18. Im all for young people voting if they want to, but why do adults feel that everyone should vote, even the indifferent?

Hey Genius - Guess what.  You're an adult when you turn 18.  And not everyone who thinks young people should pay more attention to our government.  After all, those are the folks who are placing college costs so high they're almost out of reach for most people these days.  And call me crazy, but I know a lot of under 30 year olds who don't have any health care to speak of and really want to get it.  The reason they don't vote is often NOT becuase they're indifferent, it's because jerks like you keep giving them the subtle message that they don't matter much (or that they're not "adult" enough to vote.)

19. When middle-aged elections officials proclaim Voting is Cool, does anyone under the age of 30 believe them?

Ok - but why focus on the elections officials?  What rock have you been living under?  Ever hear of Krist Novoselic?  How about the Hip Hop Voter Campaign?  Ben Affleck?  Any of these things ringing a bell?  Are you *actually* paying attention to the youth voter movement or are just shooting your mouth off to sound cool?

20. Why do elections officials have to make middle-aged and older voters targets of derision in their campaigns to get young people to vote?

Hmmm...  I've tended to miss the derisive focus on old people in most of my youth voter activities.  As close as it gets is a concern that older voters often don't get it when it comes to young people - We're worried we won't be able to pay off college EVER.  We're worried we won't *ever* be able to buy a house and finish off a 30 year mortgage before we die.  We're worried that one broken leg, or a nasty virus is going to lead to financial ruin that will last the rest of our lives. 
Social Security?  Who cares?  (Unless, of course, it means our parents are planning to come live with us!)

21. Should I feel guilty if I vote and twentysomethings dont?

14. When politicians start posting on social networking sites like MySpace, does that mean such sites have jumped the shark?

15. When politicians want to be on your buddy list so as to hit you up for a vote, does that make them Internet predators?

Oh, this column just wins for the day based on the use of "Wayback Machine" in the headline. (10 points to those of you who know the origin of the Wayback Machine - points are doubled if you know the names of those who used the machine). 

Exceprts are printed below - but the article focuses on the Administration's linking of the Iraq war to WWI (and anywhere else we fought "The Commies")  The idea is, he suggests, to motivate the hard-core war veterans to get out and vote because this conflict is just like fighting Hitler.  My favorite point from the article?

To those who point out that Iraq wasn't a nexus of terrorism until we invaded, Cheney responds, "They overlook a fundamental fact: We were not in Iraq on September 11th, 2001, and the terrorists hit us anyway."

Huh? The terrorists who attacked on Sept. 11 didn't come from Iraq. Except in Cheney's mind, I don't know where the fact that we were attacked by terrorists trained in Afghanistan (and sent by Osama bin Laden, who's probably now in Pakistan) somehow mitigates the fact that we've made Iraq a hotbed of terrorism.

Here's the intro and a link to the article!

Who Set the Wayback Machine for 1939?

With George W. Bush talking so much about Nazis and fascism, Donald Rumsfeld warning ominously against lily-livered appeasement and Dick Cheney quoting Franklin Roosevelt on the "dirty business" of war, one might worry that this direction-challenged administration has wandered into some sort of time warp. Somebody's going to have to break it to them that Churchill and Stalin are gone and the Dodgers don't play in Brooklyn anymore.

Condi Rice seems to be the only one of the so-called Vulcans who missed the memo that it's 1939. When she made her obligatory pilgrimage to the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City last week, she referred to the enemy in the war on terrorism as "violent extremists," which sounds so 2006.

and the article's conclusion, just for kicks...

Rumsfeld went furthest of all in claiming that it is, in fact, 1939 -- that the jihadist terror movement presents the same kind of threat to the world that Hitler did when he invaded Poland. He set up a straw man, warning that those who do not see the threat as clearly as he does are as blind as those who tried to appease Hitler. But he doesn't specify who he's talking about. Who wants to appease terrorists? Is it Democrats? Nervous Republicans who've seen the latest polls?

Nobody wants to appease terrorists. But some people have a different idea of how to fight them. The president is right when he says this conflict is unlike other wars, but he seems to miss the essential difference: It has to be fought in a way that doesn't create two new terrorists for each one who is killed.

That's not what the president wants to talk about, though. Between now and November, he wants to talk about a war that we can all agree on, even if it has no bearing on the war being fought today. Yes, Mr. President, Hitler was bad. And your point would be?

Lastly, for those wondered - The Wayback Machine is from Rocky & Bullwinkle.  It was used by Sherman and the lovable, brainy, white dog Mr. Sherman.

GOP attacks leading liberal blogger

Posted by David Postman at 07:24 AM

There are times I wonder if partisan bloggers exaggerate their influence on politics and campaigns. But could their be any better validation of the increasingly important role they play than the attack the Republican National Committee launched this morning against the man behind the popular and influential liberal blog Daily Kos?

The RNC sends out regular missives compiling quotes and news clips to attack opponents, or less frequently, boost their own candidates. Democrats do the same. But few pack the punch or are as long as this morning's RNC release: "WHO IS MARKOS MOULITSAS ZUNIGA? A Partisan 'Nutroot' Who Turned His Hate-Filled Blog Daily Kos Into A Leadership Post In The Democrat Party."

Republicans spend 2,800 words on Moulitsas, the co-author of his recent book, and Daily Kos diarists. Among the RNC attack points: "Moulitsas Has Plans To Take Over The Party," "Moulitsas Makes An "Excellent Living," "Moulitsas Vehemently Opposed DLC Member Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) In Democrat Primary," "Moulitsas Also Provides Liberal Bloggers A Venue To Promote Their Own Extreme Messages And Ideologies," and the damning claim, "Daily Kos Blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga Back From 'Relaxing' Vacation." Republicans also say Moulitsas holds radical positions on the war on terror, including his position that, "The French Are Right."

Moulitsas practices politics not journalism. And the RNC is right that he is becoming increasingly influential within Democratic Party politics. Bloggers who play behind-the-scenes roles in politics deserve scrutiny and should strive for transparency.

The Republican attack on Daily Kos is reminiscent of Democrats trying to tie the GOP to their backers among conservative talk radio hosts. Neither attack is about trying to get the parties to distance themselves from the controversial figures. They are about trying to make party members seem out of step with the mainstream by playing up the influence of people like Moulitsas or, in the past, Rush Limbaugh.

By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 22, 2006; D01

Like many 21-year-olds, Jared Watts gripes in his blog. He rails against his boss, his job and the misery of dealing with customers at the Cingular Wireless store where he works.

"Enter Middle Aged Wench of Doom," Watts wrote, recounting a tense dialogue with a rude customer demanding to pay her bill. He also complains about company policies he finds "abusive to the customer" and "inappropriate," some of which "violated my personal beliefs."

Watts's views about his employer appear to contradict those of his father, Wayne Watts, who is senior vice president and associate general counsel of AT&T Corp., Cingular's parent company. The senior Watts, whom Jared credits with landing him the job, is defending AT&T's customer service record before regulators as the company tries to acquire BellSouth Corp.

Unlike their parents, today's youth have grown up in the age of public disclosure. Keeping an Internet diary has become de rigueur; social lives and private thoughts are laid bare. For parents in high-profile positions, however, it means their children can exploit a generational disconnect to espouse their own points of view, or expose private details perhaps their parents wish they would not.

"All the things I've typed in my blog I've argued with my father about," like whether mergers hurt customers, something Jared Watts said he thinks does inconvenience consumers. But publicly criticizing his company is not the same as a personal attack on the father who supports him "100 percent," he said.

His father, speaking through an AT&T spokesman, said: "I care very much for my son. And like many fathers and sons, we have differences of opinion on many subjects."

What gets aired can go beyond philosophical differences.

The gossip site Wonkette.com has made a minor sport out of exposing what newsmakers' offspring have done on the Web. There was Tennessee Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker's daughter's Facebook page, for example, which showed her locking lips with another woman and dancing in what appeared to be her underwear.

Of the 12 million bloggers on the Internet, 54 percent are younger than 30, according to a July study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That number may not include the dozens of other sites that allow for self-disclosure and picture-posting without necessarily following a blog format, like AIM Pages, Facebook and MySpace, which has 100 million member profiles.

California Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray's younger-than-21 daughter Briana posted a series of pictures of herself on MySpace, including one where she poses with a cooler full of Miller High Life. Last fall, NBC star Tim Russert's son, Luke, posted a photo of on Facebook of himself clutching a cup and posing with four bikini-clad women in a hot tub.

Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call discovered Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's son, Jonathan, declaring membership in the "Jonathan Frist appreciation for 'Waking up White People' Group" on his Facebook page. The Vanderbilt University student also claimed membership in a group where there were "No Jews Allowed. Just Kidding. No seriously."

All were replaced or taken down after gaining Internet notoriety.

According to the Pew study, among those who blog, 52 percent said they do so to express themselves creatively, and 50 percent said they blog to document and share their personal experiences.

"Many of them don't think they are committing public acts by posting a blog, but the power of search is that it makes it pretty darn easy to find," said Lee Rainey, founding director of Pew. Parents and increasingly school systems are warning children about the implications of posting things on MySpace, for example, he said. But parents are only starting to become aware of their own vulnerability, he said. "Things that used to be inside familiars or within a small audience now have a global audience."

For example, a Google search of the terms "Wayne Watts AT&T" returns a top link to a blog called "Corporate Tool," which praises the job Watts has been doing to secure the merger between AT&T and BellSouth. The top comment in response to that entry is from Jared Watts -- "haha wayne watts is my dad!" -- with a link to Jared Watts's blog and its ramblings and complaints.

Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.

Fair warning - this is just a copy of a bulletin, since I want to save it posterity or something...

Lest anyone think we've got nothing going on here besides some pride parades, an ongoing protest over military shipoments out of our local Port, and a week-long protest at one of the local supermarket chains which is refusing to provide Plan B....

We're also fighting off a group of what my friend Reiko so elegantly describes as "Glamour Nazis".  Seriously.  Some members of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group based in Minneapolis (SEAN BROOM - I BLAME YOU!  What the heck are you guys fostering over there in Minnesota?!  -- Ok, not really.  But honestly - hurry up and kick the rest of your state into the 21st century.) are holding an Indepence Day rally on the steps of our state capitol.  On July 3rd, no less.  Well, I guess you don't become a neo-Nazi because you're a brain surgeon...  The group is trying to activate supporters in California, Nevada, Oregon and other Western states.

Anyone in the Puget Sound area who wants to join in the counter-movement is invited to attend the Unity in the Community event listed below. 

The community response (not a confrontation) to the scheduled Monday, July 3 neo-Nazi rally is a SUNDAY, JULY 2 program (10 AM - 5 PM) sponsored byUnity in the Community at Sylvester Park. It is important that all of us come together and support this effort. There will be a film crew present.

For more information, here's an article from the Seattle Times.  Half a day later, and I still love the bozos line...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003095065_webnazis29.html

As I mentioned in a bulletin I've just posted, the owner of the two Thriftway grocery stores in Olympia, A has decided his store's pharamacy won't be filling prescriptions for Plan B. TCYD members are joining with others in our community who are calling for a Boycott of these stores until they agree to fill all legal prescriptions.

TCYD members have joined in the protests outside the store for the past two days - and I encourage anyone in the area who hasn't attended one of the protests to join the protest either Friday or Sunday nights (5-7 pm).

Pictures from the first two days are here:
http://www.ydwa.org/gallery/thirftwayboycott

On the upside, one of the protestors who is a food/ag scientist hopes this means more of the liberals in town will start shopping at our local food co-op and cause them to get an even bigger location!

Go halfway down the article and look on the right... there's an amusing picture of me with the Gov at the State Democratic Convention.  Now making two different women in my family who have had photos with the Gov run in that paper.  Hopefully the print itself is not cropped in exactly those places.  Yike.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/286410511909533