Recession Diet

unemployment benefits: +$816/month

rent: -$500/month
utility bills: -$150/month
cell phone: -$50/month

Knowing I'll be losing that 10 pounds I wanted to because I've got $4.14/day to spend on groceries, gasoline and medicine: priceless.

A belated semi-analysis of the VP debate

First, I think it would be useful to read this article from The Guardian.

Okay. So I keep having these discussions with people who think the VP debate was lame and that there was no clear-cut winner. Some of their points are:

1. The candidates spoke more about their running mates than themselves.

2. Biden faked his choke up.

3. Palin didn't screw up, therefore she did pretty well.

4. Biden said he does not support gay marriage.

I disagree with most of these points and the notion that the VP debate was not a win for Democrats. I think it was a clear win for Biden, even in the eyes of so-called "middle Americans." Here's what I've said about the above four points:

1. These guys are vice presidential running mates, and as we all know, the vice presidency is (supposed to be) more of an understudy role than anything else. Therefore it's entirely appropriate that these candidates should frequently defer to the stated plans and policies of their presidential running mates.

2. I don't think Biden's near tears moment was fake. He's known for his tendency to get choked up. Plus, he was talking about a time in his life when he lost a spouse and a child, and nearly lost two other children. If you don't think this is still an emotional subject for Biden, you might be kind of insensitive.

Furthermore, even if he did fake it, I think it was fabulously effective. Everyone knows a guy who has had to raise his kids as a single parent, and you can bet your ass that point resonates in "Middle America." Biden basically told Palin to take her "family values" propaganda and shove it. And her response was so utterly inappropriate and insensitive that I think she might have lost McCain the election right then and there.

3. Palin did screw up. Lots. She babbled incoherently through most of the debate. Here's a sample:

IFILL: Governor, nuclear Pakistan, unstable Pakistan, nuclear Iran? Which is the greater threat?

PALIN: Both are extremely dangerous, of course. And as for who coined that central war on terror being in Iraq, it was the General Petraeus and al Qaeda, both leaders there and it's probably the only thing that they're ever going to agree on, but that it was a central war on terror is in Iraq. You don't have to believe me or John McCain on that. I would believe Petraeus and the leader of al Qaeda.

An armed, nuclear armed especially Iran is so extremely dangerous to consider. They cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons period. Israel is in jeopardy of course when we're dealing with Ahmadinejad as a leader of Iran. Iran claiming that Israel as he termed it, a stinking corpse, a country that should be wiped off the face of the earth. Now a leader like Ahmadinejad who is not sane or stable when he says things like that is not one whom we can allow to acquire nuclear energy, nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, the Castro brothers, others who are dangerous dictators are one that Barack Obama has said he would be willing to meet with without preconditions being met first.

Huh? Scary.

4. Biden did say he does not support "redefining marriage." Here's the quote:

No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. That is basically the decision to be able to be able to be left to faiths and people who practice their faiths the determination what you call it.

The bottom line though is, and I'm glad to hear the governor, I take her at her word, obviously, that she think there should be no civil rights distinction, none whatsoever, between a committed gay couple and a committed heterosexual couple. If that's the case, we really don't have a difference.

My interpretation of this answer is that he and Obama do support gay marriage, but don't want to explicitly state it since there are many voters leaning toward the Democratic party who are still closed-minded when it comes to homosexuality. I could be wrong. He did vote in favor of the ridiculous Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

But his point about that decision being left to individuals' faiths is significant. I think (I hope!) Biden was arguing that gay marriage is two-part issue, one a religious matter that should be viewed through the lens of freedom of religion, the other a civil matter, which he has said he supports extending to gay couples.

***

Overall I think Biden gave clear and informative answers to the questions posed. I actually learned something I didn't previously know, which is more than I can say for the two presidential debates.

Palin's answers were for the most part nonsensical, although she delivered them with much less hesitation than in her previous silly interviews. But sprinkled among the strange collection of unrelated words posing as sentences were ideas and sentiments that ought to strike fear in the hearts of all of us.

Her tendency to fall back on cutesy talk and winking is just awful for women. I don't think I can elaborate on this idea much, it's a total embarassment to have such a high profile female candidate behave like a bitchy cheerleader.

Her statement "And I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also." is also chilling. It's not a rally, it's a debate. Her previous avoidance of the media was rationalized by her need to prepare, and then by dismissing the media as a bunch of liberals armed with awful "gotcha" questions. But now she's saying to a perfectly reasonable moderator and audience, "Screw you, I answer the questions I want to be asked, not the ones you want me to answer." Awesome. We need more of that in government.

Even more alarming is her assertion that paying taxes is unpatriotic. But this right here, this is totally fucking off the hinge:

PALIN: No, no. Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. John McCain and I have had good conversations about where I would lead with his agenda. That is energy independence in America and reform of government over all, and then working with families of children with special needs. That's near and dear to my heart also. In those arenas, John McCain has already tapped me and said, that's where I want you, I want you to lead. I said, I can't wait to get and there go to work with you.

Thanks, McCain, for brandishing this beast at us. Maybe Sarah Palin will ultimately be the final nail in the coffin of the right wing. God I hope so.

Are you effing kidding me?

If you weren't already aware, there's a massive hurricane set to make landfall somewhere very near Houston. My parents live in Galveston County, which is looking like ground zero for this thing. They're already in Austin, with their cats in tow.

And that's what this post is about....Austin.

Look at this image capture from weather.com:Are you fucking kidding me? Austin is surrounded by clouds that are being spun off one of the biggest hurricanes (400 miles across) we've ever seen. And yet the clouds break up when they get to Austin and reform on the other side.

Before I continue, I should assure you I don't mean to be glib. I realize this hurricane will take an enormous toll. As I said, everything my parents own is currently its immediate path. That's my point. This massive thing, which could decimate half the Texas coast and continue to wreak havoc as is travels north across the state, might not bring a single raindrop to the only part of Texas still under extreme drought conditions.

Yesterday we had a 100% chance of rain forecast for Saturday. Today that forecaster seems less sure of him/herself, and the chances are 60%. I bet that by tomorrow we'll see 20% chance, but no actual rain.

Did I mention our rainfall totals are roughly 9 inches below average for the year?

Here's our drought index map, for anyone interested.

I live in hell.

Do you ever get the impression...

....that people pick political candidates the same way they pick their second favorite sports team?

By second favorite I mean the team they root for when their home team doesn't win shit. That team has a funny way of being one of the two teams in the world series or superbowl or NBA finals or whatevs. I think you get what I'm saying. Usually the one that's favored to win.

Yes. What I'm saying is I'm starting to suspect that most people vote for the candidate they think has the greatest chance of winning. That way they can be part of the in crowd.

Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow. Right now I'm not feeling particularly hopeful about this election. All the fucking pigs working for the McCain campaign while simultaneously serving as analysts on various "news" networks clearly consider this election (and politicking in general) a highly amusing game. I hope they befall some awful accident that their health insurance provider decides it won't cover. Really I do. I don't usually wish disease or death on people as I find it unseemly. But I guess they've successfully knocked my noble ass off my ratty old steed.

Again: Jackasses.

by the pricking of my thumbs

Sometimes it matters less what you have done than what you will do.

Yes, I do feel insulted by this

For background details, please see my previous post on FOX's apparent preamble to the naming of Palin.
Actually, why don't I just let you watch the video.



I do wonder if FOX perhaps had a little bit of insight into the imminent plans of the John McCain campaign. I guess the answer is obvious.

Yes, I share the anger of the many, many, many people who consider McCain's surprise pick of Palin as running mate an egregious attempt to pander to women voters (the choice also clearly serves to steal some of the Obama's thunder in the "historic moment" department).

I've read a few blogs now that castigate those of use who are airing our offense at the McCain campaign. These people are calling us sexist for our audacious assumption that Palin was only picked because of her gender. We are such assholes.

Hmm. I don't think her gender was the only reason she was selected. Not at all. She's right in line with the base of the Republican party. She wants to make abortion illegal. She loves guns. She hates polar bears. She doesn't much like icky science because it supports such nauseating ideas as 1. Evolution is essentially irrefutable, 2. Global warming is quite real and very much a result of human activity, and 3. Drilling for oil now would not yield results for many years and would therefore not cause any immediate drop in fuel costs or reduction of dependence on foreign oil, and even when the oil is drilled and refined, the predicted effect on cost is a reduction of something like $0.04 to the gallon.

Yes, I certainly believe that McCain picked Palin just as much (if not more) to placate the right wing as to lure Hillary supporters.

So let me explain something: it's not his pick of a woman that upsets people like me. It's the fact that Palin is now being used as yet another way to pander to the women's vote, in a long string of pandering attempts this election season. We don't like that a bunch of Republican women have been parading as Democrats claiming to be so angry at Obama that they're willing to throw their support behind their political polar opposite. Seriously. Do you PUMAs think we're so stupid that we'll see you and think to ourselves, "Gee, what they're doing is so feminist 2K! I want in!"

Pandering pisses people off. In this case it pisses me off. So Republicans, quit treating me like an idiot and then calling me sexist for having an opinion, all the while denying that the glass ceiling even exists.

Jackasses.

Organizing my thoughts on this election

I know nobody will read this. I haven't a clue how to market myself, and that goes for the blog world too. So I get to use this as a place where I throw out thoughts and ideas and then go back and edit them later, with nobody criticizing me before my ideas have gelled. Yeah, take that!

I've been incredibly emotional through the Democratic National Convention, and I'm trying to pinpoint why.

I was originally planning on voting for Clinton. Then, as I watched with increasing shame and disgust the unraveling of her campaign, I began to second guess myself. I yearned for a female Democratic candidate, but maybe not this one. Obama, who I'd respected but who had not fully swayed me, seemed wise, gentle and intelligent. Originally I was vaguely cynical of his message of hope. I, like many others, wondered if there was substance behind his words. The more I listened to him, though, the more I realized there was powerful substance. Substance on an intellectual level that I'd forgotten could exist in American politics. So in February I both caucused and voted for Obama.

Here's the thing. I've been moved intellectually by the things Obama has done and said since my state's primary. But I haven't been moved to tears. I've thought, "thank god we've got a candidate we can look up to and respect, because when he talks, you can tell he respects YOU. Thank god we have a chance to not have four more years of condescension and contempt." But these thoughts have typically been accompanied by dry eyes.

Then came the DNC and I've been reduced to a blubbering mess. Even between speeches, the crowd shots have turned on the tear spigots. And I've been really taken aback. I didn't expect this reaction. I don't undersand. But I might have a hypothesis.

There's the historicness (yes, not really a word, I know) of it. Nominating a black guy is nothing short of amazing to me. And a dent in the walls of racial oppression is a dent in the walls of ALL oppression. And if women aren't satisfied with that idea, they've got Michelle Obama, who is an incredible role model and a shining example of the strength of our gender.

There's the unity of it....that there are millions of people who really do feel the same way I do, and who care enough to do something about it.

But the thing I think has continually struck me right to my very core, is that this nomination will very possibly mark the end of eight years of oppression. Not just failed policy, war mongering and constitutional decimation, but complete psychic oppression. I can compare the last eight years to being stuck in the shittiest job ever, where your boss sneers every time he speaks in your direction, where you get crappy performance evaluations even though you work your ass off, where you can't ask for a raise because you're afraid of being punished for posing the question, where the Coke machine costs $1.25 because the company keeps those profits too, where your privileged coworkers keep getting raises and free Cokes and glowing evaluations. And underscoring all the crap you deal with day in and day out is that YOU CAN'T QUIT. Because there's not any other job to move to, at least not one you could afford. That is the world we've inherited, and it paints the very lenses through which we see our lives and the world around us. We've been in that fog. You don't even know how bad it is when you're in it. But now I see, and I realize just how awful the Bush administration has really been. They took the hope out of life. On a very real and concrete level my life is harder than it was eight years ago. I have to watch every penny I spend. I can't find a better paying job because the market is both saturated and thinning. I get a jolt of shock EVERY time I finish checking out at the grocery store. I only put $10 of gas in my car at a time, because I can't afford to fill the tank. But worst of all, I've been reduced to base cynicism, the last resort of those of us who are intelligent but powerless.

That's why Barack Obama took hope on as his mission. We've been stagnating in a world that seemed fairly well hopeless. And we have to win. This is more important than anything else I've experienced in my entire life. And the weight of that...well...it's heavy. So I cry. In rage at eight years lost, in hope that things can finally change, and in fear that if we don't win, there will be no place for me in this world at all.

gender and stuff

Yeah. And stuff.

I used that lighthearted title to put potential readers at ease. I'm not going to launch into a vitriolic rant about the gender issues that are boiling just below the surface of this election cycle. Or maybe I will. If my clever title trick worked, you're already reading. Hah!

I turned on Fox yesterday. I do that sometimes. You know why. You do it too. Anyway, they were profiling Geraldine Ferraro. I was confused for a few minutes. Why is this on FOX of all places? What is going on? My confusion was particularly pronounced, because the day before that I'd watched Britt Hume acknowledge that Michelle Obama gave a good speech at the Democratic Convention. I wondered what sort of weird happy pill had been slipped into his coffee that morning. Then the rest of the Fox panel followed suit, with only William Kristol dribbling on about the mediocrity of it all.

"Ok. So has Fox gone soft?," I asked myself. Then it hit me. How could I be so stupid. They're pandering to me. They want women to see how sensitive they can be, and thus how sensitive Republicans can be. They used Geraldine Ferraro's story to strike a nerve with me, to remind me how far women have come, but how far we have yet to go. They want me to think that Clinton's absence from the ballot in November is symbolic of every obstacle we women still face. They want me to vote for McCain.

When I figured this out, I felt really exploited. And angry. Following Clinton's speech, some lady on the Fox panel went on and on about how great her speech was. Kristol was sitting next to her, and his expression was one of utter derision. He doesn't give a rat's ass about Clinton, women who support Clinton, or women in general. He thinks the blonde lady sitting next to him is a dingbat, an unqualified nitwit, unable to analyze her own shopping list let alone politics. And Kristol, I think, is pretty representative of the type of people running the show at Fox.

I don't know how effective this shit is. I tend to assume people are smarter than that, but then people tell me, "No, Claire, they're really not..." and show me some link or other to the rantings of this or that whackadoodle.

Do you think Fox's tactics are working? How about when they pander to black, Hispanic, and other minority voters? Please anyone who accidentally finds this post, let me know what you think.