Yeah everyone, get blogging you primitive screwheads. I right now am blogging right in the middle of class, when I'm supposed to be learning. Carol and Nancie will never find out...

So I'm checking my e-mail and I got a form 'thank you' from Micheal Crow. Did anyone else recieve his 'thanks,' cuz it's full of awesome PR schmaltz. I quote: 'Last week, the eyes of the world were on Arizona State University and our student body rose to the challenge of hosting an event of this historic magnitude with unparalleled class and composure. I could not be more proud of the way our campus demonstrated its commitment to the democratic process and its longstanding tradition of excellence. '

Class? Composure? I don't think I'm alone in thinking how appalingly crass this campus became for a day. If what the student body demonstrated was classy and composed and commited to the democratic process, then I weep for the state of said process in the eyes of the university student. You try so hard for so long to engender honest discussion in fellow students and this hurricane sweeps through town leaving a debris of shouted slogans and inane arguments. If what I saw was worthy of thanks than our standards for democratic processes have dropped so low, I fear saving them.

Even though this is the name of the site, I find it very horrific that people are being told it's all about you. Because its not, and if more people realized that then maybe this world would be a better place. I wish people in my age group would wake up and realize that the world doesn't revolve around them. They are not voting because its their choice, and after all its all about them. Forget all the other people in the world who's lives are changed by elections. If people in my age group would just realize that its not about them, maybe the world would be better. Maybe more people would care about each other and not just themselves.

Natasha

The lovely and gracious has been ill so I haven't been paying as close attention to things as usual and not following up on what I thought I heard Mr. Kerry say during the last debate. But, I'm lucky because Doug MacEachern columnist for the Arizona Republic noted on October 21, 2004, that he heard the same thing I did. Mr. Kerry said the government affords rights. NO it does not! The people have all the rights, and we allow the government by consent to operate the way it does. Read the first words of the constitution it's "WE THE PEOPLE " not we the government.
Again that should tell you something about the man, who would be king.

The Lovely and Gracious

It appears that I am not the only one who thought Mr. Kerry's comments about Mary Cheney were out of line. According to a Washington Post poll, 64% of likely voters felt the same way. So really does it matter? Yes, if you want to know what kind of person might become the president.

The Lovely and Gracious

So I'm at the Cronkite Awards luncheon Thursday, and ASU President Michael Crow gives a speech introducing Walter Cronkite, who will then introduce this years winner, Charles Osgood. Crow raves about the intelligent discourse on campus this week, especially the day of the debate, something, he says, people who'd worked at the University for years said they'd never seen. He prattles on about other stuff as well, but I'm skipping ahead to the comments of this year's winner.

Osgood recites some beautiful reporting in the form of rhymned verse, for which he's reknown, and admonishes journalists to be wary of profit-driven news. Then he laments the state of intelligent political discourse in the country today.
There isn't any, or it's severely lacking, he says. People merely launch ad hominem attacks tearing down their opponent. Exhibit A: on campus Wednesday, opposing groups mindlessly chanted "Ke-rry" and "Four more years" till their
throats grew hoarse. Exhibit B: The posters people hand made were, shall we say, simplistic: from "Lick Dick and Bush in 2004" to "Kerry ducks the issues."

So much for intelligent discourse.

Sure there were a few people on the fringes -- and fringes is key here -- of the hypnotized political cult-mongers actually engaging in a free exchange of ideas, but they soon degenerated into screaming matches as well.

The way I see it this all has more to do with a lack of political and historical education than anything else. Very quickly people from both parties run out of arguments to regurgitate and stats to spew forth, and they resort to yelling.
It's frutrating, isn't it, when your opponent keeps repeating the same thing over and over, and then you find yourself doing the same? I guess the thinking goes, if I repeat myself often enough, hammering my own words into my own head, maybe I'll never have to suffer the uncertainty and, ew, intellectual strain, of considering alternate hypotheses.

But wait. I'm being too harsh. You know they're just copying what they saw on Crossfire.

--ilan brat

Well, my Wednesday was as interesting as everyone else's (I hope). I guess I was taking the whole idea of the debates pretty lightly, until we opened our store Wed. morning and were greeted by a nice cop from Gilbert. (My store is the College Store at Rural and Lemon, and it's full of charming textbook employees like me (cheap plug).) The cop informed us that they were shutting down Rural at 10 a.m. for the President's motorcade, and I think that's when it hit me that this was a BIG DEAL for Tempe. I mean, tthey were borrowing cops from Gilbert. So with the parking lot blocked off and the whole street shut down, we had noting to do but stand out front like eveyone else and wait for the President to drive by. A bunch of young Republicans in red t-shirts lined up across the street with supporting placards and flags. Then the motorcycles came, a long line of them, followed by at least six scary, black SUVs, and just like in the movies, the President's limo came cruising behind them, the flag and the Presidential seal flapping from the front bumpers. As it passed I saw Bush waving from the back seat (with the windows up, but still, I saw the President). It was almost as cool as the time I saw the Queen of England from her carriage during the annual birthday parade. But the Queen gets extra points because she was preceeded by a bunch of guys in those tall, furry hats instead of scary SUVs.

About an hour later, they closed Rural again for Kerry's motorcade, and we watched that one go by, too. I got a good laugh out of the fact that while the reps. had had matching shirts and an organized chant ("Four more years!"), the Kerry people were as mismatched as any bunch of liberal hippies and couldn't agree on a slogan. It almost makes me sad to be a registered democrat.

So in the space of two hours I saw both of the candidates waving from cars, and I'd have to say it was the highlight of my week. The chaos on campus meant a lot more to me when I got to Hayden lawn at 4:30, because I could really feel that it was these two men, and what they were standing for, that got everyone so riled up. But I still liked the Queen best.

Does anyone, other then me, have a problem with Kerry's remark about Cheney's gay daughter? I mean what's the deal with outing the poor girl on TV? I know if it were me ... that's not the way I would want to tell the world. I don't think she's closeted, and I know the Cheney's have always supported their daughter. So what's the point other than a cheap political trick. And I thought the democratic party was highly supportive of the privacy of the individual. Too bad they don't practice what they preach.

The Lovely and Gracious

And boy did I employ it, but there just wasn't enough film in the world for the crap that went down yesterday. I stayed on campus all day, getting into it with the protesters (on behalf of College Republicans) at about 11:00 a.m., and not relenting until about 6:30, at which point I went home and watched the second half of the debate.

For most of the time it was most conservatives vs. liberals in the protesting and sign-waving department, but around 5 p.m. or so the REAL nutjobs started to turn out, the kind I hadn't seen up close and personal since the demonstrations against our year-long "rush to war" in 2002 and 2003.

Socialists, communists, anarchists-- all were out protesting in full lunatic force. People screaming and/or chanting "America is the number one international terrorist!", "CNN lies! Stop repeating Bush's war propaganda, Wolf Blitzer, you pig!", "Stop burning Iraqi children!", and the perennial favorite, "BUSH LIED PEOPLE DIED!"... it was wild. Only time all day I was actually fearing a genuine riot.

The highlight of the day was easily when the middle-aged dude next to me saw my Army shirt, and asked in all seriousness, "Shouldn't you be out raping and murdering and bombing innocent people??". I won't repeat here exactly how I replied, but let's just say it would make Nancie proud.

I really hope that the media coverage wasn't too full of these people, lest the world think that's who populates our fine campus. I know full well that freedom of assembly and protest is one of the things that's great about our country, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the people who exercise that right are exactly the best the U.S. has to offer.

Also, a lot of Kerry supporters had this compulsion to stealthily deface my signs and the back of my shirt (and my girlfriend's butt) with their stickers. Grow up, Kerry supporters!

...was not committed by Kerry, or even Bush, it was committed by me. I left my camera at home. Unforgivable. I spent yesterday walking around campus observing and enjoying. Never before have I been this excited about a debate or genuinly interested in politics. Not that the debate ever had the potential to make me change my mind about who I'd vote for if I'd been a legal voter, it only served to confirm what I already knew (unfortunately for a certain Mr. Bush--it's not easy being stupid). I think the greatest thing about the debate was to see all the ASU students out there supporting their candidate, may it be Bush, Kerry or even Nader. There were a lot of funny signs, t-shirts etc with political messages on them, but my favorite was a Bush doll whose pants were on fire, and the guy was shouting: "Liar, liar, pants on fire." Good times! I just wish I'd brought my camera so I wouldn't have to rely on my short term memory to remember a day really worth remembering.
Mari

Last night I had the privilege to be one of the media coving the debate at ASU. It was exciting! The campus was alive as I've never seen it before, and God knows I've been there forever and I would know.

What were the issues for the younger voter? I'm still not sure most seemed to just want to get on TV with their signs. But, there were a couple of things that caught my eye. There were the two Catholic kids sitting away from the fray; one for abortion (Kerry supporter) one against ( Bush supporter) talking not just about the issue, but the matter of faith and what being a Catholic means. There were people on campus who know what life was, and is like under the fear of constant terrorism. They want their homes, and freedom back. They want terrorism crushed so that they may live again. It gave me chills to hear them speak. It made me want to do more than I do. I was proud to be an American because America wants not only our people to be free to live as they wish, speak as they wish, vote as they wish, but we want this great life for everyone else in the world no matter who they are. That's Cool!

So we're going to need some help. We need those in the 18 -35 year old voter group to help us define your issues. We encourage you to be forthright and candid about what you think. And by no means do we want to discourage those who don't fall into that age group from participating. Your thoughts are welcome too.

So let's get to it!

The Lovely and Gracious

// posted by Azdez @ 8:03 AM 0 comments