mini-Dems

Friday, September 26, 2008

Media Savvy!



Amy and I were lucky enough to catch Katie Couric's interview of Republican vp. candiate Sarah Palin last night. Wow. It was uncomfortable to say the least - it reminded me of the unholy sounds that pigs make when they eat their young. OK - thats graphic. It made us cringe at first, but being 2 patient liberal-types we figured that despite a lack of obvious polish in delivery she might actually have some good nuggets to hear, content-wise. Or at least another hockey-mom joke. But alas, no. Although she used words that were by themselves recognizable in the English language the way she assembled them was not consistent with generally-accepted grammatical syntax. I though maybe at first it was an Alaskan pig-latin dialect. Even Amy was confused - and she teaches ESL. It was almost as if someone in the green room, before the broadcast, hit her over the head with a blunt object and said 'go talk about the Russians' to Katie. I thought that after being sheltered by her campaign managers from the media for the last few weeks she would've been given some interview-coaching, or a crash course in political oratory, but maybe she had a series of strokes instead. Ironically, she makes Georgie Bush sound like an elder statesman instead of the feckless foundling that he is. I wonder if McCain ever meets with them alone and thinks he's is some sort of bizarro sci-fi movie, like he's the only man on a Planet of the Apes. In any event - the need for Obama to win is clearly stronger now than ever before, but I imagine we'll be saying this a few more times before this campaign circus ends.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

3 men down!


Shite - what's with the 3 recent federal NDP candidate resignations? 2 for for public pot use and 1 for public nudity - who thought socialist politics could be so fun? Next time I want to liven up my CandleLite party I'll call the NDP riding office and invite the boys over...There's a few problems here. By all accounts the party decision makers knew about these events ( and presumably understood that if made known to the public that they would be fair game to critics and voters) and decided to roll the dice with them anyway. Now they're down 3 candidates, and their credibility takes a bashing. Does this speak to a level of desperation around securing NDP candidates in some ridings? Did the campaign managers actually think the average voter would look past the blatant and idiotic drug use, and naked frolicking with teens in their potential elected representatives? I hope not, in both cases - or else the Left is in bigger trouble than we thought. On a more larger level, this creates some ideological problems. The NDP advocates for the de-criminalization of marijuana and supports the increase of harm-reduction drug programs (eg. Insite) to address drug addiction, so to then distance themselves from self-professed (albeit excessive) marijuana users turned politicians is a tad hypocritical. I think it's important to run a platform with the above-mentioned ideas, but the presentation of the candidates voicing this message would be key - ie. that pot-smoking candidates are a reflection of social drug use in the general population (hot-boxing the ice-fishing shack, passing a spliff around the gang at a house party, etc.) as opposed to driving around the West Coast stoned and recording it or being a judge at pot seed contest with a known DEA target. Just a thought...

Passchendaele


Just putting you on notice; this Canadian production opens soon - I'll give it a watch and use it to make a comment on Afghanistan and/or comparisons to Amercian war flicks.

Format Change!



After running this blog (sporadically) for a few years as a web-journal of personal trips and events, probably as more of a crutch for my own terrible memory, I've decided to switch it up a bit. I've recently wanted to find a medium that I could use to reflect my processing of the people, ideas, events around me, and consequentially to demonstrate a statement of position in regards to this process. Thus, I'll provide more personal commentary and reflection of the goings-on around me, both locally and more globally, that will hopefully engage readers and invite more participation to share in this process.


Also, I'll include cat postings.


I've also added a Follower gadget - so for all those fellow bloggers out there please sign up to show your support. For non-blogging, but interested readers, please let me know if you want me to add you to the automatic e-mail list so that you get new posts direct to your inbox.


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