Let us take a moment to be thankful that Hurricane Gustav narrowly missed causing serious damage to the Gulf Coast. Now, let us take a moment to talk about the disgusting politics that preceded the storm.
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Since last night’s liveblog got a lot of comments, we’re going to try the same thing again for McCain’s speech tonight, starting at 9:30. Joining me this time will be NYU Local opinion bloggers Pat McGovern and Charlie Eisenhood. Due to technical limitations, we’re not going to actually be in the same room and will be attempting to coordinate the whole thing online, so this should be an exciting experiment in chaos.
Remember: Watch this space at 9:30 PM!
9:23: It begins.
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This won’t be long. I just want to plant a little seed of thought into the minds of you politically-aware NYU kiddies in anticipation of John McCain’s acceptance speech tonight. It’s no secret to anyone who sets foot near Washington Square Park that NYU prides itself on being an LGBT-friendly university. Because of that, you can expect regular updates on the progress (hopefully) being made by the LGBT community from me throughout the year. One of my favorite John McCain moments happened exactly a year ago today when he was touring the country on the campaign trail and a high school student asked him what he planned to do on LGBT issues and workers’ rights. The septuagenarian did not know what “LGBT” stood for. It wasn’t some spin by a Washington talking head, he actually said, “I had not heard that phrase before.” Awesome! This just goes to show everyone the severe gaps in relevance between the two candidates. Enjoy the speech tonight!
Thursday, September 4, 2008 10:14I don’t know about the rest of you crazy kids, but I’m super serious when I say, “I’m ready for colder weather.” And I’ve been saying it a lot lately. I bought a brand new air conditioner in May, and by mid-July it had already given out and was completely incapable of cooling my apartment (a problem no one seemed to have an answer to). I know summer will technically still be around until September 23, but at the rate we’re going right now, I’m wondering if we’ll even have a winter. So, uh, is there going to be any snow this “winter”? Continue…
Thursday, September 4, 2008 9:25
(Pictured above: Party! WOOOOOOOOO!)
Unlike our friends at the more venerable Washington Square News, us scrappy little underdogs didn’t have the resources to send someone to the Republican National Convention. But we can do something almost as good! We can watch it on television. And that’s what I’ll be doing starting tonight at 9, to catch Sarah Palin’s big speech. Not only that, but I’ll be liveblogging it, below the fold of this very post! Hopefully some of you will join me in the comments as well, so we can make a conversation out of it. Expectations are high for this speech, and there’s not a whole lot of middle ground in how people feel about Palin, so the speech is pretty much guaranteed to be a doozy. And if our little experiment tonight goes well, then you may be able to look forward to a liveblog of McCain’s speech tomorrow night.
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The LGBT community has been celebrating both big and small victories all summer. Yesterday we celebrated another small victory as a New York state judge turned down a lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian non-profit organization, aimed to overturn Governor Paterson’s directive to recognize same-sex marriages from other states in New York. Sigh. The fact that there was a lawsuit to turn down in the first place is ridiculous. Continue…
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 13:05
As I sit here in my apartment near La Bastille in Paris, drinking wine and nibbling on some pain et fromage, I can’t help but let my elitist inclinations get the better of me. Gazing down upon the chaotic mess we call politics in “the States,” I consider the possibility of renouncing my attachment to American politics forever. But the media frenzy surrounding the DNC recently is just too irresistible which is why I must make some blogger love to my friend Sarah Haile-Mariam (rising Senior, CAS). Continue…
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 12:08This should have been obvious, but I completely forgot how ridiculously crowded the “campus” is during the school year. I took a full semester’s worth of classes this summer and I never even had to share an elevator in Silver with more then 2 other people, so to walk over to Washington Square today from my comfortably distant East Village studio and have to wait in line to enter the building was shocking, to say the least. Not only was it shocking, but confusing. People were slowly ambling in through the Washington Place entrance like they had just opened the doors to a free concert and everyone was trying to be polite, but really wanted to step on each other. Literally. Foot on top of head. Step on. Continue…
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 8:59
Mayor Bloomberg and a large contingent of city council members are currently mulling over a possible plan to extend their current 8-year (2-term) limit in office by adding an additional 4-year term. Bloomberg was originally for term limits when he came into office, but as his adminstration’s expiration date rapidly approaches, he seems to be refining this position. Term limits only came into existence in NYC in the last decade when the citizens voted twice, in ‘93 and ‘96, for a 2-term limit on many elected positions including the Mayor, City Council, and others. It is suspected that if the council seeks to overturn the term limits it will do so not by consulting you, the voter, but through the passage of legislation voted upon by the very members whose political future it determines (this is within the council’s power, but it’s a move many worry will be wildly unpopular). Continue…
Tuesday, September 2, 2008 14:00As a college student (especially if you are an incoming freshman), I’m sure you’ve been inundated with tips for success, safety, frugality and fun from the likes of your parents, orientation leaders, teachers, friends, WSN, and college guidebooks. Invariably, however, there are important facets of the NYU experience that other sources might find taboo. These things are often some of the most relevant issues to student life, so it feels only right to address them in hopes of answering some of your questions about NYU and the city in general.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008 11:19