THEY ILLEGALLY DESTROYED DEM VOTER REGISTRATIONS!

I am so sick to my stomach - read this. And this too!

This isn't about the registrations, but also relevent - thieves broke into an Ohio Democrat headquaters and stole computers which could contain valuable information.

THE BUMP

I nearly laughed myself off the goddamn chair this morning. Salon is delving deeper into the transceiver theory with this story today on their website. Along with it was a photo from the second debate (which I do not believe shows the bump, so I am not sure why they used it), as well as the following picture:



I'll argue that it's POSSIBLE that is just Bush's shoulderblade popping out, but frankly, I am a Certified Massage Therapist with education in anatomy and physiology, and I am not convinced that's the shape of his scapula. Besides, the article quotes Alex Darbut, technical and business development vice president for Resistance Technology in Arden Hills, Minn.

I took 2 minutes and decided to call Mr. Darbut myself. Not because I doubted what he said but because the article didn't list much about him other than what his title was. Mr. Darbut graciously spoke with me directly and I appreciate it. I introduced myself and explained that I am a private blogger and informed him that I just read his quotes in the Salon.com article and wanted to ask him further questions about his own experience in the tech field since the article didn't reference that. He was quite surprised - apparently his comments were "off the record" and didn't know they had been run. Of course he maintains his comments were strictly speculation about the lump.

Mr. Darbut has a background in Electrical Engineering with approximately eight years experience working with this type of technology. With this experience, and the fact that he candidly felt the lump was certainly a transmitting device, I feel confident he is correct. He did add that he didn't think the device was used to help send answers to Mr. Bush - we joked that if that was the case, neither of us believed it did him any good just by his behavior in the first debate. Mr. Darbut speculated that it was probably more for a reason of safety - possibly so that information about imminent dangers could alert Bush immediately.

My only problem with that speculation - while I could accept that entirely - is that the Bush camp has repeatedly dodged the issue or tried laughing it off. It seems to me that the safety issue is a legitimate reason for it, so why not come right out and say it?

DON'T ASK... WE'LL TELL YOU...

Rummy visits Iraq and speaks with the troops. Instructions for the Q&A portion include: "Don't ask when you're going home," [Sgt. Maj. Dennis Reed] said. "We'll tell you when you're going home." I feel awful for those folks over there, hoping to finally get to leave after sometimes THREE tours of duty. Rummy can kiss my ass too.

ROUND TWO

[The candidates are locked in a deathgrip handshake]

(amended 10/09/04, 10:22am - I really enjoyed this "Boxing Match" review of the debate by Keith Olbermann... he did a better job than I did on actual points. But I have better photos, so continue reading...)

I actually took NOTES for this one. Started out cordially - then went into all out brawl! WOOT.



Not for nothin', but John Kerry gets props for this picture - he looks at ease and pleased to be there answering questions.

Bush just said he's "not happy we didn't find weapons of mass destruction" - NO WAY! REALLY? (overstating the obvious much?) It was during this part of the debate that Charles Gibson (moderator) tried to set up Bush for his rebuttal, Bush actually interrupted him very aggressively. I even saw a look of shock and surprise on Gibson's part. It was incredibly funny to see Kerry get the last word and Bush is on the edge of his seat ready to do another rebuttal when Gibson moved them along. I've got it! Bush looks like an Attack Puppy! He's annoyingly yapping like those stupid little dogs that you'd like to punt.



[Bush's trainers beat him about the back and legs to rid him of that smirk from the first debate. You can see how negative reinforcement can only do so much as Bush is obviously doing everything in his power not to allow his mouth to show a smirk. Oh how he shall be beaten when they get home.]

I'll admit, Bush is behaving himself a lot better than the first debate, that's for sure. But he still comes off way defensive, still acts like he knows everything and how dare anyone question his judgement. Things are absolute with him, black and white.

Wait, did Bush just fucking say there were rumors "on the internets"? You've got to be fucking kidding me. AND HOLY SHIT! He just said that it's "more likely" that there won't be a draft. That's a little less confident than when he stated there would NEVER be a draft.



[John Kerry shows what he thinks of how Bush is doing tonight.]

Can someone explain to me why Bush is blinking to much??? That's really creepy. LOL! C says they are rebooting his hard drive!

WOAH DUDE! Bush just totally made a social faux pas and FREAKED THE FUCK OUT on Charles Gibson! Gibson was left stunned! The Attack Puppy has gone psychotic!!! Sweet - Kerry came back looking calm, cool and collected - nothing like that idiot.



[Well, HELL, little lady, go ahead'n ask me them there questions. INTERNETS!]

Ew. Do you know what I just saw? I saw Bush flirting with the audience. He actually smiled and WINKED at someone. Ew. Ewewewewew. Now the Attack Puppy has to reboot again.

You know what pissed me off? Bush kept interrupting or talking over Charles Gibson, he kept getting more and more shrill, but most of all he would get up and start his rebuttals before Kerry even had the chance to sit down. Kerry was a gentleman, waited for his turn and graciously gave Bush the floor until he was through. Bush is a fucking asshole.



[Photo above showing Bush being a fucking asshole.]

Kerry gets the first honest laugh out of the crowd. Because Bush is being so rude to the moderator, he's risked having the crowd turn on him as they will likely connect with Gibson. When talking about taxes, Kerry explains that under his plan (which he's mentioned is available on his website www.johnkerry.com), only Kerry, Bush, and unfortunately, Gibson will have a change in his tax bracket. This gets a hearty chuckle from not only Gibson but the audience as well, who now gravitate toward Kerry. I am all about subtlety.

Can someone please tell me what "We have battling green eye shades." means? Really. What the HELL does that MEAN?!?

OMG, someone just pinned Bush down for a response to his record of environmental causes. I have never seen him so wooden, SO scripted. That information was drilled into his head. He lost his thoughts several times, stuttered. I'm convinced he just made some shit up. He actually said he was going to "expand the wetlands by 3 million..." - 3 million what? 3 million turtles? 3 million #2 pencils? God what a dumbass.

Between employment and the Patriot Act, Kerry did a nice job of clarifying while Bush trotted out old catchphrases and some nonsensical stuff.

With the topic of stem cell research, my view is so Vulcan: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Basically Kerry agrees with me, Bush thinks all life is precious (except for the life that was destroyed when BUSH FUNDED the early stem cell research). Dur.



[Bush takes a quiz and has to think real hard.]

I am floored. Bush actually thinks he's never made a mistake, although some of his underlings have made mistakes and they no longer have their jobs (you actually just pointed out that you use scapegoats? Dumbass.).

Again, Bush tried to take the floor first for final messages, when it was to Kerry. Made him look like a moron again. God it's just too easy. INTERNETS!

All the polls I have seen tonight show Kerry as the winner again by quite a big margin. CBS showed Kerry at 88%, Yahoo has him at the lowest I saw - 66%. More were in the 70th percentile range over Bush.

Woot, Kerry's the man of the hour.

I LIKE MIKE

Michael J. Fox is really short and has Parkinson's Disease, but he's still a total babe to me. Plus, he's made a commercial supporting John Kerry and his belief in furthering Stem Cell research. He's even more attractive now.

GLAD I WATCH ALIAS

Because now I get to tell you that my suspicions (as well as those of many others), might turn out to be true. Salon.com recently published this news article that discusses the possibility of Bush wearing an audio earpiece. Hell, this guy's already got a website! Looking at the shot there, it appears that Bush has something in the middle of his back. Whatever it is, it's making his suitjacket fall badly - notice is sticks out at the bottom. Some people are speculating he was wired, but I would like to get some more corroborating evidence before putting all stock in it.

BWAHAHAHA!

Long story short, Cheney misspoke during the VP debate and sent viewers to an Anti-Bush website. DUMBASS.

And can someone stop the habitual liar at all? It's been shown in many articles that he lied through his teeth about several important issues, as well as even whether he met John Edwards before. This website posted a great "Top Ten" article available for perusal. Why would you lie about meeting someone before? Does he have nothing better to do than to come up with absolute fabrications? Wow, wish I had that job! ALIENS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! MY CATS SPEAK FOUR LANGUAGES FLUENTLY! WATER NO LONGER EXISTS ON EARTH! Now where do I pick up my fat government paycheck?

CONFESSING MY SINS

I tried, I really really did. But I couldn't watch the VP debate in it's entirety. I was soooooooo bored. When I made the exaggerated snoring sound, I figured I'd just throw in the towel and play a little Sims 2.

Of what I saw firsthand, John Edwards was animated and passionate, and I could sense he really cared about the topics and what's been going on. A couple of times he seemed to repeat himself juuuuust a little too much. From what I saw I thought he and Cheney were pretty evenly matched with debate style. I even found this picture showing that they could interact with each other like actual human beings...



I have been reading some of the wrap ups, and the poll I viewed the results of (I believe it was MSNBC) chose Edwards as the winner with 71%. I'm not sure what he did after I stopped watching to plow that far ahead in the poll, but I'll take it.

So that's it. That's all for a review from me. It just wasn't as entertaining as the Kerry/Bush debate. Can't wait to see the next one. Until then, maybe this will tide you over:



RRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG! I am in need of your brains! Rrrrrrgggg!

Well, that's what I imagine he's saying.

MAD RUSH TO REGISTER

MSNBC reports that there's been a mad rush to register where voter registration deadlines are closing in. If you think for any reason you might not be appropriately registered - go to DeclareYourself.com and do it. In fact, I am off to get one of their spiffy graphics for the site ;)

THE EVENING'S BEST

(Re-posted from my old blog format...)

I used to be in the ABB camp with regards to the next election. I wanted SO MUCH to get firmly behind John Kerry, but I hadn't seen as much I needed to convince me.

Then, September 30th, the first presidential debate occurred.

First thing: Kerry is a noticable amount taller. I recall reading some dumb website that discussed the statistics of candidates, their heights, and to correlation of the taller one typically becoming president. If nothing else, this was a plus in Kerry's book.

Then I noticed that Kerry is wearing a nice deep red tie, that contrasts rather nicely against the deep blue background, and that Bush is wearing a deep blue tie that blends in completely with the deep blue background. Makes him look washed out.

Then the debate begins. Kerry barrels out of the gate and displays the kind of debate skills I had only read about. I was starting to see why I had been told Kerry is typically low key and will bring it home later on. I actually think he dazzled Bush into suprised submission from the first sentence and it threw Bush off. I had heard Bush had never lost a debate.

The topic went to Bush and immediately sounded defensive. OK, I can't stand the guy or the people he works with, but he sounded like that jerky guy in high school that was ALWAYS right and he would browbeat you until you cried UNCLE. Kerry respectfully looked to Bush and nodded at accurate facts, even taking a couple of notes along the way. A total pro.

The the faces started...



Networks gave a big ol' middle finger to the "contract" hammered out by the campaigns with regards to the side-by-side shots. From what I understand, it was Bush's team that pushed for it. They didn't want the public to see the reactions of the candidate while the other was speaking.

As the debate went along, Bush had harder and harder of a time trying control himself. While Kerry stood patiently and looked attentive to his opposer, Bush would make faces like those above, fidgeted, sighed and at some point even looked pissed off he was there at all.

The ironic part? Bush's team SKEWERED Al Gore in the 2000 debates because of Gore's own annoyance and exasperations showing in his reactions. Team Bush couldn't possibly try and spin this one with a straight face.

Halfway through the debate, I realized something else I thought was completely hilarious:



These two pictures accurately show the split screen, though they were taken from two different split-shots (obviously when the one was speaking). I searched high and low on the internet to get a shot of Kerry speaking with Bush's actual facial expression from that moment, but this was the closest I could find, and besides it illustrates my point the best...

First thing you notice is that Bush's podium is way higher than Kerry's - they had to tighten the shot, thereby pointing out that not only is Bush shorter, but he also hunches over like a little old man. Kerry was tall and stately looking. Combine this information with the fact that Kerry's microphone was a verile 10 incher and Bush's was a widdle 3 incher, Kerry looked like a MAN. And besides, any references to phallic symbols make me giggle like a 12-year-old. Tee hee!



Sometimes Bush looked bored, or disgusted. That was rather annoying. It left me with the impression that because he was president, he shouldn't have to deal with this shit. Can't someone else do this for me? Condi, get Powell to do this, I got some important golfing and falling off Segways to do.



Other times he looked confused, forgot was he was going to say or paused for an incredibly long time. Several online sites suggest that his lengthy pauses, and in fact the one time he interrupted his own time to speak by saying petulantly, "Let me finish!" as he has done to journalists he's wanted to cut off in the past, was due to the fact that he was wearing an ear bud. Why would someone cut themselves off? Neither Kerry nor the moderator made any motions during his turn. A logical conclusion could be that he used a device that would allow someone to speak in his ear during the debate - could he have been responding to someone urgently trying to get him to change topics or use a specific phrase?

I'm an Alias fan, so I am all behind that theory.

All in all, Kerry handled himself REALLY well. I think the next two debates will show an even more polished Kerry and the won't be able to train Bush quickly enough not to look like a blithering idiot. I can't wait to see what happens next!

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

(I am finally getting around to re-posting from by previous blog format, sorry for the UBER-long delay...)

I had the honor of having the opportunity to be one of the 500,000 people that marched on Madison Square Garden in NYC on August 29, 2004. I have never been to a political demonstration, and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Let me tell you - IT FUCKING ROCKED. I stood in a massive crowd for almost 5 hours just trying to walk down about 16 or 17 streets and would do it again in a heartbeat. And let me tell you that is saying something because I am one lazy bitch and it takes a lot to get me away from my beloved computer screen.

We got there at around 12:30 and came out of the PATH station at 14th street to see this:



That was just looking to the left, which was the direction of THE END of the marchers. It was, of course, just as packed looking in the other direction. I took tons of photos, but a lot of them are repeats of crowd shots - happy to forward any to people that want them (just email me). Just want to put the best ones up for reference.

It was over an hour before we were able to actually start marching. There were organizer volunteers walking around thanking us all for our patience, and letting us know that as we were starting to march from where we were, the people at the beginning of the march had already finished their part. No one cared that we all had to wait - it was a great feeling of community and cause. When anyone bumped into someone else, it was often "Oh I'm sorry!" with the response "Not a problem at all, we're in this one together!"

Along the way we saw the people carrying some of the 1,000 coffins:



People cheered us from their apartments and rooftops high above:



I can't tell you what the signs on the left say, but if you can't read the one's on the right, they say "GO TEAM!" and "Fascism! It's a right-wing thing."

This one was one of the best I saw:



This guy's granny was pissed off, and I thought it was awesome. Hope she has a blog out there, I'd love to read it. This one was painful:



If the contrast is too sharp, it reads: "My brother is on his third tour of combat in Iraq - Bush is a liar - the administration lies" - THREE TOURS OF DUTY? Anyone feel a draft? Just askin'.

There were people of every color, gender, financial status, age group - I saw elderly folks in WHEELCHAIRS wearing anti-Bush t-shirts! Getting to MSG, the group got LOUD, shouting at the men and women in suits standing outside the center chatting nonchalantly on their cellphones. The woman standing next to me touched my arm and commented venomously about how they had smug looks on their faces.

We rounded the corner and found a very small group of people holding signs that appeared to say that Jesus would approve of Bush. This disgusted a LOT of protesters. As we got closer, I head a guy behind me say "Who would Jesus bomb?" and it became an instant chant. We left the vicinity before an incident broke out.

There was no gathering place for the immense crowd that had marched, though many people defied the court ruling and went to hang out in Central Park anyway. We decided it had been a long enough day and headed back home. It was an awesome day, and I hope I can get involved like that again someday.