elections « Ramblings of a Hopeless Khowaga

Tag: ‘elections’

Facebook is a Punk-Ass Chump

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Yeah, that’s right. I said it. And I stole it off a bumper sticker describing our last president.

I won’t deny that I have used Facebook for varying purposes both professional and personal. I have used it to stalk our notoriously blasé alumnae, whose career trajectories we are supposed to track (and they know this) but who are really, really, really bad about keeping us informed of their whereabouts the moment they leave town. I have used it to look up people I used to know in a former life; not in the Shirley MacLaine definition thereof, but people I knew from my days as an underpaid, overworked cog at a non-profit in DC, people I knew from my days as an undergraduate, and people I knew from (shudder) high school.

I have stopped friending people from high school. At this point, I’m “friends” with people that I knew well. My “people you may know” box lists a number of people that I didn’t know well and, you know what? If they want to get in touch, they can friend me. As the number of people that I have known in my life is actually something of a finite number (I was a bit of a wallflower until grad school), it’s that little box right there that’s been the source of some amusement and derision of late.

Maybe it’s just that I’m bitter that I don’t actually know most of the people that the little box suggests. The chain of linkages seems to have worn thin–Facebook has, on occasion, suggested people to be friends of mine for no other obvious reason than they happen to have the same name as people that I already know. That’s weird, right?

I am not in favor of the introduction of things that I can “Fan” into my “people you may know” box. There are too many things to “fan” these days. “Flipping the pillow over to get to the cool side”? Really? The day that I completely lost my patience was … well, I found it creepy that a little box appeared suggesting that I become a fan of “butt sex” right next to another little box suggesting that I friend my high school guidance counselor.

Seriously. Ew.

Then, of course, there are the recent spate of groups that have popped up that are Iran related. I can support “free and fair elections in Iran,” I have been asked to support “supporters of free and fair elections in Iran,” I have been asked to join a group called “Where is their vote?”, a group called “Where is MY vote?”, and something in Persian that I can’t read because I don’t read Persian. I’ve been asked to shade my profile photo green (I’m standing against a green background–I’m lazy and that’ll have to suffice). I’ve also been asked to become a supporter of Mir Hussein Moussavi, which I decided not to do because, other than the fact that people are protesting because they think he won the elections in June, I don’t really know that much about his politics and whether I support them.

Therein, of course, lies the rub: I still think about what I do on Facebook like it matters. I have “friends” who clearly don’t. Two weeks ago, I came back to my hotel in Cairo after a lovely evening watching the sufi dances in the old city, followed by a stroll through the part of the old city that’s now lit up at night. I booted up my laptop since the Internet seemed to run faster in the wee hours of the night, and discovered that someone who went to high school with me for one year and recently friended me had posted an article from a Christian Web site freaking out because “Islam is trying to take over America” (*coughfirstcough*). I had no problem removing this individual as a friend since it was clear that we had nothing in common (and he clearly hadn’t actually looked at my profile long enough to determine that I’m a hellbound homo).

The same happened to a couple of people who kept trying to recruit me to causes like, “Impeach Obama now!” (Why the sitting president is worthy of impeachment for any reason other than being black a Democrat is beyond me. Always amazes me that these are the same people who sat idly by while Tricky Dick Cheney sat there with a pair of scissors and cut up the constitution.)

My friend Will is currently on a campaign to remove all of the birthers from his roster of Facebook friends. I don’t think I have any birthers in mine, although I can’t be sure because there are a few people who are permanently hidden (mostly because their status updates are a nonstop slough of quizzes, status updates from Mafia Wars, or invoke God just a few more times than I think a normal person should when, say, mentioning that you just got home from the grocery store–praise Jesus!).

And don’t even get me started on those bizarre high school competitions to see who can garner the most friends. There’s a reason that my profile is now on permanent lockdown.

All this is to say that Facebook is starting to spoil a little bit, like cheese left out in the sun for a week. I’m curious to see what the next big thing in social networking will be … because I’m totally going to join it, and then blog about how much it annoys me. Just like everyone else

Tags: art, bla, blog, cairo, cheese, elections, fes, friends, god, Home, ice, Internet, iran, islam, life, lost, love, me, men, moving, politics, quizzes, sex, weird, Will, work
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Fighting Dirty

Friday, June 6th, 2008

Matt beat me out of the starting gate on the righteous indignation front this morning with his post calling out the die-hard supporters of Hillary Clinton who have decided that the most constructive thing they can do now that she’s conceding the race to Barack Obama is to instead vote for John McCain.

I find this distressing on a number of levels — a lot of people are raising the banner of unspoken racism in the charge that “There’s just something about Obama that I don’t trust.” There’s also that e-mail running about accusing Obama of being a “secret Muslim” (intriguing, given the whole fracas over Obama’s connection to his decidedly un-Muslim pastor), with the unspoken set of equally racist charges that implies–to whit that, by vent of being a secret Muslim, Obama is actually the leader of the Great Islamic Fifth Column who will reveal his true form once in office and make his first act to send the military into private homes and staple veils on everyone’s heads. It’s amazing what some people believe is possible.

That whole brouhaha aside, I must raise the question: for the past eight years, we’ve had a President who thinks he’s God’s warrior, and look where that’s gotten us. Even if Obama were secretly Muslim or the anti-Christ, as some have charged–could he really do that much worse that the current occupant of the White House?

Back to the split in the Democratic party. It’s been a long campaign, and it’s not over, even if we’re feeling a resolution to a long, drawn out process that we all expected to end in February. Despite the fact that the two fought a relatively clean battle themselves, their supporters have entrenched, and I understand that for the Hillary-ites, defeat is not easy. But John McCain is an easy way out, not a noble sacrifice.

Hillary, for her part, isn’t helping much by making overtures for the vice-presidency. If she continues to push the issue, she paints Obama into a corner: if he picks her, then he demonstrates that he’s weak and that she’s the more powerful politician on the ticket, even if she’s running in the Number 2 slot. If he doesn’t pick her, he risks alienating her supporters even further.

For the record, I think that when it comes right down to it, the biggest danger is that Hillary’s supporters won’t vote for McCain – it’s that they’ll stay home in November and not vote for anyone. And no self-respecting homo should vote for a Republican, <em>period</em>. Not after the past 8 years.

I have to wonder whether a lot of this is just posturing in the wake of defeat — maybe, once the Obama-McCain race truly starts, Hillary supporters will be able to move on and support the Democratic party. For the sake of our country–heck, for the rest of the world–I certainly hope so. I don’t know if we can wait till 2012 for a change — if we keep going down the path we’re on, there may not be a 2012.

Tags: barack obama, elections, hillary clinton, politics
Posted in Politics as Usual | 1 Comment »

The Texas Two-Step

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Well, I’ve done gone and ‘et my words: I am a caucusian.

If you live in These United States, you’ve probably heard about the weird ass system we have down here in Texas where we have both election and caucuses for the presidential primaries. The Texas primaries are always so freaking late in the year that our votes usually don’t matter (in ’04, there was only one candidate left by the time primary day rolled around). Two-thirds of the state’s delegates are assigned via the polls, and the remaining third is assigned by caucus. They call it the “Texas two-step.”

This year, though, you’d have to have been living under a rock to not know that the race is definitely not over yet, at least not for the Democratic Party (is there anyone else running?). So, I diligently went after work to cast my ballot in the polls, and then Ray and I, perhaps buoyed by a sense that we might actually matter this time around (and maybe thinking it would be fun, like the caucus Matt and Scott went to), decided to go off and participate in our very own neighborhood caucus.

The polls closed at 7, and the instructions we’d all been given were to arrive at the caucus site at 7:15. So, after screening the previous evening’s episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the DVR, we piled in Ray’s truck and drove over to the high school around the corner.

I should clarify: the polls closed at 7, but anyone who was in line at 7 was guaranteed the chance to vote, and the caucus couldn’t begin until all votes had been cast. So, when we arrived, we discovered that the line for the polls stretched out the door, down the hall, around the corner, down that hall, around the corner, down that hall, and out the front door of the school.

So we left, had dinner, and came back an hour later.

At 8 o’clock, the line was shorter and we (OK, I), decided to stick around. We got in line next to sassy black lady and stood there not moving.

Now it’s 8:15. I stepped out of line to go to the bathroom, and wandered past the room where the Republican caucus was being held. There were five people in the room, and they were wrapping up. Since Texas has closed primaries, the Republican vote had ended a long time earlier.

Now it’s 8:30. Discussion in the line seems to indicate that no one actually knows what we’re waiting on, or what’s going to happen when whatever we’re waiting on arrives.

At 8:35, the last voter finished, and the roll books were brought up to the caucus location. You see, in order to caucus, you have to be able to prove that you voted, which means they look you up in the roll books … again … to see if you signed in earlier in the day, or are listed as having cast an early vote.

At 8:40 one of the two roll books vanishes. It belongs to the county election commission, meaning it has to go back to the county seat. Now we’re left with the precinct book and one very slow employee to manually look up all 300 people standing in two lines waiting to caucus.

Now it’s 8:45. The line’s not moving. Someone attempts to cut in line in front of us, and Ray cuts her a new one. We don’t see her after that.

At 9, I text Will, who’s stumping for Obama in Ohio: We’re caucusing! How are things on your end?
He texts back: Watching results. Disorganized?
Me: Utter chaos.

Now it’s 9:15.

Now it’s 9:30. The line finally starts to look like it’s thinning out as Well Dressed Black Man, who’s one of my benchmarks to test progress up front, signs in.

Now it’s 9:45.

Now it’s 10:00.

At 10:15, it’s finally our turn at the front of the line. Verified as having voted, we get to participate in the grand tradition of caucusing by signing our name on the rolls in favor of one candidate or another.

To whit: You write your name, your address, your phone number, a voter verification number that has to be hand copied out of the roll book, and write the name of your chosen candidate.

Then … and this is where Ray and I were both a little confused, there were the following items to complete on the form:

Are you disabled?
Are you LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered)?
Are you under the age of 35?
Are you a veteran?
Please list your gender.

After this, the helpful lady asked us to write our race down next to the box. I’ll admit that at this point I was so tired that I got the disabled question right, and couldn’t remember how old I am and whether or not that number is greater or less than 35.

But … are you a homosexual? Whatthefuck?

Ray was ranting about it as we left, because it seems to serve no clear purpose. I mean, what, is the Williamson County Gestapo going to come and drive us back over the county line into loony, liberal Travis County? Or are we now running for diversity positions on the precinct board? Why is this information necessary?

Maybe a cowboy wants to come two-step with us. Who knows? Anyway, I did my civic duty and am now a registered Democrat (you get to re-register every two years) and a registered homo-sinual.

And since we voted for different candidates, all I can say is that Obama and Hillary better freakin’ appreciate it, too.

Tags: elections, politics, voting, weird
Posted in Politics as Usual | 3 Comments »

Signs of the Time

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

Just in case anyone on campus has forgotten, here’s a helpful reminder that early voting in Texas starts today.

Tags: elections, politics
Posted in Politics as Usual | Comments Off

On My Mind

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

It’s been a few days since I’ve written a “real” post — ironic for me, since I’m usually heavy on the words and light on the photos. It’s like we’ve all shifted into that Parallelland that I wrote about a few days back. Ah, Paralelland.

So, in no particular order, here’s what’s on my mind:

I still don’t know who to vote for. Now that it’s become rather obvious that the Texas primary on March 4 will actually mean something, my deer-in-the-headlights approach to choosing a candidate seems like it’s a little less advisable, and yet … {stares at the pretty lights .. it’s so beautiful! … crash!}

I decided, on the recommendation of a friend who is having problems making up her mind like I am, to visit Glass Booth, a site that features one of those Cosmo-type quizzes where you rank the relative importance of a number of issues, choose your stance on them, and then it splits out a list of candidates that best match your political outlook.

I should clarify here that my specific problem is that I can’t pick between Obama and Hillary. I have a number of friends who have come out strongly for the Obamanator, while I, myself waffle back and forth (I think Obama has a better chance of winning the White House against MCain, but I think Hillary has a better shot at getting a second term).

This quiz, unfortunately, didn’t help much. According to Glass Booth, my best match as a dark horse candidate I’ve never heard of. I don’t think he’s on the ballot in Texas — I’m not even sure he’s still in the race. It also did little to solve my confusion: Obama is a 74% percent match, Hillary is 71%.

I was more than a little stunned to find out that Mike Huckabee is a better match for me, at least according to this survey, than Bill Richardson was. I would be willing to guess, however, that the issues on which I differ with Mike Huckabee (such as: whether or not I, as a homosexual man, should be allowed to continue to live; and whether or not the world is 6,000 years old) might all be deal breakers, whereas I suspect that my major differences with Bill will be more in the area of whether I am strongly or just mildly opposed to providing tax breaks to large corporations in exchange for moving large portions of their workforce out of the country.

By the way, in case you’re not local, Obama and Clinton are going to debate at my esteemed institution this Thursday. I was originally rather disappointed to find that the debate is going to be held on a day I’ll be out of town (in DC), but since then we’ve come to find out that no one from campus can actually go. The entire event — save for a paltry lottery of 100 tickets, issued only to students — is by invitation only.

They’re also holding it in one of the gyms because every single auditorium of size on campus is under renovation right now. Accordingly, the gym (fortunately, not the main one) will be closed down all week for the bomb sniffing dogs and athletic-odor-removal teams to come in and do their jobs.

The worst part about all of this is that someone at UT clearly provided sexual favors to someone else for this “honor.”

Then there’s this bizarre piece in the local news here in Austin: a 7 year old boy was found hanging by a hook in a bathroom in a charter school a couple of weeks back, and the local constabulary has ruled the incident an “accident.” (I should note that the boy died in the hospital a couple of days later without ever waking up.)

Yes, folks, that’s right! This young man, courageous and tired of living life, somehow managed to hang himself from a hook above head level in the bathroom, after which he was able to put the object he used to climb up there away safe and secure so that his fellow courageous comrades and Young Sons of the Motherland would not injure themselves upon entering the room. All hail President Scroob!

Seriously, does this not read like those death notices from Cold War era totalitarian states? “The dissident’s death was ruled a suicide after the state doctor performing the autopsy ruled that the four gunshot wounds sustained in the back of the head, fired from a distance of ten to twenty feet, were clearly self-inflicted.”

It do boggle the mind, don’t it?

Anyway. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes! It’s funny how turning 29 year after year after year just never gets old! It’s a quiet birthday so far, but it’s been a hectic weekend, and that’s kind of what I want.

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

Tags: Austin, barack obama, Bill Richardson, confusion, deer in the headlights, elections, hillary clinton, news, political outlook, politics, quizzes, texas, university, weird, work
Posted in Home | 3 Comments »

Tag: ‘elections’

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