I am sick and tired of the fingerpointing following Hurricane Katrina. So allow me this brief moment to point out with my own ten hypocritical fingers some truths: You can't have it both ways. You can't have a democratic nation but expect the government to dole out Band-Aids in the form of money and supplies. Refresher course: We the people make up cities that make up counties that make up states that make up the government. Each of those levels has its own accountability, so for you bandw...

Dear Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, I've seen your ads on TV and read the text of initiative I-336 that you would like to pass this fall in my state. I've read the tear-jerking stories of patients who are the victims of medical malpractice and how you've made their lives better by giving them millions of dollars, money that they would never have ordinarily seen in their lifetimes. I admire your marketing efforts and your fundraising abilities. How amazing to be able to raise t...

Contrary to how it may appear here at JU, I am actually fairly interested in politics. I keep up with the news and my local politics; Thursday during my lunch break I wrote to my senator. I vote, I get mad, I write letters to the editor and opine at length to a few friends and family. Generally speaking I am interested in the opinions and stances of all sides of the political spectrum--not just the 2-D conservative/liberal spectrum, but the 3-D conservative/ liberal/ anarchist/ totalitarian d...

I dunno about the rest of y'all, but I'm pleased to see how fiscally conservative our government is. What with parades, fireworks, and other such hoopla, our President's inauguration is going to cost us $40 million American dollars. And apparently, according to the AP wire, that doesn't even cover the security for the event. (I doubt they tabulate and release those line items.) Apparently most of the money is raised by wealthy corporations who finance elections and special interest groups ...

Yahoo! news is running this headline: "Giuliani Hurt by Scandal Around Former Top NY Cop," referring to Bernard Kerik. The beginning paragraph begins much in the way a backpage teaser on a Harlequin romance novel might: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Illicit affairs, mob ties, a secret love nest. The hijinks of Bernard Kerik, disgraced just as he aspired to join President Bush's Cabinet, have also bruised the reputation of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, seen by many as a White House contender...

Dear NYT, and Seattle Times, and Post-Intelligencer, and Oregonian, and Statesman, and Spokesman-Review, and Post, and Daily News, and..., I do not believe that a purportedly unbiased medium should endorse a candidate for any office, nor endorse any ballot measures or legislative activity. By all means discuss it on your opinion pages, but do not give us our news and then tell us how to interpret it. Though there are lemmings in the world, we don't need you enabling them. Furthermore, a...

Which of the following to you hear most about: 1. The U.S. presidential election 2. The war in Iraq 3. The war in Afghanistan 4. Your local senate race 5. The genocide in Sudan Probably not #5. In fact, you have to read pretty carefully to even get an idea that it's going on. Kristof from the NYT reports that about 100,000 people (men, women, children) have died. Look at a stadium full of people watching a football game and think about all of them, dead. And at most stadiums, that's...

I've not seen a discussion about this topic yet on JU, so I hope I'm not treading on anyone else's toes by bringing this up (if you've blogged about this, feel free to post a link below). Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is a concept where you vote for presidential candidates in the order that you would prefer rather than voting for one and only one, and risk an independent candidate stealing votes from, say, a Democrat (like Nader and Gore in Florida....?). For example, this year we have Bush...

Check out this site. It's called JibJab and it's got a hilarious satire or parody of Bush and Kerry.: Link Click on the "This Land" area. See Bush and Kerry go at it (look for the Dean scream, too). Also, JibJab was threatened with a lawsuit by the holders of the Woody Guthrie song in question, so they sued first for use of fair rights. Link The issue in question is whether the JibJab animated short is a satire or a parody. Some people think it's parody according to the dict...

Given the shiftiness of Kerry's position (he has one? which one?), and Bush's inclination to war, oil, and disinclination toward the environment, and Nader's just overall weirdness, I want good ol' Dean back. He was different. He was out there, loud, new, fresh; not the old school, toeing the party line like Kerry and Bush, saying what people want to hear. I miss that scream. That was the one moment where I thought, Hey, the guy's got character. Bush's character: Defensive on terms of ...

I heard once that Nader was running for president. Funny, I haven't seen or heard from him since. But there is a way to get Nader's face on TV. Here it is: Link Bush's popularity soared when he found Sadaam; maybe Nader would actually get recognized by the media.

I'm not talking about a legal right; no one "owns" what happened on September 11. I guess I'm wondering if he has a moral right. If the terrorist attacks on that date were on America, then every American in some way owns a part of what happened then, Bush included. But is it an equal distribution of "right"? On the Today show, Katie Couric interviewed three women about Bush's campaign ads. Two of the three women felt Bush was profiting from Sept. 11, which is technically true if the ads ins...

I love a good bumper sticker, as long as it's not depreciating the value of my car. My favorite political one thus far is the following: "Republicans for Voldemort" Link and Link www.goats.com is the maker and I don't follow all their comic strips, but it's worth a gander (which is punny if you see the site). I'll vote for anyone but a Republican, or anyone but a Democrat, or anyone but Nader, whatever he is...

Having majored in communications, I generally just snort when someone suggests a vast liberal media conspiracy. As if we journalists have time to get together every day and say, "So, BobLindaMikeMitchFitchBobthesecondGeraldandGeraldine, whom shall we crucify today?" And we go through the video clips and sound bites and decide to make someone sound and look stupid. --Oh, wait, no. Sorry. No time. Doesn't happen, though I'll grant that people attracted to journalism tend to have similarities. That...