Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday was John McCain’s 72nd birthday. If elected, he’d be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for “inexperience,” here’s who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here’s some basic background:

* She was elected Alaska’s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1

* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2

* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3

* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4

* She’s doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change.5

* She’s solidly in line with John McCain’s “Big Oil first” energy policy. She’s pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won’t be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6

* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here’s a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She’s a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She’s vehemently anti-choice and doesn’t care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain’s part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he’ll get our vote by putting “A Woman” in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She’s a global warming denier who shares John McCain’s commitment to Big Oil. And she’s dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he’s made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain’s vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. “Sarah Palin,” Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. “McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate,” NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=1

3. “Sarah Palin, Buchananite,” The Nation, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=2

4. “‘Creation science’ enters the race,” Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=3

5. “Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science,” Huffington Post, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=4

6. “McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy,” Sierra Club, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=5

“Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past,” League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=6

“Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor,” The Times of London, May 23, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=7

7 “McCain met Palin once before yesterday,” MSNBC, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=8

How often do you find yourself saying that to someone? “Did you see that commercial last night? Did you see the new ?” But then you answer “Oh no, I don’t watch TV any more.”

Is that really such a true statement? How many of you no longer watch TV at all, but still have a multitude of shows which you watch religiously, whether they be online or downloaded? Is it really any different to watch TV shows on your computer, some times with the absence of commercials and some times without. Does how and where you watch the shows make a difference in your consuming them?

My brother said to me this summer “I’m trying to cut down on the amount of TV I watch.” I said “Oh I’ve done that too, I only watch things on the computer now” and he said “No, I mean the number of shows I watch at all.”

What I’m wondering about really is all this talk you hear of TV as a form of mind control. I have no doubt that it is a very strong way to influence the masses, since so many people have being fed the same values by just a few sources. But where exactly are these values coming from? Certainly the various talk shows and news hours, but what about from sitcoms, scifi shows, and game shows? I find it more probable that people are influenced more by commercials and news than they are by your average sitcom or show like, say, Eureka or Stargate Atlantis. So it would make sense that you can watch an entire season of a show exclusively online, without seeing any commercials, and be totally unaware of what the government and various companies may want you to think, and therefore NOT be influenced by them.

I’m just kind of thinking out loud here, please respond with comments I’m interested to know what everyone thinks!

So I got to Minneapolis yesterday (from Kansas City), picked up the keys, and then left for Rochester.  The traffic was horrible on the way in and it was great not to have to drive the rest of the night.  Got to my dad’s, got dinner, and went back to his house where we moved all my stuff up from the basement into the garage to pack it more easily this morning. Picked up the truck and loaded it and we were gone in about an hour, an hour to get here and 20 minutes to unload.  Returning the truck took…about 40 minutes. Damn traffic!  I can’t wait til the bridge is finished!

So, I started with my bed, putting it all together but…I STILL hate this bed.  (IKEA, your cheapest bed is a real pain in the ass  -Justin.)  Then my DSL modem arrived, only to find out that I need to plug it into a windows machine…this was fine, as I have my desktop, but I was told  would not need that.  So I set up my desktop and then have to reinstall windows because my linux install from last year fucked up and grub ate it…  My computer does this funky thing with PS/2 keyboards where it doesn’t enable them correctly on boot up, and I have to go to the control panel and disable it and reenable it with the mouse, except I left my mouse receiver in Danielle’s room somewhere…  So I was SOL.  Then I tried it on my laptop, with WINE, with no success, and then on my old POS laptop but the ethernet card drive wasn’t installed and that idea was a bust too.  Soon I’ll be going to my friend Jeff’s to borrow his USB keyboard, and hopefully that will work.  Oh and I have to rearrange my apartment now because the only phone jack that works of the 2 is 15 ft from where I put my computer

So now I’m heading out to Jeff’s.  Tomorrow:  IKEA for a floor lamp and some pillows.

So I’ve been in Kansas City for about a month now, and I have to say, it is one of the worse cities I’ve lived in yet. There are 2 main reasons for this. The first reason is that it has horrible public transportation. From what I’ve gathered, there are a few main lines that run along Main St. and to some other places, but they don’t go anywhere convenient. Looking up how to get to Price Chopper, for instance, means you have to take the bus to the last stop and then walk HALF AN HOUR to get to the store, which is unacceptable. And walking here is a chore too…the streets and blocks are so spread out, to go 6 blocks is about a mile and a half.

This leads me to my next point. Kansas City is “designed” for driving. You would think this at least, unless you’re on the plaza, which was designed as a pedestrian only zone but is not any more. So at most intersections in this area there are no lights, and instead you use pedestrians crossing as your stoplight, since they block the other cars you are free to make your turns, etc. This is stupid. Also, there are SO many streets that stop and start again in weird places. (Example).

That in itself is annoying, but the fact that the city area has no cheap stores, such as walmart, target, price chopper, is even more frustrating. To actually find these stores you must drive to the suburbs, on the highway, for at least 20 minutes, and on all the highways I’ve been on this weekend there have been 2 lanes closed of 3, just huge annoyances. And trying to find a highway here by a map alone is almost impossible. You can kind of see on the map where the on ramps are, but actually getting to it is basically guess work. We ran along side the highway but up above it last night expecting to see signs to tell us which way it was. I saw nothing, but Danielle saw the signs pointing the way to the highway…on the street perpendicular to us. Where was our first indicator of the highway? At the on ramp as we were driving on to it. And this happened numerous times just trying to get to Target. Every time I drive I wonder how people can live here, and I just want to yell at them and ask how they can stand it here.

OK I guess there’s another thing. Danielle and I both find this really disgusting. People here go to the malls on weekends to get their culture, its like the only thing to do around here. We went to this mall called Independence Center on Sunday, and once you get off the highway there are signs for “mall entrance” which isn’t even close to the exit at all. So we first drive through an area just covered with strip malls on either side, and then turn left to pass ANOTHER strip mall on the right, to get to the mall we went to on the LEFT. The amount of malls these people have here is just ridiculous. The whole retail/consumer environment is just totally disgusting to me.

So many things about this city make no sense…I can’t wait to get back to Minneapolis, and if I end up having to be here again, I hope its not for very long.

So I’d like to just quickly complain about the overdraft protection provided by US Bank.  I went to my branch last summer after being charged $35 for my account going into the negative, I wanted to get the overdraft line of protection onto my account so I could avoid this problem in the future.  The guy I talked to said I didn’t have enough income (you need about $12,000 a year) and then offered me a credit card.  I told him fine, but that I wanted it for $500, not $1000 like he was saying.  He said fine.  I get the card about a week later, and its for $1000.  Ok fine, I say, I’ll deal with it.  I didn’t need it until just last week when a payment went through before my money had transferred over from ING, putting me $0.52 into the negative.  Being Sunday, there was no indication of the money being transferred over from my account, so I called to see just when that would happen.  The woman I spoke to told me that…my credit card was not set up for overdraft protection at all.  So, she set it up and all was good.  I logged in to my account on Thursday to check it out, and found out that they don’t transfer what put you under, but a generic amount of $25.  On top of this amount, they charge you a fee for their protection service.  How much is that fee?  $10.  What’s that total come to?  $35.  So, what’s that mean?  Either you get charged $35 for the overdraft, or you get charged $35 for the overdraft.  Seems to me they’re punishing the customer for wanting to NOT pay $35 every time they overdraw their account, to make sure they get their money either way.  I luckily was able to get the service fee removed, I called my bank and told them no one ever told me anything about this fee, which is absolutely true, but still.  Others may not be so lucky.  I really liked this bank up until this point.  Seems like you can’t trust any of them any more.

So I’m reading an article from the LA Times that’s talking about how the high prices of oil are not only going to make Americans drive less, but it would also cause a big problem for urban planning. While I agree with the fact $7/gallon gas and $200 per barrel oil will hurt Americans, and I know what he’s trying to say about urban planning, I think that urban planning implies there is something to be built. American cities are already built, and their layout cannot be easily changed. For a rough example, let’s use Minneapolis. Downtown is where all the skyscrapers are, its a business and entertainment district. There are a lot of condos as well. The only grocery store is SuperTarget. Then you leave downtown, cross the river, and get into my neighborhood, where the only grocery store we have is Lunds & Byerly’s, an admittedly more upscale grocery chain in the city. There are a few small corner stores throughout the area, but they are more expensive and lack selection. If you really want to get your basic items, you need to go to Rainbow Foods, or Cub’s, etc. To get there its about a 10 or 15 minute bus ride. These places are more on the outskirts of where many people live, than readily walkable.

The author writes that there will be a change for businesses, and notes that Chili’s and Romano’s Macaroni Grill are already suffering and will have to close some stores as people can no longer afford to eat at these places. So what might replace these stores as they begin to close? I for one think grocery stores should move into the downtown area. Here in Graz, there are a number of grocery stores I can visit. I walk everywhere because the city is so small, and I realize that in many cases in the US its not possible specifically because of the distance to the stores. But, I have at least 5 or 6 grocery stores all within about a 10 minute walk of my apartment. Then if I want to walk for 20 minutes I can make it to Aldi, which is cheaper because they have fewer stores to maintain (but, even stores with many locations are closing some as prices go up everywhere). If Americans actually had the option to walk to the grocery store nearby, and didn’t have to own a car, then they could automatically save money.

On another note, high gas prices may finally give the US the push it needs to develop a real high speed rail transportation system. As it is now, Amtrak is a joke. I really believe that the trains in the US need to be privatized like die Bahn in Germany. Once under private control, they can build their own tracks that will not only allow them to move faster since they will no longer have to give way for commercial trains carrying freight and thereby slowing down the trip, but they can also electrify all the tracks, instead of using fuel-powered trains. This is a huge step in becoming less dependent on gas not only for the train companies, but for millions of Americans who no longer need to travel cross-country by car.

In Austria, and all of Europe if I had to make a guess, its possible to travel from one city to another and never need a car, and I mean from the time you step out of your apartment and onto a tram to get to the train station, to the time you step out of the train at your destination and hop a bus or tram to your hotel or whatever. In the US its always so hit and miss. Danielle is currently in Kansas City, where the public transportation is just horrible, doesn’t go anywhere useful…I looked up the closest grocery store to her once and it would drop her off at a place where she would still have to walk half an hour. That is simply unacceptable. To be honest I look at the public transportation in a city when deciding where I live. My brother was surprised when I told him I won’t move to a city where I have to have a car. That’s not to say that I won’t be effected by all this. I am actually taking over my brother’s car this summer, since he is moving to NYC. I’ll be using it to drive out to the midwest. My mom’s paying for the gas for that trip, instead of buying the plane ticket for me to get back out there like she said she would. So I’ll be effected by those prices as well, but only while I drive long distances. I will be going back and forth between Minneapolis and Kansas City, but in Minneapolis I will just use the buses, because I actually prefer not to drive in the city. I’ll be interested to see how well that all works out.

Steffie and Christina decided they would make out if Steffie could do 2 pullups.  She did 3.

So, I just got home from my last final. It was horrible. The prof told us last week there would be 5 or 6 questions, from which we would have to choose 2 to answer. So I read through all the main things he told us to study, some better than others. Let’s face it, memorizing a bunch of characteristics of Buddhist schools of thought is really fuckin tough in German. I remembered the cultural aspects better and hoped one of those Qs would be on the test, thinking I knew the schools enough to write down the basics. Then I got there 5 minutes before five, and he was already telling us what he wanted us to write about, so I had to ask someone behind me what we were supposed to do. He said we had to answer all 5, but I didn’t think that was right so I asked the professor and indeed we had to answer all 5 questions, not just 2 as he had originally told us. I was a bit shocked and a more than a bit mad, since he had told us there would only be 2 questions we had to answer.

I did my best to answer all of them, I read the Buddhism schools over and over again, but still just had a hard time keeping all that stuff straight in my head, but I think I at least got a 3 (passing). That’s what I’m hoping for. Also that he’ll give me some leeway for not being a native speaker. That would be great. In any case, I finished, and talked to the girl who turned her’s in before me, and she said last year he gave only 2 to answer but this time he didn’t, so she she didn’t know what was up. I don’t either, but at least I’ll get the grade by next Wednesday.

So I was eating schnitzel tonight, and at one point tried to cut it with my fork. It didn’t work. Doris saw that and immediately said something about how Americans like to cut their meat with forks….

Doris: “Austrian meat is thicker, a fork won’t cut it.”

me: “I realize that, but I thought I’d give it a try.”

Doris: “Austrian and German toilets are actually designed the way they are, with that shelf, so you can look at your excrement, to see if you have a disease, because our diets are so high in meat.”

Me: “I just thought they didn’t clog as much…”

Ew.

So I have to say its a great improvement over firefox 2 in terms of speed, mostly in loading my speed dials and tabs almost as soon as I open the page, much faster than the last one but still takes a second or 2 to load them. Opera does this instantaneously. However, I tried using Opera after 9.5 came out and it once again worked in 64bit linux. I found it to be very fast and pleasant, and I DO still miss my wand password manager. But I’ve come to rely on a number of firefox extensions, which opera can emulate with widgets, but I hate the widgets because they are each their own window and it just doesn’t feel built in to me. I like my twitterfox because it pops up all new tweets without me having to click on the window and bring it forward.

Next issue. Zooming. Opera has, for years, had the default zoom in action set as either ctrl and + or ctrl + mousewheel up. This to me means zoom in, as you are pushing the wheel in towards the screen. Firefox on the other hand, has had this the other way around with the mouse. You hold ctrl and move the wheel back, essentially making the page bigger by pulling it towards you, which also makes sense to me. However, firefox has now changed this to work just as opera has, probably for a reason of logic (zoom in = move mouse wheel in, maybe??) but it is really just a monumental pain. I have gotten so used to moving the mousewheel back to zoom in I always have to catch myself doing it now. How annoying.

My smart digg button still doesn’t work either, which is also a bit of a disappointment, but I didn’t use it that much I guess. I did like being able to see how many diggs any page I was on had though. Very interesting stuff.

Leave me your thoughts about firefox 3, what do you like about, what annoys you about it?