micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links

Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm.

Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net.

Holmquist's full archives are listed here.

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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution)

Aljazeera.Net English
AlterNet (War on Iraq)
Alternative Press Review
Always Low Prices -- Always
Another Irani online
antiwar.com (blog)
Asia Times Online
Axis of Logic
Baghdad Burning (riverbend)
BBC News
blogdex.net ("track this weblog")
bobanddavid.com
BuzzFlash
The Christian Science Monitor (Daily Update)
Common Dreams
Cryptome
Cursor
Daily Rotten
DefenseLINK
Democracy Now
The Drudge Report
Eat the Press (Harry Shearer, The Huffington Post)
Empire Notes (Rahul Mahajan)
frontpagemag.com (HorowitzWatch)
globalsecurity.org
greenandwhite.com
Guardian Unlimited
Haaretz
The Independent
Information Clearing House
Informed Comment (Juan Cole)
Iranians for Peace

Iraq Dispatches (Dahr Jamail)
Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation
Iraq Occupation and Resistance Report (Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice)
MetaFilter
MLive
Mr. Show and Other Comedy
The Narco News Bulletin (blog)
NEWSMAKINGNEWS
The New York Times
Occupation Watch
Political Theory Daily Review
Press Action
Project Syndicate
Raed in the Middle (Raed Jarrar)
random-abstract.com
Reuters
Salon
The Simpsons Archive
Simpsons Collector Sector
Slate
Sploid
Technorati ("search for mth.blogspot.com")
thi3rdeye
United States Central Command
U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq
venezuelanalysis.com
War Report (Project on Defense Alternatives)
The Washington Post
Wildfire (Jo Wilding)
wood s lot
www.mnftiu.cc (David Rees)

Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development)

Thivai Abhor
As'ad AbuKhalil
Ken Adrian
Christopher Allbritton
Alli
Douglas Anders
Mark W. Anderson
Aziz Ansari
Atomic Archive
Bagatellen
James Benjamin
Elton Beard
Charlie Bertsch
alister black
Blame India Watch
Blixa
Blog Left: Critical Interventions Warblog / war blog
Igor Boog
Martin Butler
Chris Campbell
James M. Capozzola
Avedon Carol
Elaine Cassel
cats blog
Jeff Chang
Margaret Cho
Citizens Of Upright Moral Character
Louis CK
Les Dabney
Dack
Natalie Davis
Scoobie Davis
The Day Job
Jodi Dean
Dominic Duval
Steve Earle
Eli
Daniel Ellsberg
Tom Engelhardt
Lisa English
Faramin
Barbara Flaska
Brian Flemming
Joe Foster
Yoshie Furuhashi
Al Giordano
Glovefox
Rob Goodspeed
Grand Puba
Guardian Unlimited Weblog
Pete Guither
The Hairy Eyeball
Ray Hanania
Mark Hand
harveypekar.com
Hector Rottweiller Jr's Web Log Jim Henley Arvin Hill Hit & Run (Reason) Hugo Clark Humphrey Indri The Iraqi Agora Dru Oja Jay Jeff Lynne d Johnson Dallas Jones Julia Kane Blues Benjamin Kepple Ken Layne Phil Leggiere Brian Linse Adam Magazine Majority Report Radio Marc Maron Josh Marshall Jeralyn Merritt J.R. Mooneyham Michael Scott Moore Bob Morris Bob Mould Mr. Show and Tell Muslims For Nader/Camejo David Neiwert NewPages Weblog Aimee Nezhukumatathil Sean O'Brien Patton Oswalt The Panda's Thumb Randy Paul Rodger A. Payne Ian Penman politx Neal Pollack Greg Proops Pro-War.com Pure Polemics Seyed Razavi Rayne Simon Reynolds richardpryor.com Clay Richards Mike Rogers Yuval Rubinstein
Steven Rubio
Saragon Noah Shachtman Court Schuett The Simpsons Archive Amardeep Singh Sam Smith Soundbitten Jack Sparks Ian Spiers Morgan Spurlock Stand Down: The Left-Right Blog Opposing an Invasion of Iraq Aaron Stark Morgaine Swann Tapped (The American Prospect) tex Matthew Tobey Annie Tomlin Tom Tomorrow The University Without Condition Jesse Walker Warblogger Watch Diane Warth The Watchful Babbler The Weblog we have brains Matt Welch
Alex Whalen
Jon Wiener
Lizz Winstead
James Wolcott
Wooster Collective
Mickey Z

Friday, January 07, 2005
 
Micah on politics in these here United States

"You don't look like a terrorist," a banker helping me set up a checking account said to me today, before asking a few questions like whether the amount of cash I will be depositing in the account will be between one and one thousand. I figure my excuse will be that I didn't know she was talking about U.S. dollars or that I figured the dollar would go up in value more than it has.

On a somewhat related note, The New Standard published a story today by Brian Dominick and Ariella Cohen with more on the comments by Roy Blunt that I touched upon yesterday. Dominick and Cohen write:

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) said questions about Ohio’s electoral process should be dealt with in Ohio, not in the United States Congress. "Every time we attack the process, we cast that doubt on that fabric of democracy that is so important."

In an apparent attempt to argue against the Democratic challenges, Blunt continued: "People do have to have confidence that the process works in a proper way. They And it’s run by people who step forward and make a system work in ways that nobody would believe until they see it, to produce the result of what people want to have happen on election day."

Yeah, nobody who hasn't seen could believe what happens. Whatthefuckever...

Let's think about Blunt's logic that people "don’t need to believe that [the democratic system] is absolutely perfect because after all it’s the greatest democracy in the history of the world." I'm sure he thinks America is the greatest country in the history of the world -a fact that will be proven at the country contest in July- so I don't want to hear this fine elected representative criticizing his fellow congressional Republicans every time they do something with the aim of improving this great land.

Also from The New Standard story:

Florida Republican Ric Keller distilled his message down to three simple words: "Get over it," he told Democratic detractors. Rep. David Hobson, an Ohio Republican, called the proceedings "outrageous."
Let's resort to name calling instead of debate.
Calling the proceeding "an assault against the institutions of our representative democracy" and "a threat to the very ideals it ostensibly defends," Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) denied that any voter disenfranchisement took place anywhere in 2004 or 2000. He accused Democrats of crying wolf, and wondered "what will happen" when a future election is actually stolen.
In all likelihood, they will get away with it.

FWIW, Barbara Boxer, the senator for California, deserves no praise for joining members of the House in challenging Ohio's electoral votes. She belongs to a political party that helps the Bush Administration along by pretending to make up the opposition, even as they agree with Team Bush on the most important matters of the day such as the idea that "terror" can be defeated.

It would be honest but not honorable of the Democrats to just join the GOP. The honorable thing for them to do is apologize while at the same time telling their supporters how fucking stupid they are for supporting them. The Dems could ask for forgiveness and pledge to never again be seen in public.

I can laugh at the political culture of the United States, but the truth is that I am very tired of the idiotic game. Better should be demanded.

Does that make me an optimist about the potential of the people of the United States?

No, not really. I don't expect them to demand anything different or stop falling prey to the manipulation of people like Boxer and Bush, and I certainly don't think the system would tolerate it if they did, but I think it is in their ability to try and, without hesitation, they should do so.