume and Bill Kristol looked positively depressed even to despondency this week.

If Brit Hume's face were any longer, it wouldn't fit in the screen. He talked about the abysmal picture in front of him with devastating honesty and was very frank with the group about the future for the Bush Administration with a Democratic House and the reason why the Republicans have forfeited their chances. For the first time in recent memory, the Republicans have not controlled the message about their policies and their consequences of their actions.

Bill Kristol's affect was totally different than his usual smirking, relaxed, nearly supine posture. He was sitting straight up and his face was tense and stressed.

It was the first time I watched this show with glee!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

I Am Stunned

I am absolutely amazed at the immense hypocrisy of evangelical so-called preacher who defends the leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, who represent 30 million Christian conservatives, by blaming his wife.
Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.
This is a classic example of blame the wife for her husband's sin. She is ultimately responsible because she did not keep herself up to her husband's standards, which is to say that she was not manly enough for him.

Unbelievable.

Pastor Haggard's family deserve love and support in this sad time. It is particularly offensive to cause them further pain in this matter. It is twisting a knife in their wounds instead of binding them with love and prayer.

My prayers are with them. They are in need of them in this time of loss and isolation. They need to know that they are not alone.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

I've Been Quoted!

I got quoted on Talking Points Memo, talking about the 30 robocalls I received yesterday and the 12 I received today.

72 hours and counting....