Thursday, October 10, 2002

Pakistan Election a Close Call as Counting Begins [New York Times: International News] And raise your hand if you actually expect honest results from Musharraf's dictatorship...
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Ow. Thumb pain. Aggressive Inline is at least as bad as Tony Hawk when it comes to the blisterage. Luckily, all my hours of Soul Calibur, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 have given me a nice callus on my left thumb. The other problem is that when you get used to a certain controller (at this point, I'm accustomed to the PS2 and Dreamcast controllers) and then you start using a new one (in this case, the GameCube), you have to figure out where to put your fingers. No, seriously. It's shaped very differently than what I'm used to, so I'm getting blisters. Ah well - sacrifices one must make for one's art. Or something.

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House Passes Iraq Resolution With 296 to 133 Vote [New York Times: International News] Aw, dammit. My rep, Marty Meehan, voted for the damned thing. There goes my vote. Though I do have to say that seeing 133 Congressmen and women with more gumption and principle than him is good to see. Just wish it was more.
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"The bottom line is I don't trust this president and his advisors". Not every Democrat has caved to Bush's martial fervor. Rep. Pete Stark makes it stunningly clear why he voted against the Iraq war resolution. [Salon Headlines] Read this, now. Pete Stark is a ballsy man.
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Uncle Colin's Cabin?. Plastic::Politics::Race: Do Harry Belafonte's remarks about Colin Powell reflect the frustrations of the African-American community at Powell's role, or is Colin still the best hope in the Administration? [Plastic: Most Recent] Or both, maybe?
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Birds of Prey has impressed me right out of the gate - Mark Hamill as the voice of the Joker...honestly, at this point, if there ever is going to be another Batman movie with the Joker in it, it needs Hamill playing the Joker. He's friggin' brilliant. And then using an Oasis song for the sterotypical WB sentimental opening pop song - me like Oasis, y'see.
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~Make the pie higher: a poem from the sayings of George Bush. This poem is composed entirely of actual quotes from George Bush. Circulating on the internet for some time, it was reportedly compiled by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. Here we reproduce it to mark National Poetry Day. [Guardian Unlimited] heh.
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Swift, ed officials: High school could take longer for some. Boston Herald Oct 10 2002 1:18AM ET [Moreover - Boston news] Thanks to the MCAS, Massachusetts' standardized testing system, which you have to pass to graduate high school now, graduation rates in Massachusetts are plummetting.  For the seven graduating classes before the MCAS requirement (it starts with the class of 2003), the lowest that the statewide graduation rate has it was 74.8%. For 2003, the best case is approximately 70% - and even that assumes that 3,500 of the seniors who haven't passed the MCAS yet manage to do so this year. If none of them do, the graduation rate would actually fall close to 65% - which is horrible. On top of this, up to 8,779 kids who were originally scheduled to graduate with the class of 2003 have been held back in their freshman, sophomore, or junior years. That's well over 10% of the original total. Wow. So now the advocates of the MCAS are saying that standards are more important than letting kids go to the next grade to keep them from feeling bad about themselves. Even putting that aside, there's the little issue of MONEY. If we're having problems affording quality education in our schools now, where are we going to get the cash to keep kids in school for another year?

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Birds of Prey review - "Pilot" (2) [Bureau 42] ...this is why I love TiVo - I'm a West Wing addict. Can't miss an episode, even if it's gotten, shall we say, a wee bit unsubtle lately. (ok, it's actually become really heavyhanded and clumsy, but still...it's the only place you can find left-wing political ideas on television consistently.) But Birds of Prey looks like it could be fun - and the lead looks eerily like a friend from college. Answer? I watch West Wing at my dad's, as I've been doing since I moved back to the area, and record Birds of Prey to watch later. Friggin' brilliant, says I. =)

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A Message of Discontent From Brazil [New York Times: Opinion] Damn straight it's a message of discontent - Brazil and the rest of Latin America has gottne the short end of the stick for too long. Damn straight Washington needs to pay attention - Brazil and Venezuela have realized that the erstwhile "economic reforms" make things worse, not better and have voted accordingly. Now it's our turn.
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