Travails of Daylight Saving Time

Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time, which works pretty well for me, I hate having to readjust my inner clock when suddenly it starts getting dark an hour earlier. The downside is now cable shows are on an hour later, which means Daily Show isn't on until midnight, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force isn't on until 1:00 am!!

Ah, John Stewart and Master Shake, you shall be missed.

Raznor has a detractor!

I feel like I've hit the big time. My guess is Bill, but it could be someone else, has signed me up to join the British Socialist Party, some newletter from ypsl (I have no idea what that is) and signed a guestbook at advaitaonline.com under the name Gonad Raznor, saying:

I like this site very much, even though I am GAY Please come to my site and learn about being a socialist http://raznor.blogspot.com/

Which as far as I'm concerned is free advertising. Besides the fact that I'm neither gay (let alone GAY) nor socialist, I don't see how this is supposed to concern me. But it's great, it's the classic example of an internet Republican, and quite frankly, completely hilarious.

I'll add, that when he signed me up to the British Socialist Party, he said I'm from New York, since, being liberal, I must be from New York. My constant references to being back home in Flagstaff, Arizona must be a cover.

Elliott Smith

So it's been a week since I got Elliott Smith's last album and so far I love it. It really show a continued evolution from his earlier style, perfected in Either/Or and continues the development of the style shown in Figure 8. It's a shame really, I would have loved to see how he would have continued developing as an artist.

Favorite track at this point has to be "King's Crossing", though "Twilight" and "Pretty (Ugly Before)" are right up there.

Yeah, go Sox!

So they have their first world championship in 86 years. I was hoping Sox vs Cards would be a more exciting matchup, but what can you say, Sox just outplayed them.

Wish I could be in Boston tonight.

Eminem gets political

Pretty good video here.

Go Sox!!

James Taylor singing the national anthem was a nice touch.

Puppies . . .

The Poor Man has the storyboards for the Bush/Cheney Project. Worth a look.

The stress of being a teacher

I think the most difficult thing about my job is the fact that I'm dealing with kids straight out of high school who haven't quite learned that school is not the most important thing in life. Oh well. Go Sox.

Raznor one-ups Josh Marshall

Take note that Josh Marshall mentions that not giving the President a flu shot (as Bush said is happening in the final debate) would be foolish, that he posted a day after I, the amazing Raznor said the same thing.

Yes, that's right, I rock. I'd dance for joy except for this damn cold, so instead I'll sip tea in pleasant solace.

. . . Which is not to say that the Josh Marshall post I linked to above is not worth reading. Josh Marshall is still Da Man.

Enjoy the Draft

Reality-based

As you can see, I'm joining the reality-based community. Maybe making observations based on reality as opposed to some magical fantasy-land where freedom is on the march and unicorns fly out of my ass is passe, but what the hell. I'm all for it.

Quick baseball note

I hate the Yankees.

Sooooooo much!

Bottom of the 13th right now. Come on Boston . . .

. . . Damn, into the 14th now. And for the record - back in the 12th, Ortiz was so safe.

. . . Ha ha ha. Bottom of the 14th. Suddenly this is becoming liveblogging the Yankees/Red Sox game. But it would be so awesome if the Sox win the series. Then we'll never again have to hear about the "Curse of the Bambino" and baseball writing will get collectively just a little bit better.


. . . Ha ha. Ortiz must be the first person ever to get two LCS gamewinning hits on the same day.

Republicans to blacks: Don't you dare vote!

Read about Republicans efforts at voter suppression in Philadelphia. Now.

Flu vaccine shortage - Bush's fault?

Kerry has blamed Bush for the lack of flu shots this season, and he's right. Flu vaccinations are an extremely important matter of public health, and the fact is we are so reliant on our providers that if one can't provide them one year, we fall into a crisis. This is a most grave error on the part of this Administration.

But if we want to be honest, instead of merely partisan, we have to admit the blame falls equally on Clinton, as well as Bush I and however far back we can go where this problem has existed. It's Bush's misfortune, not his fault, that this problem happened to surface on his watch.

So the question is what can we do about it? Kevin Drum has a good post on what appear to be various causes of our crisis, and these should be addressed as best we can. But the biggest problem appears to be that matching FDA standards for a vaccine is far too costly, considering the small profit margin and high-risk nature of producing flu vaccines.

So after another period of electoral chaos and repeated hackings into Diebold's main computer next month, what will I, as the newly elected President Raznor, do to prevent this sort of thing from occurring in the future?

What I think would be the best thing is to set public funds aside in order to fully fund (pharmaceutical company of your choice) creating plenty of vaccines to help fulfill the public need. There are probably problems in the details that I and my all-blogger Cabinet will need to deal with, but I think this general plan will work.

But as a side note, President Bush said during the last debate that he will not be getting a flu shot this year. This was supposed to convey a nice little "I'm in the same boat as you America" but it occurred to me earlier today that this is either an outright lie or just stupid. Don't get me wrong, I dislike Bush as much as the next guy (as long as the next guy really dislikes Bush) but shouldn't the President, as the most important person in the country, be the first person to be given a flu vaccine? I mean, the President is a man who can't go out in public without snipers being set up in various places, you'd think that with that level of security, a flu shot, even during a shortage, should be a no-brainer.

Republican Logic

Cheap, tawdry political trick:

We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.

Apparently, a respectful comment by an ally that's A-OK:

After saying homosexuality is "selfish hedonism," (Alan) Keyes was asked if that makes Mary Cheney "a selfish hedonist." "Of course she is," Keyes told Signorile. "That goes by definition."

Mad props to Tom Tomorrow for catching this one.

Debate thoughts

So Schlieffer started out the debate by asking "will our children be as safe and secure as we were growing up?" Or something along those lines, and I'm wondering - what the HELL is he talking about? I don't call the constant threat of nuclear annihalation at the hands of the Soviets growing up "safe and secure".

I like that Kerry pointed out early that when Bush was asked "jobs?" he answered "education." That was ridiculous.

And finally, am I the only one who noticed the left side of Bush's face sagging? Did he have a stroke that we hasn't been publicized?

Whatever the case, when Kerry was talking, Bush looking over at him with that smirk made Bush looked like an escaped mental patient.

Overall, this one is Kerry's. Bush sounded desperate, Kerry presidential. And Bush killed a lot of his chances when he gave the Democrats a ready weapon by denying he never said he wasn't worried about Osama. That's a video-ready lie that will be all over the newscasts tomorrow.

Update: Tom Tomorrow at least agrees with me on the utter stupidity of that first question.

Sinclair=evil

So if you haven't heard yet, Sinclair Broadcasting - remember the broadcasting group that refused to air the Nightline where Dan Rather read the names of the soldiers who had died so far in Iraq this past Memorial Day, is planning to force its 62 channels to air a two-hour anti-Kerry propaganda piece around election time. Daily Kos seems to be leading the fight against this so let's go.

Kerry has Bush's vote!

From the debate:

The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, "And the world would be a lot better off."

Sounds to me like an official endorsement.

. . . . changed quote to be more accurate, now that I'm able to check the transcript.

Interesting

So I'm sitting in my office, listening to the Atlanta radio broadcast of the Braves/Astros game thanks to this crazy new-fangled thing called "the internet", and there's an ad for Georgia power, and the ad finishes by saying that Georgia Power is a Southern Company. Is this a common thing to advertise in the south? I'm actually quite curious. And this will test how strong Raznor's Rants is around the country.

More scandals of wars past

A few weeks old, but still great.

Brain explodey

Via August Pollak:

According to Dick Cheney, Saddam Hussein posing no threat to America justifies the war.

Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) asserted on Thursday that a finding by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq (news - web sites) that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government produced no weapons of mass destruction after 1991 justifies rather than undermines President Bush (news - web sites)'s decision to go to war.

The report shows that "delay, defer, wait wasn't an option," Cheney told a town hall-style meeting.

In other news, up is down, 2+2=5 and we've always been at war with Eastasia.

Dick Cheney: Bald-faced liar

Kevin Drum has a pretty handy guide to Dick Cheney's lies from last night. Check it out.

More debate thoughts

Something Awful has a good roundup of the Cheney/Edwards debate. My favorite highlights:

- Cheney lost some credibility by countering Halliburton accusations with, "the nonpartisan website Sexbarn.org has all the information discrediting those rumors." Actually, Sexbarn.org turned partisan about the same time they added the alpaca gallery and video section.

- Edwards did not hesitate to bring up Halliburton at every opportunity. Cheney finally countered by giving Edwards a coupon book offering valuable discounts on Halliburton brand merchandise.

- Cheney began multiple rebuttals with, "I don't know where to begin." While he was attempting to convey that he was overwhelmed by inaccuracies, it came off sounding more desperate. Edwards preferred to start his rebuttals with, "the reason for that burning flesh smell is that my opponent is ablaze in the flames of his own filthy lies."

There's more. Read it all. Now!

Update (10/8, 11:44am): Updated the link, it'll take you to the archived article now.

So what did I, Raznor, think of the debate?

Frankly, I watched maybe a total of half of it. I found the Yankees-Twins matchup much more interesting and less annoying than the Edwards-Cheney matchup. But two things Cheney said caught my attention, because they were rehashes of things written by others.

First of all, Cheney quite disgustingly rehashed David Brooks' comparison between the situation in Iraq and the situation in El Salvador 20 years ago. As if El Salvador was a triumph in democracy. I'd talk on about this but Jeanne already did a superb job deconstructing Brooks' column, and I recommend you read her post if you haven't yet.

Then later, as a capper, Cheney mentioned that Bush would make a better Commander in Chief since "he's been Commander in Chief for four years." Which is almost a line taken directly out of this short article from The Onion:

Bush Calls Incumbency Key Issue Of Campaign
WASHINGTON, DC—At a campaign dinner Monday, President Bush identified incumbency as the key issue in the upcoming presidential election. "Look at my opponent's record on incumbency," Bush said. "John Kerry is not the president at this time. That's an indisputable matter of public record." Bush added that the American public should seriously consider whether it wants to risk electing a president who has no experience heading a nation, has never resided in the White House, and does not have even one State Of The Union address under his belt.

In the meanwhile, the Twins won 2-0 in an extremely exciting game with some spectacular catches by Torii Hunter and Jacque Jones in the outfield. Should be a good postseason ahead of us.

Ticka-click click- booyah!

It's a new Cheat Commandos!

Okay, he's still an asshole, but that's a great line

I agree with Kevin Drum that Andrew Sullivan has the best one-liner on the debate:

No president who has presided over Abu Ghraib should ever say he wants to put anyone on a leash.