I Heart New RNC Chairman Michael Steele

I love you, Michael Steele. For those who haven’t heard, the new RNC Chairman has made it his mission to create a new hip-hop image for the GOP. No, seriously. While there are plenty kinds of crazy flowing from the near powerless Republican Party right now, Steele’s is the best kind because it’s incredibly entertaining.

 Obviously, creating a new GOP with hip-hop appeal is essentially an impossible task and not just because the party is devoid of any African Americans in prominent positions (other than Steele himself). As the brilliant Melissa Harris-Lacewell pointed out on THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW last week, hip-hop is largely about being authentic. Is there any profession that screams “inauthentic” like politician? Perhaps lawyer, but that’s it. Neither political party could ever brand itself as the party of hip-hop for that very reason. Nonetheless, I can’t wait to see how Michael Steele tries to accomplish this. It’s sure to be spectacular.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell had another insightful, and kinda geeky, quote when breaking down Steele’s election as RNC Chairman. It seems especially appropriate to share here given the banner for my blog. Here’s the quote:

“[The Republicans are] thinking Barack Obama is Superman, so what they needed to do was get some Kryptonite. Kryptonite comes from Superman’s own planet, so they went to “Planet Black Guy” and they said how do we get somebody from “Planet Black Guy” who can neutralize Barack Obama as [...] a unifier? This is their Barack Obama.”

Now as a huge comic geek myself, I’m going to take this analogy a bit further. I think Michael Steele may not be Kryptonite, but rather, Superman’s fellow Kryptonian, General Zod. The Republicans tore Zod out of his Phantom Zone prison, thinking the only way to beat Superman was with someone who was from his own planet and had all of the same powers. What they didn’t realize at the time was that Zod was batshit crazy. The Republican party has already lost control of their Zod, but unlike Superman, President Obama has no reason to try and stop Michael Steele because Steele is only going to help to destroy his own party.

Or, if you prefer an apt quote from the Batman universe, here’s one from Alfred Pennyworth (to Bruce Wayne) in THE DARK KNIGHT: “You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.”

Any bets on how long it takes before Michael Steele makes “Why so serious?” the new catchphrase of the GOP?

A Brand New Day

I haven’t posted anything since the inauguration of President Obama and, mostly, I blame that on giddiness. Seriously, I’ve been too happy to type. It’s been difficult sitting still. I constantly want to jump around and do cartwheels. It’s a welcome change from the last eight years.

Anyway, I’m now working on some new blog posts that I’ll have up soon. One on my favorite comic book series of 2008, another one about geeks on TV, and another on the new best night of television. (Not necessarily in that order.)

Also, a big thank you to Brea Grant for posting my speedster art on her blog and linking back here. She is tremendously cool for doing that.

“Going Green” Part 2: At Work

I hate the term “Going Green.” It’s incredibly simple, almost condescendingly so. We have this huge challenge in front of us. We need to become energy independent. We need to solve the climate change crisis. And these immense challenges have been simplified to not just a single word, but a color: GREEN. I know were a sound bite nation and so the less time it takes to explain something the better. But I do worry about grouping these complex problems under a single word. I worry that “going green” will become a cliche, if it isn’t already, and that people will grow tired of the term and consequently go back to ignoring the problems.

As it is we already have a “Planet Green” network. And let me tell you nothing makes me want to drive a Hummer, switch all my light bulbs back to incandescents, and leave my refrigerator door open all day more than the Planet Green network. Aside from one show, the documentary “Greensburg”, the entire network could not be more condescending if it tried. In my case, they’re preaching to the converted and every show still makes me want to smack the host in the face.

So, my goal here is to avoid being condescending when discussing what I think we should all be trying to do about this crisis. In fact, this post is less about “Going Green” and more about using common sense. After months and months of trying to convince every person I know they should vote for Barack Obama, he won, and I was left asking myself, “well, what now?” That’s when I started to look around the library I worked at and saw how energy inefficient we were. I had a new cause: green up the library (it helped I was reading Thomas Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded” at the time).

These are some of the problems I found:

1. Air conditioning the children’s section in January. Is there anything that causes an electric bill to rise like air conditioning? At my house, we carefully monitor how often we use the AC because it is such an energy suck. Well, the library still had the AC on in the children’s section in November! And it was not a little cool, it was frigid. There were days in November when it was warmer outside than it was at the children’s desk.

2. Playaways using AAA batteries. Playaways are basically MP3 players that have an audio book uploaded on them. Every time one comes back we take out the AAA battery inside and put in a new one. I’m just picturing a landfill somewhere filled with all our wasted batteries. I’m suspicious that our library director may even have a Scrooge McDuck-like vault somewhere in which she swims around in all those discarded batteries. I suggested we switch to rechargables.

3. No recycling bins. This one really baffled me. I swear when I was in middle school we had a recycling bin in every classroom. I’m now 28. So that was around 15 years ago. The library has NO recycling bins out for the public to use. We have printers, copiers, and scrap paper available for use, but no recycling bins for the discarded papers. It’s ridiculous. And it’s not like they need to put out one of those clunky green bins. A normal trash bin can be marked for recyclable paper.

4. Computers left on every night. I don’t know if this is a convenience thing or if there’s a legitimate reason computers in the library are left on every night except one. But I do know we had one employee go on maternity leave and her computer was left on for those entire four months! That is an unnecessary energy suck if there ever was one. And, if there isn’t a legitimate reason for leaving the computers on every night, then that’s another huge waste of electricity.

Have I bored you yet? I’ll admit going green is actually really, really boring. But, ultimately, the point I’m trying to make here is there are little things everyone can do at their own homes and offices to make a difference. Is that alone going to be enough? Of course not. But we have to wait until at least January 20th for our new President to give us our marching orders on his green initiatives, and until then I feel we should all try to do what we can. We’ve finally elected a President who cares about energy independence, the climate change crisis, and energy efficiency. But the election was just the start of the change, now we all need to step up and do our part.

Previous Blogs

I’m new to WordPress, but I have been posting blogs to my Myspace and Facebook accounts for a while now. Here’s a selection of those blogs:

11/28/08  “Going Green” Part 1: The Auto Industry

11/15/08  Obama’s Justice League

11/15/08  Note to Republicans: SHUT UP!

11/4/08  Why I’m Voting for Barack Obama

10/24/08  Dear Senator McCain

9/25/08  John McCain is a Coward

9/9/08  Fun with the Electoral Map: McCain needs Florida

3/7/07  New York Comic Con

8/15/06  The Story of the Paper Plate Crown