I was gonna sleep but Dino called me to say hello. Made me feel all warm inside 
But now I’ve got something on my mind. I want to talk about the ABSOLUTE fucking AFFRONT to decency that is the Bush campaign’s latest “Web Ad”. Entitled “The Faces of John Kerry’s Democratic Party” it sets out to portray Democrats at their most outrageous—that is, outraged at the Bush administration. The hideous part is the clip showing Adolf Hitler giving a speech with George Bush’s words superimposed over it, then cut to Bush…
The Bush campaign shouldn’t be using these images. Primarily, calling the ad what they do, it purports to make Hitler a Democrat. Everyone in the video is shouting, including our old buddy Adolf. The Bush blog refers to the ad as “Kerry’s coalition of the wild-eyed” and I guess by including Hitler’s wild eyes this means that The Führer’s voting for Kerry this year. We all know that Bush has God’s vote. I’ll leave you to decide which is a more ridiculous idea.
More importantly, someone shouldn’t have made this media in the first place. I did some research and found out that the images in their order first appeared as part of MoveOn.org’s “Bush in 30 Seconds” ad contest to produce an anti-Bush ad. (The New York Times also found this out, but they probably used Google like I did.) Some idiot clipped together Hitler pictures and audio to make the Hitler portion of the Bush ad that you see on georgewbush.com… unfortunate for everyone involved, in my opinion. We don’t need to drag Hitler into this, as he’s both dead and did more atrocious things than Bush has. Once Bush is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Muslims then we can start comparing him with Hitler. (Nevermind I happen to halfway believe if he gets re-elected I’ll be doing just that in another four years) The point is that this sequence of images and audio and text shouldn’t have been put together, or posted by MoveOn. Furthermore, this ad should never have been recycled by the Bush campaign, especially after MoveOn pulled the ad and apologized. The Kerry Blog says it best:
?The fact that George Bush thinks it?s appropriate to use images of Adolf Hitler in his campaign raises serious questions about his fitness to spend another four years in the White House. Adolf Hitler slaughtered millions of innocent people and has no place in a campaign that is supposed to be about the future and hope of this nation. The President?s use of these images during a month that evoked the memory of World War II is remarkably insensitive to the sacrifices of the millions of people who lost their lives during Hitler?s reign of terror.
?The Bush Campaign should immediately remove these hateful images from its website and apologize for using them. The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong.?
Also of note is the overall negativity of the Bush campaign… they seem bent on smashing Kerry any chance they can get. A candidate running such a negative campaign doesn’t really leave with with much hope for America’s future, unlike Kerry’s positive and sometimes even inspirational ads. The focus should really be on using the positive for change, as Clinton said: “There is nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed with what is right with America”. Of course the Bush campaign says that “Team Kerry is an angry, rage-filled group that offers no positive vision for America.” (Who would’ve known that Adolf Hitler was part of Team Kerry?) Again, the Kerry Blog:
In addition to the deplorable use of Hitler imagery on the front of George Bush’s site, blogger Oliver Willis points out, “As I write this, on GeorgeWBush.com there are three pictures of John Kerry (all bashing him in various ways), and none of Mr. Bush … This optimistic campaign seems quite short on … optimism. And why are they hiding their candidate? On the other hand JohnKerry.com has pictures of JOHN KERRY. What a concept.”
So… Bush/Cheney website = Hitler & Evil John Kerry; John Kerry website = Optimstic John Kerry. I really hope Bush goes back to Crawford next January. I’ll help him pack.
What’s best of all is that, in response to using the Hitler imagery in their ad, the Bush campaign blames the Kerry campaign and MoveOn: “We share Senator Kerry’s outrage with what Kerry’s surrogates created in the form of a Web video that was on MoveOn.org’s web site.” Allow me to put that into English: “We’re outraged that we made something outrageous from something outrageous that they made, but it’s not really our fault and we’re not sorry.” Politics as usual.
Good night America. Vote Kerry.
“I have to do this alone,” I said as I zippered up my duffel bag.
“What if I at least flew up there with you? I can hang out somewhere else while you’re there. At least then I’ll be near you.”
I pause at this proposal to consider a few things. Have I packed enough? The duffel is filled to the brim but at this moment I wonder if I’ve forgotten anything. I hope the plane isn’t delayed. Deoderant, right? I hope I can do this without making a complete fool of myself. Toothpaste? I wonder what kind of pictures I should take. Toothbrush? I wonder if I shouldn’t just drive. Enough socks? I wonder, finally, if I ought to just bring him with me.
“You’d be a comfort, really, but this is something I have to”-and here’s the part where I pause to add that full clarification I know he needs at this point-”I want to do this by myself.”
He sighs his long, deep, breathy sigh. I only hear it under two circumstances: right after we’ve finished making love and whenever he’s disappointed. This is obviously the disappointed sigh.
“Listen, I’ll call you when I get there. I’ll email you from the plane. I’ll send you pictures from the camera phone. It’ll be like I haven’t even bloody left, alright?” I’m trying to use my Sweet I Love You Voice.
“Okay. It is only for a couple of days.”
“Yes, and if he’s not dead by then I’ll kill him myself.”
I’m pleased to make available “Father’s Day”, the first in what will hopefully be a weekly Fiction Friday Feature. This work and all future Fiction Friday pieces are being released under a creative commons license. Like this one, they will probably be barely-edited second drafts, so consider them works in progress. I welcome any comments!
Versions available: HTML | PDF | TXT | RTF
Melissa Etheridge dykes it out for equality.
Rock on, Melissa. Rock on.
I totally agree with this audio post from WWdN. I heard it a month ago… while I realize and agree with what Wil’s talking about, it’s really hilarious to listen to.
How many times can Wil Wheaton say “fuck”?
Today’s four seconds of laughter is brought to you by Ernie.
My employer doesn’t seem to understand the value of free advertising. From Policy 04:
Personal Web Pages
A team member should not publish a personal home page on the Web that contains the Meijer logo or a hyperlink to the Meijer Web site without the approval of the team member’s director or vice president. The Meijer logo is a corporate asset and protected under federal trademark law. Violating this policy may result in team member discipline up to termination.
Free advertising and an inbound link. They’re lucky I don’t charge them.
Actually, this is their old logo. The new David Rockwell-designed logo isn’t “live” yet but it looks pretty snazzy. Lowercase is the new uppercase!
They have it on some of the Meijer-brand product. A lot of Meijer’s new stuff looks pretty good from a design standpoint. I just hope it sells for my sake. Why Pay More!
Dino thinks he has a bad haircut. He claims it makes him look like a lesbian. So I figured I’d take a poll.
Today was my “day off” in that I didn’t do much of anything. I watched Spellbound and ate some chinese food. I was going to hang out with Patrick tonight but then I decided it was so nice just having the day all to myself after Saturday and Sunday that I just didn’t go. Sorry. At least now I can finally send my Netflix movies back and get more.
I have this big to-do list. I have bunches of pictures to post to Kinetic Memory since Josh and I made up, a few I want to put on here, some template things to do: I will probably soop-up paulpellerito.com with some neato drop shadow or whatever and then the blog will look like that. I also need to do some housecleaning, and apartment hunting. I also think I may need new tires since it’s been two years. I know I need a tune-up as well and probably a new exhaust system. I hate owning a car in the first place and having to maintain one makes it even worse. I’ve so far paid about $10,000 for my car, that’s two thousand dollars a year all averaged out. Just seems like I could be putting that money someplace else. The tradeoff is I have the freedom to go places like the Rufus concert and Grand Rapids. Car repairs still suck, though.
Oh yeah, Greg came over last week. It was alright. Just alright. He was high like the whole time. Probably would’ve been a better time if I was, too, but I’m just not into that so much.
I was really happy to hear that SpaceShipOne launched today. I wish I could’ve been there but it just wasn’t in the cards. As much as commercial spaceflight frightens me (profit over safety, anyone?) it is nice to have Paul Allen footing the bill and not me. I would love to be in Florida when the shuttle goes up again, however. Seeing Columbia’s final flight was amazing, even if I was being a part of history we didn’t know was going to be tragic at the time.
In the writing department, I’ve written some scenes over the past few weeks but I’m not sure what to do with them. I’m biding my time until school starts, then I will become the well-oiled scene machine I once was. I’ve certainly amassed enough material over the past eighteen months.
The one thing I failed to mention was our little side-trip to Dorr that we took on the way back from Diversions. Josh wanted to see my mom’s grave, so Patrick and Joe got to see it, too. I’m going to add going there to the list of Things Not To Do When You’ve Been Drinking. But wasn’t it sweet of me to pay a visit to mother on my birthday? I think it freaked Patrick out.
Happy Birthday to me!
As I type this it’s Monday 21 June, so it’s after my birthday. I just got back from the Rufus Wainwright / Ben Folds / Guster concert and IT ROCKED! I picked up a Griffin iTalk from the Apple Store in Novi on the way. Yet another great product for the iPod! It’s not just a good recorder, but it has a pretty good built-in speaker for its size. So yes, I have bootleg audio from the concert. We used the iPod on the trip over, which we shouldn’t have because the battery ran low. I got all of Rufus’ one-hour set, about half an hour of Ben Folds’, and three out of nine Guster songs. The concert was so wonderful, a full three hours of excellent music. Chris was good company, too. He really enjoyed himself. Rufus played a lot of low-key stuff, which I enjoyed. I really wanted him to play Poses and Go or Go Ahead, but he didn’t. 
It was still a really good set. Most of the audience was pumped for Guster. After Rufus played his set, Ben Folds came on for another full hour of great songs, then Guster brought the night to its rockin’ conclusion. Here are some pictures; click for full size.
Chris‘ account of the concert is here.
Saturday night was also great; Patrick, Josh, Joe and I all went up to Diversions in Grand Rapids for my big drunken birthday celebration. Joe bought me a lot of drinks for my birthday, and William called me at midnight and sang me happy birthday, which was totally sweet and awesome for me and embarrasing for him. *smiles* I saw a lot of people there who I hadn’t seen in some time, including my old old friends Todd & Charlie, David, Steve, Luke, Keith, and Mike & Mike. I also saw John Vanderveen, whose mother snuck me away for my first PFLAG meeting. Dave Watt, the color guard instructor from my high school days was also there; Patrick got some pictures of his tattoos. It was a blast. Here I was surrounded by all these people that are friends. It made me feel very loved, so even though I didn’t get any presents this year (aside from what I bought myself) the best present of all was all these people I’ve known being with me to celebrate. And Kirby is the best bartender in the world. Afterwards we went to Denny’s and got God-awful service from the snotty, bitchy waitress. We won’t ever be going to Denny’s on 44th street again. Then we made the trek back down to Kalamazoo and everyone went to sleep.
Josh’s account of the evening has a clever title and is here. Patrick’s is here.
That’s about it. Sunday was also Father’s day; my father called me but I didn’t answer—I’ll post about that when I’m up to it. The caffeine tablets are starting to wear off so I’m beginning to feel tired. And I’m 25 now!!!!! Woot.
I did it again. I went over to Joe’s tonight and stayed until 4am. When I got home, I picked up Dancing Barefoot and was just going to read the first story or so. Two hours later I’ve read the whole thing. Wil explains his goal simply—to show that he’s not just Wesley Crusher. I was already aware of that fact since I’ve been reading his blog for quite some time. WWDN is really cool because it gives its readers that glimpse into an actor’s personal life that you can’t see on the screen. But anyway, I was interested in Wil’s book because I wanted some perspective on what his whole Star Trek experience was like for him. I’m a fan of the show (and like him I enjoyed the original and next gen more than ds9 or voyager) and I pretty much grew up on The Next Generation. But Wil grew up on TNG. The longest story is about his experience at the 25th anniversary convention in Las Vegas. Now I’ve never really wanted to go to a Star Trek convention; it’s not one of those things I dream of, but it was nice to get an actor’s perspective on that experience. And Wil’s book acts as a very good companion to his blog.
The story that I liked best, that I could relate to the most, was the first one. He writes about having to go to his beloved aunt’s house after she’s passed away and it’s being sold and I had that same experience going to my Mom’s house to pick up furniture once it had been sold. It was cathartic, nerve-wracking, and very tearful. Seeing the house I grew up in being transformed into Someone Else’s House (especially after a death) was quite a shock to me. Wil went through that same thing. So it was a good story I could absolutely relate to.
This book is artful in that it inspires. Reading Wil’s stories on his blog makes me hope one day to be a father, reading his book helps me feel more confident in my desire to be back on stage and be writing again. One of the tests of a work’s worth is to ask if this art might inspire more art, and Dancing Barefoot certainly does so.
Yet another book from the Summer Reading List that is highly recommended. I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it.
I finished Eastern Standard Tribe last Sunday. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Cory Doctorow has pulled together an amazing work, and an amazing “world of next week” that pulls the reader in. It had me cheering for the main character, Art, at the end of the book. It’s an easy 250 page read, very not-put-downable. Get it today. Then pass it on to a friend. Fiction this good deserves to be passed around and just… loved.
Once I finished EST I found that I couldn’t sleep. Taking a cue from the book, I logged into the Portland room in Gay.com, trying to track down my friend Travis who’d moved out here and who I hadn’t heard from in a number of weeks. I didn’t find him (I hope he’s still alive) but I did find William and I’ve been talking to him every day since. He appears to be a rather heady intellectual, which is really good in my book. And he likes opera, which leads us to the fact that I’ve been meeting people on and off since I became single last July. No one has quite yet fit the bill. I need someone who I can learn from, who I can be intellectual with—who won’t mind if I fill up an entire bookcase with my books. (I’d add filling up some shelves with CDs as well, but that’s not needed with my iPod!) I think William is that sort of person. It’s not that I like opera, but I could really get into it if I had someone to show me the ropes. And that’s the point. I need someone like that, someone who can take their intellectual pursuits and show me them, and vice versa. Do I really have to go all the way to Portland for this?
It sucks that he lives in Portland, however. He is going to DC in October, and since I’ve never been there it’s a thought. And who can resist such handsomeness?
I went swimming today. It’s the first time I’ve gone swimming in years. I think since I was 19 or 20.
When my brother and I were younger during the summer we were in our pool probably 6 hours a day. We’d get out to eat and then get right back in again (no cramps, ever).
I remember lying awake at night, my face still warm from the sunshine, still feeling the sensation of floating in the water.
Earthquake reported offshore of San Diega, CA. 5.1 magnitude.
Engadget’s How-To Tuesday tells us all how to make our own pirate radio station with an iPod.
The Supreme Court issued its decision on Elk Grove Unified School Dist. v. Newdow. It’s dissapointing to see that the Court took the easy way out of it and decided Newdow was not allowed to represent his daughter as he didn’t have custody. From a legal standpoint this is in fact something they have to consider before rendering an opinion (see the AP article), but still it would’ve been nice of them to make some decision as to whether or not “under God” is constitutional. Likely they will meet this challenge again.
The dream of God-free money is still alive.
Shaver Rd. store just called and woke me up. They had a sick call and wondered if I could please come in “at 2pm instead”.
I looked up my schedule, and it says I’m scheduled at 2pm. Idiots.
