Slog
News & ArtsThursday, October 18, 2012
Books Choose Your Own Adventure Tonight, Meet an Arrested Presidential Candidate This Weekend
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 3:40 PM
- Panels excerpted from Jeff Parker and Erika Moen's Bucko. Click the photo to visit the comic online.
1. There are a whole bunch of literary-type events going on this weekend. You should especially take part in tonight's Lit Crawl, which stretches from First Hill to Capitol Hill and includes a number of different venues. The events I'm most looking forward to include, in chronological order: the APRIL reading at the divey Quarter Lounge, starring Matthew Simmons, Richard Chiem, and Megan Kaminski; the Dark Coast Press reading featuring Elissa Washuta and Corinne Manning at Spine & Crown Books; the Tin House reading featuring Vanessa Vaselka and David Shields at Vermillion; and the afterparty at the Hugo House. But it's a choose-your-own-adventure of an evening, and there are plenty of other venues and authors to choose from. Go look at the schedule and choose your route now.
2. In addition! Tomorrow night, Candyfreak author Steve Almond, dreamy young literary star Matthew Zapruder, and spoken word artist Elaina Ellis, along with Daniel Spils of Maktub, will perform new work on the theme Viva La Revolucion at the Hugo House.
3. But that's not all! On Saturday, comics writer Jeff Parker and cartoonist Erika Moen will sign their "comical murder mystery" comic book Bucko at the Comics Dungeon in the afternoon. And Saturday night, poet Matthew Dickman will be reading at Elliott Bay Book Company and there will be a Rose Alley Press reading at the Hugo House.
4. AND! A few days ago, I showed you video of Green Party candidate Jill Stein getting arrested right outside the presidential debate, because it's apparently illegal to be a third-party presidential candidate nowadays. Stein will be speaking at Town Hall on Sunday night. She'll probably discuss her debate-night experience. It will surely be interesting.
5. For more information about any of these events, or for a complete list of everything that's going on this weekend, you should visit our readings calendar.
1
Perhaps Stein could address whether anyone who cares about the world should vote for her. Ask her: "Imagine you are talking to a voter in Ohio who is undecided between you and Obama. Please make your case that his best choice is to vote for you."
2
Yawn. These go some place and get yourself arrested stunts are boring. Sorry she doesn't have enough support to justify inclusion, but getting arrest is not going to change that.
And she wasn't arrest for being there, she was arrested for attempting to trespass into a place where she was not wanted.
Personally I am glad that our debates are between people who more or less represent a broad swath of the left and right instead of every fringer who can garner at most 2-3%.
And she wasn't arrest for being there, she was arrested for attempting to trespass into a place where she was not wanted.
Personally I am glad that our debates are between people who more or less represent a broad swath of the left and right instead of every fringer who can garner at most 2-3%.
3
Jill Stein would be a great candidate as a Democrat who could actually win in our two-party system. But she isn't and thus she can't and a write-in vote for her is a waste.
4
There is a valid argument for voting for the candidate you support, even if she is not a member of the Democratic or Republican party. I will probably be voting for Stein because of the the issue of drone strikes alone - I just can't support those actions. If Obama can make "tactical" decisions about policies and positions for political reasons (e.g., didn't come out for gay marriage until he felt safe to; can't even take a solid stance on gun control in the debate because he's afraid of scaring anyone away) than I feel I have the right to vote for the candidate/policies I support. I know it will not cost Obama the election and I think it is a (minisculey) positive step in the direction of reason, fairness and justice. If I were not in a safe Democratic state I would probably vote for Obama.
5
Also, check your ballot, it should be coming today or in the next couple at least. Jill Stein is on the ballot.
Also, every year I hear all my friends talk about how they wish they had a good choice in the elections. You know how you get that choice? It's by starting to vote for choices like Jill Stein. Recent polls have her at 4-5% which is pretty impressive for a third party candidate. The more of us break with the Democrats who repeatedly stab us in the back the sooner we'll have a party that actually represents our interests.
Also, every year I hear all my friends talk about how they wish they had a good choice in the elections. You know how you get that choice? It's by starting to vote for choices like Jill Stein. Recent polls have her at 4-5% which is pretty impressive for a third party candidate. The more of us break with the Democrats who repeatedly stab us in the back the sooner we'll have a party that actually represents our interests.
6
i don't need to meet her to vote for jill stein. vote for the jew. vote for the sane and rational candidate.
7
Christ. Look at yourselves. You're the kind of people who brought us 8 years of Bush. There are few areas where Republicans are more grown up than Democrats, but this is one of them. Can you imagine a conservative throwing away his vote this year?
8
@7, yeah, imagine! Voting your conscience! Grown ups simply do NOT vote their conscience. Why would any adult liberal NOT vote for a guy who thinks states should be allowed to ban gay marriage, has raided more med marijuana dispensaries than Bush and opposes marijuana decriminalization.
Only a CHILD wouldn't vote for a man who has overseen more immigrant deportations than Bush, opposes due process for suspected terrorists, opposes investigations of the previous administration's torture program, opposes efforts to hold big banks responsible for mortgage fraud, supports prosecuting whistle blowers at unprecedented rates, supports a secret drone program that regularly kills innocent civilians, supports the assassination of people without due process, supports warrantless wiretaps, supports strip searches of non-violent arrestees, opposes treaties to ban land mines, supports the continued use of cluster bombs in civilian areas, opposes making any changes to the Patriot Act, supports mandatory DNA testing of anyone arrested for a crime, regardless of guilt, supports increased government secrecy, supports selling military weapons to dictatorships, and supports Blackwater, despite its reputation.
What are these people thinking, voting for someone who shares their liberal values? Don't they know there's an election to win?
Only a CHILD wouldn't vote for a man who has overseen more immigrant deportations than Bush, opposes due process for suspected terrorists, opposes investigations of the previous administration's torture program, opposes efforts to hold big banks responsible for mortgage fraud, supports prosecuting whistle blowers at unprecedented rates, supports a secret drone program that regularly kills innocent civilians, supports the assassination of people without due process, supports warrantless wiretaps, supports strip searches of non-violent arrestees, opposes treaties to ban land mines, supports the continued use of cluster bombs in civilian areas, opposes making any changes to the Patriot Act, supports mandatory DNA testing of anyone arrested for a crime, regardless of guilt, supports increased government secrecy, supports selling military weapons to dictatorships, and supports Blackwater, despite its reputation.
What are these people thinking, voting for someone who shares their liberal values? Don't they know there's an election to win?
9
Thank you for posting about Jill Stein, Mr. Constant. Your coverage is very little and very late, but better than nothing.
@4, @5, @8: Thank you and well said.
@3, @7: What an absurd notion that voting for the candidate who most closely represents your own principals and beliefs is somehow "throwing your vote away".
Throwing your vote away would mean voting to perpetuate an establishment that has permitted, indeed abetted, the systemic degradation of our very society.
Here is Noam Chomsky's advice on how to vote in this election (my own transcript from audio recording):
And here is Chris Hedges from an interview posted earlier this month:
More...
@4, @5, @8: Thank you and well said.
@3, @7: What an absurd notion that voting for the candidate who most closely represents your own principals and beliefs is somehow "throwing your vote away".
Throwing your vote away would mean voting to perpetuate an establishment that has permitted, indeed abetted, the systemic degradation of our very society.
Here is Noam Chomsky's advice on how to vote in this election (my own transcript from audio recording):
Between the two choices that are presented there's, I think, some significant differences. If I personally was in a swing state I'd vote against Romney/Ryan, which means voting for Obama, because there's no other choice.
I happen to be in a non-swing state so I can either not vote, or vote as I probably will for Jill Stein, Green candidate, in the hope that it might be the beginning of some genuine electoral alternative over time.
[...]
The main point is try to keep working to change the society, the consciousness, the culture, so that we're not stuck with two options both well to the right of -- actually [of] where most of the population is on most issues -- but certainly where they ought to be.
And here is Chris Hedges from an interview posted earlier this month:
HEDGES: [...]
It's always the ruling elite that determines the parameters for resistance or rebellion. And that means something else is coming. The system has not been able to respond in a rational way, the way the Roosevelt administration responded rationally through the New Deal. And because of that, we're in deep, deep trouble. So I think all of our hope now has to be invested in acts of civil disobedience. I intend to vote, but I will not vote for Barack Obama. I'll vote for a third-party candidate: Rocky Anderson, or Jill Stein from the Green Party.
JAY: Would it make any difference to you if you were in a swing state where a few votes might matter?
HEDGES: No, because the problem is that we who care about the underclass, who care about protecting what's left of our anemic democracy, who care about battling back against corporate power, have no influence within the Democratic Party. And the policies of the Democratic Party are evidence of that. The only hope we have left is to be obstructionist. You know, they're all—all the pressure is from the other side.
And if you look at all of the policies of the Democratic Party in Europe, they would be a far-right party, without question, including the prosecution of preemptive war, which—under post-Nuremberg laws these wars are illegal. We have no right to define the terms of the occupation in places like Iraq or Afghanistan.
I just think you can—you know, the simple argument is that by ceding so much to the Democratic Party and refusing to stand up for our principles, it's not worked, and it hasn't worked, and we have to begin to defy centers of power that essentially, I think, since Citizens United, have been hostage to corporate interests, I mean, including the judiciary, which is pretty much a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate state.
10
She didn't get arrested for being a third-party candidate, she and her cohort got arrested for trespassing.
11
@8 - I'm sorry, but our system of first-past-the-post voting requires grown-ups to be pragmatic and practice strategic voting. Refusing to acknowledge that and insisting that "voting your conscience" will help anyone other than the candidate you disagree the most with *IS* childish.
12
@11 Using the terms "grown-up" is just ad hominem, shaming people instead of making your case. You might as well be GWB talking about patriotism.
Besides, your understanding of "strategic" seems to be, what KBF thinks. Consider the fact that people who disagree with you are thinking strategically too - see me @4 or the quote by Chomsky @9. It is strategic to say, "my vote will not determine this election but it can move our politics in the right direction." Just because you don't agree with this does not mean it's not strategic or "childish".
Besides, your understanding of "strategic" seems to be, what KBF thinks. Consider the fact that people who disagree with you are thinking strategically too - see me @4 or the quote by Chomsky @9. It is strategic to say, "my vote will not determine this election but it can move our politics in the right direction." Just because you don't agree with this does not mean it's not strategic or "childish".
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Portland Voters Are Stoopid by Goldy
-
An I-5 Bridge Over the Skagit River Has Collapsed by Paul Constant
-
Rightwing Anti-Gay French Activist Commits Suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral by Dan Savage
-
Why They Break Windows by Unpaid Intern
-
Spoiled Rotten: Star Trek Into Darkness by Paul Constant
-
Usually When I'm Sent a Photoshopped Image of a Gun Pointed At Me... by Dan Savage
-
There Are No Atheists In Foxholes by Dan Savage
-
Tornado Truthers by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Did You Think I Was Going To Tell You Not To Come Out? (PLUS: Help Free Kate!) by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Have You Ever Heard of...? by Dan Savage
Stranger Personals
The Stranger
RSSSeattle Art & Performance Quarterly
A complete guide to Seattle's current art, film, dance, and theater season.
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (12) RSS