Election Update

When I wrote that Ka Leo editorial (10/27/04),

http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/27/417f50257bbbd?in_archive=1


I wrote that the 3rd party candidates inclued Micheal Badnarik (Libertarian) David Cobb (Green), RalphNader (independent) and Micehal Peroutka (Constitutional)

But in Hawaii, only Badnarik, Cobb as well as Bush and Kerry would be on the ballot!

And I also wrote that Ventura said he wouldn't vote for either Kerry or Bush! He did say that! However, weeks later, Ventura said he prefers Kerry!

I'll vote Badnarik (Libertarian) tommorrow for President, even though I dont agree with his agenda 100%. But check out his webpage http://badnarik.org/

Though I did agree with Bush in getting rid of Saddam, and criticized the Left for their loony comments on this issue, I want to protect myself from a possible draft! Both Bush and Kerry promised not to have a draft! But one guy's dad said "read my lips", the other guy is even more well-known as a flip-flopper!

Plus on domestic issues, I tend to agree more with Badnarik than with Bush or Kerry!As I 've mentioned in my editorial

http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/27/417f50257bbbd?in_archive=1

The Libertarian Party has Michael Badnarik. He is antiwar, wants to privatize many government services, wants to legalize marijuana, and wants a bigger tax reduction than Bush. He believes the federal government should stay out of the abortion and gay marriage issues.Republicans fear that the Libertarians take away potential voters worried about taxes, gun control and government bureaucracies. But the libertarians also out-liberalize the Democrats on the military draft, drug legalization and opposition to the Patriot Act.

AND

In my opinion, the best minor candidate is the already-mentioned Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party. I agree with him on medical marijuana, abortion, same-sex marriage, guns and the draft. I hope he takes a gradual approach to privatizing certain government services. Going too fast on that can be a disaster;

The "privatize everything now" approach, will only lead to a mega-strong anti-privatization backlash! If privatization is done slowly, the anti-privatization opposition wouldn't be as strong! But MORE IMPORTANTLY, it gives the people time to adjust to privatization of services.

UH Classes Cancelled

The last 24 hours have been mind boggling.

I decided to visit Centerfolds in my Halloween make-up (as Vili The Warrior), then I left because I thought school would be in session the next day.

Then this morning I woke up later than usual (6:30 instead of 5:45) then i got a phone call from a friend saying classes are cancelled. I was only up 10 minutes when that call came, so I turned on the radio. UH classes are cancelled.

And though I didn't yet read the newspapers, I saw a picture of Hamilton being damaged! BAD!

Third party candidates

Back on Ka Leo
After so long, my stuff is finally printed on Ka Leo.

My latest editorial discusses the alternatives to voting Bush or Kerry.

http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/27/417f50257bbbd

Third party candidates offer choices
Polarized voting between Kerry and Bush sideline alternative candidates, with help from mass media
Pablo WegesendOctober 27, 2004

By the time you are reading this editorial, all three of the presidential debates for the 2004 election will have finished. Of course, those debates involved only Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry and Republican incumbent President Bush. Because of this, many people get the wrong impression these two are the only two candidates running for president.

There are others running for president.

There is Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent. His claim to fame is his battle with big corporations. He ran for president in 2000 with the Green Party. Nader made many democrats angry because he supposedly took votes away from then Democratic nominee Al Gore.

The current Green Party nominee is David Cobb, another anti-corporate lawyer. Like Nader, Cobb also has a far-left agenda. Cobb and Nader think the Democrats aren't liberal enough on foreign policy, environment, civil liberties and economics.

The Libertarian Party has Michael Badnarik. He is antiwar, wants to privatize many government services, wants to legalize marijuana, and wants a bigger tax reduction than Bush. He believes the federal government should stay out of the abortion and gay marriage issues.
Republicans fear that the Libertarians take away potential voters worried about taxes, gun control and government bureaucracies. But the libertarians also out-liberalize the Democrats on the military draft, drug legalization and opposition to the Patriot Act.

The Constitution Party has Michael Peroutka. Peroutka is the far-right alternative to the Republicans. He thinks that Bush is too liberal on the federal deficit and immigration. He also dislikes the Patriot Act and thinks that Bush isn't vocal enough against abortion, homosexuality and secularization of public schools.

We have all these other choices and more; however, the media is next to silent on the so-called "third parties." They pretend they don't exist. They pretend that all of America is totally aligned with either Kerry or Bush. That is impossible in a nation of 280 million.

Yet, there are political pundits who consider undecided voters as "stupid," never mind that many people are conflicted between voting for a lesser-known candidate or voting for the "lesser of two evils." Many, like me, may agree with Bush on certain subjects but agree with Kerry on others. We came to that conclusion through an enormous amount of time spent reading newspapers, searching the Internet and watching the news. Yet these pundits call millions of us "stupid" just because we refuse to totally align ourselves with the two over-publicized candidates? These mega-partisan pundits are acting stupid by implying that one must totally agree with Bush or Kerry.

Those of us who have the nerve to vote for a lesser-known candidate are demonized for wasting our votes. The partisan pundits blame third parties for taking away votes their parties are supposedly entitled to.

In 2000, the Democrats demonized Nader for taking away potential Gore votes. Notice that the pro-democrat pundits didn't even bother to encourage Gore to explain why his ideas are better than Nader's. It's as if they're not even confident in Gore being a better candidate issue-wise. It is ironic that the Democratic Party claims to be for the little man, yet they demonize smaller parties for taking away votes.

The Republicans are also guilty of the same thing. It is ironic that the Republican Party claims to be against the entitlement mentality, yet they criticize the Reform, Libertarian and Constitution parties for "taking away votes" from Republicans. As if Republicans are entitled to power. The republicans claim to be for personal responsibility, but in reality blame others for their loses. The Republicans claim to be for the free market, but they aren't willing to effectively market their ideas.

It is this arrogance of the two big parties plus the media's refusal to cover minor parties that is reducing voter turnout. In 2000, in the United States, only half of those eligible to vote actually voted.

Yet, in 1998, in Minnesota, 70 percent of those eligible actually voted. Why? Because in that year, Jesse Ventura was running for governor of Minnesota. Ventura was neither a Democrat nor a Republican. He was less for government bureaucracy, pro-privatization, pro-choice, and pro-gun. He even took the risky positions of being for legalizing prostitution, marijuana and same-sex marriage. With all that, he was able to defeat the two major parties. Plus, being a former pro-wrestler didn't hurt.

Imagine someone like that running for president. I think someone like that can win the presidency.

As for Ventura, he recently stated he wouldn't vote for Kerry or Bush.

As for me, I like Bush for being tough on Islamic terrorists and being pro-immigration; however, Bush is wrong when using the federal government to restrict abortion, same-sex marriage and medical marijuana.

As for Kerry, I agree with him on abortion, civil unions and being tough on al Qaeda; however, Kerry was too inconsistent on too many issues throughout his campaign.

In my opinion, the best minor candidate is the already-mentioned Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party. I agree with him on medical marijuana, abortion, same-sex marriage, guns and the draft. I hope he takes a gradual approach to privatizing certain government services. Going too fast on that can be a disaster; however, he doesn't seem tough enough to take on Islamic terrorists.
Hopefully, someone can reason with me on which candidate to vote for on Nov.2

It's My Birthday! :)

I am 24 years old today!

Now, you all got to give me a present :)

Dam, time goes by so fast, I'm feeling old already. Well, that's how I feel among younger folks, though I feel like a youngster among older adults!

KRS-ONE on 9/11

 

KRS-ONE made some controversial statements on 9/11


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/241962p-207504c.html

KRS-One, decency zero

If Osama Bin Laden ever buys a rap album, he'll probably start with a CD by KRS-One.
The hip-hop anarchist has declared his solidarity with Al Qaeda by asserting that he and other African-Americans "cheered when 9/11 happened."

The rapper, whose real name is Kris Parker, defiled the memory of those who died in the terrorist attacks as he spouted off at a recent New Yorker Festival panel discussion.
"I say that proudly," the Boogie Down Productions founder went on, insisting that, before the attack, security guards kept black people out of the Trade Center "because of the way we talk and dress.

"So when the planes hit the building, we were like, 'Mmmm - justice.'"

The atrocity of 9/11 "doesn't affect us [the hip-hop community]," he said. "9/11 happened to them, not us," he added, explaining that by "them" he meant "the rich ... those who are oppressing us. RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations."

Parker's screed drew a loud boo from novelist Tom Kelly, who was in the audience. "I lost six friends there on 9/11," Kelly told us afterward.

Parker also sneered at efforts by other rappers to get young people to vote.
"Voting in a corrupt society adds more corruption," he added. "America has to commit suicide if the world is to be a better place."

Ex-Nirvana rocker Krist Novoselic, who was on the panel, yelled back: "That is wrong, man. Suicide is not the answer."

But, judging by Parker's downward-spiraling career, he's already bent on self-destruction.

My comments: 

Hey, sometimes security piss me off, like that punk at Varsity Theatre I mentioned in this blog last month. But I'm not going to advocate destroying Varsity Theatre when film fans are inside. Why can't KRS-ONE have that mentality?

But then again, like other has-been celebrities, KRS-ONE is taking his popularity decline so hard to the point where he is, well, on path of self-destruction.

And I remember a while back, KRS-ONE dissed Nelly for being "too commercial". Nelly dissed him back! I'm siding with Nelly on this issue.

It's been a while


As of now, I am too busy to update this blog as much as I'd like

And for editorials, I sent in one to Ka Leo, but the editor said it was "too short". And so is he.

Anyways, check out this quote from Billy Bob Thornton.

http://www.salon.com/ent/col/fix/2004/10/05/tues/index.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004461322,00.html

I think Shakespeare's overrated. It's bullshit. I'd never go and see a Shakespeare play," he said, adding that he wasn't inclined to star in one either (not that it's clear that anyone's asked or anything). "Who'd want to see me in 'Hamlet'? Who cares? I don't know why actors do it. Shakespeare is just a bunch of soap operas." And don't go suggesting that the Bard's work is over his head. "It's not that I don't understand it. But people think if you speak with an English accent it somehow makes you smarter," Thornton said. "I don't believe in all the flowery language."

Of course, this would be considered by blasphemy by a lot of literature profs!

But if you like Shakespeare, good for you. Your life, your interests!

Varsity Theatre Drama

 This month, Varsity Theater hosted the Cinema Paradise film festival. I was there to watch   "2pac Ressurrection", a documentary made by Afeni Shakur and MTV Films! It was very interesting to learn about 2pac's life from childhood, his early career, his troubles with the media, the law and the Bad Boy crew (Biggie and Puff), and his death! It showed a lot of 2pac's fun side, with a lot of hoochies coming on to him.

But the real drama was while waiting for the film to start. 

This was what I sent to the 2 local papers. Hopefully one will print it.

On Friday, September 17, the staff at Varsity Theatre was very disorganized. On that day, there was a film festival going on. Films earlier that day started late, which caused delays for those waiting to watch films later that night. Because of those delays, me and others who were waiting for a 10pm film weren't let into the theatres until 10:20. To add insult to injury, I went to use bathroom after finally entering the theatre, and a big burly staff member didn't even let me into screening room until a co-worker told him to let me in.

If this is how Varsity Theatre usually operate, then I'll support any plans to knock that theatre down and replace it with housing for UH students.