Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

Ocelopotamus header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Politics'

Good Morning, Day 6

July 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Film, HCC-DDT, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

About 300 Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care since I started this count five days ago. About 50 more will die today. Since this is turning into a kind of daily witness, I suppose I should document my source for the statistic this is based on. Michael Moore says in Sicko, and […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Good Morning, Day 5

July 22nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 5 · Activism, HCC-DDT, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

Since I last updated this count, on Friday, about 100 more people have died in the United States because they couldn’t afford health care. That makes about 250 Americans who were allowed to die because they couldn’t pay for treatment, just since I started this count four days ago. About 50 more will die today.

[Read more →]

Tags:

Video Roundup: Colbert, Stewart, and Olbermann

July 20th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Comedy, Culture, Healthcare Crisis, LGBT, Media, News, Politics, TV, Video

First up, Stephen interviews Michael Moore … all the way from Brazil!  Next, Jon Stewart’s take on anti-gay Surgeon General nominee James Holsinger, in which he manages to reveal some surprising truths inherent in plumbing fixtures. (I previously posted Colbert’s take on Holsinger’s fixture fixation, but Stewart gets some good mileage out of it, too.)  […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Moore vs. Gupta: The Wrap-Up

July 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Moore vs. Gupta: The Wrap-Up · Culture, Film, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Media, News, Politics, TV, Video

I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on the whole Moore vs. Gupta dustup while it was happening (much to the relief of the scale!), but here’s a little post-mortem wrap-up. First off, some links in case you missed any or all of it (all video links except the second one): Round One: Michael […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Good Morning, Day 3

July 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 3 · Activism, HCC-DDT, Healthcare Crisis, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

Since I started this count two days ago, about 150 people have died here in the US because they couldn’t afford health care. That’s enough people to fill, what, three or four CTA buses? About 50 more will die today.

[Read more →]

Tags:

Dogging Michael Vick

July 19th, 2007 · 6 Comments · Activism, Culture, Film, Media, News, Pets, Politics

There have been a lot of scandals involving professional sports figures in recent years. But the federal indictment of NFL quarterback Michael Vick (of the Atlanta Falcons) on dogfighting charges is in a far worse league than the latest steroid abuse flap. Here’s what the email I got from the Humane Society of the United […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Good Morning, Day 2

July 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 2 · Activism, HCC-DDT, Healthcare Crisis, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

About 50 more people died yesterday, here in the United States of America, because they couldn’t afford health care. That means that about 100 Americans have died due to lack of affordable health care since I started this tally yesterday. About 50 more will die today.

[Read more →]

Tags:

Crowded House: For the World, Not for the War

July 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on Crowded House: For the World, Not for the War · Culture, iTunes, Music, New Wave, News, Peace, Politics

The new Crowded House album, Time on Earth, was released last week in the US and the week before in the UK. It’s available for download from iTunes (with bonus tracks!) and of course you can get the CD from Amazon. The band will be touring through December (including their two shows here in Chicago, […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Good Morning

July 18th, 2007 · 5 Comments · HCC-DDT, Health, Healthcare Crisis, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

About 50 people died yesterday, here in America, because they couldn’t afford health care. About 50 more people will die today, for the same reason.

[Read more →]

Tags:

NYC Fire Fighters vs. Giuliani

July 12th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Activism, Culture, History, Labor, News, Politics, Terrorism, Video

Speaking of unions … here’s what the New York fire fighters’ union has to say about Rudy Giuliani.   It’s a little slow to get going, but if you take a few minutes to watch the whole thing, it’s pretty damning. Rudy really made some incredibly bad decisions. For example, I hadn’t known about him […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Liking Norma Rae

July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Liking Norma Rae · Activism, Culture, Film, History, Labor, Media, News, Peoria, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

After reading this piece, which originally ran in The Nation, I bumped Norma Rae up on my Netflix queue and was very glad I did. I was really too young for it when it came out in 1979, and had somehow never gotten around to renting it in the years since. And seeing Norma Rae […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Cannibal Cane Toad Edition

July 9th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Cannibal Cane Toad Edition · Activism, Blogs, Comics, Culture, Education, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Human Rights, Internet, iTunes, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Organic Food, Pets, Politics, Restaurants, Roundup, Science, Tech, Vegetarian & Vegan

John Conyers tells it like it T-I-Is: Conyers says Bush spared Libby from jail to keep him from singing. This is patently obvious to just about everyone, but of course the White House immediately called the charge “ridiculous and baseless.” Which allows it to join the distinguished list of other ideas the administration considers “ridiculous […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Notes on Sicko: A Prescription for Change

July 6th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Activism, Culture, Film, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, Journalism, Media, News, Politics, Science

I saw Sicko Tuesday night, and it did not disappoint. The main impact for me is this: Watching this film makes it unavoidably clear that we as a nation have been completely duped, conned, and as the kids say, “pwned,” by those who’ve spent millions to convince us that universal healthcare is too expensive, can’t […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Solar-Powered Wi-Fi Turtle Edition

July 5th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Apple, Business, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Film, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, HIV/AIDS, Internet, LGBT, Media, Music, Nature, News, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech

Nicole at Crooks and Liars puts it well: It’s ironic to be celebrating Independence Day during a time when we have a virtual King who defies the law with impunity, and is not held accountable to the people he governs. Revolution? What revolution? Also at C&L, what a TV newscast looked like on July 4, […]

[Read more →]

Tags: