.:Gotta Drop a Blog in The Corner:.

why is stephen colbert so funny? it's impressive that he can call out the president when he's sitting right next to you. the video of his speech is broken into 3 parts on youtube.

part 1

part 2

part 3

These anniversaries of 9/11/2001 make me angry. It's not simply that I despise the terrorists that scarred my hometown and murdered my neighbors. It's not simply that I recall what it was like on that fateful day, or the moody weeks that followed. What infuriates me is the way that Bush exploits the tragedy every chance he gets. I remember the goodwill that was directed at my city and its inhabitants, and by extension the United States. And so, here we are five years later, with no development at all on ground zero. The Iraq war only gets worse with each passing month, despite strenuous propaganda efforts to the contrary by the powerful and perpetually power-hungry Bush/Cheney administration and its neoconservative echo-machine lapdogs. Precious few of the 9/11 commission's recommendations having been implemented. Meanwhile, our civil liberties have been stripped so gradually and casually that one has to make a concerted effort to realize just how far we've fallen from the freedoms whose protection our elected leaders purport to be of such paramount importance to them. I haven't even scratched the surface.

Tomorrow is the primary election in New York State, and in less than two months we'll have a general election that will likely result in a Congress of rather different balance and constitution. Or one can only hope. Our republic has developed far too monolithic a government to be good for our democracy. With more than two years left of this presidency, we're in dire need of a legitimate opposition in the legislative branch. I fear that the Democrats have strayed so far from their core principles, and are so wishy-washy in their attempts to reclaim them, that they may not find their way back in time. And yet the GOP, far from having strayed, has been stretched so far from its basis as to be unrecognizable and perhaps even unsalvagable for what it once was and stood for. So I hold out some hope, however marginal, that the Democratic Party may just recover its soul, and help edge us back toward an America to be revered.

Let's take a brief look at what kind of war the Bush gang have unleashed upon us. This reminds me of a couple of strips from This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow: why we're going to war and a patriot's guide to debating the war on terror. But I'd like to draw your attention, if you have the time, to a speech that MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann closed his program with tonight, moments before Bush took the airwaves for his presidential address. I'd be interested in your comments.

The pain of 9/11/2001 hits me at odd times, in a way that is utterly oblivious of political agendas, media cycles, and time periods that have been predetermined to have some numerological significance. I probably felt it most strongly, since the event itself, in Summer 2004. At that time, I found myself working downtown in an area that was familiar to me during my college years, when the Twin Towers served to anchor my sense of direction. Now that I was back, I felt this dark shroud of sorrow hanging over me in the empty sky, the overbearing sun of the New York City summer serving as a searing reminder of how unexpected, raw, and awful that morning was. Springsteen and Mahler streamed into my ears, and my mind was occupied by thoughts of how lucky I was. The people I love were spared physical trauma, but none of us could help but be affected in other ways.

We endure varying degrees of psychological trauma to this day, and overcome it to the extent that we can in our day-to-day lives, but we will always carry it with us as long as we live. It's important to point out that we New Yorkers, and the honorary New Yorkers who lived through this wretched catastrophe with us, have a strong sense of perspective on the threats that we clearly face from terrorism. Our heads are screwed on straight and we approach the situation with a calm, clear mind, for the most part. Our police department is doing remarkable things, not least of all with intelligence gathering, picking up where the federal government is too incompetent to contribute to its obligation. And yet in my travels through these United States, from cities to midwestern farm towns, I've noticed that the more remote the threat, the more palpable the fear of terrorism. And why is this? Because we have leaders who stand to gain too much from stoking this fear than to actually lead us from the fear and toward the positive spirit of America that has served as a beacon of hope to waves of immigrants for as long as our country has existed. However, as we are not going to get this from the current administration, we best summon that hope within each of us, and do our best to spread it, one person at a time, until there's enough momentum to swing the pendulum back toward the light.

Hi everybody. So the funny thing that Jason's talking about is this. (Though not as funny, you can also look at this. One of the actors in this scene is actually providing his own voice - can you guess which one?) Finally, to cap off this theme of links, check this out.

Now onto politics. Jason showed me this video clip of Bill Clinton telling it like it is to Chris Wallace on FoxNews. (Here is part 2 of the same interview.) And a reaction to it by Keith Olbermann, who is becoming one of my favorite news anchors for his Murrow-like approach to television journalism.

I know that's a lot of video to check out, but the first couple are short and funny, and the Clinton one is pretty important. The difference in body language--hell, just in language--is so stark between our current president and our last great president. If we had the opportunity, as voters, to write in a candidate for president in the next election, there's a good chance Bill would win... even if that choice wouldn't be ratified for constitutional reasons.

the all important election day where the dems have a real possibility of taking back control over the house and senate.

a canvasser stopped by today with materials supporting davis and the rest of the dem ticket. i've thought about this race a lot more over the last couple of weeks. i do have issues with the davis campaign, his views on certain issues, but the canvasser mentioned that davis was willing to pull back from the iraq war... however davis has stated he does not think all troops should be pulled out, and no timetable should be setup. here's an article about the differences between davis and his incumbent opponent reynolds. as you can see, there's not much difference. i would definitely feel guilty going for reynolds, because there are some issues that i feel really strong about that reynolds does not support, namely abortions and same-sex rights/marriage. while these issues affect some people... the big issue that affects everyone no matter if they are gay, straight, pregnant or not is the economy, and i don't support davis' plans to put up trade barriers and tariffs. it will not only raise prices of goods that we buy, but perpetuate an inefficient, bloated sector in the US known as manufacturing. why shouldn't we off-shore jobs that require little to no skill to do if they can be done for cheaper? these jobs help developing countries build up their own industries, and down the line increase demand for trade for other goods. instead of sustaining these low skilled jobs, government should provide funds to educate and train these americans in other sectors. putting up barriers also may harbor more ill will internationally on the political side... but also we will pass up opportunities to capitalize in other markets and lose out against other countries. if we will not support free trade, another country will, and will definitely pick up the slack. another point of view is to look at the issue through technology. technology is an increasing part of people's lives. driving new technology adoption comes from a decrease in the price of whatever it is we are looking to use. one of the ways to control price is have a competitively manufactured product. if the product is priced prohibitively high, why would you adopt it? if technology serves as a competitive business advantage, a company will adopt it no matter what. however, if the product costs more to purchase in the US because of tariffs, versus a company based in germany, canada, uk, etc... the advantage goes to a company based elsewhere. so if you are a small/mid-size company, how do you compete in a global market? you need to find ways to cut your costs elsewhere, or increase your revenues and profits to offset those costs just to remain at a comparable level with your foreign competitors. in the end putting up these barriers would hurt consumers, businesses, and probably cause some developing economies who are dependent on exporting out goods to the US some financial and maybe political turmoil.

ok... even if the economy is a minus, balances out the plusses (same-sex issues, abortion) in the davis campaign... back to the canvasser... she definitely did come out and say that with a davis win, the dems have an even better chance of taking over the house. while that is true... i am not so sure how the democratic philosophy would be furthered with davis in house considering davis' point of view, and the fact that he doesn't see eye to eye with most of the local officials within the democratic party. what it boils down to now for me, is... which candidate would be better for buffalo and the wny region. reynolds is a high ranking representative in the house, it has been shown he can work effectively across party lines and people who he doesn't agree with to get things down when needed... and so he can funnel more money to us. davis... he's a political novice who does not have the warmest of relationships with either the dems in his locale or republicans. how is he going to either funnel money or projects to the area? how is he going to promote change for this area? is he going to do it by re-establishing the manufacturing industry here in buffalo? we seriously have to let that go... we have to promote other industries... for pete's sake we have a bunch of area colleges in the area. we have to keep our college grads in the area instead of having them move away (we have 5 suny colleges/university within an hour drive, among the other suny community colleges and private colleges). so what... we're gonna have our kids go through higher education to work on an assembly line? good thinking there.

these are just some things i've been thinking about recently... and why as much as i hate to say it... i will be casting my ballot reynolds.

Pandora is a really cool internet radio site that grew out of the Music Genome Project, which painstakingly analyzes as much rock music as it can. So what Pandora is able to do is create a play list of music for you based on songs that you tell it that you like. They're now in trouble. I'll let Pandora's founder explain the details:

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

I signed it, and if you agree with the petition I urge you to join it as well. Cheers for now.