I keep hearing that she's ''like us.'' There's this idea that people who hunt and have ''good'' values are somehow this mythological American; I don't know who ''this'' person is, I've never met them. She is no more typical ''us'' than I am, than Obama is, than McCain is, than Mr. T is. If there is something quintessentially or authentically American about her, I sort of feel like, you know what? You ''good values people'' have had the country for eight years, and done an unbelievably s---ty job. Let's find some bad values people and give them a shot, maybe they'll have a better take on it.
-John Stewart on Sarah Palin
"Of course, Sarah Palin's no animal lover. She's put extraordinary effort into undoing federal wildlife protections for polar bears, beluga whales, and pretty much any other animal that gets in the way of the oil industry's plans.
But her wolf bounty really takes the cake for animal cruelty. One of Palin's first acts in office was to put a $150 bounty on the heads of her state's wolves, allegedly with the goal of increasing the moose and caribou population. But this was no ordinary hunt: it was meant to incentivize the aerial killing of wolves, in which private hunters take a small plane and chase down wolf packs until they're exhausted and can't move any more, when they either shoot them from the air or land and execute them at point blank range. Then, they strap the wolf to a plane, cut off the wolf's left forearm, and bring it to the state Department of Fish and Game for their cash reward.
As if this wasn't enough, now Palin's administration is allowing its "Department of Wildlife Conservation" to enter into wolf dens and slaughter wolf pups; in July, her employees went to retrieve adult wolf carcasses they had shot a month earlier from a helicopter and then found the wolves' pups in their den and so dispatched them one-by-one with pistol shots to the head. They then tried to conceal their actions from the public. When they were exposed, they said they had tried to place the orphaned wolves with zoos. Then the zoos said no one had contacted them.
Meanwhile, Palin's government spent $400,000 in taxpayer money on an aerial wolf hunting "education" program to lobby for the program. This is the sort of thing you can expect from Sarah Palin if she gets to be a heartbeat away from the presidency."
-From an article by Glenn Hurowitz
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Taxi to the Dark Side
I know I'm late on this - but I finally just saw the Oscar winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side and I just want to urge everyone to see it. The information is vitally important to know and the issues it delves into should be in the consciousness of all American citizens. The foundation our country is built upon by the founding fathers needs to be upheld - the belief that all men are created equal and that we have basic and inalienable rights. I want our country to stand behind these beliefs, but there is corruption and evil in our government that needs to be brought into the light and corrected, it is the duty of each of us to seek this out, and these filmmakers have done their part. Please see this film.
WB
Update on my job:
I'm very lucky. I'm still nervous, still trying to figure all my tasks out. Still beating myself up when I make stupid mistakes. But, I am truly happy to be here. I love my bosses and beyond wanting to be a great assistant, I hope to become better friends with them. I love talking politics daily with such an intelligent, funny group of people. I love that on a given day on my lunchbreak I will see a line of beauty pageant contestants walk by and a wee pig waiting for its close-up outside a soundstage.
I'm very lucky. I'm still nervous, still trying to figure all my tasks out. Still beating myself up when I make stupid mistakes. But, I am truly happy to be here. I love my bosses and beyond wanting to be a great assistant, I hope to become better friends with them. I love talking politics daily with such an intelligent, funny group of people. I love that on a given day on my lunchbreak I will see a line of beauty pageant contestants walk by and a wee pig waiting for its close-up outside a soundstage.
Mom & Pop
Last night I had what was probably the worst nightmare of my life. I remember having scary nightmares as a kid and waking up terrified and wishing it wasn't dark, but they usually involved monsters or other fantastical objects, adult nightmares are just so much worse. Without going into too much detail, I had a dream that my mom basically had alzheimers and couldn't remember anything, I was trying to get through to her, but it was just truly the worst feeling ever, there was nothing I could do, to talk to her and realize that her mind was gone, that she could no longer function on her own - I can't think of anything worse. Then, in the dream, I was talking to my dad about it and he started weeping. We were both crying together and then I woke up.
I know people really do have to deal with watching their parents and loved ones have these problems. I hope and pray that my parents will stay strong and healthy, as they are now. As I lay in bed trying to shake these awful images, I missed my parents so very much. I know I take them for granted. I feel I have a good relationship with them at this point in life, but I still get bratty and impatient at times, so maybe this will just serve as a good reminder to appreciate them in my life more fully.
I know people really do have to deal with watching their parents and loved ones have these problems. I hope and pray that my parents will stay strong and healthy, as they are now. As I lay in bed trying to shake these awful images, I missed my parents so very much. I know I take them for granted. I feel I have a good relationship with them at this point in life, but I still get bratty and impatient at times, so maybe this will just serve as a good reminder to appreciate them in my life more fully.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
House is back!
And season 5 of House begins. I hope this season is great. Of course, Hugh will be. I really hope the writers realize that the fans want to see more of the original crew who we care about and less of the new crew that we could take or leave. I want more Cameron/House, but I hear it's going to be more House/Cuddy goin' on - boo. Whatever the case, I'm glad it's back, I love it. Whit even made me a House-themed dinner tonight (House salad, a Cuddy of Steak, and Robert Sean Lemon Tart)
By the way, Fringe is an awesome new show. The second episode is on right now. Check it out.
Work. Schmork.
My poor blog has been so neglected lately. I have just been so busy.
Pending a background check and then if I make it past a 90 day trial period, I will be employed by Warner Bros. The last couple of weeks I have been temping at WB in the TV Legal Dept. I assist two lawyers. They are both really cool. But I have a ton to learn and it is pretty stressful. No more surfin' the internet or reading a novel a week. I'm glad about this, I'm glad to have a challenge, I'm glad to have real work, but it also does get stressful when I feel like I don't know what I'm doing yet. I just want to do well and I hope and pray I will be able to fulfill all my duties and be the assistant my bosses want me to be and I want to be. So there's that. Working on the lot is fun. It's a fun environment and nice people. So here's hoping for the best.
There's your update.
Pending a background check and then if I make it past a 90 day trial period, I will be employed by Warner Bros. The last couple of weeks I have been temping at WB in the TV Legal Dept. I assist two lawyers. They are both really cool. But I have a ton to learn and it is pretty stressful. No more surfin' the internet or reading a novel a week. I'm glad about this, I'm glad to have a challenge, I'm glad to have real work, but it also does get stressful when I feel like I don't know what I'm doing yet. I just want to do well and I hope and pray I will be able to fulfill all my duties and be the assistant my bosses want me to be and I want to be. So there's that. Working on the lot is fun. It's a fun environment and nice people. So here's hoping for the best.
There's your update.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Interesting
From Associated Press story:
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
___
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
___
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Pure Evil
Sarah Palin is a crazy, scary, two-faced, hick.
The Great and Abominable Republican party freaks me out.
Looking around that conference gives me the hives.
I don't mean to offend, but I can't deny the way I feel. I'm not saying that all Republicans are evil, obviously, just the party itself.
Sorry, but this is my blog, afterall.
That's all.
The Great and Abominable Republican party freaks me out.
Looking around that conference gives me the hives.
I don't mean to offend, but I can't deny the way I feel. I'm not saying that all Republicans are evil, obviously, just the party itself.
Sorry, but this is my blog, afterall.
That's all.
Tempin'
I started my temp job today at Warner Bros. New jobs/temp jobs are terrifying. Worse than the 1st day of school? Maybe. At least at school you just had to sit and listen to a teacher, but at a job you're expected to do things, accomplish things. New phones, new computers, new files, new people, names, protocol. You have to pretend you know what you're doing, that you're confident and skilled, all while feeling like a lost child. I still don't feel like an adult - I feel like I have on an adult costume (as in grown-up, not skanky). Maybe office work, particularly, makes me feel inadequate - it represents what everyone pictures when thinking of an adult going to work. But office work is what I'm experienced in, supposedly. Clerical work and acting - oi - there must be a middle ground; a job that feels creative and yet is a job that will make me money to pay my very adult bills. There is somewhat a sense of this being a little bit of a fake job, since it is at a studio. I can walk a few steps out of the office and see things like today when I look over and see a huge stuffed polar bear waiting for its close up on the Pushing Daisies sound stage. It's a beautiful studio and it seems like a great place to work. We'll see how this goes. If they like me here as I temp, they may want to hire me. Once inside the fortress walls, who knows what it could lead to?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Bonnie
I had applied for a job as page for the new Bonnie Hunt Show, so today we went to watch a taping of the show. It was the premiere episode and Robin Williams was the guest, which was great.
Tapings are a little weird, but can be interesting.
I've loved Bonnie Hunt for many years, so I was just happy to see her. I think she is hilarious and smart. I always wanted to be more like Bonnie Hunt - she's just quick as a whip.
Hopes of a job there are slim, but there's still a flicker.
Monday, September 1, 2008
My 2nd Plea to Emma Thompson
Hello Emma Thompson,
I'm going to say it again. Let's play mother and daughter in something.
I wrote a play for us. I even thought Greg Wise would be great for the guy in it, but it was my first play and it is lame, so I will have to try again.
I think we should do Mrs. Warren's Profession. Come on, you'd be amazing in that role.
There must be a reason I grew up watching so much British film and television, that I studied acting and that I am frequently told I resemble you (I don't think we look exactly alike or anything, but there is enough of a resemblance that an audience would buy the relation).
We could even do a three generations project of some sort with you and Phyllida Law.
I'm open for suggestions.
Thank you.
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