SwimFinsSF

INSANE

Ok… So this is flippin insane:

Recall ballot offers 135 choices to replace Gov. Davis

The State of California now has 135, count ’em, 135 candidates to pick from to replace Gray Davis in the recall election. If you go to the California Secretary of State site you can get a full list of the people who submitted all of the correct fees and paperwork to place themsevels on the ballot..

So 3 things and then I’ll shut up (ok.. I probably won’t.. but still):

1) This recall came about through a flawed process that allowed a bunch of payed signature collectors to impeach our governor. Why the hell do we have a system that allows this kind of overthrow mid term. This should be just as serious as impeaching a President and the reasons for doing it should be legal and not political. If you don’t LIKE the job a governor is doing that isn’t sufficient grounds – stick out the term (we had to with the last Governor). If the Governor has been proven to broken laws during his term then he should be tried and have an opportunity to defend himself.

2) This recall is simply a temper tantrum by the republicans because they’re bitter that their candidate isn’t in office. On top of that the reasons they’re giving for doing this are caused by THEIR candidate that held the office previously. Don’t get me wrong – I’m the LAST to say Gray Davis is doing a bang up job – BUT he stepped into a pile of Poo ( privatized power, crashing economy, etc) that was left there for him by his successor. I challenge any of these candidates to have stepped into the same mess he did and do a better job. These folks have one thing Grey didn’t – if the economy is actually turning around as I’ve heard speculation about then they might come out smelling like roses.. Hard to say..

3) There is NO WAY IN HELL the voters of California can possibly wade through the collection of 135 replacement candidates to find one who is even QUALIFIED to be Governor LET ALONE do a better job than the current guy. I really hope we pick a good one but, being that the only names that pop to my mind right now are Gary Coleman, Arnold Schwartzenaeger, Cruz Bustamante, and Hugh Heffner I think we may be in for a world of hurt..

If I didn’t have to live here I’d be inclined to fold my arms and chuckle and what a bunch of fools live in the sunshine state. But I don’t have that luxury so, instead, I get to hunker down and brace for impact…

Guess the Terminator will be our next Governor… Uggg

Foreign Press

I just picked up the latest issue of Der Spiegel in the Castro today and on the cover it says “The endless Blitzkreig” as the title and below that it says “Spiegel Series: How the USA lied to the world, overthrew a Tyrant, and is now stuck in a Guerilla War”….

Leave it to the German press to hit the nail squarely on the head in a very blunt way…

I’ll refrain from ranting about Trickey Dick Cheney’s speech this morning. I got into a discussion with Kevin about it briefly at dinner and we had to stop for fear of getting into a fight. He’s much more tolerant and accepting of all of the BS thats going on in our government these days than I am – guess thats the difference between being raised in a conservative family in North Carolina like kevin was and being raised by liberal parents in California like me. Kevin’s pretty sure his entire family actually voted for that butt head in the oval office! 😉

I’ll just keep all the opinions that have been rattling around in my head today to myself or I’ll be up all night typing – just write ’em off to a bad day and a grumpy mood!

‘Free Coalition Government’

Our wonderful president used this term when talking about forming a new Iraqi government… Is it just me or does this sounds odd and almost like a contradiction in terms… Doesn’t the term ‘Coalition’ imply some form of external control by at least the US and, thus, in conflict with the term ‘free’…. Maybe its just me being skeptical…

Hmmmm…

Maybe I should take George’s words at face value..

then again…

Maybe not! ;)..

Guess I just don’t trust a word the man Says! 😉

Here we go again…

He just posted an article that sounds strikingly familiar:

Special forces ‘prepare for Iran attack’

I’m speachless.. not surprised mind you given how out of control the administration is already.. But… uggg… I’ll just let the article speak for itself… I just hope the folks that supported the LAST invasion (and the one before that) hold the administration accountable for their claims justifying that one before we move on… Or do we really have as short an attention span as our fearless leader is counting on us having?… Hmmmmmmmmmm

sorry… I’m ranting… I’m gonna work now – least I have some control over THAT!

The CDC

and the current administration never cease to amaze me (ok.. well, frankly, i’m not surprised at all – but still)… Driving home from the south bay today I heard on NPR that the CDC is threatening to cut federal funding to the Stop AIDS Project. It seems that they don’t like the sexually explicit nature of the campaigns and panel discussions the organization hosts..

WHAT THE FUCK?

One of the primary ways that AIDS is transmitted is via sexual intercourse. How exactly does the CDC expect to educate people about the consequences of HIV/AIDS in a way that they will pay attention to without talking in a very frank way about sex. Having Marion the Librarian get up infront of a bunch of young gay men and lecture them about the science of HIV isn’t exactly going to work (assuming you get them in the room). You have to convince people they need to pay attention to and have frank discussions in a non judgemental forum in terms that people relate to… Its the ONLY WAY for this to sink in… The fact is – people will have sex.. deal with it… and if they are having sex they need to be educated… and to educate people in a way that will sink in takes creativity… and the Stop AIDS project is doing that…

One of the things I find most disturbing in recent years has been the cavalier people have begun to take about HIV and safe sex. I’ve seen LOTS more people being careless about safe sex and protecting themselves against HIV and it really upsets me.. I don’t know if its a youthful invincibility thing or if people think that living with HIV isn’t so bad or if they’ve just grown wary… but regardless its happening and the Stop AIDS project has done great work trying to stem that tide…

nuff ranting… just had to share…. This SFGate article gives more scoop…. Looks like at least the city will try to step up and help out with the funding …

An interesting read:

Just found this article here:

Is lying about the reason for a war an impeachable offense?

I found this paragraph particularly entertaining:

In an apparent attempt to bolster the President’s credibility, and his own, Secretary Rumsfeld himself has now called for a Defense Department investigation into what went wrong with the pre-war intelligence. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd finds this effort about on par with O.J.’s looking for his wife’s killer. But there may be a difference: Unless the members of Administration can find someone else to blame — informants, surveillance technology, lower-level personnel, you name it — they may not escape fault themselves.

Since I’m in a good mood I’ll just say i’m glad to start seeing the press doing their job and leave it at that! 🙂