June 20, 2005
Let it go
Imagine waking one morning to find your wife unconscious and completely unresponsive. Your heart pounds in your chest, and stomach acid creeps up your esophogas. With wobbly hands, you pick up the phone and struggle to dial 911. Sleepless hours in hospital waiting rooms, strong coffee, and cheap fastfood keep you going as you wait for what you know will be bad news. Your life as you knew it is over.
Now, imagine 15 years later. A vindictive governor is trying to prosecute you for discrepancies in the accident report, even though the initial police report found nothing unusual about your wife's accidnent. Imagine you're Michael Schiavo.
Why is Jeb Bush still persuing Michael Schiavo? Most likely because he is considering a presidential run in 2008, and he needs the publicity of the Schiavo controversy to appeal to the current Republican base, which is bat-shit insane.
Why now?
Jeb and the "pro-life" camp (as opposed to the "pro-death-and-destruction" camp) are doing damage control, after Schiavo's autopsy showed that she was indeed in a vegetative state, and she was completely blind and untreatable. This makes Jeb Bush and Bill Frist, both with an eye on the White House for 2008, look bad. Afterall, brother Jeb is responsible for the whole Schiavo fiasco to begin with, and Bill Frist, a medical doctor, said on the Senate floor:
"Speaking more as a physician than as a U.S. Senator," Frist said from the Senate floor, he thought there was "insufficient information to conclude that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state."
And there's nothing better to take attention away from the fact that you were blatantly wrong than a witch hunt. But public opinion of the Schiavo fiasco has turned so against the Republicans, this will probably hurt Frist and J. Bush more than it helps them. If Michael Schiavo is persued too agressively, the public will likely come to his defense.
Let's just hope that if Michael can be haunted 15 years the incident, Jeb Bush's and Bill Frist's asses will be promptly bitten by this Schiavo debacle the minute they announce their candidacies.
Posted by Elyas at 10:54 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
May 12, 2005
Mayor Garza to endorse Julian Castro?
It probably won't come as a surprise to learn that freelance writing for a weekly newspaper isn't the most lucrative job in the world. So, after freelance reporting and blogging by day, at night I work in an upscale San Antonio restaurant to pay the bills.
Last night, Phil Hardberger, one of the mayoral candidates in the runoff election, came into the restaurant and sat in a friend's section. I had never seen the guy in person, so I glanced in his direction and didn't think much of it.
About an hour later, Julian Castro (the other mayoral candidate, for non-San Antonians) came in and sat at one of my tables with someone I didn't recognize (I'm guessing a campaign manager). I told my friend who was waiting on Hardberger that Castro just walked in, and we both thought it was odd that both candidates would eat at the same restaurant on the same night.
After I had finished taking Castro and his accomplice's orders, I asked if they need anything else. "Yes, we'll need one more order. They mayor will be joining us soon."
The plot thickens.
When Mayor Ed Garza arrived, he and Julian acted like long-time friends. They cracked jokes, they talked politics. At one point during the meal, Garza asked if I was registered to vote in San Antonio. I explained that I wasn't, and he went on to tell me that I should urge all of my friends to vote for Castro. Sounds like an endorsement to me.
The two candidates chatted for a while when Hardberger stopped by the table to say hello. But other than that, the rest of the night was uneventful.
Both candidates received roughly $20 in free appetizers and desserts from the owner. I'm not sure who paid at my table. Both Castro and Garza reached for their wallets when I dropped the check, but it was Castro's friend who handed me cash when I returned.
The tip? A little over 10 percent.
What did Hardberger leave his waitress? A little over 20.
(For more information on the elections, go to SAElections.com)
Posted by Elyas at 09:26 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
May 09, 2005
Bush Abroad
After Bush finished, Vike-Freiberga then explained that they would take four questions — one for each president. Again, Bush tried to interrupt, saying, "Or you can have all four questions to me," knowing that foreign reporters usually want to use the opportunity to probe the U.S. president.Vike-Freiberga ignored the remark as she called on a Latvian journalist, and Bush threw his arms up and looked to help from aides offstage. The Latvian journalist said he would prefer to question the U.S. leader, and Bush responded, "Yeah, I thought that might be the case."
And as he predicted, all four questions were for him.
Number two:
Used to staged town-hall meetings with pre-screened questioners, Bush ventured into unfamiliar territory in the Netherlands when he took questions from a group of students.
"I have a question … concerning the terrorism," said the first student to be called on, a young woman. "And you made many laws after 9/11, many — many laws and many measures. And I'm wondering, will there be a time when you drop those laws and when you decrease the measures?""Look," Bush replied, "a free society such as ours, obviously, must balance the government's most important duty, which is to protect the American people from harm, with the civil liberties of our citizens. And every law we passed that was aimed to protect us in this new era of threats from abroad and the willingness for people to kill without mercy has been scrutinized and, of course, balanced by our Constitution."
He told her that the Sept. 11 attacks had changed his nation's mind-set, resulting in the need for different laws.
Bush's co-host at the event, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, wondered if the young woman was satisfied.
"You're convinced by the president?" he asked amid laughter.
"Don't put her on the spot," Bush quipped.
Apparently, Bush didn't like the tenacity of these "youths" and all reporters were kicked out for the remainder of the half-hour session.
Posted by Elyas at 10:29 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
May 05, 2005
Media gets punked
By now you're probably familiar with Laura Bush's infamous standup routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last week. Her routine contained such husband-roasting zingers as:
"George always says he’s delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney. He’s usually in bed by now. I’m not kidding. I said to him the other day, ‘George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you’re going to have to stay up later."
"Nine o'clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep, and I'm watching 'Desperate Housewives' -- with [Vice President Dick Cheney's wife] Lynne Cheney," Mrs. Bush said. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife. I mean, if those women on that show think they're desperate, they ought to be with George."
"He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it was a male horse."
The Daily Show had the best coverage of the actual event. But the only thing better than satirical coverage of a real event is real coverage of satirical event:
Last weekend, an anonymous individual created a phony letter with an altered TVC logo on it, to criticize First Lady Laura Bush at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 30 th.The bogus group called the Coalition for Traditional Values, issued its letter supposedly written by a Rev. Roy DeLong. The phony letter was picked up by the Drudge Report and reported it as fact instead of satire.
TVC’s phone has been ringing off the hook from reporters asking for more information. MSNBC was conned into thinking this was a real group. They called TVC to book a spokesman as a guest based on this satirical letter.
The satirical letter didn't mention outrage at the moral indecency of jokes about the President masturbating a horse. Rather the letter states, "We saw our President undermined, mocked, and emasculated by his own wife on the most public of stages, and at a time when his own manliness is already under attack."
Courtesy of Atrios.
UPDATE: Here is a link to the actual letter, which I forgot to post earlier.And more on milking the horse from Wonkette.
Posted by Elyas at 12:38 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack
May 04, 2005
Ignore her and she'll go away
I detest Ann Coulter. Mainly because I don't think she believes half of what she says. She typically takes a somewhat reasonable idea and smothers it in her own recipe of extremist propaganda until it no longer resembles something that could be produced by a normal human brain. And the worst part is, she's a genius. If she calmly and rationally expressed her political views throwing in the occassional debate with her opponents, no one would know her name. Instead, she demonizes her opponents, calls them traitors, and makes herself so extreme, so vile, so absolutely out of the mainstream, that she makes the cover of Time magazine.
Which is why I have little sympathy for the guy who was arrested in Austin for heckling Coulter at a speech Tuesday. Yes, he was just expressing his opinions when shouting, "You say that you believe in the sanctity of marriage. How do you feel about marriages where the man does nothing but fuck his wife up the ass?" But he just added fuel to her fire. He is a dancing puppet and she is the nimble puppetmaster. If he really has a problem with the garbage that spews out of Coulter's mouth, he should just ignore her. That's the only way to defeat her. Giving her attention just makes her stronger.
In the Pink Texas has more on Coulter's speech.
Also, this fictional (I hope) story about a recent encounter with Coulter is hilarious. Rated R.
Disclaimer: Yes, I know that by writing about Ann Coulter, I am ignoring my own advice to ignore her. But I really doubt she reads my blog. If she does start reading, I'll stop writing about her.
Posted by Elyas at 02:33 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
April 22, 2005
Filibust or Feel-A-Bust?
A reader in China on Democrats' attempts to filibuster Bush's judicial nominees:
Sixty votes are needed in the 100-member Senate to end a filibuster. But just 51 would be needed to change the rules to ban them. Republicans hold 55 seats [YahooNews].
But Republicans are being dangerously short-sighted if they ban a procedure that was designed to protect the minority party (whoever it is). Someday Republicans won't control the entire universe, and when that time comes, they'll need the power of the filibuster to slow down the rampaging Democrats who are hungry for revenge [FTimes].
On a somewhat related note (see the post's title): 16 mothers held a "nurse-in", breast-feeding their children in public to support a city commission candidate who was criticized for breast-feeding her daughter during a public meeting. Only in Florida... [MiamiHerald]
Posted by Elyas at 10:45 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
April 13, 2005
Hi, my name is...
Ok, forget the fact that he can't read his own name off a que card. Forget that he's talking to birds flying overhead and shooting them with his fingers. I think the most hilarious (yet disturbing) scene in this video is George Bush impersonating Dr. Evil. Oh the irony.
Seriously, I guarantee you'll laugh at this, or your money back. (Watch the video at DNext).
Posted by Elyas at 04:56 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
The first post...
Ok, here it is. The first post. I wanted to write something witty and memorable to commemorate my entrance into the world of blogging. I mean, you only get one chance to write a first post, so there's a lot of pressure not to screw it up.
But then I started thinking about it, and not many people know this site exists yet. Plus, as soon as I write a second post, it's just going to push the first post down out of the spotlight. So it's really not a big deal.
Instead, I'm just going to do what bloggers do and post a few links and make a few comments and call myself a journalist. Ok, here goes:
I have to admit, President Bush gained a few approval points in my eyes when I learned he uses an Ipod (referred to as Ipod One). At first I thought CNN was overanalyzing a bit when they claimed Bush "bares his soul" with the contents of Ipod One's playlists. But when you think about it, the music a person listens to can say a lot about who they are. Below is a sample of the playlist. I'll let you judge for yourself:
*We Are the Champions – Queen
*I Drink Alone – George Thorogood
*Killing an Arab – The Cure
*White Christmas – Bing Crosby
*Working 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton
*Rapture – Blondie
*Dallas Theme – Television's Greatest Hits
*Jesus Hold My Hand – John Ashcroft
*The Winner Takes it All – ABBA
The full playlist was released by The White House, and can be found here.
Posted by Elyas at 04:53 PM | Comments (9)