I haven’t been paying close attention to the protests at Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, but I read tonight that the protesters have succeeded in their goal of denying the university presidency to someone they considered “insufficiently deaf.”

What the hell does that mean? Why is it that minorities can get away with claiming that they be the ultimate judge of who is adequately black, or deaf or gay, and that only an identical minority can be a true representative? Why is it that a black or Asian can be president of a majority-white university like Brown but if a white were to become president of a historically black school like Howard there would be an uproar so loud it would be deafening (no pun intended)?

And what is “deaf culture?” I find that term absurd, on-par with “queer” culture, which is a pseudo-academic field designed mainly to provide employment for hardline Marxist “academics” who still believe Foucault has something interesting to say.

I’m sure being deaf has certain… interesting qualities. But how can one say that being denied the joy of hearing music or a child’s voice or the voice of one’s mother is a “blessing?” And am I the only person who finds the fact that some deaf people deliberately attempt to have deaf children so they can keep “deaf culture” alive disgusting and immoral? Deliberately having a deaf child is abuse. Doing so is no different than attempting to bear a child with Downs Syndrome because you think retarded people are “cool.”

A friend and I went to see Creation Nation last night - an off-Broadway pop culture production that had us all rolling in the aisles, it was really hilarious. As we were standing outside waiting for the doors to open a car pulls up and out pops Joan Rivers. She shook my hand and called me a ‘cute Jewish boy” after I called her “my Jewish sister.”

After we went to some bar in Hells Kitchen and had drinks with the cast and crew of the show. I left at around 2:00 AM, drunk, in a cab. My driver almost crashed into the back of another cab on 7th Ave. He hit the brakes so hard I flew off the seat and smashed into the hard plastic divider, my knee aches today because of it. So I smoked two ciggies in the cab despite him screaming at me not to. I figured that was a small price for him to pay for nearly killing me. All in all I’d say it was a good night.

Tomorrow morning bright and early, I’m off to San Francisco for the weekend. The weather outlook is showing a forecast high of 76 degrees with a low of 52. I can’t wait!

I’m a constituent of Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA) in District 12. He’s an excellent congressman who is a good, solid reliable progressive vote on gay and lesbian rights, the environment and issues of abortion rights. He’s the only survivor of the Holocaust in Congress so he’s an important voice on international relations and issues of genocide.

I’ve no issue with Lantos’s record in Congress, but I am upset that he’s sitting on $1.4 million in his re-election campaign fund when he’s facing token opposition in a district that hasn’t elected a Republican in living memory. In his last race Lantos got 68% of the vote while his Republican challenger got 20% and the Green party candidate got 9%, so you can see this district is NEVER going to elect a Republican.

The money Lantos is sitting on could be donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) or directly to Democratic candidates running in competitive races for the House. There’s no reason he needs this much cash and while he’s contributed $200,000 so far this year to the DCCC that is the minimum he’s required to give.

Please call Congressman Lantos’s campaign office at 650-568-2668 and ask him to give an additional $500,000 to the DCCC. Barney Frank heard from his constituents and he gave $500,000, so did John Kerry. Why can’t Tom?

I don’t think Harold Ford will win his Senate race in Tennessee because I can’t see a Southern state electing a negro senator. He can try all he wants to appeal to redneck sensibilities on gay marriage (he opposes it), gun control (he opposes it), the bible (for it, even if you’re not Christian) and affirmative action (against it, despite the fact that he’s black) but in the end why would a conservative vote for Harold when they can vote for a real conservative - a Republican.

Kos today showcased a statement from Ford in which Ford stated that he opposed the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage and he would be voting to ban same-sex marriage in Tennessee (a brave stand considering that Tennessee was probably teetering right on the edge of the gay marriage abyss) and he supports besmirching the constitution with a marriage banning same-sex marriage.

It’s like - who cares what Ford thinks about New Jersey? He’s not running to be the senator from New Jersey and it’s really none of his business. With Democrats like Harold Ford we would do better with a Republican. Assholes like Ford, with his nudge-nudge homophobic statements, are the reason I don’t give money to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The framers of the Constitution wisely saw that there would be times during the history of our Republic when Congress would become inured to the voice of the people. Seeing this they inserted in the Constitution, in Article V, a means for a Constitutional Convention to be called “at the request of the legislatures of 2/3 of the states.” What this means is that if two-thirds of the states call for a Convention to amend the Constitution then Congress must call one, Congress cannot refuse. This convention can propose to amend the Constitution using the normal method which is that any amendment must be ratified by 3/4 of the states.

As we approach the election we have to look seriously at the idea that the Republican party may find yet another way to steal this one like they stole the last two in 2000 and 2004. I’ve been looking over some very fishy data from the 2004 election in Ohio. Precincts where 100% of the voters turned out and cast 100% of their votes for George Bush. Republican candidates that were behind in the polls by 10-20% less than a week before the election who managed to win by more than 5%, a turnaround the likes which has never before been seen in politics and finally, the fact that the exit polls were wrong, again something that has never happened before in the history of election polling.

The media keeps talking about the Republican’s vaunted turn-out machine, which they’re saying can add 2-3% to a Republican candidate’s total in any poll. Perhaps they should be talking about the GOP’s fraud machine - which seems to ensure that any GOP candidate the Republicans deem crucial wins, no matter how far behind that candidate is before the election.

The Republican Secretary of State in Ohio, Ken Blackwell, is running for governor. He’s currently behind the Democratic nominee, Ted Strickland, by more than 30%. Yet we’re hearing rumors that Blackwell is going to disqualify Strickland from the ballot because allegedly Strickland doesn’t live in the precinct in which he’s registered to vote. So Strickland could win the election and then be disqualified by Blackwell, who then would be in position to claim the office he lost earlier. If Blackwell wins then we KNOW something is wrong in Ohio, because no one has EVER been 30% behind in an election with two weeks to go and come back to win.

Watch very carefully election night. The Republicans committed massive electoral fraud in 2000 and 2004 and they’re going to try again in 2006, particularly in Ohio, but probably elsewhere as well. If a candidate who was ahead by more than 3% the day of the election loses then something fishy is going on.

If this happens I’m hearing of all kinds of things that are being planned. But if our elections are stolen and our votes discounted again then it will be time to consider bypassing the corrupt and illegitimate Congress and convening a national Constitutional Convention to sort this mess out. I’m not a conspiracy theorist nor am I a sore loser. There is too much evidence to show that the Republican party has committed electoral fraud in the past and there is no reason to believe they won’t do the same thing in the future, specifically in 13 days, November 7, 2006.

My boyfriend bought me a last-minute ticket to go back to California this weekend, returning to New York Monday afternoon, just in time for class Monday night. I’m happy to go back, if just for a quick trip.

I so rarely check my stats for this site but when I do I always get a few surprises. Like why do people Google my full name and who are they? That always freaks me out when I see anonymous users Googling me. I worry it’s one of my professors at NYU and my bitching about my classes is going to result in a lowered grade for one or the other.

I get lots of referrals from all kinds of sites from all over the world, with a lot of users from Australia and the United Kingdom. But who knew there were so many from the Dominican Republic or the Netherlands? And why are so many users of “Old Style Arpanet” coming to this blog? That freaks me out a little, don’t only military people still use Arpa?

Heather Wilson is a US House Representative from New Mexico. I just heard the speech she gave on the floor of the House shortly after Janet Jackson’s boob was exposed at the Superbowl half-time show. She wailed that her children were watching, about how “nasty” the show was and then, her voice trembling, she cried, she CRIED that “corporate CEOs have lost their way.”

Heather Wilson’s only sign of emotion during her house career has been feigned outrage over Janet Jackson’s nipple while she voted again and again to fund the war in Iraq. She wails about the “damage” caused to her kids by seeing Janet’s jugg, but she seems to feel the damage caused to thousands of American families by the death or injury to their children is quite alright.

More damaging to Heather Wilson is the fact that documents have come to light recently showing her involvement in the cover-up of her husband’s “nasty” activities while she was head of New Mexico Department of Children, Youth and Families. Wilson has so much outrage over “nasty” activities at the Superbowl but she thinks it’s OK to cover up her husband’s “nasty” and inappropriate contact with a minor.

Hopefully New Mexico voters will give Heather Wilson a real reason to cry after November 7th. Then perhaps she can undergo an investigation like Janet Jackson underwent, except Janet wasn’t running the risk of imprisonment (despite the hopes of many House Republicans who would like to see indecency punished with jail terms) but if it’s proven Wilson deliberately covered up her husband’s activities she’ll be the one facing jail time.

Some painters prefer their canvases clean. They like to buy a fresh, new smooth canvas which they sit on an easel and imagine what they want to put on its surface. They like to start new, fresh, completely uninhibited.

But some painters like to reuse canvases. They paint over their old work or they scrape the canvas or they incorporate bits of their previous work into a new painting by scraping through the top painting to allow bits of the previous works to shine through.

I’m using painting as a metaphor to describe my feelings about a possible Barak Obama vs. Hillary Clinton Democratic primary race in 2008. Barak is a blank canvas. When we see him we all imagine and project what we want onto the canvas. He’s a patriot, he’s a moderate, he’s fresh, new, unsullied by the inherent dirtiness of politics. His canvas is bright and clean and open to anyone to project their own needs and desires onto.

With Hillary we see a canvas painted over and over. The black of conservatism painted over with the red of socialistic medicine painted over with the blue of the Democratic party. Each layer of paint is thicker than the last and each color is richer, deeper than before. In some places the Hillary canvas sags from the weight of so much paint but being that its been used over and over it seems to be holding up pretty well.

Which is more appealing to Americans? Does the thrifty side of us like that Hillary’s canvas has been around for so long, gone through so many schools of politics and yet still seems ready for another coat, this time the royal blue of the Presidency? Do we like that we can paint a layer and then scrape down a bit to allow a beautiful hint of another undertone to shine through?

Or do we prefer the clean Barak canvas, unsullied and fresh but frightening. We know whatever we paint on the canvas is what we’re going to get because it’s new, if we make a mistake it’s going to show. There’s no scraping on Barak’s canvas, because there’s nothing underneath.

A friend of mine and I were talking about Hillary Clinton and he said “I don’t know what she stands for except the pursuit of power.” I agree. She stands for what she needs to stand for to get where she’s going and where she wants to go is the Presidency. We could do worse but we could also do better. Spending time on Barak’s quixotic non-declared campaign for President right now is a distraction but I wouldn’t rule him out due to his “lack of experience” or his “youth.” I’m ready for new ideas and outlooks, it’s what we need in this country and I’d welcome the juxtaposition of ancient John McCain with his Vietnam-era outlook and youthful Barak Obama, with his “lets look to the future” ideas. Either way it’s going to be interesting.

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and body aches, which probably is a result of a late night out with a friend Thursday. We went to Dirty Disco and then Apt, which I’m really starting to like. But back to yesterday. After downing a couple of aspirin I met with the three members of my group for my Critical Thinking class. We’re supposed to create a presentation around the book Fog Facts and incorporate 15-20 PowerPoint slides into it. Because I used to be a trainer I got stuck with the slides, which shouldn’t be too hard as long as the content is provided to me.

Afterwards I worked on homework, then watched a French movie (Cache) and then went to bed. This morning my throat was even worse and I was pissed off about the amount of homework I’m burdened with. My Critical Thinking class is taking up too much time and because the teacher requires assignments be electronically submitted to her by midnight on Sunday that class takes up my entire weekend, meaning what is due for my classes during the week always comes last.

This most recent paper was on post-structuralism and fact. Exciting shit right? I hate post-modern theory. Deconstructionism, post-structuralism and all Foucault-based thinking and theory is nothing more than an easy way to avoid seeking universal truth. Post-structuralism in particular, with its emphasis on scholarship based around cultural meaning, can be deadly for someone involved in political science or international relations.

I really believe that theory based around relativist thinking has led this world off the cliff by allowing people to act as if their own wishes and mores always take precedence over the betterment of society and the planet. Relativism is used by so many terrible governments to justify their violations of human rights, their right to commit genocide and their rights to export instability. Relativism hasn’t bettered anyone’s life or liberated anyone from structuralist thinking, what it has done is contribute towards a lower quality of life for everyone on the planet. I guess I’m feeling its effects particularly acutely tonight after having to write that damned 10-page single-spaced paper.

I’m so unhappy with my classes at NYU right now. Sometimes I can’t believe I came here, leaving my boyfriend, house and friends in San Francisco, to write rote bullshit papers on discredited theory that never found acceptance outside the offices of a few Marxist professors anyway. I’ve got to get in better classes next semester.

In addition the facilities at NYU are, short of a better word, disgusting. The classrooms are small and filthy. My classroom on Mercer is particularly bad. An unairconditioned room, hot and miserable and lit by obscenely bright canister lights. It also has holes in the ceiling and the carpet is torn and ripped. None of the others is much better and one in particular reminds me of a correctional institution classroom I once saw on a PBS special - complete with barred windows. For all this I pay $12,000 a semester. Quite the bargain.

Yeah, I’m down on it all right now. Sore throat is probably why. I haven’t been in the frame of mind to work out and all I feel like I do is massive quantities of homework. I’ll feel better, I know I will, it just takes time to get over the hump.