october 2024 donation

 

for october, i donated to ballotpedia because i always depend on them for info when i vote. i mostly use them to see "where the money is coming from."

bipartisanship

looking at politics today, apparently there's no honor in working together. today we laud loudest those those who stick to their guns and stand up for what they believe in. which *is* good stuff! you should stand your ground for your beliefs. but you should also know when to step back a little. i don't see how refusing to ever compromise is commendable.

today we'd rather shut down the government than give a little.

j: this is why democracy does not work. you can never have the executive and legislative on the same page. they're just blocking each other from doing anything.
me: well, i think we used to be better at working together. [insert basically the first paragraph of this post] you hear it all the time "i am who i am." ...fuck you. that's immature and stupid.
j: de. mo. cra. cy. in action. all this stand up for yourself. civil rights. it's counterproductive.
me: i don't know that stubbornnes is the cornerstone of democracy.
j: it's the cornerstone of old white men

voting

i've always thought that if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about the way the govt is running things. whether or not that's true, it's certainly true that voting is important!

a friend texted me today that she wasn't sure which was worse: not voting at all or voting without knowing what she was voting for. she'd somehow forgotten to study up before the election and didn't really have the time today to vote. ...you know what i think about that! but back to her issue. which do you think is worse?

i told her that i thought voting without knowing what she was voting on was worse because a mis-informed (or uniformed, in this case) vote could count towards a "bad" candidate. a non-vote counts towards no one.

i do know that many people think differently tho. i read an article earlier today about how many floridians were coming out of the polls having voted just to vote, and not because they knew or cared about what was going on. randomly checking off boxes, as it were.

obama on gay marriage

Biden Apologizes to Obama for Marriage Controversy

1. biden makes me laugh. but seriously, he's kind of a numbskull...
2. about the obama thing: FINALLY!!!

i wonder how much of a real difference this would make. my mom (who is a registered democrat and against gay marriage [tho not gay rights...]) said she would vote for obama anyway because this is just his opinion, and he doesn't get to make laws about gay marriage. i also think that as against gay marriage as you may be, what matters most to you is probably your pocketbook. so assuming you're not a staunch democrat or republican, you'll probably vote for the candidate that has the best plan for economic recovery, job creation, etc, regardless of his/her stance of gays, guns, and abortion. tho all else being equal, you would start to "nit-pick" on issues that don't necessarily affect your daily personal life. but since we're talking democrats and republicans here, i doubt this will really make that huge of a difference. were this the primaries, maybe.

btw, regarding my mom (and many others). she's okay with gay people having "domestic partnerships" or whatever you want to call it, with all the same rights as marriage. but, she is uncomfortable with it being called "marriage". i think this is incredibly strange. i mean, if you're for their rights, why deny them the word? this reeks of "separate but equal". words make a difference. i mean, you wouldn't call a black person a n*gger, because it's simply not the same thing. marriage and domestic what-ever-the-hell are not the same thing because you would not use the words interchangeably.

miss representation

extended trailer from miss representation, which premiered at the 2011 sundance film festival.

you can also find screenings of the movie at their website. i hope something comes up close to us because i want to see this movie!!

idear

all this talk of who has raised how much for the elections is pissing me off. just think of all the good this money could be doing! instead of wasting it on your posters, fliers, solicitous phone calls and letters, plane trips, suits, ties, and makeup, why not actually do something useful wit it and give it to a good cause: welfare, medicare and medicaid, the police, education, soup kitchens, social security, national parks, government subsidized housing, fire departments, homeless shelters, alternative energy sources, transportation, free clinic hospitals, etc. last i heard, obama has raised $25million. and while i kno that that's a lot of money for him, it it's only small change to the national budget. but every little bit helps, right?

i haven't really thought this thru in detail (as reepal repeatedly pointed out to me tonight). but wat if, say, 6 months before the primary elections, national polls were taken on the probability of the election of the candidates. then the results some of the more respected and accurate polls would be averaged. if a candidate had less than, say, 5% of his party's vote (cause even if all the polls did mess up, it couldn't have messed up that badly), then s/he would be allowed the opportunity to stop campaigning and donate their raised funds to, i dunno, the national treasury or something. i kno that people can stop campaigning basically anytime (but this deadline, wit these results, would be a clear view of reality), but i'm not sure wat happens to the money. i'm damn sure that they're not allowed to spend it on personal things, like another house for their family. i think possibly the money goes to their party's fund, for after the primaries. and if that's true, then i guess it's not all bad. but just think of where all this money could actually be going! wouldn't it be nice if they had a clear opportunity to actually make a difference wit this money?

i get that in order to become president and 'make a difference', you first need to be elected. and this money will help get you the votes.  but why not also make a difference on your way to the whitehouse?

Tags: elections, government, campaigning, campaign, money, donations, charity