jeremyrandall / blog /

State Supreme Court says same-sex couples have right to marry. The ruling was just announced, and what a great thing.

Let people choose partners that they love and build their lives with those partners. It’s just so obvious what is right here. It makes me sad that there are hate-filled people working against this; perhaps they need to concentrate on their own lives and leave other consenting adults alone.

Jeremy: Hey Hillary, how’s it going?

Hillary Clinton: Hey JR, nice to see you! How you doing?

Jeremy: Oh, I’m fine. Hillary, could you make me a bagel, and fix all of our healthcare problems?

Hillary Clinton: Of course, JR, I can do that. Do you want cream cheese on your bagel?

Jeremy: Mmm, yes. And butter.

Hillary Clinton: JR, I think getting rid of the butter is going to be part of solving the healthcare problem…

Finally, the checks and balances in our system have kicked in.

Nice work Dems, and congrats to my representative Nancy Pelosi.

Now, here’s the important thing: Democrats, you haven’t done anything for six years; stand up and actually do something now.

I’m always amazed by the muted roar, for lack of a better term, that comes up from the street during parades. And of all the parades in San Francisco each year, Pride has to be the biggest.

I’ve been going back and forth from the street to home; seeing the parade in person and watching on TV as it streams past outside my window. I think it’s great to see families with their kids, police and government, media, corporations, medical organizations, religious groups and regular people from different places and walks of life celebrating diversity and love and hope. That is what progress is about, in my opinion!

Images (c) Jeremy Randall

Third anniversary of the Iraq invasion - Answer Coalition protests in cities across the country.

In San Francisco:

WHERE: Civic Center, at Grove and Larkin Streets (near Civic Center BART)
WHEN: Saturday, March 18, Gather at 11 a.m.
Click Here For: March 18 San Francisco flyer

To get involved, call 415-821-6545, email sf@internationalanswer.org, or go to http://www.actionsf.org/. Weekly Organizers Meetings every Tuesday at 7 pm, 2489 Mission St., #24.

I have not written much about politics here. I think that there are other people out there who are actually in politics, or cover the subject professionally, that are much better equipped to comment on such things in a methodical and effective manner. I’m glad they are doing so.

As for me, I believe the intentions of the Bush administration are misguided, and their resulting policies are failures. I believe the executive branch is not exempt from common sense and, much more importantly, from the law. I believe it is wrong for the goverment to lie, invade and occupy under false pretenses and profit from doing so, torture, kill, leave citizens affected by natural disasters to die, engage in illegal wiretapping on citizens, spend the peoples’ tax dollars irresponsibly and enact policies based on greed, intolerance, moral policing and hypocrisy.

I really think it’s time for people to stand up and say enough is enough and we’re done with this now. Especially those of us that don’t normally do so.

I went to listen to the Randi Rhodes Show Podcast and it announced that after February 7th they will no longer offer free Podcasts, switching instead to a subscription model.

Okay, I am torn between wanting the free podcasts, which seems to be an effective way to spread their message, and understanding that they need revenue to run their operations. I really don’t know why the Podcasts don’t contain ads, so they can be free like the on-the-air radio broadcasts.

This is from AAR’s FAQ about the “premium” subscriptions service:

Why is podcasting not free?

Podcasting is expensive, and we are a business. There will continue to be free podcasting at AAR of comedy bits and audio highlights, but offering downloads of entire shows for free is impractical.

Will streaming continue to be free?

There are currently no plans to require a subscription to listen to our live broadcasts.

Now, I am not a broadcaster or web audio streamer, but it seems to me that once they have created a file for streaming the audio, there’s not some large amount of labor that would go in to making that file a Podcast.

If I decide to listen to their programming more often, perhaps I will subscribe. In the meantime, I can still listen to KQED’s Forum at no charge (and they are a nonprofit).

I heard about this organization on KQED’s Forum today.

The Equal Justice Society is a national organization of scholars, advocates and concerned individuals advancing creative legal strategies and public policy for enduring social change. As heirs of the innovative legal and political strategists of Brown v. Board of Education, EJS will marshal our forces to defeat the right wing assault on social and racial justice. Our goal is to reshape jurisprudence to ensure that the rights of all are expanded, rather than diminished, by our courts and policy makers.

Tue, Nov. 29th, 2005, 03:24 pm

Asked whether the exclusion of those countries [Canada, Russia, Germany, France] from bidding on construction contracts [in Iraq] violates international law, Bush said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about by international law. I better consult my lawyer.”

Thu, Dec. 11th, 2003, 10:55 am

Vote, people. We don’t actually get to decide much of what our goverment “of the people” does. So grab this opportunity by the horns and make your feelings known.

California - San Francisco
“Not in Our Name Mass Convergence”
Sunday, October 6, 2002, 2PM
Union Square

Many different organizations will be coming from around the greater Bay Area to converge on Union Square to say “Not in Our Name!” to a war without limits. As groups make there way to the convergence from points north, east and south, they will be distributing materials, parading puppets, and flying banners.

KPFA will be broadcasting from the event.

Originally posted Sun, Oct. 6th, 2002, 08:51 am

Originally posted September 10, 2002, 9:01am.

From KPFA’s web site:

Mon, Sep. 9th, 2002, 08:55 pm