big buttery jesus

big buttery jesus
Originally uploaded by allihead.

big buttery bush

big buttery bush
Originally uploaded by allihead.

"Thank God so many good folks hate the gays!"
(Compare to Big Buttery Jesus. Verrrry presidential.)

Distractions, Non-issues, and Other Absurdities

Alli Town
Allitown is back up because I can't stay quiet.

What up with the flag-burning amendment? Until enough flags are being burned to contribute to global warming, Congress needs to concern itself with real problems. Personally, I am more offended by the wearing of the flag as neckerchiefs (not to mention, the very word "neckerchief"), ties, and boxer shorts than I am by flag-burning. Still, is this the kind of change we want to be making to the constitution?

Pure politics. The right wingers suffered a bit of a blow when it came to the Terri Schiavo debacle, though Frist never apologized for his irresponsible video diagnosis of the poor woman. That bandwagon was left busted down and up on blocks, so on to the new one.

This week 40 million credit card users' identities were compromised by hackers. You want a real issue everyone will get on board with, make the penalties for identity theft harsher. DUI laws are tough enough. Mandatory drug sentencing is bankrupting state budgets and propelling the USA to the top of the list of incarcerated national populations. I almost died TWICE on a 3 mile trip to the grocery store yesterday because drivers were talking on their cell phones instead of bothering to stop at red lights.

My safety is more threatened by driving cell phone gabbers than by flag-burners. Or, for that matter, than by terrorists.

Another thing that's really pissing me off this morning...the proposed budget cut for PBS and NPR. I went to Tony Perkins's ridiculous Family Research Council website where he can't bring himself to outright denigrate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because his daughter loves Clifford the Big Red Dog and he occassionally tunes in for The McLaughlin Group. He argues that the popularity of these and other shows "supports defunding CPB and allowing PBS to successfully flourish in a free market." Mind you, this is the same man who rails against the prurient shows that are rife on network television. One of the basic rules of the free market, or as I call it, unchecked, Machiavellian capitalism, is SEX SELLS. You can't have it both ways, Tony.

In the meantime, Allitowners, read about somethng that the righties don't want you to.

If You're Not Outraged

you haven't been paying attention. You've heard it, seen it, said it. You must watch this (rather long) video of nearly countless examples of how Ohio polling places were unprepared for (deliberately?) voter turnout on November 2nd. Notice the skin color of the disenfranchised. If you still think Bush was "re-elected," you still might want to participate in Black Thursday.

If you're mad as hell and determined not to take it anymore, write your senator, your newspaper, Oprah, whoever in support of John Conyers's plan to object to the electoral certification. Plenty of reps are signing on, they still need one senator to avoid that pathetic debacle you witnessed at the start of Farenheit 9/11.

Make some noise, people. If we can have free and fair elections in Kiev, why not Cleveland?

smush bush

smush bush
Originally uploaded by allihead.

Observing the Recount

So, after I turn in my grades tomorrow, I will be traveling all over Southwest Ohio to be a recount observer for the Green party. I went to a training session Saturday morning on how to be an observer and it was really well-attended. People obviously have different ideas about how to proceed with this effort: some have a short fuse and are minutes away from storming the Bastille; some still want us to introduce ourselves and share first; and most of us fall somewhere in between. Surprisingly, I say with sarcasm, the two poles don't seem to gel that well.

I'm not sure I learned much, other than the legal team's hotline number and that I am NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH ANYTHING. Oh yeah, and I am to use profanity under no circumstances. Instead of giving me hope, the info session made me feel a little overwhelmed. I was glad to meet two other thirty-somethingish college teacher chicks: Denice from Miami and Kim who teaches at DAAP. Kim is teaching a history of photography class in the Spring that I'm dying to take.

If you haven't seen Lazyboy's "Underwear Goes Inside the Pants" video, go to their site and watch it or if you have i-tunes, have a look in the music store, where the quality is better.

Has anyone seen the movie "Searching for Angela Shelton"? I really want to see it, but you have to buy the DVD from her for $24.95. If you haven't heard of this movie, check out her movie's site. It's pretty cool. And then check out her personal site, if you wanna feel like a total slouch. The woman does everything.

Women's Day or Sisterhood Is Powerful

Spent the day wid 2 of my favorite lefty chicks--I'm on the Mac, so I can't do my links I wanted to talk about Bobo J-Lo, Shabby Chic, and midgets shouting "Welcome to Amsterdam!!!" I'll do it tomorrow I reckon, in between grading a gazillion student papers.

John Conyers Is a Bad-Ass Mother

If you haven't seen the Keith Olbermann "Countdown" segment about voting irregularities in Ohio and Florida, it's available here. Even with a DSL connection, it takes a long time to download, because it's over eleven minutes of actual reporting and interviewing by KO. While you're waiting like it's 1999 for the download, have a look at William Rivers Pitt's blog he's filing while watching the hearing organized by John Conyers (D-MI). You'll probably recognize Congressman Conyers from his shocking revelation in Farenheit 9/11 that begins "Sit down, my son" when he breaks the news to Michael Moore that most bills (like the Patriot Act) never get read by Congress before they come before legislators for a vote.

I post these because I was listening to Air America Radio's "Unfiltered" (a bit of an addiction--I'll admit it), when they started a live (well, 5 second-delayed) broadcast of Jesse Jackson's speech before the hearing committee. Then my feed shut down and subsequent attempts to re-establish connection met with "Please tune back during programming hours." It doesn't take much to raise the paranoid hackles these days.

Also, since I haven't mentioned it already, I'm reading "True Lies" (not the screenplay for the movie starring the governor of California). It's great. And terrifying. Read it. I think I'm going to give it to my mom for Xmas.

And, in case you haven't guessed, I figured out how to do hyperlinks. WOOOOHOOOO!!

General Jorge Bush

General Jorge Bush
Originally uploaded by allihead.

Por favor, Senor!! No mas! No mas!

It's cute. It's a cute blog.

Well it's Tuesday, which means that we were at Brainstormer Pub Trivia down at the Dubliner, where we are most every Tuesday night and have been for the last four years. That of course doesn't mean my mother doesn't call me every Tuesday night asking where I am. We were in first place until the music round, where we really scewed the pooch. Of course, it's George W. Bush's fault we lost.

Megan would like me to codify my quirks:
a) space is boring/ unimpressive
b) birds are overrated
c) soup is my favorite food
d) monuments, landmarks, midgets, and mormons frighten me.

I'm hoping that mid-season show "Medium" is good, but I know it's going to suck.