Recent activism

[zdashamber]

You know how things every once in awhile just strike you? I can't believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is our governor. Schwarzenegger! Sheesh! I just saw a picture of him while I was reading the East Bay Express article on the high-speed rail line proposed from San Francisco to San Diego, and it's like, What the hell?

Anyway, I recommend you check out that article; it's a good in-depth view of the bullet train that names political forces at work. More than that, though, I recommend you vote early and often for the train... It's clearly a good idea, it's certainly the kind of thing government should be doing, now is the time (decades ago was also the time, but now is the time we have, and hopefully now we can have Pelosi doing something useful for us nationally).

I've also been putting up some bits on the new LJ community for focusing attention on works of SF/F done by women: femsfaward. If you read stuff published 2007, why not pop over and post a blurb? The Hugo nomination ballot for stuff published in 2007 is live now, and closes March 1st... Keep in mind that to be eligible to nominate, you must be a Worldcon member by January 31st. Lovers of Avatar: the Last Airbender! I think The Day of Black Sun Part 2: The Eclipse is way deserving of a Hugo. Need to mention it on hugo_recommend.

For the presidential election, I guess I'm for Obama. I was for Edwards because his health plan was more thought-out and his rhetoric about helping the poor was firey and to my taste, but then the press was like, "Oh, hey, we're offering you this gun that says 'sexist motherfucker' on it" and he was like, "Oh, boy! How about I shoot myself in the foot?" Dumbshit. It's not just being a sexist shit in a moment of weakness... It's being so fucking stupid you let the press lead you into stupidity. We really need a presidential candidate who won't get lead into idiocy, because the Republicans will be laying out tasty red herrings right and left. So, to hell with you, shiny white boy!

Again, Clinton versus Obama, they both have their good points; Clinton for health care and for being battle-scarred veteran of attacks and for talking the feminist talk; Obama for being a good speaker who my mom doesn't hate and my friends like and who isn't part of one of two familes which have ruled the nation for the past 20 years. I was going for Richardson until I looked at the specifics of the California delegate process: you have to get at least 15% of the vote in a district to get a delegate, and I don't think even the heavily Hispanic Fruitvale district of the 9th here would be enough to get him that. That day, as if knowing my sorrow, he dropped. Ah, well. I really hope someone taps him for the cabinet, or the vice presidency.

Also, my district is one of the California districts that gets 6 delegates. Nyah nyah!

For Michigan people looking to have fun with voting, pnh points to a DailyKos post suggesting that you vote for Romney to keep him in the Republican race to keep the Republican fight bruising and drawn-out. Seems a bit like playing with fire, since he'd be a terrible president, but he does seem like the sort to continue attacking the rest of the field and all the rest would be terrible presidents also.

I've been trying to think of some way to help the Writer's Guild, currently on strike in a crystal clear case of producers being fuckheads. Sent pencils awhile back, watched the video of Joss Whedon pouring pallets of pencils and chanting "Thank you fans," bless his heart. Hit on something that felt a bit more useful last Friday when I found the wga_supporters LJ community and saw that Michael Pollan was slated to be a guest on the Colbert Report Tuesday the 8th... Sent him a letter requesting that he not cross the picket line to go on the show. He replied personally that he'd decided not to already. What a guy! On a book tour for his lastest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.

And, there was an ACLU "Wear Orange to show your support for Closing Guantanamo" day yesterday which I took part in to no effect whatsoever, since I wasn't feeling ert enough to bother explaining to anyone.

Anyway, the letter I sent to Pollan, because I thought it was pretty good:

Dear Professor Pollan:

I see from the "Fans for the WGA" blog that you'll be appearing on the
Colbert Report on Tuesday the 8th, four days from now.
(http://community.livejournal.com/wga_supporters/188680.html) I'd like to
ask you to reconsider crossing the Writer's Guild of America picket lines,
and to cancel your appearance.

I saw your talk last spring at the Oakland Library, and I was very
impressed by your exhortations to work against the Farm Bill skewing our
society. To me it seems that the writers are in a similar situation today
as farmers were in the Nixon years: a major change proposed to their
funding model that will end up screwing America. Instead of corn farmers
being paid no matter what, though, the media conglomerates want writers to
hardly get paid at all in the future when internet distribution and cgi
animation will be enormous forces in entertainment.

It's a lot easier to stop this kind of thing at the start than thirty
years down the line when the effects are devastatingly obvious. I'm not
going to say big media is as evil as corn, but I don't think going on a
Viacom-owned show during the strike is going to help your image, the
promotion of your new book, or society in general. I know it's going to
be tough and embarassing to back out, but I hope you'll think about it.

Sincerely,
Madeline F-------
Oakland, CA