Red Chuck

Added

The Arkansas Times Daily Blog is now in my links section. So far they've been the best source of info on this Deltic Timber BS.

Water on the Brain

The Arkansas Times Blog and John Brummet sound off today on Central Arkansas Water and Deltic Timber.

Lil' Activists

Harrison & Helen make great protesters. They love to shout "No!" and put on their sad faces.

Obviously we made it to the rally today.

Save our Drinking Water

You are invited to a Rally Tuesday February 15, 2005 on the steps of the State Capitol at 12:30.

The Rally will last only 20 minutes but it could determine the future quality and cost of your drinking water.

The Arkansas State Legislature is deciding NOW Wednesday Feb 16th, 2005 who should have the responsibility of protecting drinking water – public officials or private commercial developers. 

For more specific details you may turn to the following sources:

Presidential Protest

MoveOn is promoting an ACORN rally to counter Bush's Social Security tour this Friday in Little Rock.

WHEN:
Friday, February 4
11:30AM

WHERE:
Meet at 11:15 AM in front of the Federal Building, 700 West Capitol Ave, Little Rock, AR.
From the Federal Building, a march will proceed to the Robinson Auditorium, where the President will be speaking, at the corner of Markham and Broadway.

Speakers Include: Reverend Howard Gordon of First Presbyterian Church.

F

So here it is! And I am overjoyed to find out that someone finally came up with the ultimate slam to those obnoxious W stickers. Its perfect! Its brilliant! And it's so much better than the Y concept! Thank you JimmyJames for the link and all praise to those who thought this up (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Counter Inaugural

Here's a nice site devoted to encouraging inaugural protests. I especially like the list of events being staged around the country. There's some really creative stuff happening. In New Orleans you can attend the Jazz Funeral for Democracy: Wake for Peace. Or if you are in Portland you can parade with the Tin Foil Hat Conspiracy Theorists (who plan on compacting all their tin foil hats at the end of the rally and shipping the giant foil mass to "George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, to use as their personal body armour"). Don't you just love civil disobediance.

Inaugural Protest

So here's one, I mean, two websites proposing we protest the Bush inauguration by keeping the mouths of our wallets shut on January 20th. Hmm... OK. I'll buy it. I mean, come on, this has got to be the easiest form of protest in history. I think I can go a day without spending money, don't you? Spread the word.

Y

Man, I hate those W stickers so much. So here's the Red Chuck take on those lame ass Republican bumper brag badges. If you see a better parody out there, lemme know. Otherwise I'm gonna see about getting a bunch of these printed up. Want one?

Things to do before the Inaugural

1. Get that abortion you've always wanted.
2. Drink a nice clean glass of water.
3. Cash your Social Security check.
4. See a doctor of your own choosing.
5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.
6. Visit Syria, or any foreign country for that matter.
7. Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying.
8. Hoard gasoline.
9. Borrow books from library before they're banned - Constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
10. If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix - do it now.
11. Come out - then go back in - HURRY!
12. Jam in all the Alzheimer's stem cell research you can.
13. Stay out late before the curfews start.
14. Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident".
15. Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition.
16. Use the phrase - "you can't do that - this is America".
17. If you're white - marry a black person, if you're black - marry a white person.
18. Take a walk in Yosemite, without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper.
19. Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class.
20. Start your school day without a prayer.
21. Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations.
22. Learn French.
23. Attend a commitment ceremony with your gay friends.
24. Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
25. Try to take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
26. Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
27. Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
28. Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill".
29. Visit Massachusetts while it is still a state.

More Franken

Don't forget, we've got Al Franken and Katherine Lanpher broadcasting from Soundscapes again today!

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Click here to listen.

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Todays guests include former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry and Senator John Glenn.

Whigs in 2008

Remember the Whig party? Well? What do you think? The Whigs got going because they thought the President was guilty of executive tyranny. Sound familiar? So... why not? And yes, I know. The Whigs had some problems. But I'm not talking about a literal interpretation of the old platform. Just the name and the espirit de corps. For one thing, those guys really knew how to get the word out. So there's one good thing we now know about Whigs. And... oh yeah... the curse. But this is the age of broken curses. We can elect a Whig! Not only that, we can break the curse! We can elect a Whig who will live longer than a month as a President! Who's with me?

Damn.

Somebody beat me to it.

I hate it when that happens.

Franken in da House

SOUNDSCAPES is proud to be hosting Al Franken and co-host Katherine Lanpher live from Studio A today and tomorrow. Dave Greaves is engineering the broadcast, which begins at noon Eastern time, 11 central, etc.

Franken and his Air America crew are in Little Rock for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center. Today's guest will be Little Rock native General Wesley Clark. There will also be an interview with former President Jimmy Carter.

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Click here to listen to The Al Franken Show on Air America, live from Soundscapes Studio A!

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What rhymes with ue?

Remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses. by texas holdem

Sorry World

from sorryeverybody.com

Back to the Newsstand

So everybody's talking about the new How He Did It Newsweek. And if you didn't know already, this is the exclusive coverage. They enlisted a special team of reporters and everything for this tall tale... I mean, big story.

For my money, in the post election wrapup game, I thought The Economist did a good job summing things up. They kept their analysis short and unsweetened.

And if there's anybody that can learn from all this, its MoveOn. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for MoveOn. But as the Economist points out, the RNC did a great job at the polls. They had their list and they were checking it twice. MoveOn did a great job in the email department. But they sent me so many emails, I stopped reading them. And what we really needed, in the end, was voters at the polls, not emails.

Obviously there's a lot more to it. The country has turned to the right since 9/11. And big media is keeping people scared. Which is why we desperately need MoveOn. But we also need organization on the street. In the future, I would like to see MoveOn in my RSS reader and a DNC representative at the polls. Hopefully someone will suggest that. Because MoveOn really did a suberb job of getting the word out on the important issues. But getting the word out and getting people to the polls, as we have learned, are two very distinct things.

Which brings us back to corporate sponsored media outlets. So what really happened this election? How did he do it? If you want the soap opera... I mean the Newsweek slant on the campaign — McCain's weird wooing, Carville's tearful plea for organization, Theresa's migranes and sore eyes — then head to the newsstand. (Don't forget to pickup an October Vanity Fair while you're there. A much better read, I wager.)

I'm just surprised no one has mentioned the Time cover. To me they've really gotten to the heart of the matter, don't you think?

Return of the Rat

So I was thinking about putting together a "Notta Nutha' 4 Years" playlist. Seemed like a good idea. As usual I've been turning to my music library for consolation. But 1) I have zero time for such a cataloging endeavor and 2) I started to think it was very BLG.

And who needs playlists when we've got prophets like Greg Sage. The first 7 songs of the Wipers' debut , Is This Real? cover the wide range of emotions I've been experiencing this week.

Here's my bafflement, anger, frustration, despair, and horror played out by some Portland, OR punks circa 1980. And really what could be a better shock-and-horror-that-so-many-turned-out-to-vote-for-this-creep tune than Return Of The Rat anyway? So everybody sing along:

You better watch out
You better beware
They're coming from all sides of the country
You better beware

Return of the rat
No, no, no, no!

Once again, you can purchase aforementioned platter of tuneful angst here.

The Proof's in the Puddin'

An Introduction to Lighting for Digital Filmmaking:

TECHNIQUES

Back Light

A light that illuminates the subject from behind. Used primarily to separate the subject from the background. It produces a rim of light typically on one side, along the shoulders and side of the head. When placed directly behind the subject, it can produce a halo effect.

Chapman’s Dictionary of Slang:

GIVE someone THE FINGER/MIDDLE FINGER by 1940s 1. verb phrase, To treat unfairly , dishonestly, etc. = ‘screw,’ ‘shaft.’ 2. to show contempt and defiance by holding up the extended middle finger toward someone; = ‘flip the bird’ [from the figurative insertion punitively into the anus]

Conclusion:

The proof's in the puddin', folks. Here's to another 4 years w/ Puddin'head.

Currently Reading

What If Bush Wins

An oft-quoted quip of Bush's--"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator"--certainly doesn't reflect any plan of his to abolish democratic procedures or principles. But it does reveal his impatience with those procedures and principles. Bush and his team have shown contempt for many of the bedrock elements of liberal democracy, including public access to information; a press that interrogates its leaders; a give-and-take between parties that represent different interests; a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; the preference for reason over the use of force; and the support of legal safeguards to prevent the arbitrary exercise of power by the executive. They have routinely violated the bounds of acceptable political behavior in a democracy.

— David Greenberg, "The Triumph of Anything Goes"

Election Protection

The democratic prophylactic.

Since voting in 2004 has become Monopoly, then this is yr don't-fuck-with-me card. Get 'em here.

AIGA

This evening, NPR ran a piece about the AIGA Get Out the Vote 2004 poster campaign. The descriptions of the posters sounded so good I checked on the site. I wasn't disappointed.

Make the Pie Higher

This following poem is composed entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush:

Make the Pie Higher

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen
And uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish
Can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

Orion

A good dinner last night — lots of red wine and political talk. Everyone shared recent bits of antiBushness. (Borowitz's 4th Debate is excellent.) And then it occurred to me how much we draw from satirists. In our conversation, we relied on them like navigators relying on stars...
And then we were leaving and H and I were in the front yard. "Look I see the big dipper!" he exclaimed and "Look there's a green star!" And I tried to find him Orion and I tried to show him how Orion stands in the sky. "Orion is a hunter," and I spread my legs wide and drew an imaginary arrow back to my eye. "He has three stars in his belt and a sword hanging from his side." But we couldn't find the hunter last night in the sky.

Stop Sign

corner of Oak St and Oakwood Rd

2004 Ballot Issues

Here's some informative pamphlets, published by the UA Cooperative Extension Service, that outline the ballot initiatives before Arkansas voters this election.

iBulge

courtesy Happy Go Larry and Scott, of course.

Help Preserve Hillcrest

Some developer is trying to build a four house gated community on a lot at the end of I Street. To add insult to injury, said developer wants to build a new access road to this Shangri-La and also wants to rezone the neighborhood so that they can build an 8-foot high privacy fence. This is Hillcrest not the Heights! Anyway, if you want to express objection, the Hillcrest Residents Association asks that you do so before Thursday October 21 (i.e. tomorrow).

Call 501-371-6821 or Click here to email:

Donna James
Little Rock Planning Commission
723 West Markham
Little Rock, AR 72201

Neighbor's Concerns (from HRA / Concerned I Street Neighbors flyer):

• I Street is too narrow (only 22 feet wide) to accommodate the increased traffic. The proposed private drive would service four large homes, creating the feel of a gated community and inflicting increased noise, traffic and congestion on the neighborhood.
  
• The property is too small for the four houses the developer plans to cram into the space. Two houses would be adequate for the land, rather than the proposed four — the sizes of which are unspecified by the developer.
  
• The developer wants to rezone the neighborhood. They have petitioned the planning commission to allow construction closer to the property lines and to the street — and to permit 8-foot privacy fences around the property.
  
• Allsopp Park may be endangered by the development. There are concerns from neighbors and from the park department that this over-development of the property could cause environmental damage to one of Little Rock's most enjoyed parks.
  

Concerned residents are also encouraged to attend the next Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, October 21 at 4pm on the second floor of City Hall (northwest corner of Markham and Broadway).

Vote

You can now check your current status as a registered voter, confirm your polling place, and/or stare longingly into the eyes of our Pulaski Circuit / County Clerk here.