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The bad guys beat us, blacklite, and you can’t just blame it on the Democratic party. The pro-life maniacs and homophobes and xenophobes and all those smarty pants conservatives who can’t stomach the smelly hippies and their inability to grasp the need to balance social issues with fiscal responsibility (thanks a lot, guys, this new era of controlled spending and rational economics is really going so awesome), all the firearm fanatics who just know that every Democrat’s dearest wish is to pry every last piece from their cold dead fingers didn’t start a new party or even try to run their own subset of the existing one (the “moral majority” tried that back in the eighties, you’ll recall, and learned quick enough that it was the wrong road. They just took it over, through activism activism activism. The Bush posse learned how to consolidate these forces in Texas and they transferred the principles to national elections brilliantly.

Meanwhile liberals are basically about as useful as tits on a boar, to coin a phrase. We don’t like to be zealous and we don’t like to organize. The lunatic fringe and true believers are all off on their own tacks, voting Green Party or protesting the WTO, useful shit like that. Mainstreamers pick their horses with a consistent tin ear, perpetually backing uninspired common denominator candidates who ultimately prove incapable of hooking the undecided middle of the road voter with their bland patter, and indeed there seems to be some force within the DFL acting to make people even more boring than they actually are. I listened to Al Gore giving a fiery speech on the astonishing, flagrant attack civil liberties and the principles of just society are under, and I thought, man, where the fuck were you six years ago.

The Democrats seem to keep thinking they can get up on some groundswell of public opinion, and they keep getting proven wrong. Remember the last presidential election, how the kids were gonna rise up and carry Kerry to victory? Becuase, you know, we’re liberals! And that’s cool, right, you know, fight the power, Woodstock. Well, the kids sure spoke loud and clear in that last election: they just don’t give a shit. They barely vote and all the MoveOn and Rock The Votes didn’t do a thing about that.

I almost did the same thing you did when I read this post, blacklite. I wanted to jump right in and cry “somebody tell me what to do!” Then I realized: none of the fucking humps slouching around this timewasting engine that is the internet have a fucking clue what to do, myself most emphatically included. If anything, I now think the internet is in fact very much part of the problem. Venting online provides this utterly false sense of actually doing something about the problem. Duhh, I blogged about it, take that, powers that be! The GOP just has a better system. I figure it will take about seventy or eighty years for America to fully convert to a fascist police state. It won’t be the first time and it certainly won’t be the last. We’re fucked.

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Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart gave his life for his country when the Chinook helicopter he was in was shot down in Afghanistan in September.

But those wishing to honor Stewart, who should have his name on the memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, 34 miles east of Reno, would have a difficult time doing so.
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The space reserved for Stewart, right next to Chief Warrant Officer John Flynn, his comrade from Sparks who also died in the attack as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, is vacant.

Stewart was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which is not recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs for use in its cemeteries.

Stewart’s widow, Roberta, said she will wait until her family’s religion — and its five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, with one point facing skyward — is recognized for use on memorials before Stewart’s plaque is installed.

“It’s completely blank,” Roberta Stewart said, pointing to her husband’s place on the memorial.

She said she had no idea the pentacle could not be used on her husband’s memorial plaque until she had to deal with the agency after the death of her husband.

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Patrick Stewart, 34, and four other National Guard members died Sept. 25 when their Chinook helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade while returning to their base for refueling. They had finished dropping off troops.

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He was posthumously awarded the Air Medal, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Nevada Distinguished Service Medal and the Combat Action Badge.

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Van het geld dat ondernemers betalen aan auteursrechtenorganisaties, zoals Buma/Stemra, komt te weinig terecht bij de auteurs. Dat zegt Tweede-Kamerlid Charlie Aptroot (VVD) zondag in De Telegraaf. De VVD’er ergert zich eraan dat bijvoorbeeld horecaondernemers Buma/Stemra moeten betalen om muziek te mogen draaien, maar dat muzikanten en tekstschrijvers daar weinig van terug zien.

Volgens het liberale Kamerlid gaan de rechtenorganisaties niet zorgvuldig om met het geld dat voor de rechthebbenden is bestemd. Buma/Stemra zou op een 330 miljoen euro grote beleggingsportefeuille 46 miljoen euro hebben verloren. Videma, de organisatie die beeldrechten beschermt, zou vorig jaar 19,4 miljoen euro hebben geïnd, waarvan 6,3 miljoen euro is uitgekeerd aan rechthebbenden.