Monthly Archive for October, 2006

Taking a break

Published
by
alice
on October 30, 2006
in blog news, family and photos - 2006
. 29 Comments

I don’t want to scare anyone by disappearing, so here’s a quick note to let you know I won’t be posting for a bit. My mother was killed in a car wreck yesterday. It is shocking, inconceivable. But I’ve got a fantastic family (thanks, in very large part, to my dear mother), so I’ll be fine. I just need a little time, and I don’t want anyone to worry.

My mother is a fantastic, curious, intelligent adventurer. She fell off the side of a mountain while biking in Alaska and survived (even thrived!); was (briefly) arrested while buying opera tickets (unknowingly, innocently) from a scalper in Moscow; swam (or floated, anyway) in the Dead Sea; took me to Europe when I was a teenager; broke her hand in a train station in India and then continued on her trip while her bones started to heal. She visited every continent on earth; spent a semester at sea; loved the train, taking her grandchildren on transcontinental journeys; read voraciously; studied history; raised five children, who all went on to post-graduate studies; is a passionate fan of nature; worships my wonderful father (who adores her in return), and… oh, where to stop?

I’ll be back. Give me a moment to collect myself…

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Corker Desperately Push-Polls

Published
by
alice
on October 29, 2006
in corker and ford
. 2 Comments

Are you aware Harold Ford is in favor of raising your taxes, taking away your right to bear arms, and allowing gay adoptions?

Even I didn’t think Corker would sink this low, and we’re not even done yet…

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Racist Ad Producer Gets Fired

Published
by
alice
on October 29, 2006
in civil & human rights, corker, ford and republicans
. 2 Comments

Remember the GOP’s Corker ad featuring Harold Ford, Jr.’s supposed friend from the Playboy Club?

Well, the Republican strategist who coproduced the ad (along with a Karl Rove wannabe) got fired by Wal-Mart on Friday. He claims the racism in the ad was an accident.

Whoops! Following in the footsteps of so many Republicans before him, his defense is that he’s not evil, he’s stupid! Wink-wink.

No word yet on whether Canada will get an apology.

UPDATE: Check out Ken’s Melman’s “lame” and pathetic backpedalling. This story gets sadder by the moment…

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Creatureless Friday

Published
by
alice
on October 27, 2006
in corker and home
. 0 Comments

Sorry for the lack of a creature today. I have my computer back, but haven’t had a chance to get iphoto grooving again. You can still check out lots of other arklings, though, and while I might be creatureless again next week, once the election is over, I’ll get back on a regular schedule.

In other news, I bought a house today. The closing was kinda anti-climatic, because we signed a whole bunch of papers and then… went back to work. It was a dark, very rainy day, so even if we had the time to start moving, we wouldn’t have been able to. And we didn’t have the time. As it is, we’ll start moving things over this weekend and hopefully continue to do a bit at a time for the next week or so, then we’ll make the big move starting on November 8th.

And finally, for your Friday entertainment here’s a pretty funny campaign bit courtesy of Jesus’ General (via TGW):

Bob Corker ain’t miscegenated

I’m worried that the ads Tennessee senatorial candidate Bob Corker and the RNCC are running might be a bit too subtle. Sure, the jungle drums and the “he’s after our white women” pitch are cues most people would get, but I’m not sure the audience they’re trying to target will catch on. Those good old boys ain’t none too bright.

So, I put together the following ad to help Mr. Corker:


(If you don’t see anything above, go here to watch the clip.)

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Whee!!!!!

Published
by
alice
on October 26, 2006
in blog news and tech stuff
. 2 Comments

I’m posting this from my laptop, which returned to me this afternoon! Yippee!!!

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Will GOP Benefit From Racism?

Published
by
alice
on October 26, 2006
in civil & human rights, corker, ford and republicans
. 4 Comments

As the ad (and replaced it with some really blantant lies), but the damage is already done:

I wouldn’t necessarily view the fact the ad is no longer airing as a victory; after all, the RNC got exactly what it wanted.  As it did with the Daisy-double “vote republican or die” ad, it shelled out a limited amount of money for a limited ad buy while relying on an all-too-willing press to provide hours and hours of free exposure for its  lies.  And so, the RNC got its racist message out to the voters of Tennessee, and unfortunately, that message will resonate with some voters.

And those voters will be, unfortunately, the all-too-numerous ignorant racists in Tennessee. Plus, there’s also the even-more-numerous Republicans who support this behavior by voting for these assholes over and over again, thinking that supporting racists isn’t the same as being racists themselves.

They are, of course, mistaken.

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Bud

Published
by
alice
on October 25, 2006
in photos - 2006
. 0 Comments

Between this bud and background colors that suggest springtime’s forsythia, this photo doesn’t look so much like fall now that I look at it. But it is from just a few days ago…

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GOP-scandal-a-palooza

Published
by
alice
on October 25, 2006
in family values, republicans and wingnuts
. 0 Comments

The latest scandal to come from the Party of Family Values (can you say that with a straight face?) is Rick Renzi — who, if you’ll recall, is the married Arizona Congressman who was caught canoodling with Katherine “Meltdown” Harris some time ago!

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Bob Corker’s Struggle with the Truth

Published
by
alice
on October 24, 2006
in civil & human rights, corker, ford and republicans
. 2 Comments

He lies.

They’re boldfaced.

More: hamdems.org, Tennessee Guerilla Women, and AmericaBlog:

Well that’s interesting. Bob Corker, who is a Republican running for Senator from Tennessee, says that the Republican National Committee – that would be the Republican party in Washington, DC – is refusing to stop running a racist TV ad that they’re broadcasting in Tennessee. When pressed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer as to whether he has called anyone at the RNC or the White House to demand that the ad be taken down, Corker couldn’t answer the question.

Bottom line, he’s not trying very hard to get the racist ad off of TV. (Or, it’s as he says – the Republican Party leadership is refusing to stop running a racist ad because it believes racism wins white votes, and I suppose on that account they’re immoral but correct.) How hard is it to get the head of the Republican party to stop running a racist ad in your state that you, the Republican Senate candidate, feel is hurting your race? It’s not difficult at all.

Corker is lying.

Josh Marshall has the racist ad, an analysis of it, and he exposes how the RNC is now lying about it simply has no power to pull down its own ad.

So much for that Republican outreach to the black community. I guess, in the end, the Republicans figured that you can get a lot more white voters with racism than you can black voters with civil rights. Disgusting.

Here is how Josh describes the ad:

The ad, in case you aren’t familiar with it, is a cartoonish spot which might be subtitled, ‘Harold Ford is an uppity negro who does the wild thing with white women.’

But, should we be suprised by Corker’s gutter tactics? This is, after all, the party of the Southern Strategy and Macaca, and Bob Corker is eager to become their newest yapping poodle.

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Drip.

Published
by
alice
on October 24, 2006
in ford, photos - 2006 and travelogue - getaways
. 2 Comments

It’s been another busy day, and I’ve still got some work to do. But, I hate to leave a blank day up here, so here’s another red leaf (sorry about the repetition). Also, check out Harold Ford, Jr. on the cover of Newsweek Magazine when you get a chance. We’re loving the national coverage!

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