The Old Blog

Some people might claim that, like Children’s Day, this is every day.

More Than 100,000 Projected to Participate in National ‘I’m Embarrassed by My President’ Day on April 1, 2004

WASHINGTON, MARCH 25 /PRNewswire/ — Democracy Means You (www.democracymeansyou.com), an
organization that promotes increased participation in the democratic process,
announced today that more than 100,000 Americans are projected to participate in the National “I’M
EMBARRASSED BY MY PRESIDENT” Day, April 1st, 2004.

“Americans all over the country are so frustrated with the policies of the Bush Administration that
we decided to organize the National ‘I’m Embarrassed by My President’ Day on April Fool’s
Day 2004 to protest all the spin, lies, manipulations, misrepresentations, and
mismanagement of the Bush Administration,” says Ian Kleinfeld, political activist and founder of
Democracy Means You.

Participants will be wearing BROWN RIBBONS, armbands, or clothing “to protest all the ‘brown
material’ flowing out of the White House and stinking up the nation.” Many will be wearing
official “National I’m Embarrassed by My President Day” buttons.

The timing of the national event on April Fool’s day is to further exemplify that millions of
Americans — and others — find this President to be a fool, and his policies foolish.

This event is NOT an April Fool’s Day joke.

As of March 24, there are over 20,000 participants, growing rapidly by the hour,
representing 41 of 50 states. Total participation on April 1st is projected to exceed 100,000
nationwide.

For a PDF of the flyer, please visit

http://www.democracymeansyou.com/brown/embarrassed-day-flyer.pdf

For an image of the Official Embarrassed Day button, please see http://www.democracymeansyou.com/images/but-embarrassed-300.gif

More information on the event:
http://www.democracymeansyou.com/brown

The “fairer sex” (not my words) doesn’t get anywhere near the media coverage it deserves. Yet there have been three major stories relating to women’s sports in the past week.

1: The Minnesota Gophers women’s hockey team won their first NCAA title, 6-2, over Harvard. Finding the link on ESPN’s webpage proved to be much more difficult than it should have been.

2: The Minnesota Gophers women’s basketball team advanced to the Final Four, where they will play Connecticut, one of the perennial powers in both men’s and women’s college basketball. What I don’t understand is why everyone treats this Final Four run as a surprise. Yes, the Gophers were a 7 seed, but they were an underseeded 7 seed. They lost the best player in school history (Lindsay Whalen) a couple months ago, lost some games without her, and she didn’t play again until the tournament began. With Whalen, the Gophers would have been a 2 or 3 seed in the tourney. And reaching the Final Four from that level is no schock to me at all. Of course, now that they’re up against UConn, I predict their streak will end.

3: Most importantly, 17-year-old Candace Parker won the McDonald’s High School All-America Slam Dunk Contest–competing against all boys. The ESPN page I linked to calls her SheBron, and while LeBron James won the contest last year (other winners include Carmelo Anthony, Jerry Stackhouse, and Vince Carter), I think Parker deserves her own nickname, not one she has to piggyback off another guy for.

Even more amazing is the dearth of dunks in the women’s game. There have been 5 in NCAA women’s basketball history (by three players), and only 1 in WNBA history. For a girl to come out and win a slam dunk contest is not only heartening, but unexpected in the extreme.

People always quote the Billy Jean King/Bobby Riggs “battle of the sexes” tennis match as this watershed moment in women’s sports. But although King won in straight sets, she was at the prime of her career, while Riggs was pretty much done. In addition, she got to use the doubles areas, whereas he didn’t. I’m not taking away from the importance of the event, but it wasn’t exactly played with both players on equal footing. Speaking of which, I’d like to see the Williams sisters take on some men’s players. I bet they could wipe the floor with a bunch of them.

Parker, meanwhile, beat the boys at their own game. She played by the same rules, just as Annika Sorenstam did when she failed to make the cut at a PGA event last year, but she won.

Unlike LeBron, Parker plans to go to college (Tennessee) next year. Also unlike LeBron, she won’t even make six figures in salary if/when she turns pro.

The search for WMDs ain’t going too well. So we’ve switched to searching for Saddam’s “intent” to manufacture them.

Why can’t the Bush administration just come out and admit they went into Iraq because they wanted to get Saddam? Generally I’ve found that if I attempt to discuss the war in Iraq Part Deux with people who supported it, they will say something to the effect of “well isn’t it better for Iraqis that Saddam’s not there?” Of course it is. But by that rationale (ovethrowing asshole dictators), we should be invading a lot more countries around the globe. So if this is the true reason for invading Iraq (which it wasn’t…at least until the WMDs proved elusive), why not admit it, invade another couple dozen nations, and quit being so half-assed?

John Kerry is “fascinated” by rap and hip-hop. If only Kerry had a young Halle Berry on his arm, he could be another Bulworth.

American bodies dragged behind cars and set on fire. (Warning: disturbing picture in link)

Still want to joke about WMDs, Dubya?

No chance of getting drafted, national health care, fewer puritcanical fundies, and now legal file sharing.

The baseball season officially begins in about a half-hour on ESPN2. And while I’ll watch the first batter (or ten), I agree with Jayson Stark when he says this wasn’t the best idea.

Think about it: A-Rod, the biggest Yankees steal from the Red Sox since Babe Ruth, in his first Yankee at-bat–at 5am Eastern. The first pitch of the season following one of the most exciting postseasons (Steve Bartman, Grady Little) in history. All of it taking place at a time conducive neither to most of the ones watching it or playing it. The D-Rays only got to play 18 games this spring; how can they possibly be ready?

It is very important for baseball’s well-being to market itself around the globe. I am a proponent of globalization in this regard. However, it would make more sense for MLB to leave the trips to the preseason or offseason, when a 12,000 mile trip won’t affect the teams so much.

Update
D-Rays win, 8-3. Yankees Suck.

The Massachusetts State Legislature adopted an amendment to the state constitution today that purports to ban gay marriages but allow civil unions.

It’s a serious issue, and quite frankly, I can’t see the logic behind denying people the rights to have rites.

Nonetheless, the idea of competing chants of “Jesus Christ” and “Equal Rights” is somewhat comical. Not just because they sort of rhyme, but because Jesus never said anything against 1: homosexuality or 2: equal rights. Yeah, you can find all sorts of anti-gay stuff in the Bible, but not a word of it from our blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white, middle-eastern Savior. Whatever it is the fundies think Jesus had to do with gay marriage–or homosexuality at all–they are wrong.

Well, not anymore. Anyway, the paper I worked for didn’t publish online. Luckily, someone liked one of my stories (about an off-leash dog program) enough to transcribe it.

This weeks’ sign of the apocalypse comes from the North American Box Office:

Scooby-Doo 2: $30.7 million (#1)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: $5.42 million (#9)