It’s official: Huffington is out!
Dear Arianna,
You did the right thing stepping down this evening on Larry King Live, and I thank you for bringing real issues to the forefront and having the where-with-all to speak your mind at the end of the day. God knows, no one else is. You did the right thing, and I thank you for having the intelligence to know that you can make more of a difference in the coming week defeating the recall, rather than turning over the world’s 5th largest economy to an actor with no experience who will be a dog on a choke chain to the Bush administration. You truly have propelled yourself as a real person and activist instead of a self-serving politician — evidence that many of things said about you were patently wrong. Congratulations!
I support your “three NO’s and one YES” platform moving forward through the next week:
- NO on the Recall.
- NO on Schwarzenegger.
- NO on Prop 54.
And YES! “on the Clean Elections Ballot Initiative I filed last
week, which I will be working overtime to pass in 2004.” Read
more about the Initiative: http://www.votearianna.com/cleanelections
At any rate — for Christ’s sake, educate yourself — DO NOT cast your vote in ignorance. It’s the wrong thing to do, and you know it.
Huffington Out?
Since the debate last week, talk has been stirring that independent gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington may quit to prevent a GOP coup and throw her support behind Democrat Cruz Bustamante. There has been some early signals of coziness, with Bustamante supporting Huffington’s Clean Elections Initiative.
This comes on the heals of a poll last week which showed that 63% of voters supported the recall, with Schwarzenegger leading at 40% followed by Bustamante at 25%. Huffington had 2%. However, the poll assumes that 47% of voters at the polls will vote GOP, despite Republicans only being 35% of registered voters in the state. In reality, support for the recall is probably about 50/50, with Schwarzenegger and Bustamante in a statistical dead heat.
Of course, if McClintock drops out, then we really might be in trouble — albeit many of his supporters are the types that would just as well vote for Hitler over someone who supported gay unions.
I like Arianna… she’s loud-mouthed, usually dead-on, and unafraid. She’s grounded in reason and common sense, although perhaps overly optimistic on the reality of implementation. (But who isn’t?) I still laugh when I think about her showing up at Arnold’s running-paper filing event, and generally being a pest to get her face out there. It worked, her picture graced the front page of the NYT the next day — along with Arnold’s of course. That was smart. And her Special Interest Brothel is a real hoot.
In reality, I think her biggest liability isn’t her past, her Greek accent, or her attack-like nature in the debates. I think it’s her gender. Yes, there’s been a few female governors in this country, but I think one of our state’s biggest assets maybe detrimental to women seeking positions of power — our diverse population and culture. One word: machismo. I don’t think she ever expected to win, but she’s important for getting issues on the table which otherwise might of been ignored.
In any event, the recall itself is wrong. It’s a perversion of government and a 100-year old law which didn’t allow for or protect against well-funded coup attempts. (Ironically, Issa now opposes the recall because of the Schwarzenegger vs. McClintock dissent in the California GOP.)
And despite this recall circus, voters remain generally apathetic and uneducated on the candidates or issues. So, remember — in the end, no matter what happens, it’s no one fault’s but your own.
meanwhile:
Arnold’s 1977 flick Pumping Iron is playing at the Roxie in the mission.
God, I love craigslist
Just a few minutes on craigslist this morning, and look at the treasure trove I dug up!
Screw the Following People – The collected edition (“People who sell flowers
BofA Luvs Me
So, I deposited a bunch of money into my Bank of America checking account a few weeks ago to pay for a big expenditure. (Natch, I don’t give my “real” money to BofA.)
Since then, I’ve received no less than two “We luv you, we care” type letters in the mail, and today I got — get this — the 2004 Zagat Survey Movie Guide courtesy of BofA. As if that had ANY relevance to banking, or investing, or anything remotely related to BofA.
I don’t know if I’m just special, or if they’re trying to stem some bad press, but it sure is annoying and highly suspicious. Like most banks, they’re greedy, greedy, and greedy. Like really, really greedy. This means high fees, constant monitoring of your account for the slightest infraction (so they can charge a fee), and rude tellers who could probably be outsmarted by trained monkeys. (Of course, talking to the tellers costs a service fee — but, thankfully, talking to monkeys is still free.)
Alrighty then.
Update: I’m not special. My friend Lori got the same thing. Still: relevance. Please?
Bloodsucking and The Family Guy
Got vampired today in a pre-op visit. Naturally, the vein was missed the first 3 times, and I became a pin cushion. I hate needles — intensely. It’s a wonder I didn’t faint.
Oh, and when I asked “What happens if there’s some catastrophic turn of events and I’m at risk of dying?” there was a long pause… very long… total silence and bewilderment at the question. She had no answer… but then finally, she astutely mentions “Well, there’s a hospital next door.” So I asked “Isn’t that YOUR hospital?” meaning the hospital with the same name as the out-patient surgery center I’m sitting in now. “Oh yeah,” she replies. Gee, ain’t that fucking grand.
On a completely unrelated note, I realized this morning The Family Guy Season 3 came out on DVD earlier this month. Whee!
Ugh. Spam.
So I got a little bored today and started to track down the fuckers who actually spam me. I receive a relatively small amount of spam compared to most, so there’s probably a few specific shitbags responsible for the majority of my spam.
Tracking down spammers is dicey. Headers are always forged, and a variety of methods are used to spam from any machine but their own: open proxies, open relays, hijacked IP blocks, even internet worms. So you look elsewhere, which usually means going after the website in the body of the email. It’s not always the case that the spamvertised website IS the actual spammer, but it usually is. And even if it isn’t, the hosting company should be notified they’re supporting spammers.
So, anyway, today I present shitbag #1: a Robert Soloway of Medford, OR. See the SpamHaus ROKSO profile.
So Bobby, I know who you are and when you spam me, I know you have a small penis, and of Jan. 1st you will owe me $1,000 for each one of those lovely spams.
What will $87 billion buy?
Bush is asking for an additional $87B in spending for the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are your tax dollars, and the National Priorities Database provides a handy calculator letting you know what your money could of bought instead…
$87 billion could buy:
I don’t even know you, but…
…there’s no reason for you to be as insanely obnoxious as you are. So knock it the fuck off.
Shut off your damn cell phone, stop breeding if you can’t control the little shits, bathe — for christ fucking sake — PLEASE bathe, don’t step on or touch me or run into me with your shopping cart, and get the fuck out of the fast lane if you’re causing a backup.
That is all. Have a nice day.
Duran Re-ran
Duran Duran has been trying to stage a comeback for, what, 15 years now — but it looks like they’re having some mild success now that the original lineup is back together after 18 years. And even though John Taylor’s mountains o’ makeup haven’t faded, hopefully your dreams of marrying him have.
When I was 9, mom allowed me to make my first cassette purchase at the Music+. What did I buy? Duran Duran’s “Rio” and, dammit, I loved that album. I still do.
This article [sfgate.com] isn’t particularly interesting, but the history of Duran Duran included at the bottom is fascinating. The author has done an amazing job collecting 25 years of disposable history, and hey, it’s a good read. 😉
Duran Duran’s low-point was perhaps a half-hearted 2000 appearance at Paramount’s Great America here in Northern California promoting the aptly named album “Pop Trash.” Crap theme park, crap band — a craptacular good time! (Ironically, my company has rented Great America this afternoon for a launch celebration.)
The Duranies are appearing at Alice’s Now & Zen Fest here at Golden Gate Park this Sunday.
Later, DICK!
So, the NYSE board’s compensation committee a few weeks ago decided to award Chairman Dick Grasso a $140M pay and retirement package. Uh-huh, one-hundred-forty-MILLION dollars.
Now, the NYSE is an organization that absolutely must maintain it’s credibility as the world’s largest and most respected exchange. Natch, the board which is mostly made up of big-wigs from financial powerhouses (they all sit on each other’s boards) thought no one would notice… but, of course, everyone did. And I mean everyone. And they were pissed. So… very… very… pissed. Financial news orgs were abuzz with industry watchdogs crying foul.
Today, in almost record time (3 weeks?) ol’ Dicky was kicked to the curb. Not like he’ll be checking into the poor house or anything.
An attempt will be made to make this all go away all nice like, but if I were a company looking to get listed, I’d be calling the NASDAQ right about now.
MMMM… the sweet smell of corruption!
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