ria_oaks | Entries tagged with politics

Well now that I can legally talk about election results *eyeroll*... ugh. Not surprising I guess, but ugh. Here's hoping he doesn't get a majority. NDP as the opposition will be interesting, though. :)

And yay for #tweethteresults for letting me know the results ahead of time, depressing though they are. :) You can't stop the signal! (tbh, I mostly just wanted to make this post as an excuse to say that). The whole media blackout thing is ridiculous, and not really enforcable anymore..
*looks back at TV* Wow the NDP have got a lot of seats. o.o Pretty cool. I've never seen the BQ get that few seats. ^^ Or the Liberals for that matter... still got some time to wait until we get to my ridings (the one I actually voted in, and the one I grew up in/technically live in again and should probably have voted in). Fingers crossed! They both went Conservative in the last election.

According the CBC the record number of seats the NDP ever got in the past was 43. They're at 83 now and counting... certainly a change. :)

And now, let's just pray the Conservatives don't get a majority... not that I really want yet another minority government (and the inevitable election in another 2 years), but I really don't want that man in complete charge of my country. o.o

Current Mood: blank

*gapes*

http://mediamatters.org/research/200905070031

Fox News really needs to find better things to talk about.. like real news... seriously, attacking Obama based on his preference for dijon mustard? Aren't they, like, supposed to be a "serious news station" rather than a comedy network? XD I just don't even know... *shakes head*

Current Mood: amused

Blago Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner: It's Bleepin' Golden

That is epic. I almost want to buy a bottle. :) Hey, I could use more volume... though maybe not Blago-level volume...

(is my politics tag appropriate for this kind of rather humour shit vaguely related to politics? LOL. Using it anyway)

Current Mood: amused

Have I mentioned recently how much I fucking hate not having proper Internet? Probably. But I'm doing it again, because GAH it's so frustrating. I'm actually starting to miss CNN and the other 24-hr news networks cuz dammit I want to see Obama's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. *pout* But I'm tearing through my bandwidth and it's so expensive... so now I'm at the library, and really, you'd think that watching Youtube videos at a wi-fi hotspot wouldn't be that big of a deal, it's not like I'm using Bit Torrent to download a fucking 300mb file, but of course it's just... way too slow to work. Oh wait, and now it says an 'error occurred' which makes me think they're blocking Youtube. Oh, honestly. *sigh* And the live blog posts on RBR the day during it are making me jealous and wishing I can watch it. :(

But for some random amusement: evidently "fucking" is not a word according to my mobile phone (I was texting my cousin and mentioned that word in conjunction with this internet connection, lol). I have saved it so it will be from now on. Heh.

Current Mood: frustrated

omg, guyz, how awesome is this president?

And how awesome would it be to be the people working there? ^^ It's funny how excited we get over this, really, when it's just 2 guys ordering burgers, but... there's something so cool and normal about seeing the president and vice president in some junky little burger place. XD (and he totally ordered pretty much the same kind of burger as I would... mmm, sounds good. Making me hungry. ^_^)

(oh, and I love how he stands in line! And I think the cashier was waving him forward in front of the other people, but in the next shot it looks like he let them go first... what a gentleman. ^_^)

Current Mood: amused

Sean Hannity agrees to be waterboarded for charity.

Oh Fox News, never stop brinigng the lulz. :) Doubt he'll go through with it, but that'd be a hell of a thing... let's see if he stills claims that waterboarding isn't torture after he's experienced it.

Current Mood: amused

MY LUGGAGE IS HERE THANK FUCKING GOD. *cries* I'm so happy. :) I want to cuddle my pundit!dolls to me and never let them go. Poor guys, what an ordeal. ;) And I got my cell phone so I have something to do with my new SIM card! And my graphics tablet!! oh yeah, and clothing. ^^

AND. I got a place to live! It's a shared apartment (and a shared room...) but I don't care because it beats living in a hostel (bloody 6-person mixed dorm where one of the guys has been in there ALL DAY sleeping so I can't spend any time in there). It's in St. Kilda which is a suburb about 25 minutes by tram from the city core, but it's near the beach so booya! And St. Kilda's supposed to be pretty cool, I've heard. Am still researching Internet. Virgin has a prepaid service where you shell out $150 for the Internet USB stick then prepay for usage ($100 for 6 gigs... yup, not gonna be doing much downloading). But it's convenient since I'll be travelling all around the country and can use it anywhere (or at least anywhere with coverage, so all the major cities and such).

(and on a random note - ROFL at this: http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2009/04/01/Snooze/April.Fools.Issue.Exclusive.Rahm.Emanuels.Speech-3687648.shtml
He should totally do his speech like that. ;) )

Current Mood: relieved

*bounces a bit* Someone claimed one of my

lgbtfest prompts, yay! :) Can't wait for the fic to start coming in for this... it's still gonna be awhile, though.

On a less cheerful note (and taking into account that I wrote the above bit about 2 hours ago and am only just now coming back to add more to this post)... Evidently Bill "I blame rape victims!" O'Reilly has been chosen to speak at, get this, a fundraising luncheon for a rape survivors advocacy group. Needless to say a lot of us are deeply disgusted by this (he's not only blamed rape victims and called them 'moronic', he's also argued that an 11-year-old rape victim "enjoyed it", not to mention himself being the subject of several sexual harrassment suits). There's a petition which I urge everyone to sign, and yeah, I know, online petitions tend to do fuck-all, but it can't hurt. The group has already defended their decision by basically sweeping his previous statements under the rug "we know about them but, uh... let's not talk about that!" but hopefully the increasing bad press over this (I gather Keith has mentioned it both Monday and Tuesday nights, I just haven't had a chance to fully watch either episodes yet) will convince them that, I don't know, maybe this is a bad idea. I just... can't even comprehend how they could do this and not realize how deeply offensive it is towards rape survivors. *sigh*

So yes. Sign the petition. Because every little bit helps...

(and I think this officially calls for my new Rahm icon... fitting, no?)

Current Mood: disgusted

LOL, well, the saga of Blago (or as Jon Stewart calls him, "Scum-dog Million-hairs") is over for awhile... They voted to impeach him 59-0, to the surprise of absolutely no one except probably him. Aww, I'm almost going to miss him and his craziness, but there's still the criminal trial to look forward to... and his reaction to the impeachment oughta be interesting (haven't seen if any statement's been released?? Should go turn on the news... or else just wait til Countdown downloads then see what Keith has to say). He was getting a bit repetitive and boring these last few days, anyway, just saying the same things over and over again in his ten million interviews. Still, the memories of the Tennyson-quoting, Gandhi comparisons, and cowboy movie references will live on. ;) Good times. Next up: radio talk show from prison! With guest star Sarah Palin! We can dream.

EDIT: Here's one of my favourite quotes from the above article, and by a Republican no less: "He failed the test of character. He is beneath the dignity of the state of Illinois. He is no longer worthy to be our governor," said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Republican from suburban Chicago. Oh, snap!

Current Mood: amused

To any Americans who may be reading this... congratulations. :)

Yeah, Canadian or not, I actually got up half an hour earlier than normal to watch the life coverage. ^^ Don't have to be at work until 9:30 and can prob push it a bit, so barring setbacks I'll be able to watch the actual swearing in. Hope so, cuz it's not the same on the Tivo or news reruns later... anyway, it's incredible seeing just how many people are there - wow. And amusing seeing the crowd reactions (some smattered polite applause when Bush Sr. & Bush came out, and wild applause for the Clintons and now Biden. :) Waiting as I write this for Obama to come out, and just praying that nothing bad will happen... *prays* Okay, being pessimistic. ^^

...And there he is. ^__^ Such an amazing day... I'm certain I'm gonna get all teared up. ^^ Ya'll are so lucky, we need an Obama up here. ;) (never though I'd see the day where I would say something like that!)

Okay, better go eat breakfast and finish watching.

Current Mood: excited

Oddly enough, this article actually raises my opinion about Harper by a very small amount.

I'm a bit weird that way. ;)

Current Mood: amused

This is epic:

( Under cut... )

UNICORN.

Pity they probably don't ship to Canada. XD XD

(gacked from

rahmbamarama)

This community is addicting... ^^; They're doing another massive comment spam in hopes of hitting 60000 comments by the innauguration (currently ~49500). I have every confidence in their ability to do so. :) They pulled off 7-8000 comments within about 12-15 hours on New Year's after all... they're still got three days left, they'll be fine. ;) I'm mostly lurking due to shyness and lack of things to contribute (most of my pictures in this fandom came from the New Year's spam... seriously, I came out of that day with about 200 pictures, it was ridiculous), but I really should help out a bit. ^___^

Also, whenever I'm next sufficiently bored... AC picspam. I must indoctrinate all of you. ;)

Current Mood: amused

Linking this because of

caesaria82's post - Keith Olberman's reaction to the passing of Prop 8 in California. Beautifully said, and he really gets to the core of the issue - why can't we just let people have a chance at happiness in life, and how does that happiness negatively affect the rest of us in any way? With a side dish of, what the fuck is this "sanctity of marriage" bullshit, anyway?

...And then she went and got me totally distracted with these pictures. Holyfuck how have I not seen those yet?? God bless John Barrowman... wonder what his husband thinks of him always making out with his co-stars at conventions? XD He's probably used to it, actually.

Current Mood: impressed

The dirt on Sarah Palin gets funnier and funnier, even with the election over... even if some of it's possibly just gossip, enough of it is rooted in stuff that we know (the shopping spree, the Sarkozy prank call... which, btw, go Canada!) that it all seems pretty likely. Really goes to show, while she alone wasn't responsible for McCain's defeat, she certainly didn't help. Not least because McCain's choice of her so undermined a lot of people's respect for him, it was so irresponsible. With another running mate, it definitely would have been tighter.. though I suppose she does appeal to that wingnut base that doesn't like McCain much because, you know, he's not enough of a far-right wingnut. -_- Which is a pity, because that's one of the main things that allows me some respect for the man. Guy was made worse by the others in his party, not to mention his voter base. ^^ Still wouldn't have wanted him as president, though. *shudder* Esp because of the aforementioned far-right wingnuts. It's really too bad how much that super-conservative/religious right mindset has taken over both the Republicans down there and the Conservatives up here. I wouldn't generally much like either to begin with, and they make it all that much worse...

Anyway. What're we going to do without these people to mock anymore?? What are the comedians going to do? XD I'm kinda going to miss the Palin-baiting... and lol at Jon Stewart last night saying he'll miss doing Bush impressions. ;) Oh well, it'll be a nice change of pace to have a government down there that doesn't inspire that much mocking, I suppose. At least Stephen Colbert will have lots of mileage from having a president his character doesn't like. ;)

( Contined ramblings, about Canadian politics and a bit more about American )

Um. Anyway. Bed now, for real.

Current Mood: exhausted

*bites fingernails* I've been refreshing CNN.com at work since the first polls closed 2 hours ago, and couldn't concentrate on work very well. ^^ Now home with CNN on in the background and the website up, and things are looking good... I hope. o.o This is gonna be an exciting evening! It's funny to see so many people all over my f-list who aren't American also watching the election - hell, I've paid far more attention to it than the Canadian one (which face it, was a complete waste of time). Can't seem to tear my eyes off of it... after all, it certainly impacts all of us as well. Anyway, gonna go grab some food then settle down and watch the results come in all evening. Yay. ^^ (also, Indecision 2008 at 10pm - can't wait! Wish I could see it live, though - it airs at 10pm EST and 10pm PST, so we're getting it 3 hours later... wah. Why couldn't they air it at 7pm here??)

Current Mood: excited

Same-Sex Marriage Motion Defeated

Thank god. Now can we please move on and accept the fact that after 3.5 years of same-sex marriage in this country, the world has not in fact ended? Shocking, isn't it?

Anyway, this should end the bloody debate once and for all. Harper's promised in the past that he'd consider it closed if Parliament voted not to re-open the issue, and hopefully he'll stick to his word. Plus, the new Liberal leader Stephane Dion is supportive of equal marriage and said he's glad the motion was defeated, so yay. Whatever happens when we next have an election, I think this issue's finally been settled. Yay Canada.

I love my country. :)

In other news, I'm settled in Toronto now at Stephanie's house. Managed to get connected to wireless internet (no idea what the network is, but do I care? nope. XD), so am quite happy. Got here ~2 hours ago, and have been studying on-and-off since (in between bouts of getting up whenever the dogs start barking randomly at absolutely nothing... heh). Still have lots left to do, so better get back to it... I'm hoping I can watch Smallville tonight, but not sure if she gets the channel. ;_; Might have to wait... also still need to watch the Torchwood pilot that

caesaria82 uploaded.

DEMOCRATS TAKE THE SENATE!

I'm not even American, and I am so happy today. They said it'd be upwards of three weeks before they were sure about the Senate, but now they're pretty much confirming it... things are a-changing south of the border, and it's making me happy. I was excited when the House was taken by the Democrats last night, my jaw pretty much hit the floor when I read that Rumsfeld resigned today, and I'm now so very pleased that the Senate will almost definitely go to the Dems. This is a good, good day... :) Only 2 more years to go, and things are definitely swinging out of the Republicans' favour. Fingers crossed, ya'll.

On the minus side, afaik 7 states voted to ban same-sex marriage and Arizona was the only state not to. On the plus side, go Arizona! Also on the plus side, South Dakota voted not to pass that frightening abortion ban, which would have banned nearly all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest. Scary shit, but fortunately it was voted against.

Now we just need to do something about that jerk in power up here, preferably before he tries to take away our same-sex marriage rights. Bastard. Guess I should just be happy that we even passed it in the first place, considering that the US routinely votes on banning same-sex marraige, never mind voting to allow it.

Ahh, politics. Sigh. A few days ago I barely even knew there was an election down south, or what it was, but I did some research (ie. I looked it up on Wikipedia) and I followed the coverage last night (ie. I watched The Daily Show/Colbert Report 'Indecision 2006' report, and occasionally checked CNN). Plus it's all over my friends list... ^^; It may not be as crucial as 2008 will no doubt be, but it was still pretty damned important and certainly signalled a shift in power down there. Go Americans. :)

I really need to start following politics/news more... I'm terribly out of touch with what's happening, hence the not even knowing about the election until about a week ago. And I don't really know enough to talk about politics in any really informed way. Times like these make me think that I should really be paying more attention and gathering more knowledge about the world these days. I'm sick of young people thinking that it doesn't matter and doesn't concern them, because of course it does. This is the world that we're going to have to live in, and American politics impact us as well, and it's important that we actually have some kind of clue about what's actually happening. Okay, lecture over. XD Now I just need to start taking my own advice... maybe I should start watching the news while I make dinner instead of Friends. ;p

And hah, is it bad that I'm amused that the new electronic voting systems had problems? No shit, I could've told them that... that's what they get when they use machines for voting... yeesh. Really, how hard is it to design a voting system that doesn't either break down or result of never-ending recounts...?

Oh yeah, and Lost was good tonight. Made up for last week's episode. 3 monthes to wait now... le sigh.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: The Daily Show in the background

Okay, calmer now... Don Bell (Liberal) is ahead in my riding, so yay! And all things considered I guess the Liberals didn't do as badly as some people were projecting. I don't think Harper will be able to do anything too drastic (ie. overturn same-sex marriage...), but I still can't believe that he's going to be our Prime Minister. I fear us becoming like the US...

... ... ...I can't watch. Moment the last polls closed they started declaring a Conservative victory, and I don't have much hope now. I suppose it's not much of a surprise; they've been saying it for the last few weeks. As long as they don't get a majority...

oh god, I wanna leave the country. ;___;