From a press release:

CLEVELAND, OH – In the political equivalent of a “blind taste test” taken by more than 67,000 participants, an independent website surveying public attitudes on various issues is reporting that Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is the first choice of a phenomenal 53% of respondents. No other candidate, Democrat or Republican, even reaches double digits.

The results (click for larger).

The issues (click for larger)

The website (http://www.dehp.net/candidate/) has been asking respondents to express and rank their opinions on 25 different issues – the war in Iraq, health care, the environment, Patriot Act, etc. — that have been raised and debated among the Presidential candidates in both parties. Those taking the survey vote only on the issues, not for or against any individual candidate. The 67,000-plus responses were then correlated with the positions of all of the candidates… As of this morning (the survey is recalculated every five minutes), more than 35,600 respondents were “in sync” with Kucinich on the issues. Democratic front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton was the first-place choice of only about 2,400 respondents (3.6%). Other leading candidates fared even worse: Senator Barack Obama (3%), and former Senator John Edwards (1.3%)

“When people vote exclusively on the issues that are important to them, without being influenced by name recognition, celebrity, or millions of dollars in advertising, Congressman Kucinich wins in a landslide,” his campaign said today.

Well that’s pretty interesting. I have an idea. Maybe after the election is over, we can compare the data showing Kucinich’s pre-election landslide victory to the post-election data showing his landslide defeat. Then we’ll have a better idea of exactly how much the American people value perception over reality. ~ pinky

…..comments…..

[ note from Bunny: That’s not a fair statement, I don’t think the American people want to value perception over reality. You make it sound like it’s a preference, it’s actually more like a bad habit. Here’s a better idea: Let’s take the pre- and post-election numbers for Kucinich and others, and then factor in 1) the amount of dollars spent by each campaign; and 2) the amount of effort/time each candidate is built up/torn down by the media. Do that and you’ll have a nice picture of how much money & “reporting” is required to actually reverse public opinion.

[ Kim: Why you guys being so negative? I’d vote for Kucinich. ]

[ Bunny: If cats could vote then maybe he’d win. CATS NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE. ]

[ Pinky: Okay, maybe the tone of my comment at the end did sound negative. But I don’t want to underestimate the power of money and media. If we like Mr. Kucinich or someone similar, crossing our fingers (if we had fingers) and voting for him is not going to make any difference in the outcome of the elections. ]

[ Bunny: CATS CAN’T VOTE. ]

[ Kim: I meant “if I could vote”. ]

[ Bunny: Cats = No Votes ]

[ Kim: Okay already I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!!! ]

The past few weeks have been good. I’m happy because we’ve all been really busy working on a whole bunch of stuff; that always feels like ‘progress’. Bunny’s been doing a big under-the-hood type overhaul of our website. When she’s done the website should be both more secure and easier for us to update. Kim & Mimi have been working on some grant writing and communications stuff in their spare time (they both work full-time). I’ve been doing lots of research, interviewing, and writing for the upcoming full-size episode on internal colonies, and at the same time I’ve also been working on a medium-sized episode on immigration with my friend Daisy (hopefully we’ll be able to release that one in the upcoming week). I’m also guest editing an international radical education zine; I have to be done with that in the first week of September, which is right around the corner, so that one’s actually been kinda stressing me out. Oh yeah - Bunny and I recently started working with a group of settlers in Hawaii on an education project which I’m hoping will produce some good results. This work will probably require that we go back and forth to Hawaii over the next year or so. I hope we can also do some additional work in Hawaii while we’re there - I was born there and there’s a lot of things about Hawaii that I want to know more about.

Bunny and I usually reserve Sunday mornings for making shirts (if we haven’t received any orders for shirts during the week then Sunday morning becomes our sleep late day). But anyway today we had to make some shirts and when I was packing them I noticed something interesting. With the exception of one shirt, all the rest were going to smaller cities or small towns I’d never heard of. When I looked at where all the previous weeks’ shirts had been mailed, it was mostly all small towns too. We’ve also mailed quite a few shirts to people outside the U.S., though the idea of someone walking around wearing a Pinky Show shirt in, say, Durban, Belfast, or São Paulo - that’s pretty hard for me to comprehend. But anyway I’ve just been pleasantly surprised with how much of our support has come directly from smaller communities and foreign countries. This underground media thing has turned out to be a lot more fascinating than we had anticipated…

It’s almost 2:30 p.m. I notice I always start getting hungry and thirsty around this time every day (”breakfast”).

~ pinky

[ Later note: We had spaghetti & onions. ]

We frequently receive thoughtful and interesting e-mails. I’ll try to post some of them here in my diary. This one is from A., she is 14 years old.

[ note: These e-mails have been edited for length. ]

Dear PinkyShow, …I have gone through and watched most of your videos, and took particular interest in the one on the definition of “Crimes Against Humanity”. I would like to request (as I am so bold) that you do an episode… on the Holocaust. I am currently 14½ years old, and I have been studying anything I can find on the holocaust for several years… I may not be Jewish, but the indecency and lack of cause disturbed me into interest of the subject. I have done many school reports, papers, forced class speaking and informative posters on the subject, as well as reading more books than I would care to count. I’ve spent numerous hours on the internet, finding as many pictures, videos, articles, names, dates, quotes, and re-tellings that I can find. The Holocaust has become to me what some may call “a sick obsession”… After seeing your video on “Crimes Against Humanity” I searched YouTube for hours finding many videos and slideshows of Holocaust horrors (as the Holocaust, in my opinion, is the most indecent and despicable crime against humanity ever committed.). I wondered how, after discussing so many interesting things and so many topics on politics, the Holocaust itself didn’t come up in any discussion of yours. It would mean a lot to me, and all those who died at the hands of the Nazis (god rest their souls), if you would take a bit of time and dedicate it to the Holocaust. This, of coarse, is just my suggestion, and you have no need to accept it if you feel so as not to do so… I believe the Holocaust is the worst case when it comes to crimes against humanity…

Sincerely,
A. (who is a girl)

My reply:

Hi A.,

Thank you for your thoughtful note.

A., I have to agree with you about how many parts of human history seems to be very dark and painful. To be honest, we here at the Pinky Show often feel very repulsed by the darker aspects of human nature. But we also think it’s important to study it, if only because these matters continue to be so relevant today. We are genuinely shocked at how throughout world history human beings have heaped such horrible campaigns of death on each other, over and over again (although maybe not always conscious of what has come before). The Shoah is probably the most well-known example in this country, and as such it’s probably easier to find information about it compared to other genocides. One day I would like to do an episode (or episodes) on this subject, but for the time being I’ve been focusing more of my attention on the genocide of Native North Americans. Not because the Shoah is somehow less worthy of attention, but because in my opinion a lot of Americans still don’t want to talk about it (understandable, all things considered). Of course for me this just means that we absolutely must study it. There are lots of important texts on the subject - a place to start if you are interested:

American Holocaust, David Stannard.
Facing West, Richard Drinnon.
A Little Matter of Genocide, Ward Churchill.

Personally I don’t say that the Shoah is not as important as Native American genocide, or vice versa. The logic of genocide is evil in every case, and I cannot in good conscience tell the victims of any like situation that they have been less victimized. I think this in itself can be hurtful or dehumanizing, no disrespect intended to the countless innocents who perished in occupied Europe.

Sincerely yours,
pinky

We were hoping to do some audio recording tonight but it’s so windy that we finally gave up (we don’t have one of those soundproof recording rooms you see on tv). I have a ton of work I could be doing instead but since I don’t feel like doing real work tonight, I’m procrastinating by making multiple diary entries… :P

Anyway, a few days ago a guy named Joel e-mailed us 10 interview questions for some kind of project he’s doing. I was going to wait to do it after I’m all caught up with all my work, but…

~ pinky

……………..

Q1: To start off, why did you and Bunny choose cats to represent yourselves?
A: Sorry, I don’t understand this question.

Q2) What do you find to be the largest problem in modern society?
A: This is a hard one. I’ll go with ‘individualism’.

Q3) What inspired you to tackle the topic of political, and governmental philosophy?
A: I don’t know anything about these subjects, sorry.

Q4) What do you recommend veiwers do to make a difference?
A: I don’t recommend anything. People are capable of acting on their own analyses.

Q5) What is your absolute favourite food?
A: I crave sushi from time to time, the kind with the little pieces of raw fish in/on it. But I’m trying not to eat animals anymore so I will say ‘pie’ instead.

Q6) What other hobbies do you and Bunny enjoy?
A: Bunny reads a lot and likes video games. I like to walk around at night. We also like music and looking at books with pictures.

Q7) What are the pros and cons of a cat living in the desert?
A: Pros: It’s peaceful and the landscape is beautiful. Cons: It’s harder to get things (food, books, etc.) and of course the temperatures get pretty extreme. Also sometimes we wish more stuff was going on around here.

Q8) Do you enjoy Political Satirists such as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?
A: Yes.

Q9) Do you believe in Evolution or Creationism?
A: I like Creationism because it’s a lot easier to understand, but my intuitive sense is that it’s total bullshit. I don’t know, honestly I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about either one.

Q10) To end off, what is your absolute favourite piece of literature.
A: I don’t read fiction. Maybe in my next life. Oh wait, I enjoyed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Pinky & Kim went to run some errands in Los Angeles today so I am answering e-mails in the meantime.

E-mail number 1:

“Hello Pinky, To lend more force to your arguments, I would love to hear more about what your ‘credentials’ are - education, etc. (I am guessing that you are some kind of poli-sci or international law student). It will make a big difference because I think that [people] will be more likely to watch it if [you] can stick some degrees beside your name… Much thanks, B.”

Reply: Dear B., We don’t list degrees because we would like people to consider what we are saying based on what we are saying instead of the degrees we have. Thanks, Bunny

E-mail number 2:

“This is a response to your “27,000 Holocausts”. This is neither Fan Mail nor Hate Mail. Call it Realignment Mail… Asia has a different perspective on life. Nuclear weapons were developed by and for European countries. In WWII the U.S. forces were introduced, in Japan, to the Kamikaze. Next to Nuclear weapons, it is the most devastating weapon ever encountered. One aircraft piloted by a person with this mindset, could take down whole ships. A person who does not want to die is one thing, but a person who does not want to live is another… You mentioned “India versus Pakistan” as a possible place for a Nuclear weapons to be used. Again, you should ask “Why?” Because they do not care. Look at the living environment of these people. They do not have much to loose in any kind of warfare. The same goes for most of Asia. Look at Vietnam and the rest of India or Africa. You mentioned that Israel has the ‘bomb’. But you did not state of what importance this was. But Iran does almost have it. And they have sworn to use it precisely on Israel. No bones about it. Hate is a strange thing. It spreads like a cancer and will only kill the host. Guns do not kill people. People kill people.” It is the spirit of Man that is the enemy. If you really want to ‘Stop Nuclear Weapons’, then give the people something for which to live, not to die. Answer ==> Provide clear drinking water and housing, clothes and security for their children. If you want to end Nuclear Weapons, then do not take them apart by decree; let them rust apart from dis-use.” - Viktor

Reply: Dear Viktor, I’m sorry, your generalizations about people who don’t want to live are very stupid. Please do not build a philosophy of life upon “realigned” ideas like this; if you do you will only be called unpleasant names. Goodbye. Bunny

E-mail number 3, from some guy claiming to be Nikola Tesla:

name: Nikola Tesla
organization: Reality
“I was behind AC not Westinghouse… Also, modern execution is generally done by lethal injection or the gas chamber. Ethically Vacant indeed. Not only is big business lacking but so are groups like you swine. You think it is okay to half research your little topics as long as you make your point…You are just as bad as them.”

Reply: Dear Ghost of Nikola Tesla, We weren’t talking about you. Also I think you may not know what modernity is, perhaps you should look it up. Or are there no dictionaries or books in the afterlife? Goodbye. Bunny

This is why Pinky answers the e-mail around here.

~ Bunny

Idiot e-mail for today:

Your Cats With Guns video was a fairly lame attempt to defend your product. Couldn’t you just admit that you thought a cat with a gun would have some kind of mass appeal and you were trying to profit off this? Did you actually claim that guns could also be thought of as symbolistically good and peaceful icons? Are you proud to have a Russian gun on a logo which is infact simplistically representative of you, your site, and shows? Keep up your mindlessly-slow drivel paraphrasing wikipedia entries. Better luck next video. You’d probably do better to have cats actually using guns in your shows. “For oppression?” Perhaps.
- Nick

Reply:

Dear Nick, You are annoying. Why would you assume everyone who opposes a particular war and occupation (Iraq) or is critical of U.S. imperialism (Iraq, Vietnam, Spanish American War, etc.) must therefore universally oppose all forms of violence, including violent resistance to state-sponsored terrorism? Please put down your Gandhi coloring book for 5 year olds and enter the real world of complicated, conflicted, or otherwise messy ideas. Unless you are 5, then ‘Very gooood!’… Goodbye, Bunny

[ Pinky’s note: Gee Bunny, kind of harsh, don’t you think? ]

[ Bunny: No, not really. ]

[ Kim: I like Bunny Mailbag. ]