Author: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

This author has written 2015 articles
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

If I Had to Vote Republican

Random thoughts on tonight’s Republican Debate (live-blogging):

The format of the debate, with Brian Williams and Tim Russert asking specific questions with little follow-up or interaction from the other candidates makes things a little stilted. [ETA: This got better as the night wore on.] I was surprised and glad to see Ron Paul on the stage as I’m pretty sure his picture wasn’t in the opening graphic. He’s the Republican’s Dennis Kucinich and his voice is needed in these forums if only for his strident anti-war stance.

9:30pm: 30 minutes in and based purely on their performances so far, I kind of like Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. There’s a clarity to their answers that’s noticeably missing from the others’, except arguably, for McCain, who I’d like a bit more if he weren’t so damn hawkish. Giuliani and Romney’s sourpusses are almost as off-putting as their tone and while Paul and Huckabee have some batshit-crazy stances on several issues, I don’t get the same images of “itchy trigger finger on the nuclear button” that I get from those two.

9:34pm: Russert asks, “Do you think the War in Iraq was worth it?” McCain basically says, “Hell, yeah!” though he equivocates quite a bit. Giuliani attacks Hillary Clinton’s flip-flopping on the war (rightly so) in giving his answer but ultimately says it was worth it. Paul says very straightfowardly, “It was a very bad idea and it wasn’t worth it.” Huckabee says that he supported the President, as did the Democrats, and that, effectively, it was worth it. Romney says yes, but says that it was mis-managed but the surge is working.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

High School Musical

Taking a break from politics for some mindless memeing… 

Go to this convenient compilation site right here http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php and find the five years you were in high school. For each year, admit to the song that was your favorite at the time, then decide which one you now generally consider to be the best song on the list. Lastly, pick the year’s worst song, snarking optional.

1983

Favorite: It’s hard not to pick one of Prince or David Bowie’s songs, all of which I still love, and I didn’t really discover “Faithfully” until several years later, so I’ll have to go with Spandau Ballet’s “True”.

Best: Without question, it’s Prince’s “1999”

Worst: Toto’s “Africa”

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

WordPress Upgrade 2.3.2

I just manually upgraded WordPress to the latest version (2.3.2) and had my fingers crossed the whole time that I wouldn't crash my site or destroy my database or something. All seems good on the back-end, though, and this post should confirm that my Facebook and LiveJournal cross-posting plug-ins are still working. ETA: All systems are go!

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Time Out!

Okay, once I start posting 2am rants about politics, it's clearly time to pause for a deep breath and talk about something else for awhile. ...  Spindle? Chugging along quite nicely. We hit 15,000 page views on Sunday and today's update concludes the "official" launch. Now I have to start working on February's content, including a new Notable New Yorker interview. Writing? Haven't written anything new in a few weeks (the random villanelle doesn't count) and have to put together at least one submission before the end of the month. Read "A Change in Direction" last night in the open mic. Reading? I'm juggling…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

The SC Debate

In retrospect, I'm so annoyed that I missed tonight's debate in favor of poetry, but I'm glad that Obama apparently finally brought it: "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes." [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD9F1t9GQzA] Sorry, but it's official. I hate the Clintons and I will not vote for Hillary if she's the Democratic nominee, even if Bloomberg doesn't run. Side note: The thing that frustrates me the most, and honestly makes me sad to the point of tears, is the people who want and expect more from politicians but accept the Clinton's dirty tactics because  it's just politics and "that's how the game is…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Ten OTHER Things Martin Luther King Said

From Ill Doctrine (with a hat tip to Maria Jackson via Facebook). Side note: The fact that so many people in major corporations have to work today, a NATIONAL HOLIDAY, says a whole lot about how ready for change we may or may not be. Interestingly, South Carolina was the last state to recognize it as a holiday, back in 2000.

Continue ReadingTen OTHER Things Martin Luther King Said
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Is Barack Obama Electable?

This started out as a reply to a friend’s email who asked the question, and despite my wanting needing to come up for air from the political waters for a day or two to avoid an early repeat of 2004 where my frustrations got the better of me and my cynicism hit new lows, it evolved into this post…

It’s a fair question that we really won’t know the answer to until it’s actually an option, but I’d say Obama is as electable as Hillary Clinton, if not a bit more so.  She’s a known entity and there’s a pretty large group of people on both sides of the divide who simply won’t vote for her, no matter who her opponent is.

I’ve got one foot in that camp myself thanks to the way she and Bill have been campaigning lately.

She’s got several old sets of baggage she’s carrying around from the 90s — failed health care proposal; NAFTA; DOMA; “don’t ask, don’t tell”; her refusal to release her sealed records from the 90s until after the election — not to mention what’s perhaps the biggest set that’s been pretty much overlooked because she’s a Clinton: she’s a woman. There are as many people in this country who won’t vote for a black man as there are who won’t vote for a woman, and if there was a way to pull back the curtain and see what’s really happening out there, I think you’d find a lot of them [not ALL of them, and not even a majority] are supporting John Edwards right now as a way to hide that bias, perhaps even from themselves.

As for the Republican contenders, they’re dealing with a seriously fractured party that doesn’t appear ready to compromise just yet. The longer Thompson and Giuliani stay in the mix, and as long as Ron Paul continues to play the reasonably well-funded Sharpton/Kucinich role, the better the Democrats’ chances are in November… as long as they don’t tear each other apart like Bill Clinton seemed intent on encouraging over the past week.

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