Monthly Archives: May 2008

Stuff

Posted by on May 27, 2008 3 comments

I had a good long weekend. Friday was my off day so I spent the first part of it goofing off at home and getting some cleaning done. Then I headed up to Baltimore to meet Elizabeth and head to Delaware where we crashed before heading up to New York. I got a chance to see my grandparents for the first time in like… 8 years I think? We only met for lunch but it was nice to see them. I miss them again already and I hope I can get up there again much much sooner than 8 years from now. The rest of the long weekend was nice as well, with camping, a birthday party for an awesome lady, good conversation and lots of kids who are always entertaining. :)

On Monday, we headed south again. We were going to stop at Four Quarters to set up our campsite for Gaian Mind Summer Festival in June, but it looked like rain so we took a different route that didn’t take us through there. It turned out to be gorgeous weather, but not stopping probably worked out for the best given the time we finally got back to Baltimore. Along the way, we stopped at an outlet mall and I picked up some running shoes; a pair of Nike Air Zoom RS+ (not the color pictured). Unfortunately, the Nike+ system doesn’t work with iPhone (yet)so I’m hunting a cheap iPod nano to use in the mean time. I’m basically trying to leverage my love for gadgetry and generally geekiness into motivation to get into running. I like the virtual coaching and community aspects of the Nike+ setup. With the probable GPS built-in to the iPhone’s next iteration I can see some good opportunities there.

I’m doing the Couch to 5K program, and I did my first training session tonight. It went well so hopefully I’ll continue down that path and get the nerdery going as well. It seems to be a solid program for getting folks like me who have never been into running to get into it and continue without burning out from starting too fast. I’ll keep blogging my progress. I have a good feeling about it. Already, the running shoes have completely eliminated the shin splints I normally get. I have some soreness in my calves but nothing that stretching won’t fix.

Anyway, it is getting late but I wanted to make a non-political post for a change. Now to clear the laundry off my bed, make some tea and have some yogurt and possibly a few chapters in a book or something before crashing

Too much. Clinton must go.

Posted by on May 23, 2008 2 comments

Sen. Clinton, please step down.

1. Primaries used to go until June. Your husband winning in California in June is irrelevant. Drawing a parallel between your decision to stay in this thing until the bitter end to the fact that we used to have primaries in June is nonsense. Races used to still happen in June. You’re talking about continuing to campaign to the supers in June, and wait for something bad to happen… Which brings me to #2.

2. It is in no way appropriate to bring up Robert Kennedy’s assassination as a reason for you to stay in this race. Biding your time for that “perfect storm” of a scandal from the Obama camp is one thing… but implying that oh I don’t know, OBAMA MIGHT GET SHOT or something is completely out of line.

Please save what is left of your family’s political legacy and step aside.

Obama has secured a majority

Posted by on May 21, 2008 No comments

Sen. Obama has secured an absolute majority of the pledged delegates under the current DNC rules.

Now comes the part where Camp Clinton further waves the popular vote flag until June. Continuous moving of the goalposts seems the order of the day over there. It sort of reminds me of another failed campaign by someone who is already President. Every day it is a different metric. More delegates from big states. More delegates from Blue states. More delegates from swing states. More votes from uneducated people. Every day a new metric that is usually quickly attained by the Obama campaign if not proved to be ridiculous by anyone who is paying attention. All she has left is the chance of a popular vote victory, and hoping that is enough to pull a very large margin of superdelegates to her column.

I definitely noticed her use of “top of the ticket” during her speech tonight. I think that was certainly hinting at the democrats having to give her something… It was almost an implication that the ticket is already decided and it is only a question of who is on top. We’ve been through this before though, with Sen. Clinton talking about making Sen. Obama her running mate on basically a “vote for me and get him too,” platform… Sen. Obama nipped that in the bud pointing out the fallacy in talking about who your VP candidate should be when you’re behind in the nomination!

Basically, Sen. Clinton’s only remaining shot at this is convincing an overwhelming majority of the remaining uncommitted superdelegates to swing her way based on a marginal popular vote lead including two states that may or may not have their full delegations seated and a likely convincing victory in one “state” that doesn’t even vote in the general election.

That’s a real strong case… if you’re living in Hillaryland.

Now, you can argue that a scenario where the popular vote winner doesn’t earn the nomination is exactly the same as the scenario I railed against in 2000 where the popular vote winner wasn’t elected President. I’d be inclined to agree in most cases. However in this case, Sen. Clinton’s popular vote lead thus far includes two states that were not a part of the campaign strategy for either candidate. In fact, it includes one state where Sen. Obama wasn’t even on the ballot! I don’t think you can look at that scenario and see a strong case for Sen. Clinton to sway the remaining superdelegates.

The question now is; Who will Sen. Obama pull out of his hat tomorrow to negate the news cycle of Sen. Clinton’s big win in Kentucky? Al Gore — I’m looking at you.

This is awesome. MASSIVE Obama rally

Posted by on May 19, 2008 1 comment

Record Obama Crowd, the Size of a City (Washington Post)

Huge Obama Rally in Portland, Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. — Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now.

The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak.

The scene suggests this is not an exaggeration. The sea of heads stretches for half a mile along the grassy embankment, while others watch from kayaks and power boats bobbing on the Willamette River. More hug the rails of the steel bridge that stretches across the water and crowds are even watching from jetties on the opposite shore.

seventy-five THOUSAND.

More coverage, video and a slide show over at Huffington Post

I wonder if there are any “hard working Americans, white Americans” in the crowd.

Open Letter to the Clinton-or-bust crowd

Posted by on May 16, 2008 No comments

After it is all said and done…

After Florida and Michigan have their delegates seated (even though they broke the rules and Clinton and Obama both signed on to those rules, and Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan)…

After all the remaining states have voted…

After enough superdelegates have put Obama over the top…

After Clinton has conceded for the good of the party…

After Obama likely puts Clinton on the ticket, despite that while possibly appeasing some Clinton supporters, would be a horrible idea as far as beating the Republicans in the fall…

Are you all still planning to vote for McCain, abstain, write-in for Clinton or vote for some third-party? Will you still consider the rest of us sexists and chauvinists? Will the DNC still be evil? Will everyone and everything still be pegged as trying to keep a woman down?

Or will you return to the fold and help this country move forward? Finally accept that after it was all said and done, Obama won this thing fair and square with a majority of states, delegates and votes?

I don’t like to think that folks are so caught up in a cult of personality for her that they have lost the plot. The goal is to bring the White House back to the people. I fail to see what the country gains when you lodge a protest vote in the interest of “supporting women” for someone who clearly hasn’t. He calls his wife a trollop and a cunt. He says women don’t get equal opportunities and pay because they are not as educated. He will install justices that will overturn your freedom of choice.

Are you so myopic that you will give up on the dream because the torchbearer isn’t the one you preferred?