Tonight my roommate and I will host our 2nd annual State of the Union party. Last year, when they clapped, we drank. Tis year, we got a little more sophisticated about it (in an effort to save our livers). The below list of words is addended with drink values. I hear the speech will be about 38 minutes long, and something tells me I’ll clear double that this evening…

God – 1 drink, Science – 2 drinks
Terrorism/terrorists/terror/terrorizing/terrorites – 1 drink
tizzerror – 1 gallon paint thinner
Medicare/Medicaid – 1 drink, Privatize – 2 drink
Osama Bin Laden/Saddam Hussein – 1 drink
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – 2 drinks (+1 if pronounced correctly)
Iraq – 1 drink, Iran – 2 drinks
Timetable – 2 drinks
Freedom/Democracy – 1 drink
Education 1 (+1 if mispronounced)
Surveillance – 1 drink, Eavesdropping – 3 drinks
Reform – 1 drink, Corruption – 2 drinks, Abramoff – 3 drinks
Political contribution – 2 drinks
Alito – 1 drink, Miers – finish drink
Environment – 1 drink, Kyoto – 3 drinks
Global warming – 2 drinks, in same sentence as corporation – 20 drinks
Oil – 1 drink, within 5 second span of “Alaska” – 3 drinks
Torture – 1 drink, Secret Prisons – 4 drinks
Bipartisan – 1 drink
Liberals/leftists – 2 drinks
Evil – 2 drinks
Evil Liberals – turn off tv, continue drinking
Media – 1 drink
The United States of America – round of applause (he’s a uniter!)
Taxes – 1 drink (pay our dues)
Deficit – 1 drink, Surplus – 2 drinks
Marijuana – vape hit
Katrina/New Orleans/Atlantis – 1/1/15
Immigration – 1 drink
“Don’t mess with Texas!” – cry, drink as many as it takes to stop the tears
Bring it on/Smoke ‘em out – 1 drink
Stutters or drawls to appeal to base – 2 drinks
“nukular”/other bushisms- 3 drinks
(nervous laughter) – 1 drink

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Should this be cause for alarm…?

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: ‘I don’t really understand. How is the new plan going to fix the problem?’

PRESIDENT BUSH:
‘Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There’s a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It’s kind of muddled. Look, there’s a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.’
– Verbatim Quote
Submitted on 2005-12-13 16:35:14

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Musings of a Palestinian Princess

A blog of a former Ivy Leaguer who went back to her native Palestine. Very interesting read.

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Today’s freshmen want to lend a hand

This year’s entering college freshmen show “a distinctive and widespread rise” in commitment to social and civic responsibility, a new survey finds, and researchers suggest that the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and Hurricane Katrina played a key role in shaping those attitudes.

The 2005 survey, released Wednesday, is based on 263,710 students at 385 U.S. colleges and universities and adjusted to reflect the responses of the 1.3 million first-time full-time students who entered four-year colleges last fall.

This year’s class exhibited record increases across several related questions, which is unusual, Pryor says, “unless a major event occurs.”

Among results:

• 66.3% said it is essential or very important to help others who are in difficulty, the highest response in 25 years.

• A record 83.2% said they had volunteered at least occasionally during their high school senior year, and 67.3% said there’s a good chance they will continue to volunteer at college, also an all-time high.

• 25.6% said it is essential or very important to participate personally in community action programs, up 4.1 percentage points over 2004 and the highest since 1996.

• 33.9% said becoming a leader is essential or very important, up 3.2 percentage points over 2004.

Carol Geary Schneider, head of the Washington-based Association of American Colleges and Universities, encourages schools to build on the opportunity.

“While earlier studies suggest that too few students sustain such commitments into their advanced college years, these new data should encourage educators to redouble their efforts to create new connections between academic study and challenges in larger society,” she says.

A number of schools already have leveraged the heightened concern among students. Many colleges, including Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., and McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., organized programs during their winter break in which student volunteered in cleanup efforts in Louisiana.

Numerous colleges are planning similar programs during spring break.

Other findings:

• A decline in support for military spending. In the first survey conducted after 9/11, 45% supported increased military spending; 34.2% supported it in 2005.

• A record low in high school drinking. Fewer than half (43.4%) said they frequently or occasionally drank beer as high school seniors, reflecting a steady drop from a high of 73.7% in 1982.

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Fadi is a Palestinian law student at the University of Michigan. His comments on the recent election must have been forwarded quite a bit, because they found their way to my inbox. I found them thought-provoking and well-reasoned.

From: Fadi Kiblawi
Reply-To:
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:27:46 -0500
To:
Subject: [sjpgw] HAMAS talking points

Friends,
As no doubt all of you know, HAMAS now controls the PA. This is a PR disaster for the national movement. I don’t think HAMAS cares much about tact because it expects some non-existent divine intervention. I don’t think it’s a good idea to engage in a defense of HAMAS, because this is an indefensible position particularly to Western ears. However, I have written below some points that I believe are important to make when discussing the conflict, as HAMAS’s control of the parliament might surely dominate future discourse on the issue.

The most important point to make is that HAMAS winning is irrelevant, as it changes nothing politically.

First, in terms of negotiations: sure, the world will be more likely to accept Israel’s rhetoric that they have no partner for peace. However, Israel has always dealt with their Palestinian “problem” unilaterally, irrespective of the partner. They expelled the natives unilaterally, they stole – and continue to steal – the native’s land unilaterally, they colonized the land unilaterally, they massacred the natives unilaterally, they built the wall unilaterally, etc. Unilateralism is the progeny of any colonial project, and Israel’s is no exception. An important point to make in more resonating language is that HAMAS’s victory will in no way change the course of Israel’s actions. Israel’s policies, particularly towards the Palestinians, have always been unilateral and thus have never turned on the make-up of the PLO or PA. We cannot forget that for decades, before HAMAS or suicide bombings, Israel was building illegal settlements and massacring Palestinians. We cannot forget that before HAMAS took control of the so-called legislature, Israel was openly declaring that the three major settlement blocks (which effectively prevent a contiguous and viable Palestinian state) would never be dismantled. Before and after HAMAS’s victory, Israel’s plan is the same: they will “end the occupation” by unilaterally withdrawing from a percentage of the West Bank, and redraw the borders to ensure that Jerusalem and the major settlement blocks are Israeli. The international community will laud the Israelis and lambaste the Palestinians, and declare the occupation over despite Israel ’s control of the borders, air, land, resources, etc.

Second, in terms of governance, the election and its outcome is absolutely pointless and irrelevant. The PA, since its inception, was a colonial abomination meant to absolve Israel of their legal obligations, under the 4th Geneva Convention, as an occupying power. It’s not the PA that imposes curfews. It’s not the PA that builds checkpoints and roadblocks. It’s not the PA that shoots mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. It’s not the PA that tells the children they can’t go to school. It’s the occupier. Israel, the occupier, governs the Palestinians, not the PA.

In terms of significance and representation, it’s important to point out that the PA election in no way represents the Palestinian nation. The majority of Palestinians live in Diaspora or outside the constituent borders of the PA, and thus were unable to take any part in this election of a sham representative body. Moreover, HAMAS’s rising popularity in the West Bank and Gaza only signifies the continued radicalization of a population resulting from their heinous and sadistic treatment by an occupying military dictatorship. A universal principle that has been proven time and again throughout history: the violence of the colonized is merely an extension of the violence of the colonizer. HAMAS’s victory is only a guage and manifestation of the former AND the latter. (Though we must admit that the population’s dissatisfaction of the PA’s corruption is likely also a factor. I do believe, and in no way am I excusing the inexcusable, that such corruption is normal in state building, especially in this exercise of doomed-from-the-start PA state-building).

In sum, HAMAS’s election to an unrepresentative and nominal governing body is irrelevant as Israel’s approach to the conflict has always been unilateral. It is of my opinion that the Palestinians’ only hope is to reconfigure the balance of power by appealing to the international community. This must begin by dissolving the PA therefore putting pressure on Israel to comply with the 4th Geneva Convention. Israel will then have to choose between either annexing the territory with its people, or withdrawing from it entirely – including Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion, Ariel, and East Jerusalem .

-Fadi

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Medical-marijuana bill finds support, moves forward

Health Secretary Michelle Grisham-Lujan told the panel that it would not be difficult to set up a program in her department to oversee medical marijuana.

Taos District Attorney Donald Gallegos predicted the bill would run afoul of federal law if the Legislature passes it.

But state Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, who is a doctor, said the bill has tight safeguards. He said the bill provides stricter controls on marijuana than current law does on much stronger and addictive drugs such as codeine and OxyContin.

Also asking the committee to recommend the bill was cancer patient Erin Armstrong, the 24-year-old daughter of state Aging and Long-Term Services secretary Debbie Armstrong.

Debbie Armstrong was one of three of Gov. Bill Richardson’s cabinet members at the committee hearing.

Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde told the committee, “It’s time we sent a message to the federal government.”

Medical marijuana users close to cabinet staff? People trying to send a message to the federal government? Republican Senators defending the program particulars?
I feel a sea change coming on.

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CO2 Emissions per Mile Traveled

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Medical marijuana on New Mexico’s agenda

In an unforeseen move, Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday night said he will include a medical-marijuana bill on his agenda this legislative session .

The governor’s decision surprised drug-law-reform advocates, who had been disheartened by Richardson’s statement earlier this week that there wouldn’t be enough time in an already packed 30-day session to take on the measure.

House Speaker Ben Luján , DNambé , said before the session started that he had asked Richardson not to include medical marijuana on his call, saying there wasn’t enough time.

But on Wednesday night, Richardson said in a news release, “After speaking with many seriously ill New Mexicans, I have decided to include this bill on my call. This issue is too important, and there are too many New Mexicans suffering to delay this issue any further.”

Let this serve as an example – voter letters on hotly contested issues DO make a difference!

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CHP Returns Seized Medical Marijuana

The police decided to return confiscated marijuana. That’s not something you see every day.

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