Cousin News

I want you to know that my family members are not just famous for their art and dance, they are also entrepreneurs and politicians.

My cousin Malachy has started a T-shirt company. I will add a link when I can find it again.

My mom's cousin Tom is running for Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.

Robert Novak Admits He's a Tool.

Finally, Tool.

More Awesome Then Even The Obama Video

Woman runs sword into foot during Wiccan ritual.

Souuuuth Side!

Thanks to JZ for passing along the link to this video. Watch about a minute into this Obama video to here him represent!!

Totally totally awesome.

A Backward-Looking Futurist

I've been kicking around some new career ideas lately, and a new one dawned on me. I think I should be a futurist. How does one go about becoming a Futurist? Actually, I don't care. Because I can plausibly guarantee you that my Futurist career is not going to extend beyond this blog post. But no matter.

Here's what I know about Futurism: (1) They have names like Alvin and Newt; (2) they think human remains should be shot into space rather than being buried here (my dad believes this, I think); (3) they think the Dow will hit 36,000 by the year 2007.

With that trusty data under my belt, I'd like to pitch my Futurism paradigm on you. But first we need to travel back in time, to 1989. I was a high sophomore, and my religion teacher was Sister Peggy. Sister Peggy was wise in many ways. Her prior gig had been as a chaplain at Rutgers and she admitted to keeping condoms in her sweater pockets to give to undergrads. This shocked the shit out of me in high school, but that's not the point of this story. Sister Peggy once said something along the lines of "In order for the Third World to become Second World, to First World must also become Second World." Her view of Christ ran along the same lines - that he didn't call on us to all become poverty-stricken beggars swearing off the pleasures of capitalism (or whatever gives us our pleasure), just that we all had to strive for some kind of equitable middle class for everyone. Her theories on this have knocked around in my head all these years, and I agree with them.

My Futurist theory is that Sister Peggy could be right, and that we could all gravitate towards a more equitable middle ground. And I think that the global climate crisis will facilitate it. I have read two articles in the past week about European towns who have shifted the use of their energy. Add it to Al Gore's challenge. Let me be totally pie-in-the-sky optimistic here and argue that, if we achieve this weaning, it could have dramatically positive effects on the economies of underdeveloped countries (in addition to the global benefits) because they can skip the nasty coal-burning industrial revolutions and move directly to cleaner, cheaper, more renewable resources. Jobs will be created, standards of living raised. While we in the US are powering down our voracious consumption, others can join the grid.

I recognize that I have some very cynical readers out there. And that its a stretch to convince y'all that going green is god's work, so I will lay off now. Plus, I have run out of Futuristic ideas for the moment.

Nana Shows How Its Done

If you read the comment to the prior post, you are probably worried that I might be in a whole heap of trouble with my mother-in-law. And I may be. But Nana's post points out exactly what's wrong with the Boomers in "Just Don't Call Me Granny". Most important difference: Nana is unashamed of being a grandmother, and she's a good one. She happens to go to hear bands on Saturday nights not because she is trying to capture her youth but because, well, she likes music, dancing and doesn't need to be in bed by 10 p.m. the way I do. Nana is NOT the problem.

Its not engaging in youthful activities that is annoying about Boomers, its when they pretend they have a monopoly on youth that is annoying. Another operative piece of Nana's comment is the fact that she works. Nana also owns property, makes prudent financial plans, and looks out for her offspring in very clearheaded ways. I.e., she's an adult. She doesn't smoke pot with her kids or divulge the details of her sex life. Thank God. But since my teen years, I have known parents who do those things, failing to understand the boundaries between their own youthful experiences and their children's lives. I can 100% guarantee you that our parents did not have friends who got high with their parents. Boundaries, people.

And now that we are older, they are also refusing to cede territory in the workplace and in politics. This was a bigger problem I had with Hillary and Bill than many other things. They could not grasp that they were not the Hot New Thing, and their sense of entitlement was totally galling. Anyway, that's just one example. As I said yesterday, I can't really pull all the strings together. But don't worry Nana, or Mom, you are NOT the problem. Actually, you might be the solution.

Trying to Get My Temper Under Control

There is one screed, one complaint, one rant, that I have in me that is so vitriolic that I dare not blog about it. It concerns the Babies of the Boom. Oh, how they annoy me. Not any one in particular, but the whole damn lot of them. Every few days, some toss-off article praises their adorable habits or condemns their voracious hunger for public welfare and my blood boils up. I try to formulate a pithy post that brings all my disparate responses together, and I can't. Its a strange area of writer's block. So instead, I will just present these items without comment, and maybe over time, you can see what my problem is.

Just Don't Call Me 'Granny'

And credit to the Oakland City Attorney John Russo (Thanks to A Better Oakland):

Baby Boom politicians have done a uniquely bad job of bringing along new talent. And there are a lot of theories around that. Is it because the Baby Boom generation, having grown up self-identified as the youth generation, cannot conceive outside of itself being the youthfulness, and therefore, doesn’t think of itself in a role as sort of wiser, older, mentoring younger people along and prefers to point the finger at younger people?

This quote is seemingly unrelated to the article above, but then again, it isn't. The refusal of some in the Baby Boomer generation to acknowledge their own aging (and subsequent inability to grow up) has an impact in many aspects of our lives, and we are grappling with that fallout on a daily basis on a national level and even on personal levels, when more senior employees refuse to share wisdom and cede responsibility to younger people, for example.

Awright, so I said I wouldn't comment. But I will return to this topic.

Banal Points, volume 254

Frank Sinatra:Mrs. Robinson::William Shatner:Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

No, seriously.

Sometimes I Hate the Bay Area

I was feeling so warm and fuzzy about the SF Firefighter, that when I saw the headline Newcomer sitting in a tree near Berkeley protest, I actually dared hope that the newcomer was a California condor, or at least a turkey vulture. But no, of course not.

And then, I got this comment on my old post about my former dentist:

anonymous said
What mean comments to say about a good dentist, Mr. Mckinzie.
One might think a certian person is angry because of all the lies.
Dr. Mckinzie is the best, his office staff is extremely nice, and attend to your every need.
I could not ask for a better dentist than Dr. Mckinzie patient.

It made me chuckle. Glad to know he's out there, trolling my blog.

Sometimes I Love the Bay Area

My glee at this takes me surprise. A San Francisco firefighter was snapped riding topless with Dykes on Bikes during Pride and it seems she might have been wearing her badge (a no-no) on her corset. This is the sort of thing that I would assume my reaction would be to be very annoyed, and scoff at the silliness of SF. Instead, I think its sort of awesome. I particularly love that the firefighter union president took it all in stride.

We were able to contact fire union boss John Hanley - up on the fire line in Butte County - who told us that while he hadn't seen the photos, "I'm sure it wasn't a Fire Department badge."

Just roll with it, baby. Since this is ostensibly a family blog (ha!), you can click here for a photo.

Truly Random Thoughts

Today's Most Unsettling Headline: Mukasey Pledges Vigilance on Elections. The dude is a scary Skeletor (okay, so its not exactly Separated At Birth) and the word "vigilance", in the wake of Mugabe's recent "get out the vote efforts", is not what you want to hear from one of Bush's henchmen.

In other news, I have nothing else to report in the way of random thoughts. What's on my mind lately is not random at all. In In increasing order of time spent thinking about each topic, I am preoccupied with:
1. what I should blog about;
2. my car;
3. the Presidential election;
4. my budget;
5. why we have no beer in the house other than Miller High Life and should I have a scotch instead?;
6. my job.

I have these things to say about these topics, respectively:
1. It's evident from this post that I have nothing to blog about.
2. My car is fine now.
3. I really don't have a big problem with Barack Obama's faith-based initiative stuff, and I will explain later why this is, and its not just because I am big sucka for everything BO does and says.
4. It continues to require my participation on the "income" side. As long as that happens, there is nothing to worry about.
5. It's left over from the NASCAR trip, and we ran out of drinkable beer, so yes, probably.
6. It breaks a rule of mine to blog about this topic.

Let me elaborate:
1. Yes, I do.

2. There's a pump that pumps coolant to the hybrid battery and it broke, but they replaced it so now the car won't think its overheating unless it actually is.

3. Obama's faith-based initiatives are not rooted, unlike Bush's, in a desire to end government and spread Christianity. I think he has very explicitly described why his plans do not infringe on separation of church and state, and I think he will be good about enforcing that (dare I say, he'll be vigilant?). The Saul Alinsky model of community organizing encourages the organizer to make coalitions with all willing allies, even if it's just issue-based. In Chicago, churches, mosques and synagogues play a prominent role in alliances for political change, social justice and social services. Obama's ideas grow out of that tradition, not out of the missionary tradition of the evangelical church that Bush paid lip service to. An important component of Obama's program is not that its faith-based, but that it wants to support community organizations. This leads to. . .

My second reason for being interested in his approach - and I will be referring to The Wire in a moment - is that the existing frameworks for delivering services and making social change either don't work anymore or never worked. In The Wire, Bunny Colvin helps implement this school-within-a-school at Tilghman Middle School, where they take the worst kids out of the classes and give them intensive instruction. It helps the wild kids and it helps the other kids to have the disruptive children out of the classroom. But when Bunny and the professor plan to go to the mayor to pitch it on a broader scale, they get shot down by the school district woman and left out in the cold by the mayor's staff, who file their report in the circular file cabinet. If small projects work, why not fund them and let them work? We don't need to make them national. They don't need to be made into their own bureaucracy. Just fund them and see how far they can get on their own steam. Contrast Bunny's project with the No Child Left Behind/teach to the test model implemented in the rest of Tilghman and you will see where the real progress happened. To be corny about it, maybe we don't need a social security blanket, we need a social security patchwork quilt.

6. Knight of Nothing recently asked, "Why do bloggers abandon a post?" It's a good question. (He also inspired me to write the above on Obama). In response, I articulated some rules I have about this blog:

The main reason I abandon a piece is that I have written something that violates a rule of mine, and I can't figure out how to say what I want to say without violating the rule. The rules are things like, speaking ill of someone who can be identified to others, talking about work, talking about my husband or kids in too much detail (so that they could be identified to a casual reader). I also abandon when I have forgotten my point or am failing to make one.

As you can see from the present post, I don't always abandon a post when I tread on a rule. Arguably, this post has violated nearly every rule I have, especially that last one.

Baffling Spam

At work, we have a spam filter on so I don’t have to see much spam. It’s very effective, so every few days I log on to make sure it hasn’t caught a personal email from a friend who for some reason might have sent me an email about Nigeria, Viagra, watches and stock tips. There’s usually nothing there. But lately there have been a lot of emails which have the subject “you look really stupid” or “what a stupid face you have here”. I have to admit, its pretty effective. I am dying to open one of these emails to see what it could possibly be about. So far, I have held off but if the taunting continues, I don’t know how long I will be able to hold out.

Update: Now all the spam is saying "alaiacon is a moron". How galling is that!?

Worth Mentioning

Bush has appointed the first female 4-star general, which I think is interesting. Since I went on a tirade last week about how I don't think it makes a big difference when women are in positions of high authority, I am not going to go all ga-ga, but I do think its worth mentioning as sort of cool.

This is totally unrelated: Has anyone else seen the new Cool Whip in a can commercial? It is virtually indistinguishable from a KY ad. They are straight pitching it as a sex aid. I guess its cool that they are exploiting its full market potential, but it sort of turns my stomach too.

In Case You Are Wondering

It would be rough on my family, with the rigors of the campaign and the possibility of moving to DC, but I am also willing to be Obama's VP, if asked.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Venture Near

Sometimes B will call on his way home from work and say, "How are the kids?" and I will say either, "They are great," or "The monkeys are flinging their poo." That makes the kids laugh hysterically and Q will say "poo" over and over again.

But I'm kidding when I say that. My children know better than to use their feces as a projectile. And - we've worked on this - biting isn't allowed either. But its uh-mazing the number of Trustafarian parents who don't teach their children these lessons. So then you have these problems:

BERKELEY — After tree sitters hurled buckets of human excrement at arborists who cut traverse lines and removed wooden platforms Tuesday, the raucous day came to a head when a tree sitter bit an arborist so hard he was sent to the hospital with an arm wound.

The biter goes by the name Millipede. This is unusual. According to experts at Texas A&M:

Millipedes do not bite; but when disturbed they can produce an irritating fluid (using repugnatorial glands opening at the base of the legs). This fluid can irritate eyes, blister the skin, produce an unpleasant odor and cause allergic reactions in venom sensitive people. Some species can squirt their fluids several inches.

That sounds about right. Enjoy lock-up, Millipede.

Summer of Love

I want to commemorate the momentous occasion of legal marriage for all that has arrived in California today by saying that not only does gay marriage not erode my own straight marriage, but it makes it stronger. I far prefer being part of an institution that is equal and non-discriminatory and my marriage is a better one because now more people can share and enjoy its gifts and responsibilities.

And in that vein, I hope y'all caught the Onion-esque article in the Times the other day: Gay Couples Find Marriage Is A Mixed Bag. Talk about articles that write themselves. I hope they follow it up with "Straight Couples Find Marriage Is A Salmagundi."

Some Final Notes on the Campaign, National Edition

Sami asks an intriguing question in a comment below. He asks whether any of these women exist, these women who purportedly will not vote for Obama because he beat Hillary and because of the sexism of the campaign, but will rather vote for McCain. Frank Rich argued in his column yesterday that these women do not exist. Or rather, that the Democrats need not fear that, by November, these women will not have come around. And I think he's right. The women who are fiercely loyal to Clinton are also fiercely loyal to reproductive rights, and feel strongly against the war and for the environment. So at the end of the day, they will vote for Obama or stay home. The stay-at-homes may, in the end, be a small enough part of the liberal base not to affect the election.

However, they are a very vocal minority. Today's example is the "outrage" over Obama hiring Patti Solis Doyle. The WaPo reports Clinton insiders feel "shock" and "a slap in the face" over this move, supposedly intended to signal that he will definitely not be considering Clinton for the veep slot. Last week, the NYT reported that Clinton donors are waiting-and-seeing, for I don't know what. (one commentator pointed out that as soon as the big donors realize that their precious dreamed-of ambassadorships are slipping way if they don't step up, they will get on board).

What do these things mean? It means that there is a group of Hillary supporters who cannot shake their sense of entitlement about Clinton's candidacy, and feel the need to vent it publicly in a way that can only be described, in a sexist way, as a hissy fit. (While the phrase hissy fits is "gendered", I don't think that the act of throwing these public tantrums are the sole terrain of the white women who support Hillary. But I will save my Baby Boomer rant for a separate post).

Let me back up a little here and tell you that last Friday, Mr. Scob and I saw Susan Estrich speak. Estrich is the author of a book The Case for Hillary Clinton (which is discounted at Amazon down to $7.99). Since Estrich herself was pretty indignant that the media had highlighted such petty details as Hillary's voice and style of dress, I won't describe hers, except to say that a) Jackie Mason called, and he wants his schtick back and b) she never met a Marlboro Light she didn't smoke, I think. Anyway. The woman is one of the most accomplished public intellectuals in the country and hinted ever so slightly that she actually has a more nuanced view of gender in America than she let on, BUT I completely disagreed with her on 96% of what she was talking about.

Specifically, she is still aggrieved by the fact that there are only a few Fortune 500 CEOs who are women, and that women are still a minority in the partnerships of major law firms, and there are only 12 female senators, and that worst of all, we still need to wait for a woman POTUS. This is all predicated on a belief that the world would be a more just, kinder, better run and more equitable place if women were in charge. I happen to not agree with that underlying assumption but putting it aside, since neither of us have been able to test our hypothesis, she is basically saying this: If only all of the people in charge had certain physical attributes, the world would be a better place. Sorry to be so dramatic, but how is this different from eugenics, or Nazi anti-semitism or any other racist system? I don't support the status quo, but I also don't see how gender characteristics alone will change society.

Of course, I am not sure that Susan Estrich or Hillary Clinton want to dramatically change society. They want to change the social order - so that women will have the power. But they don't want particularly to upend the hierarchical model. Estrich said something particularly telling (imagine this shouted through gravel): "Well, sure, it's all equal at the bottom!" Actually, its not. Its an intense pecking order "at the bottom", where everyone is trying to reassure themselves that they are not, in fact, at the bottom, by shitting on other people. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, are much more pronounced "at the bottom". It's "at the bottom" where you really feel what it means to make 63 female cents on the male-earned dollar.

And so yeah, Sam, I do think there are women who exist who think that somehow its more in their interest to either vote with the political elite or withhold their own power in protest against interests of others. Five months is a long time, of course, and by November these folks will remember what their broader values are, but they won't like it. This was supposed to be their election and now it isn't and they are going to pout.

The Water Shortage Has Not Hit This House

While East Bay MUD is talking water rationing, my kids have been on a bathing tear in all this heat. I am not sure why higher temperatures also necessitate wiping themselves all over with dirt and over-ripe fruit, but it does, and so they bathe.




And then there's the other one, who can't even make into the tub before he needs to get wet.

Good Reading

I present this without comment. Actually, no, I have to say "WOW."

Also in my wheelhouse tonight. Spot on.

My New BPN

I haven't really been keeping up on my scorn of Berkeley Parents Network lately, and I'm sorry for that. I haven't been reading the newsletters lately, plus, how many times can I read about whether its normal for 7-year-olds to be clairvoyant, babies to cry and husbands to secretly look at porn? Been there, done that.

My new Berkeley-esque guilty pleasure is Freecycle. With Freecycle, you give stuff away instead of throwing it in the trash. Logical, right? And for the most part (based on three days of membership) it involves IKEA lamps, packing peanuts and humidifiers. That is, people want to give those away or get them. But here's why I know I will like it. Today, one post was:

TAKEN: 80s R&B Cassettes
Bag full of cassettes, mostly 80s R&B like Bell Biv Devoe, New Edition, Boyz II Men, etc. Please send phone # to arrange pickup.

In other words, someone offered cassettes of BBD, New Edition, and Boyz II Men (yes, they are separate groups) for free, and someone else took them. Voila! How lovely is that!?

Time to Put Your Obama Pants On

I can't let all this spare energy go to waste. So some of you have probably already received a fundraising email from me for the Obama campaign. I promise I will only bug the shit out of you a little bit about this. The best way to silence my incessant nagging is to just go ahead and donate, and then I will leave the nagging to the Obama campaign. If you didn't get my email, visit my fundraising webpage, and donate, please.

There's something about the closure of the primary season that makes it feel like the election's over and Obama's our President. But that ain't the case, so get a good night sleep, and get back in the game. That's my plan.

THANKS.

And yes, I will occasionally try to return to my pithy, cynical non-political posts one of these days.

They Like Me, They Really Really . . .

My vote count is up to 5684. I don't know, I think that's cool. I am 600 votes behind the lowest vote-getting winner, and about 1300 votes above the next person behind me. So why am I clustered near the winners but the next person is so far behind? It raises questions about the value of endorsements and the effort those who endorse you put into your election. I got more endorsements than Janet Flint (the person next in order), and among a couple groups that did GOTV efforts. On the other hand, I got an endorsement from a group that did a mailer only, and while Janet didn't get that endorsement (due to somewhat confusing rules about when your questionnaire had to be turned in), I don't think the mailers had much to do with me getting more votes. Because our slate, of which Janet was a part, did a mailer to nearly 30,000 voters, plus we distributed another 8,000 by hand. All this elliptical thinking (which I am doing in my head and not in this post) suggest a couple campaign truisms:

1. Going door to door to door is the best way to win votes. This trumps mailers and endorsements, which (see below) reinforce the voter contact.
2. Otherwise, people need to see your name seven times to remember it well enough to vote for you.

Its all very interesting to me. Among other questions it raises, I wonder, how do political scientists dare call them scientists? There's basically no way to do a peer reviewed, double-blind election.

Novel Insults

A child at my son's preschool said to him today, in a taunting tone, "Your dad's name is Jeffrey and your mom's name is Benjamin." And than added, "FOKEY Benjamin!"

My vote tally has risen to 5324, although my position in the race is undisturbed.

Let the Changing Begin

In my fog about my own election (now Hillary can be my best girlfriend: "we lost elections together!"), I failed to properly acknowledge how incredible it is that Obama clinched the nomination. It matters.
One way it matters is that it has thrilled the Black and international communities, and already begun the process of racial healing that Obama talked about in his speech. These are, respectively, cultural and foreign policy shifts.

Today, Obama has caused a huge procedural shift as well. The New York Times has reported that, "the D.N.C. will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists or political action committees, which follows the rules he established for his own campaign last year." This is a dramatic change, and hopefully will spur other candidates to make the same rule change. Then the strings attached to political money will be voters' strings. I know that corporations and wealthy donors will still have the thicker strings, so to speak, but this is a good first step, and shows the ways that Obama understands how this tangled web works.

The Concession Post

Having noted below that there really isn't a forum for a concession, I realized I could just designate this as my forum and go ahead and concede, even though my opponents don't read my blog. Anyway, I am disappointed, and I didn't realize how disappointed until the day wore on.

First of all, as an effort of the Grassroots Progressives slate, the outcome was phenomenal. Karen Weinstein was re-elected with an unstoppable lead, and Ces Rosales and Edie Irons unseated two incumbents. Two of the other incumbents who were re-elected promised to work to increase the committee's activities in a slate platform that was very similar to ours. Now there is a set of priorities they can be held to in the next election, which hasn't happened before. The final committee member who was re-elected has been on the committee close to one million years, and she came in fourth, rather than first. Other great outcomes: we all know more about political campaigns than we ever did before, and we met great people, including each other.

For me, I didn't come in last, or even second from last. I feel like I got a respectable number of votes. I got 4527 votes. Just for comparison, Jody London, who won the school board seat from our district, got 5707 votes to win. Granted, its a smaller area she was running in, but I still got a lot of votes. Tony Thurmond, who was endorsed for the Assembly by every major paper in the Bay Area got 4345 votes, and Nancy Skinner, who won that race, got 10904 votes. That's just more than twice what I got. So we ran a competitive race and did a good job, and we will all do better in our future races.

That's my silver lining speech.

On the personal note, I had a terrible hearing today. It was the third day of this public hearing on a single job classification. It has been long, boring and contentious. Today one of the commissioners recused himself after yelling at the employer's witness. He was furious at what he perceived to be her mismanagement and disrespectful attitude towards the people in his region. He was right. I was very sorry to lose him from the process and it set in motion a huge set of hassles that were demonstrative of the backasswardedness of the public sector. Truly Kafkaesque. Then the employer's attorney made a veiled threat about actions that might be taken against a witness, and I sort of lost my shit. Fortunately, we weren't in the presence of the commissioners, but wow, it shook me up. I was really upset and angry for the mercifully short rest of the day.

Where am I going with this? Well, what I realized on my way home from the hearing was just how disappointed I was not to have been elected. I was looking forward to all the new opportunities for change in this system, and in my own life. I guess I could be thankful that I am being spared from another bureaucratic nightmare (as I understand the Central Committee occasionally can be). But I loved running for office and fantasizing about all the interesting ways that the local party could be better, and its a let-down to not even have those to conjure. The stupidity of this hearing made me want to do more and feel sad that I won't have this opportunity this time.

Check Yourself

If you go to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters website, you can watch results yourself. Its the Central Committee race for the 14th Assembly District.

Update #53 or whatever

Turns out that there is not a forum for a concession speech in the race for Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, which is sort of bummy. There aren't any new results buit its late and I have a hearing tomorrow. I will post a link for the results when I can.

Update - what? #6?

58 percent reporting and no movement. My slate mates (the 3 who are winning) are trying to be reassuring but I doubt I am going to leapfrog 3 other candidates including two of my slate people. "People of the Slate". Does that sound like a modern "Clan of the Cave Bear"?

There is a political consultant talking about about one of the assembly candidates and he said, "the guy couldn't put the odd in his back pocket." funny.ish. The candidate had a pager, not a cell phone. That wasn't the only example of his oddity, just the only I think I can tell.

Nothing new

But some observations:
1. the precincts we walked haven't reported.
2. Hanging out with political addicts is way cooler than watching results come in alone, because you can speculate wildly over dozens of races instead of just one or 2.
3. When you say you don't take it personally, you can't take it personally.

Update #4

22% reporting and I haven't budged from my spot. Quell annoying.

Update #3

9 precincts reporting and the positions haven't changed. I am 400 votes from being a contender. I feel like Joe Lieberman in New Hampshire in 2003.

Fuckin' nuffin'

Still no new results.

Update #1

Nothing has changed on the count but now "our campaign manager" has decided to dissect the existing results like they're biblical. Not helpful.

Live Bloggin' Election Results

The first results have been posted and with 0.0% precincts reporting, I am not in the top 6. Three of my slate mates are though, soooo, that's good. I am going to pretend like I know something and say that its the mail ballots that came back before our mailer went out. Still, I am vaguely bummed.

Some Final Notes on the Campaign

The election is on Tuesday (that's June 3) and I am not sure there is a lot more that I can do at this point to win it. I raised nearly $5000, and with my slate, mailed 30,000 fliers to voters. We had over 30 volunteers and walked almost every precinct in our assembly district. Tomorrow and Tuesday, we will be out at BART stations handing out more fliers. Others on my slate have been phoning voters to introduce themselves. I have gained a lot of insight into the political process, which, as a blogger, I will now share:

How to read campaign literature: We have been completely inundated with campaign literature in our house because there are competitive state assembly, state senate and city council races. It might be annoying but it is the only way candidates in these races can get information to voters. There is certainly no TV coverage, and very little newspaper coverage, of these races. So although these folks share largely similar political goals, their methods and messages are very different. I am much more "friendly" towards these mailers than I have been in the past for that reason. You also need to see who, in fact, paid for the mailers. If its not from the candidate, then ask why this organization might favor the candidate rather than another. And although the mailers all seem to say the same thing, they don't really.

All this dawned on me because of an unpleasant interaction I had with a voter while I was precinct walking yesterday. He refused to take my flier because, "I don't read biased campaign literature. have my own source for information." When I pointed out that I was a candidate and he could just ask me directly about what I planned to do, he smiled coldly and walked away. It creeped me out and made me angry. People form opinions based on word-of-mouth rather than by having even the slightest curiosity about the facts. It's messed up. It's just like my earlier posts about Obama and labor. Many folks in Labor were against Obama without even trying to determine what his actual record or proposed policies were. And that's minor compared with rumors about him being Muslim.

Campaigning matters: Despite the word-of-mouth, or maybe because of it, campaigning matters. Only a few of the incumbents on the Democratic Central Committee have done any campaigning, and much of that seems too little, too late. The people we talk to are happy to learn a name they can vote for, and agree that new blood is needed. When asked, folks agree to share our fliers with other voters in their homes or with their friends. In other races, a lot of candidates are going door-to-door. Take advantage of that if they come to your house, and ask them whatever you want to know.

People are incredibly patient, generous and friendly: This is not a point I would have believed before I started this. And by "People", I largely mean my friends, but also my neighbors and the complete strangers whose lives I have interrupted.

I will maybe live-blog the results, which will be posted on-line as they are tallied on Tuesday night. Thanks again for caring.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

This morning at the airplane museum, Li told me that one plane that was in pieces in the corner of the yard was a "urine-peein'" plane.

I Wish They Would Poll Me

Qua White Woman, I am not "cold towards Obama". When.Will.This.End?

A Lot of New Shit Has Come to Light

A friend from high school sent me a distressed email about my assertion that one of two brothers we had known back then had killed himself or died or something (this is in re Skill Crane). I think I was wrong, and so I need to correct the record. I don't think either of those brothers is dead. One seems to teach at the University of Kansas, and I can't really discern what the older one is doing, based on his MySpace page, but he certainly does seem to be alive. Which raises the question, why was I crying about Skill Crane at the Bridgeport Diner with Radioboy back in 1998? It makes no sense AT ALL.

In other news, me and Junior were looking out the front window last night, and this lanky art student dude walked by, and Li says: "Is he a stranger?"
Me: Yes
L: Is he a good stranger or bad stranger?
Me: I don't know but since he's a stranger, we don't talk to him, right? You don't know if a stranger is good or bad so you just don't talk to them, do you understand?
Li: I think he's a BAD stranger. (he said with a growl)
Me: What are the only strangers you can talk to? (the correct answer here is "Helpers", per Mr. Rogers)

Without missing a beat, Li says, "Shia LaBeouf" and then falls out laughing.

Again, it makes no sense at all.

Good Luck, But Not Good Bye

If you haven't already read Ryan's blog, please go over and check it out. He's just posted his last post. He is an amazing guy, and a hero of mine. I don't have (much) weight to lose, but I have other overwhelming goals and he really makes me feel like I can tackle them.

And Another

While I am letting other people's videos stand in for my own wit, here's a good one:

San Francisco Values

hahahahaha (wipes tear out of eye). This is awesome:

I Am En Fuego Today, at least on my blog

That last post concerns a near-spontaneous cuddle party style work site. Does work get accomplished? Now go and see for yourself.

Or check out the Vice Presidential Prognisticatin'. Funny.

Here's an Idea

What do you think about this? Jelly.

And Speaking of Bug Out Society

While we are on the topic, and god bless YouTube, here's another BOS video from my NJ yout.

For the Record

I don't hate Skill Cranes. I think I must have been very drunk that night at the diner in Bridgeport where I waxed hysterical about the kid I knew from high school who died. How sad and messed up that I can't even remember the kid's name. It was either Bill or Bob. They were brothers who skateboarded with a high school boyfriend, and one of them died. ANYWAY, the connection to Skill Crane comes from this Bug Out Society video that the brothers loved.

Yup, I Still Hate Theater

As part of our Arts Trek: NYC Edition, B and I went to see August: Osage County on Saturday night. The reviews for this play were so over-the-top (for example) that I thought it could be the one to turn me around on not liking plays. Not so. Here's what I didn't like about it, and why it supports my generally dim view of plays.

1. The acting, while better than most plays, is broad and exaggerated. Acting in a theater calls for techniques that enable every person in the audience to understand the gestures and dialogue on the stage. But sweeping movements and Keystone Kops antics, along with shouted sotto voce remarks, are totally unnatural. This makes even likable characters and good actors unbelievable.

2. The show was long. Three hours and 20 minutes. It moved surprisingly quickly, for the length, but still felt to me as though the playwright was self-indulgent. There were too many plot quirks thrown in, and it came off feeling like secondhand Faulkner or Tennessee Williams crossed with One Life to Live: Osage County.

3. There was a mythical Native American character, Johna. It's baffling to me why she isn't referred to in the NY Times review. Her presence in the show is beyond irritating and offensive. She is intended to be the soul bearer of the father, and she is as pure and righteous as a Dime Store Indian. There are two minor points in the play that are intended to diffuse the obnoxious stereotyping but I didn't think they were effective in the face of Johna's inexplicable goodness and fortitude. Why would she continue to work for these people? Which leads to my next complaint about plays: They traffic in Big Ideas. The medium doesn't do the ideas justice, however, so instead they seem like childish points to score extra credit on a philosophy exam.

4. The audience REALLY annoyed me. They laughed far louder than the jokes warranted, and were far more invested in the characters than they probably are in their own families. At the end the second act, when the oldest daughter yells, "I'M IN CHARGE NOW!", a man actually yelled, "YEAHHH!!" I hated them all except the guy sitting next to me.

So why is this play nominated for 8 Tony's? Here's my guess for the categories in which it was nominated:

• Tallest Set
• Most Number of Drunk Characters in a Drama
• Slyest Reference to a Taboo Sex Act
• Most Overbearing Mother Character
• Best Representation of Academics in a Drama
• Most Boring Wardrobe
• Most Inexplicable Use of Eric Clapton as a Plot Device
• Most Sheeplike Audience

Why I Hate the Things I Hate

UPDATED at 11:44 a.m. (I KNEW I could count on Ella to help me out here)

BD and I are going to NYC this weekend, and he wants to take in a play (I hear that’s what you do when you go to a play – you “take it in”), and that got my thinking about how much I hate plays. And then my cousin mentioned that he knew I hate plaintiffs’ attorneys (which I don’t), and I thought: There’s a lot of misinformation out there about what I hate and why. This calls for a blog post.

1. Theater – Its true; I hate Theater. This is based on my dual aversions to strong emotions and bad acting. I am not crazy about Art Films for the same reason. Mind you, I am not a stoic. I feel emotions very strongly. Plus I am the Queen of Willing Suspension of Disbelief, which means I feel strong emotions very easily. But afterwards, after I have cried and feel all emotionally wrung out, I feel used and a little dirty. For example, I cried through all of Little Man Tate. I just felt like an ass after that. Really? Little Man Tate? I feel like a cry-whore just remembering it. Okay, so that’s not Theater, and its not Art Film, so my point isn’t being made very well. BUT. My first roommate in college starred in a production of Agnes of God, which was both Theater and Art Film, and I felt like crap after watching it. Big Themes, Moving Story, Heartfelt Performances. Yuck.
2. Soup – I have a love/hate relationship with soup. I will eat soup and often think that a specific soup tastes good. But I don’t think soup is a meal and it annoys me when people treat it like a meal. I do hate cold soup. Just the word Gazpacho makes me feel a little sick to my stomach. On the other hand, I like the soup party. A part of me wishes that we had an annual pulled pork party instead, but you take your husband for richer and for poorer, for soup and for pork.
   
3. Sandwiches – This is a corollary hatred. I don’t think sandwiches are a meal. I also think they have too much bread (no matter how little bread they have). That said, I eat sandwiches almost every day, because even the popularity of the Atkins diet has not convinced me that its acceptable to eat just salami and cheese right off your lap with your fingers.
4. Burning Man
5. Berkeley - there are too many posts to even add one single link here. If you need evidence, just look there to the right and read the categories Bay Area, things that annoy me, and BPN. Smile Rockridge might have some material on this particular hatred, but it would be a more general dislike of things that are Berkeley-esque, as opposed to be specifically about Berkeley.
   
6. Baby Boomers
7. Sideways
8. Chinese Food: Its not Asian food that I hate, its Chinese food. Because I love Japanese and Indian, and occasionally crave Thai. I am not crazy about Korean food, but the issue just doesn't come up that much. But Chinese food is shorthand for "don't feel like cooking, don't feel like eating out", and it almost universally has too much sauce on it. Goopy sauce. Dare I say, it's soupy sauce. Also, my mom dated a Chinese man for several years and I ate a lot of Chinese food during that period and I feel like I had my lifetime supply already.
   
9. Short Stories: Yeah, its true. I think that this is due in part to the Theater/Art Film phenom, which is that short stories are intended to Make a Point, usually by being shocking or sad. When they are funny, they are essays, not short stories (see David Sedaris and Ian Frazier, both of whom I like). I like long books, because if you see something sad coming, you can either put the book down for a little while until you are ready to deal with it, or the book keeps going after that, so you know that not everyone will be dead at the end.
   

The Occasional Grab Bag

Its been hard to blog lately, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I am obsessed with politics, both national and my own local race, and since I can't gauge the enthusiasm of my readership for this topic (I think that pork roll got more love), I don't want to bore you to death. For next, I have been spending a lot of time in the car, and in anticipation of the coming illegalization of driving with a cell phone, or whatever, I am trying not to type and drive at the same time. Trying is the operative word but by July 1, I hope to be weaned from this nasty habit. Other reasons: the kids are less adorable now that they talk back; work is boring (there, I said it): no one has tried to unload clarinet instructions in months and the Afghan for Afghans plan is so far advanced, I can't make fun of it for fear of offending every last person I work with. The Wire has been off the air for months. Nelson Marans has been having some trouble getting published.

So what does that leave me?

1. Well, there's a new baby giraffe at the Oakland Zoo which, at least in the photos, is freaking adorable.

2. My older child now says things like, "If the astronauts want to travel to a new place, Mars is their best bet", " If we kill all the fish, it will hurt the planet", and "What's Buffalo Soldier?" This is a lot of stuff to answer to, and that was all basically in the 20 minutes before dinner tonight. Junior Jr. also has a lot of say, but it's in Spanglish, so we are still in the new exchange-student phase of communication: lots of smiling, nodding, waving of hands, and proclamations of joy when we understand one another. Then we repeat the understood phrase back to one another for a few minutes and all share a good laugh over it.

3. Michelle Obama lists Sudoku as an interest on her Facebook profile.

4. Our slate mailer went out on Friday and it looks great. I have gotten over 96,000 Google adword impressions and its only cost like $16. (In other words, if you live in my area and do a search for certain keywords, an ad promoting my candidacy will pop up).

4. We had 25 people distributing flyers on doorsteps on Saturday and "dropped" over 2000 flyers. Remember, only about 50% of people who will vote in June will even vote in this race. I really just need people to see my overlong name a couple times and then they will vote for me out of pure "that is a long-ass name" psychology. (That's an actual term of political science art, just ask Gov. Schwartzenegger)

5. I went to Redwood City today and gas was $4.49 a gallon. Holy crap.

A Disquisition on the Influence of Children's Media

Li is really interested in the Dino Attack video game on the Lego website, which has caused me to wonder what effect the stuff he sees has on his behavior and his values. Will be violently stalk the broken streets of an abandoned subdivision, gunning down crazed velociraptors? Who knows what the future brings.

But then I started thinking about the Scooby Doo Factor. Much ado is made about the effect of media on children. But I would wager that no crime has ever been committed that entails a spry but elderly man who pretends to be a ghost, a Yeti, a "carnival creeper", or a "seaside slimer" in order to lay claim to the secret treasure of a sprawling estate or Demon Island.

Make of that what you will.

On the other hand, Scooby Doo did inspire someone to do this here cross-stitch. No, I'm not kidding.

Shout Out

Maybe the best part about the tense vote reports from Lake County has been getting to know the various mayors of the region. In particular, I want to give a big round of applause to Gary Mayor Rudy Clay for having the best facial hair of the campaign. I want this man's portrait in the National Gallery.

This Is Why Obama Is Running for President and I'm Not

Obama's response to Carville.

Total Gross-out

James Carville makes me want to barf.

So now I have to imagine HRC with three testicles?

When will this end?

A Little Low-end Political Commentary

I watched Obama on Tim Russert* this morning. Russert tried to redeem his obscene debate performance by asking the same questions he asked last week all over again, as if to legitimize them. Shut. Up. Tim. Russert.
And I was annoyed that Obama didn't just say, in response to one of the several Jeremiah Wright questions, "Tim, I think the American people are more interested at this point in hearing how I will end our dependence onoil from the middle east." After 20 minutes of that redundant bullshit, why didn't he just answer the questions he wants to answer and ignore Russert?

*its hard not type Russet, especially because of the resemblance he has to the potato. And I am not just saying that because its the cattiest thing I can think of; its also true.

Now I Remember

We see Juno the other night, which I thought was funnyish and cute, mostly because I could watch Michael Cera paint the house. Not because he's hot; he just cracks me up. Anyway, on my drive to Ukiah last night, I figured out what annoyed me about it. Basically, its this: there is no relationship between the soundtrack amd the main character. Normally this doesn't matter too much in the movie. In this case, Juno is an Iggy Pop/Mott the Hoople fan. But she hates Sonic Youth and sings Moldy Peaches. The soundtrack is so twee that twee thinks its too twee. Iggy Pop would vomit on this soundtrack, even today in his geriatric state. I like the soundtrack but its annoying.

A Smattering of Random Thoughts From Ukiah

Why couldn't the good people of early Northern California come up with more diverse names for their towns? There is Ukiah, Eureka and Yreka (home to Robert Trebor's Yreka Bakery). There's Geyserville and Garberville. And then there's Weed. Regardless, its pretty beautiful here if you don't look too closely at the inhabited areas.

Oh man, I had some other stuff I wanted to talk about but now its gone from my mind. Sheesh. Getting old is a bitch.

'Nother Grab Bag

I think this may be the most irritating campaign ad I have ever seen:



In other news, a guy I once knew in college is now on trial for stalking Uma Thurman. Not a move I would have predicted he'd make.

My car died going over the Altamont Pass yesterday, so that was terrifying.

Lowering the Temperature A Bit

I have deleted my overly-vituperative reply to Western Swing's comments in the post below because I have learned Western Swing's identity, and its a person for whom I feel some affection and good will. I have on decent authority that WS no longer goes to Jimmy's to hate on Bafflerites. So, welcome to St. Scobie's. I still don't totally grok your arguments, but that's been true for, what, 15 years now?

Let's Summarize

I've got a doubter down in the comments below. So let's see how often Obama has been linked to Tom Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas?, shall we?

There's Marc Ambinder, Protein Wisdom, The American Prospect, and that's definitely Dan Schnur making a clucking sound over at the New York Times. Oh, and Slate in a column literally called Chatterbox (which sounds a lot like a place where clucking happens) has the headline Thomas Frank Speaks. Which is a little over-the-top for a title, and admittedly after the fact of Tom's own WSJ column. But it certainly suggests that Slate's been waiting for Tom to weigh in on the matter over which so much pundit sweat has been shed. (As an aside, does Tom distill the sweat of these pundits for his own men's fragrance line?)

Anyway, it only does take a Google search, Western Swing, to determine that the chattering classes have been linking Obama's remarks to Frank's book.

Grab Bag

First of, Tom Frank has a good op-ed in the WSJ today. TF will be a regular columnist at that occasionally esteemed media outlet.

In head-scratching news, I went into the kitchen in the office today and there were 4 giant fennel bulbs and two wilted heads of lettuce on the table. Who really knows what is going on here.

Today's Events

Today, Mr. Scob and I are mock-deposing journalism students for a Journalism and Legal Ethics class. Yeah, they really teach it. Hard to believe, huh? It will be fun to see B in deposition action and vice versa, no doubt.

That's really all that's happening today.

For a giggle, check out Younger Than McCain.

Dispatches From the Frontlines of the Acapella War

In a courtroom near you, drama is unfolding about the steamy underbelly of San Francisco's a capella gangs. The Chronicle reports that last year's New Year's melee between Yale males and Sacred Heart thugs was sparked by a stolen . . . kiss. And a can of beer.

Classic stuff really. Who among us has not been in a brawl over these archetypical prizes of young manhood?

So then why the hell does this get several inches of coverage in a major American newspaper?

Would that all the Chron had to cover was Do you wanna take this outside? 3 O'Clock High b-s. I cannot believe what passes for news in this country.

*500* It Seems Fitting

It seems so right that a landmark post like number five-hundred would be about nothing much at all, and The Wire.

Here's an interview with David Simon where he talks about a few story arcs he left out of the last episode. I only point it out to note that Mr. Scobie said early in Season 4 that Cheese was probably Randy's father. I am glad that we were spared learning more about that.

Also, there's news floating out there that Joe Lieberman is going to pull a Zell Miller and speak at the Republican National Convention. Some say that this will help McCain with independents and moderates, who are looking to see if McCain can really "cross the aisle". I think the pundits and the Republicans have their heads up their butts if they think anyone gives a sh** what Lieberman has to say.

499 - If I Can't Make It In Politics

I have an idea for a comedy sketch, and I don't want any of you stealing it and passing it off as your own.

Imagine the hills of Montana in the dawn light. A woman on a horse with a cigarette in her mouth and a Golden Retriever at the feet of the horse is gazing into the distance in the mid-ground of the shot. The title appears: "The Whisperer Whisperer". The woman rides her horse back to her ranch, where a pick-up truck is pulling up and stops quickly. A short man jumps out; he's followed by a German Shepherd, who abruptly falls to the ground in a slouch.

Man: "I've lost it! (sobs) He won't listen to me. He just goes slack. No sitting, no fetching, no rolling over. We have to shoot a special on training police dogs in an hour and he won't even sniff a lady dog!"

The woman dismounts, puts her hand on the man's shoulder, and leans toward him. She says something inaudible in his ear, and the man's head drops. He nods. He puts his hand on hers, says, "Thank you, Caitlin." A tear drops from his eye. He wipes it away, snaps his finger at the door, growls something in German. The dog sits up, cocks his head and jumps in the truck. The man follows without saying goodbye, and you see them drive off with the dog sitting proudly in the front seat looking at the window.

The woman shakes her head. She throws her reins over the saddle, but before she can lead the horse into the barn, Robert Redford drives up. He unleashes a tirade about the Sundance Festival, sell-outs, bad botox. The woman looks confused, then nods. She looks off toward the mountains, and gives Redford a cigarette. He calms, and waits. She leans into his car, puts her finger under his chin, looks in his eyes, and says, "You know what needs to be done". Redford squints, and says, "Yeah, I do." With a deep inhale, he thanks her and goes.

Credits rolls and then "Next on: The Whisperer Whisperer"

Cut to her sitting on her porch, when a man in a lab coat drives up. It's the Baby Whisperer. They'd had a falling out years ago; she can't believe he's come back. He strides over and hands her a medical file as though he came all the time. She brushes away his pride with a glance. He drops his head. She thumbs through the folder and says, "This is no different from the kid back in 1991. You got through that; you'll get through this without me."

"No I can't," the doctor says, "this one is, well . . . It's his parents. They're beyond me." She nods, lights a cigarette.

"Consider this," she says, leaning forward in her seat towards him. They put their heads together and the man nods slowly several times. Fade out.

Post 498 - Wierd Politics Edition

Here are some wierd things that have happened as a result of getting involved directly in politics:

1. I was friended on Facebook by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who seems to actually update her own profile on a fairly regular basis. I think its probably her because there's a lot of stuff about her gardening hobby, and also her thoughts on new voter registration forms.

2. My efforts to use the hometown, labor-friendly bank for my campaign account are making me long for the pleasures of impersonal online banking with a multinational corporation. It takes so damn long to do everything when there is (1) only one branch, (2) no ATMs, (3) no debit cards and (4) an online interface that only offers your balance. I actually had to get my online password by emailing a woman named Lori. Its killing me over here.

3. I've learned that everything is political. And that you can't be thin-skinned or else you will die of the paranoia.

Countdown (up?) to 500

This is my 497th blog post. I have a couple of things to write about, and I was tempted to do one post per thought to hit 5 hondo today, but I think it should come more naturally than that.

Hunter has a good essay at DailyKos about the stoopid media coverage of the Campaign for First Buddy. You may recall that I ranted many months ago about how annoying I found Clinton's push to become the Girlfriend in Chief. Obviously, she went with Grizzled Political Combat Veteran instead, but it ain't working out so well. I wonder what could have been, if she'd just gone shoe shopping with every woman in America instead . . .

Does anyone know if there is any danger to being addicted to milk? Because both of my kids are each drinking a ton of milk these days. At all hours, they wake to yell "milk!" or "baa-baa!", depending on their linguistic skill level. I fear that calcium tablets will form in their stomachs, obstructing the way for food.

I am so busy that I can't really even get anything done. That may bode well for the blog. We'll see.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Today was the day when Democrats could elect delegates to the Democratic National Convention. I was on the ballot in the 9th Congressional District (Barbara Lee Speaks for Me!) along with 100 other people, for 4 delegate spots and 1 alternate spot. The odds are not good that I won. Still, it was a really fun and inspiring time. The caucus was held at a black church at 39th and Telegraph (Hillary's was held at Mills College), and there were literally thousands of people there to vote. The line snaked through the church parking lot and down the street for a block for over an hour. I don't even know how many people left because they were overwhelmed by the turnout. But the people who stayed were in a great mood, just talking and being hot and sweaty. Most people were willing to listen to my campaign spiel, even if it was in a daze of dehydration and am I really just standing on Telegraph Ave for 2 hours?

The inspirational part was the diversity of the crowd. Not token-ish diversity, but real diversity. Young and old, Black, white, Asian, men, women, gays and lesbians holding hands. Kids (mostly mine) running around. A woman showed me a new way to tie Qu's shoes. A man fell over and 8 people rushed to help. People weren't even jostling each other or pissed if people cut the line. There was plenty of room and a sense of "we'll get there eventually" that kept people sane. Very cool. NBC11 has this video of the crowd.

Obviously if I win I will be crowing about it here, but I'm not holding my breath. Still I am glad I participated. Although I really don't know what to do with this overabundance of warm fuzzy uncynicism.

Lucky Me

Do you ever hope to see someone famous?

And then, you know how sometimes you are in the grocery store or in line at the ATM and you see someone who is so ugly and dressed like such a mess it could only be Donatella Versace? Well, that happened to me today.

Only since I was in Lucky's in Alameda, I strongly suspect it wasn't really her, sadly.

Congratulations

My sister won the St. Scobie’s Mock Brackets Tournament, beating out a Zag grad AND a Duke grad. I think maybe *certain* people let their emotional feelings usurp their better judgment during the tourney pick process. Oh, well, that just means those of us who don’t give a rat’s ass do a lot better. On the other hand, another contender appears to pick the lower ranking team every single time. This equally emotional calculus (her love of the underdog) also serves the Laiacona sisters well. Better luck next year, suckas!

 

For Your Reading Pleasure

I Dream of Barack

Which reminds me. I once had a dream that I was having a dinner party, and JFB was there, and I brought out an old 7-inch I had of his hardcore band playing Happy Birthday b/w a spoken word piece by Obama. He got mad that I showed it to everyone at the party and we all laughed and laughed.

The Last Straw

Hey hey! My girl K was the straw that broke the camel's (well, Mark Penn's) back. Her tip to Sneed finally opened Hillary's eyes to what a liability the pollster really is. Forget Colombia! Try the beef brisket po' boy. . .and some Old Spice, Mark. For those of you who don't want to jump the link:

Poison Penn?

Hill swill: Embattled Dem presidential contender Hillary Clinton's political strategist, Mark Penn, was spotted eating lunch alone Thursday at the original Heaven on Seven eatery.

• • The stats: Penn reportedly sat in a corner "eating what looked to be a beef brisket Po' boy, guzzling coffee and reading a disheveled Sun-Times," said a Sneed source. "And sweating," added the source. Hey, elections are the ultimate workout.

What We Did

Ten days may be a wee too long to spend in Williamsburg Virginia when you don't intend to pay to take the full-blown Colonial Tour. The kids had a great time, and it was nice to spend time with my family. It was basically the Tour of Lesser Attractions. The "pirate ships" at the Jamestown Settlement, the Living Museum, the Portsmouth Children's Museum, the Hampton Naval Museum (free!), the USS Wisconsin (also free!), Prime Outlets coming out the wazoo and the various municipal parks of James City County. All of them deserve a B+ for fun. The highlight for me was the "adventure" Liam and I had "exploring" the swamp behind my mom's house. Freshwater clams and rotted stills abound.

The only attraction I am sorry we missed is the much-hated Presidents' Park. Much-hated by the residents of Billsburg, is what I mean. I am sure hipsters and ironic-iphiliacs will love the place. This dude thought the world needed gigantic busts of all the presidents but the good citizens of Williamsburg most assuredly disagree. Its the sort of thing you just don't do. Colonial Williamsburg (tm) sued the guy to stop him, but he shrewedly built on county land, so they can't touch him. I love when cases get resolved on jurisdictional grounds.

What Did I Missed While I Was Away?

The preliminary answer to that question is, not much. Our block did have its first Neighborhood Watch meeting while I was away, but I am not sure I would have attended that if I was here. The post-meeting email to the rest of the block did contain this advice, in the context of areas of concern:

Gas. I would also expect an increase in people siphoning gasoline from our cars as the price of fuel continually rises.

Really? I was skeptical, so I did a Google News search on this topic. It does appear to be a problem in York County, SC. How about here in CA? So far, its just a problem in Modesto. But Mo' is like the meth capital of the Central Valley, so it probably has some industrial use and isn't actually a widespread problem.

Here on Thomas Avenue, there don't appear to be any meth labs (knock wood), and the houses are literally less than 10 feet apart, and there are lots of them. It seems to me gas siphoning takes more than a few seconds, and requires some dubious, not to mention obvious, acrobatics to get it done. I promise that if I see anyone with a funnel and tubing and their car backed up to another, I will call the police. Til then, I am seriously not going to worry about this problem.

This reminds me of a joke that I knew when I was young. I left one part blank because I have heard at least three iterations of the joke, referring to different ethnicities.

Did you hear about the _______ who tried to blow up a car? He burned his lips on the tail pipe.

Funny stuff.

Finally, Some Information

Blogging from the 'berry, so no links. Plus, i am in VA so barely any source material or inclination to sit at a computer. But the big news is that my slate has its site up. www.grassrootsprogressives.org. Content is forthcoming, as are the fundraising appeals.

At Least One Person Thinks He's Funny

(Shaking My Head)

Today's Stuff White People Like concerns San Francisco. So accurate that I can't really even laugh.

Where have I been, you wonder? Most recently, like all weekend, we've been easter egg hunting. L had so much sugar this morning that at one point he clutched his heart and said it hurt. It was pounding terrible hard. Now that The Big Case has wound down, B is El Futzo, and so new plants have been planted, lists have been made, skis have been loaded into the car, and the guys are off for the mountains. And by guys, I mean B and L. Qu and I are going to stay close to home, maybe go out to dinner tonight alone.

Aside from work, I am actually ramping up on this wierd campaign I'm on. Once we (my slate) get our website up, I will blog more about it, but for now, its all too ephemeral to even talk about.

Grossed Out

There's an "ad" on NPR promoting a movie that "proves that the love between a mother and son knows no bounds." (a) that's gross; there are bounds to that love, I hope. (b) how could a movie "prove" that?

Live Blogging From The Deep South

I am here in Oxford with Mr. Scobs, and let me just say, the South is a lot prettier in my memories.

And that's all I am going to say for now.

St. Scobie's Mock Brackets

It's that time of the year again! No, not the Leprechaun Hunt. That's illegal now. It's brackets time. And I don't mean Wire brackets. College basketball brackets. I even invited EOH so he can scorn this process in another forum. And yes, I agree, it's terrible and exploitative. But it kills some time. To join, click HERE.

Hillary Flick

Enjoy:

The Silence That Speaks Volumes

Maybe I just haven't been playing close enough attention (but that's unlikely, since I am obsessed), but there has been one Hillary Clinton "surrogate" who has been remarkably quiet about the Senator's foreign policy experience, and that's Bill Clinton. Since she allegedly garnered all this expertise as the First Lady, don't you think Bill would be the person in the best position to describe the responsibilities he gave her, and the trust he put in her counsel on foreign policy matters? But we haven't heard a word from him, and it isn't just because he's being kept under lock and key.

The pundits are all saying that the Spitzer "situation" shines a harsh light on the skeletons in Bill's closet, but it made me think one other thing. If Hill was hanging out in the Oval Office all the time acting as co-President, wouldn't she have noticed Monica Lewinsky skulking around? Yeah, I don't think so either.

Bill Bradley - Wire fan

Clearly, Bill Bradley is a fan of The Wire. From Political Wire:

"The bigger the lie, the better the chance they think they’ve got. That’s been their whole approach."-- Former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ), quoted by the Times of London, on Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

I Direct Your Attention

The first letter in the Science Times is written by the indefatiguable Nelson Marans, God bless him.

Some Changes

No one commented on the name changes. I tried to shake it up, but alas, no one cared. It's just St. Scobie's to you.

I added FreeRice in the Links. Addictive for nerdy do-gooders, I promise.

And some changes to contemplate: I made it onto the June 3 ballot to run for Democratic Party Central Committee. Will my political career spell the end of my freewheeling blogging? Will you have to attend committee meetings at the Fremont Library the first Wednesday night of every month to hear my bon mots and droll criticisms? I just don't know. I think it probably depends on if I win. If you live in or near my county, expect to receive an email soon asking for support of the Vote For Me type.

The Wire Finale

In deference to T&A, there are spoilers in this post. So don't read it if you are worried you might learn something you don't want to know.

I must say, last night's episode of The Wire, an hour-an-a-half series finale, was so great, so satisfying, so happy-making, that its hard to even feel sad about the end of the series.

But before I get into it, I want to revisit my predictions:

1. Michael will kill Omar. I didn't get it right, but I didn't get it wrong either ("This is based on the fact that Omar saw Michael having a meeting with Marlo in that dingy courtyard last season. 'Just a kid,' he says.").

2. Cheese may turn on Prop Joe (with a little help from Marlo). Uhh, ya think?

3. Daniels will get caught up in a police corruption scandal that impedes his rise to the top. Check.

4. The "Rawls is gay" storyline may not go anywhere. I wish I had been more forceful with this prediction. So that's what, 3-1?

5. A cop will get killed. Can't win 'em all.

6. Clay Davis will not avoid indictment but he will take down everyone he can with him (see #3 above, and possibly prove me wrong on #4). Or maybe he will cop to some little thing, and be out in 4 months to become the top-rated radio host in Baltimore, ala Ed Norris. I am not sure which way this one cuts. Davis did not avoid indictment but he didn't get convicted either. Half a point?

7. I think we are going to see Kima's old woman Cheryl back again.

In all, I went 3.5-3. Not great.

As for the rest of y'all, I am waiting for your Wire brackets, so I can tally the first round winners.

As for the show itself, I am just tickled that it accomplished everything it set out to do, and came full circle on all the best (and worst) characters in the show. Simon did not let the shortened format of 10 shows put a crimp in his love letter to Baltimore, with his beautiful shots of the city itself, and its residents. He took every minute he had and stretched it out to say something without hitting us with it over his head. A little bit of the show rang false (Dukie's descent seemed a little too fast, especially for a child of addicts) but only a very little. I bet Bubs sitting down for dinner at this sister's table was a shot that lasted less then 3 seconds, but it means the whole world.

I Totally Love This Story

This is great.

My Big City Cousins

Cousin Kate, Bubs-spotter, Bubs-almost-hitter*, saw the actor who plays Chris Partlow in Brooklyn today. It just ain't fair.

And the reason Kate's in B'lyn is because Cousin Jed is rockin' the Whitney with his bad self. The New York Times has a video about the Biennial and Jed's piece can be seen in the video. Kate describes his piece as "A white panel sculpture that covers a wall and a large multi-colored block."

A better place to see the artwork is probably at the Whitney itself. But I can't carry you there myself....

*I think she almost hit him with her car in a parking lot at his favorite restaurant in LA or something.

I Just Can't Do It

K. challenged me to listen to Alex Beinstein's interview of Phil Singer, in its entirety, and I have to admit, I just can't to do it. It isn't physically possible. I was listening for the first 9 minutes, and then like a ghost, like a phantom limb, my hand floated to the keyboard and clicked on a link to another page. *DRAT* I thought. I meant to listen to that.

Anyone out there want to take the K Challenge? Here's the interview.

Why the NLRB Should Be Abolished

In case you doubt that being a union lawyer has been an almost totally futile exercise during the Bush administration, I thought I would share this story with you. An employee is talking to her co-workers during their lunch break in the hospital cafeteria about her support for the union. A manager tells her to leave, as she cannot be on the hospital premises on her day off. The worker refuses to leave, and security is called. The security officer arrives with a German Shepherd by his side and orders her to leave. The union filed a charge against the Employer for threatening, intimidating and harassing the worker for engaging in union activities. The NLRB dismisses the charge:

The Region has authorized dismissal, absent withdrawal on this allegation. The investigation failed to reveal that the guard made any threats (or statements for that matter) to the employee. There is no evidence that the dog made any motion or threatening gesture toward the employee. Finally, there is no evidence supporting a Section 8(a)(3) violation.

That's the way it works these days. The only advice we can give is, next time, put your hand in the dog's mouth so it bites you. Now excuse me, I need to return to banging my head on the table, since this brief respite to blog has permitted the blood on my forehead to clot.

That Sense of Entitlement

Clinton went on TV this morning and said, essentially, that there should be a shared ticket. The only thing left to decide is who gets top billing. The implication, after last night’s victory speech, is that it should be her, because she won Ohio. Can someone double-check the Democratic Party rules about this? Does it say in there, “Whoever wins Ohio gets to the presidential candidate.” No? Hmm, maybe because the nominee is supposed to be the one with most delegates. And that ain’t Hillary. If she said something like, “I think I am at a point where it’s time to unify the party, and I would like to offer Senator Obama my services as the vice presidential candidate”, wouldn’t we all just go nuts? Yay, its over! With the strongest, best candidates leading the party back to the White House in 2008!

 

Otherwise, Hillary, please get over this idea that you are entitled to this nomination. You aren’t. And you are annoying those of us who really want to not hate you after all this is over.

The Wire Brackets

Allright. I have done a full 64 scene tournament bracket for The Wire. No joke. But I can't figure out how to post it. So. Anyone how wants a copy, I will email it to you, just shoot me a request. If you need my email address, post a comment to let me know. Remember this was wholly subjective, generated by me and B at breakfast the other morning. Enjoy.

Allright, This Is It For the Night

I still have two topics left to blog about. Then my brain will be empty. (emptier?)

Although Clinton was knocked off balance by Obama's message of hope, I think the response by young people to that message is a product of 9/11. I know that for some people, a terrorist attack on American soil sowed fear (of attack) and loathing (of Muslims). But for many people, there was an upswell of desire to help, to be a part of something bigger. This resulted in greater enlistment in the armed services, tons and tons of donations of goods to WTC "survivors" (never used), and hundreds of articles about people "taking time off", "reevaluating their lives", a "mini post-9/11 baby boom." Blah blah blah, etc etc. But by and large, our country did nothing to capitalize on all this good will. Rather than make calls for sacrifice, Bush passed tax cuts, and sent young men and women into a totally futile war. Bush has tried to force a new Cold War down our throats, but it rings false for all of us who wanted something positive to come out of that disaster. Clinton thought we all wanted protection from the bogeymen created by Bush but a lot of people were tired of that. Obama offers a call to public service and civic change that young people were waiting for since before many of them could vote.

So why, then, did he fare so badly in OH and TX? Well, he didn't fare so badly. Recall, he was down 20 points just a few weeks ago. I am not going to argue that if he just had another week, he could have run away with this. I think that because this primary season has been so long, and the economy is so shitty, that the hope message didn't reach far enough. Obama needs a message of hope on the economy. I trust he will get his sea legs on this and improve the message.
That said, he's still winning.

On to the last topic, and this one is BD's idea. A Wire brackets. The brackets are The Street, The Police, The Hall, and The Port/The Schools/The Press. The only way it works is to combine those last three. I will rank 16 scenes from each bracket and then y'all can vote on the best. I can also vote on the best, but my vote might have slightly greater weight. I'm just sayin'. That's coming up tomorrow.

Oh, and I agree with Seamus.

Okay, I'm Back

I did, in fact, just go donate to Obama. I hope that the headlines tomorrow are

Obama Wins VT, TX Caucus
Clinton Wins RI, OH

Obama Raised $60 Mil in February

52 Super-Delegates Endorse Obama

Overnight Donations to Obama Skyrocket

A girl can dream.

Wrap-Up

My internets are working again. In brief:

1. The campaign for Central Committee is off to a slow but successful start. I need a couple more signatures to get on the ballot. The problem has been that half of all the people I know are either Decline to State or Green Party, neither of which can sign my petition. So if you are a Democrat in Albany, Berkeley, North Oakland, Richmond or anywhere else in California's 14th Assembly District, give me a shout!

2. I forgot to mention that St. Scobie's has gotten me entangled in a bit of legal, well, litigation. It involves Dentist-gate. If you are wondering if HIPAA offers any privacy protection, guess again. My blog post was discovered by The Dentists, and, in discovery, my identity was discerned. Thusly, I was contacted. Sheesh. Mr. Scobie all but said I told you so. But he never explicitly warned me that blogging would ensnarl me in the litigation of others, so he couldn't credibly say that. I would love to know how many billable hours were spent in the discovery of my identity, when all I could do was confirm the truth of the blog post.

3. Ugh. Hillary was just called by CNN as the winner in TX. I was really hoping this election cycle would wind up tonight. I am going to go donate some more $ to Obama right now.