Monthly Archives: February 2004

March 2nd Primary Endorsements- Taxpayer Funded Fun!

The geniuses who moved California’s primary from the sensible, and safe June to the irrationally early March did so to “give California more say” in the presidential primaries. But because of the unbalanced front loading of the primaries so far our “choices” have been reduced to picking amongst who’se left: Sen. Kerry, Sen. Edwards, Rep. Kucinich and yes, Rev. Al Sharpton, in the Tuesday primary. Whatever “influence” California might have had has once again been snatched away, reminding one of poor ol’ Charlie Brown’s quixotic quest to kick that football Lucy has.
While this may reassure Sen. Kerry’s campaign, it has the unintended effect of potentially dampening turnout for other campaigns this March, which would be unfortunate. Several very important issues are on the ballot, and it’s important to make sure one’s voice is heard since many of these will have a more direct and immediate impact on people’s lives than who gets elected President. Plus, with so many races already decided, you can do what I do when confronted with inevitable winners in these races, and use your ballot as state-funded entertainment.
So without further ado, some humble recommendations from Schädelmann.com:
President: The only real race right now is on the Democratic side – I am unaware of any serious insurgency on the GOP side. I make two recommendations for you to consider, it really depends on how you feel when you mark your ballot.
If you want to be able to say “Hey, I voted for the winner” then vote for Sen. John Kerry. Polls indicate he’s got anywhere from a 25 to 32 point lead over Sen. Edwards, and the rest trail far behind. Thanks primarily to a large loan from himself to the campaign, he was able to revive his flagging fortunes and already President Bush and his minions are attacking him. Even if Kerry’s lead were to drop 15 points (not likely) he’d STILL win by over 15 points anyway. So if you want to vote for the “winner” , vote for Sen. John Kerry.
If you don’t care about voting for a winner, and want to have some fun, vote for Rep. Dennis Kucinch. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Rep. Kucinch and think he’s a genuinely nice guy and his campaign staff has always been fun to talk to. Barring some revelations over the weekend, he’s not going to win the California primary. But then again, with Kerry being the inevitable winner anyway, voting for Kucinch won’t hurt Kerry a bit, and could help Rep. Kucinch get some issues aired at the convention in July. So if you’d like to use your ballot for some taxpayer-funded fun, vote Kucinch.
Proposition 55: Vote No I hate to vote no on building schools, or fixing them since so many are in such sorry shape. But as usual, these fund will build lots of buildings, but make not one assurance that there’ll be a dime to fund any classes in them.
Plus when you read the fine print and realize we’re paying as much in interest (12.4 billion dollars) as we are in getting actual money to the schools (12.3 billion dollars) you begin to realize this is short term borrowing with long term debt problems. We have too many bonds issued as is – force the Doofinator and the Legislature to fund schools properly, or take the shackles off of local government and let local communities decide for themselves how much they would like to pay for decent schools in their area.
Proposition 56: Vote Yes. The two-thirds requirement to pass a budget is one of these idiotic “think tank” ideas some genius comes up with as a way to try and make things better, when in fact it makes things worse. It makes no sense for a budget with 64% of the votes in the Legislature fail, because it didn’t get a full 66% vote.
The wild-eyed claims about making it “easier” to pass higher taxes and the threat of Californians waking up one day to find all their taxes have been quintupled is foolish. If a state Legislature raised taxes too much, they’d get voted out of office – that’s our job as voters if that is in fact how we feel.
More importantly, it would force all of our state leaders to make hard decisions about how to run our state government, instead of allowing them to pass clever little “non tax” taxes, like state assessments on parking tickets and the infamous “snack tax” of Gov. Pete Wilson (aka Arnold I).
Return majority rule to the state budget process, and take away the excuses both branches use to evade their roles as leaders charged with making decisions.
Proposition 57/58: Vote NO NO NO NO. Gov. Doofinator ran Gray Davis out of town claiming that Davis resorted to budget trickery that ran our state in to debt, and that he, the Doofinator, would make “tough choices” and bring “leadership” to Sacramento. This bond and pony show does neither.
Rather than be a balls-out real Republican and cut like crazy, he instead proposes to get out the state credit card, and borrow our way out of our problems. This is not leadership – this is deferring the problem to future generations so that Doofinator and the Legislature can say they “fixed” the problem without having to make any difficult choices.
Particularly galling is the total sellout of the Jarvis Taxpayers Association, longtime foes of budget shenanigans (we thought) who have signed on to this foolish package, as well as the sellout of “Democrats” like Steve Westly, who claims to be a Democrat, but can’t seem to get those sparkles out of his eyes when standing next to the retired movie star. The witty rejoinder we keep hearing from people who “reluctantly” support this nonsense is the old “well we don’t want to make cuts in social programs, so this is the best we can do.”
Bullshit! It’s is just this kind of crisis that can force everyone to make real decisions and stand up for what it is they truly support and discard what they do not. Sure the battle would be ugly, and the short-term damage would be horrible, but the eventual compromise from an honest debate would be far better than this noise.
Superior Court, Los Angeles County: Since I recently moved here, I do not know much about these candidates. Rather than cast an irresponsible ballot, I’m leaving these blank. I rarely do this, but when I know so little about LA Superior Court issues, I’m not going to add to the noise by casting crazy votes and accidently voting for some nutcase candidate by mistake. Maybe that makes me less of a “knowledgeable pundit,” but I’d rather admit I don’t know something than lie.
Los Angeles County Supervisor: Los Angeles County, an area bigger than 20 states, has only five supervisors running the County. These people run “their” districts like little feudal kingdoms, safe from any real opposition with huge election bank accounts that ensure no one dares take them on. The geographic area of each supervisor’s district is so big, that running a low budget campaign is next to impossible. Thus, voting in these races is like voting in a third world country where the election’s been determined in advance, and the “winner” gets something like 110% of the vote.
Thus, vote for any non-incumbent in these races. If the ones running in your area are particularly insane, then write in someone. Anyone. Yourself, your friend, your dog, whatever. Punch a hole in these folks’ egos and deny them their 90%. It won’t change much but at least you’ll make someone at the Elections OFfice have to hand count your ballot.
No matter how you end up deciding to vote, be sure to do so. And make sure you know where your mail-ballot is and your polling place. Although I’m registered in Venice as a Permanent Mail Ballot voter, I have yet to receive my ballot, and after several frustrating calls to the Elections Department did I find that I may never get it – and if I’d followed the advice of the first person to take my call, I would not have been able to vote at all this time around! Scary.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

“Scary” Database or Same Old, Same Old?

One thing you can count on the media, and many people in general, is a quick, knee-jerk reaction to buzzwords, that, when strung together in a certain order, are designed to shock, stun, and otherwise startle the reader. Recent postings at Slashdot.org and CNN.com regarding the database activities of the two major parties in the United States fit this mold rather well.
Much ado is made of the fact that both parties are developing in-house nefarious sounding “voter files,” made up of information about registered voters across the US…including YOU! Evoking scary imagery of Big Brother, and other privacy concerns, the alarm is sounded like a 21st Century Paul Revere: “The politicians are coming! The politicians are coming”. The press gets to tsk-tsk once again, and people can get Really Mad at the bastards responsible for this horrible criminal syndicate disguised as political activism.
Party spokesmen brag with buzzwords too. Take for example Democratic chairman Terry Mc Auliffe in the CNN report: “We can tell you exactly which house on which street we need to get out the vote, because we know that the issues they are concerned about are Democratic issues,” party Chairman Terry McAuliffe said. “And we know what to say, and we know what not to say.”
Sounds impressive. Or scary. Even kinda reminds me a bit of the song Electric Eye by Judas Priest, even. Either way, the reader is left with the idea that somehow this massive conspiracy is out to get them, and we’re just one step away from voter ID chips implanted in our backsides, and assorted RNC and DNC hacks piloting space-based orbital laser canons to knock off swing voters in Florida.
Now for the patented Schädelmann.com Reality Check ™: This is one of those stories that “sounds” a lot worse than it “is.” Trust me when I say that of all the things to worry about, this ranks rather low on any rational scale of Threats To The Republic.
Why? Very simple – taking public voter registration rolls, all public record and all which can be purchased for a small fee from any voter registrar in the U.S., and matching it up with other public records, such as the tax rolls, car registration information, or other publicly available demographic information has been done by technologically savvy political professionals for over 30 years.
Yes, you read that right. This is nothing new, no 21st Century dotcom wizardry to be had here, but rather a very old (by tech standards) business. Political pioneers such as Richard Viguerie for the GOP and Clint Reilly for the Democrats saw the usefulness of targeting voter communications more efficiently, and used new computer technology in the 70s and 80s to build some of the first lists of registered voters, coupled with demographic information, to better reach people for fundraising and voter contact.
Their work and the work of others went on for years, in the full view of the public and press eyes, and yet we haven’t seen the kind of scary pronouncements we hear today. More to the point, it’s produced better campaigns, with people getting more relevant information transmitted to them about the issues they’re concerned about in the course of a local, state, or national campaign.
I have been working in professional political consulting for over ten years, and I can tell you that none of these lists are generated by anything not already available to the public for free, or for a fee. I can walk into Political Data in Burbank, CA or Labels and Lists in Bellevue, WA with a check in hand and walk out with a list of registered voters, broken down by party, gender, voting history, or whatever I want, and it’s all perfectly legal. It’s also not a threat to anyone on the list either.
It’s also going to be a heck of a lot more accurate than anything a political party can cook up and brag about on CNN. Any political consultant will tell you that 9 times out of 10, when a political party tries to manage their voter file in-house, it usually ends up being pockmarked full of holes as the ability to administer such a list sways with the political winds.
There have been some notable exceptions in some states, but from my experience, when I hear big pronouncements by national political party spokespeople that somehow they’ve got some silver bullet “list” they’ve been spending money to build, I feel more threatened by being forced to use it than by being on it.
Many may feel a bit strange that public data can be aggregated and re-used by for-profit companies. It’s a legitimate concern, but it goes to a larger issue that “public” records and “public” disclosure bring up: a government agency may be forced by law to provide information to the public – but is not necessarily obligated to provide it in a form that is of much use to a member of said public.
If you are a candidate for office, you have the right to speak to the people who vote in said election. If you collect the data from the registrar, chances are it’s got gaps, mistakes, or hasn’t been updated in a while. Thus you, as a candidate, find that while the “public” information is “available,” it’s usefulness to you, your opponents, or anyone else is limited. Your ability to talk to the people who vote in your election is curtailed by the often antiquated systems many areas keep their voter files in.
So, if you can go to a vendor who’s not only going to give your efforts the information you need, but also be obligated contractually to correct it with publicly available corroborating data, it’s no more of an imposition on the privacy of said public data than if you were to use a phone book from a private telephone company to look up the phone numbers of voters in my district. Technology changes the speed and accuracy of such aggregation, but the act itself is no different.
It’s not the most comfortable feeling in the world, I agree, but the fact is the worst thing that will happen is that you’ll get a pile of dead trees emblazoned with [Your candidate here] and their platitudes on an 11 x 17 flyer, you’re not going to have the KGB or Gestapo taking you to a re-education camp.
I think.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

Why I Hate It When I’m Right

Most people like being proven right. I’m one of the few who don’t.
More accurately, I don’t like being right about the things I’m right about. The past week had me taking several phone calls or e-mails from friends who said “Wow, you were right…at the time I thought you were just crazy but…” and so on.
Now, if these were predictions such as “In 3 months I shall win the lottery and relocate my operations to the beach in Brazil,” or “When I win an Oscar for a yet-to-be produced film I’m making with the cast of Stargate SG-1, I will spend the winnings on a trip to Vegas for all” don’t seem to come about.
However, other predictions, such as mine about Gov. Doofinator in California do come true, and while I enjoy the pats on the back for being “perceptive,” I really wish these things wouldn’t come to pass.
I received a lot of hackles from my colleagues when I made my “cynical” predictions as such:
Electing Arnold “Doofinator” Schwarzenegger won’t change anything in Sacramento and that he will break most of his promises once elected.
Many people are saying this in hindsight – but many pundits, and more than a few turncoat Democrats, including. A.G. Bill Lockyer, former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan, and the assorted Democratic poltical cockroaches that supported the Doofinator were quick to say this was a cynical, out-of-touch observation. A quick scan of the headlines of the last few months says otherwise.
What is harder to figure out is why there seems to be a total lack of outcry or opposition to a guy who got elected on a platform of “reforming” California government and eliminating Evil Gray Davis’ “pay to play” style of governing, only to spend more time raising more money as an elected official than Davis did on his best day in office and passing off half-assed “solutions” which will only make us pay more in taxes and make more cuts long after Gov. Doofinator escapes Sacramento and goes back to Schatzi on Main for a nice cigar at happy hour.
Check out the latest statistics: in order to raise the millions needed to pass the “deficit bond issue” (also known as the “Credit Card Spending Act of 2004”), it seems Governor Doofinator has been raking in millions of dollars of contributions from the very special interests he assailed Davis for in the recall. The latest numbers? An “average” of $127,000 per day since the beginning of 2004 – and much of it in large $500,000 individual contributions. Cal Access can provide you with the lasted donations/outrages if you’re curious.
$500,000. Davis never asked for an amount that big (and if he did he never would have received it). Then again, when you’re talking about issuing a $15 billion bond to gloss over the hard choices we need to make to fix our state, there are lots of people out there who make money off the issuing of these bonds – lawyers, securities experts, and all sorts of percentage-based middlemen (and women). Spending $500,000 on a hapless Gov. Doofinator, with his hat in hand and cigar in mouth, is a pittance compared to the millions you make off the issue itself. Who cares if the “peasants” get stuck with the bill?
Oh, but it gets better. California law states that when advertising is produced for a ballot initiative, the largest donors to said campaign need to have their names put on the disclosure bug at the end of a TV ad or piece of direct mail. Governor “Open Government” Doofinator cleverly gets around these by having people donate to an anonymously named “California Recovery Team” fund that then gives the money to the actual campaigns – allowing the donors, many of whom are regulated by the state, to avoid the public spotlight. A clever little lawyer trick, surely within the letter of the law, but definitely counter to the image and promises made way back in October.
If the sneaky, self-serving, and dishonest fundraising methodology isn’t enough to make you vote against the Governor’s “Credit Card Spending Act of 2004,” the actual details of said bond issue should. Essentially, the “bold leadership” of our clever Governor is not to cut spending like a real Republican would, nor is it to raise taxes, like a real Democrat would. Instead, he’s doing what what a Typical Insider Politician usually does: Borrow money, at God-awful interest rates, burden you and your kids with the debt for years to come, all so Gov. Doofinator can balance the budget for the short term without upsetting anyone.
Sound insane? It should. Even crazier though, is the fact that the star-struck media lets this guy get away with a Big Lie that’s almost as bad as say, lying to the public for a reason to go to war – and we know that anyone who did something that bad would certainly be facing some bad press.
What truly boggles the mind though, is how so many Democrats have kowtowed to the Governor on this issue and who seem to be so infatuated with the concept of having a cigar with this guy that they don’t even seem to mind being played (that is if they know at all, a debatable point with some elected officials).
Watching Controller Steve Westly pathetically finish Gov. Doofinator’s sentences for him in TV ads, clearly abandoning any sense of fiscal responsibility to join in on this short term plan which will create long term problems for California, is pathetic. Here’s someone who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and management expertise, based mostly on his work at Ebay. PErhaps that is the problem – this smelly plan has all the makings of a corporate short-term “fix” that results in the company going down in flames years later, Enron-style. Maybe we need to rethink the idea of such a “fiscally responsible” guy in office in 2006.
The witty rejoinder to such criticism tends to be something along the lines of “Well, the cuts would be terrible, and we can’t have that, and so we’re going along with a bad idea to protect the [children, elderly, blind, tax breaks, hard working state workers, etc.]” is foolish. It’s not going to help any of those folks in the long run if we put off putting things in order for the long term just so we can get through Elections 2004 and 2006 unscathed.
Memo to Democrats: You’re going to get the shaft on this deal no matter what you do – so why go along with what is clearly one of the most morally, economically, and fiscally bankrupt ideas since the concept of Reganomic Deficit Spending? If you honestly believe you’re saving a few jobs or social programs from Gov. Doofinator’s axe-men by supporting this bond, you really need to put down the Bad Idea Kool-Aid for a moment.
Re-read that part in the “How to be a Democrat with a Backbone” manual about how going along with bad ideas like this inevitably leads to you losing out in the end. Do you honestly think a few cigars from the Governor now means he won’t be campaigning against you and your colleagues this fall? If you’re unsure as to how this works, go ask Sen. Max Cleland, or any one of a number of people who drank Bush Jr.’s Kool-Aid in 2002 – and got mercilessly slammed in the fall by the Rove Attack Squads.
It’s not easy for me to take a stand against this bond for a very personal reason: my mom, who is a hard working, dedicated public employee at my old high school for over twenty years, will most likely lose her job if this repugnant bond doesn’t pass.
Yet at the same time if it does, it is more than likely that someone will have to raid her pension in years to come when things get worse. I don’t want my mom to lose her job – but I also don’t think she should see her taxes go up and her pension raided by some corporate-style politico who has free health care and a big (raid-free) pension courtesy of the State.
Either way, my mom, who is a tremendous asset to the classes she teaches in special education, and who consistently played by the rules throughout her career, gets the short end of the stick. Meanwhile the corporate buddies Gov. Doofinator courts with his campaign fundraising will get breaks and feel no pain no matter how badly he and the Sacramento crew botch things, as their predecessors did.
Which is why when I hear Democratic politicos who claim to be the friend of classified school employees and government workers endorse this bond, I have to wonder if they have any idea what the impact of their decisions are on the people they claim to represent.
Coming soon: Endorsements, Prophecies, and Humor – oh my!
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

Mission Accomplished: Short Term Gains, Long Term Worries

The corporate thinkers in the Washington Establishment have accomplished their mission – get a nominee quick and easy. Do it as fast as possible, and make sure that people know who’s the one who is “electable.” And be sure to knock off any latecomers to the party, so to speak – we don’t want any trouble, we just want safety.
Front-loading the primary schedule as was done this year was designed precisely to do this. By stacking up the campaigns so quickly, it left little time for much debate, analysis, or testing of the candidates, and hopefully keep the rabble out. When Howard Dean threatened to usurp the process by bypassing the traditional methodology to reach the $20 million by Jan. 1 milestone one needed, the party and the establishment responded in force.
Shadowy advertisting with little disclsoure paid for by unions and retired Sen. Robert Torricelli. Unprecedented collusion between the campaign managers of no less than four independent presidential campaigns to “Stop Dean.” A hostile media with biased coverage complete with the inevitable crocodile mea culpas from CNN and ABC. Top it off with some tactical mistakes by the Dean crew, (inevitable in any campaign), and you have an effective dismissal of the party-crashing Dean.*
Onward to victory, we’re led to believe. Hurry up, get that nominee. Never mind that large states, such as California and New York, will have little to no role in determining the viablity of said candidates, while highly representative states like Iowa, New Hampshire and Delaware get to vote for any candidate they want – and determine who we’re left with.
Never mind that in the past 40 years, no winning Democratic nominee in a tough race (Kennedy, Carter, Clinton) came from a safe primary battle – they emerged from a long, hard fought campaign that tested their campaign’s organization, message, and resolve through a process that allowed people some time to at least find out who these people even were.
No, the corporate short-termer thinkers like Terry McAuliffe, Al From, and the rest of the Congressional Washington Establishment wanted it done quickly and painlessly, and a lazy media was happy to go along for the ride. Throughout the campaign’s news coverage, you got the sense they just wanted to pronounce it “done” and go home so they can write up the daily “Kerry attacks Bush, Bush attacks Kerry” missives from the DNC and RNC. Watch how fast this lively exchange gets tuned out by most people for its dull repetitiveness and negativity.
The joke is of course that the most popular programming on television right now is the infamous “reality show,” where people compete to the end, and each week we’re treated to some poor sap getting voted “off the island” or married to some big weird guy. There’s ample evidence to indicate that a spirited primary battle was capturing people’s attention and provided some interesting television to say the least. But as quickly as the focus began, it’s now ended – as has any interesting news or drama.
Apparently the corporate crowd in Washington doesn’t watch the same TV as the proletariat – unfortunate for them because pop culture determines more of our political culture than vice versa. Their overriding fear that the contest would degrade into a messy Battle Royale prevailed over any sort of rationale that doesn’t fit into a table or a spreadsheet.
I have said more than once, and with tremendous sincerity, that a more inclusive system would not be state-funded primaries, or dull caucuses, but rather a national telethon to raise money for the eventual nominee through a series of bi-weekly American Idol style votes.
Each episode would focus on an issue, and pre-registered particpants could vote via cell phone, telephone, Internet, etc. and each episode would leave one less candidate on the dais. You can ridicule such a concept – but remember, more people are voting for the next American Idol than for the eventual Democratic (or Republican) nominee. Rather than high-brow bemoaning of the degradation of culture, why not embrace it – and pull more people into the process? Too messy, I guess. Besides, you might get someone who’s not part of the in crowd. Scary!
I have no problems with Kerry personally, I just worry we’re all saying he’s “The One” without enough tests in today’s bitter partisan electoral landscape to make sure he’ll pull through. Even Neo had to fight Agent Smith and get shot full of bullets to find out he was The One.
Surely we could have afforded a few debates where he could take som fire – and prove he’s The One by repelling it easily. Compared to the debates before Jan. 1 – where it was 8 Democrats vs. Dean, relentlessly attacking him over and over and over – Kerry has had it very easy. Too easy.
That said, I admit, it was fun to have worked advance at Kerry’s kickoff at Fanueill Hall in Boston. I got to meet the Senator and he seems like a nice enough person. Plus, it’s always fun when you get to see yourself on TV news coverage wayyyyy in the background, with a big crowd of happy people.
The system’s done its job, and there’s no sense in complaining. It’s time to see what’s next in the race. I’ll cast my ballot and support the eventual nominee, and just hope if they get elected things will improve. However, as a California voter, I now face the prospect of casting a ballot in an election that’s already been decided. Has a sort of third-world feel.
Those pro-Bush positions on “Leave No Child Behind,” tax cuts, and the Iraq war hopefully were just to stay “electable,” and once “elected,” said frontrunner will cast aside such expediency and reveal their true selves. Practical politicians do this all the time, and political observers like myself need to get on the bandwagon and stop asking questions. It’ll all be OK.
This play has an eerily familiar tone to it – I seem to remember someone else who got elected on a similar platform 12 years ago. They even included promises of health care coverage for all, complete with a Democratic Congress to back them up – only to end things 8 years later with a health care system in tatters, jobs being sent overseas, and brewing corproate scandals at Enron and MCI.
Is it a good idea to take plays from a 12 year old book for a game that isn’t played on the same field as today? Will playing the middle work in an era of red state/blue state and a hyper-partisan President that called an injured war veteran in 2002 “disloyal” and “unpatriotic?”
Well, these and other considerations are to be pushed aside. The winner of the California primary won’t have to do more than attend some fundraisers in LA and San Francisco to “win,” and the serious problems California faces will be but a sideshow.
The Important People Who Know Better Than Me running the campaign can pat us on the head, smile and say they “care” about our problems and insert some college Spanish into a few speeches. Meanwhile we’ll never really know which of the Democratic candidates even understands the issues Californians face, much less their stand on them.
Let’s just hope they pick up something before November 2004 to ensure winning California’s 60+ electoral votes. Otherwise, one wonders what it will be like in January 2005.
Update: USA Today, that thoughtful and deliberative journal of the American landscape, seems to agree with me today!
*(Note to wannabe challengers of the system: you better have your act together if you want even half a chance to get taken seriously. Put down the macrame pamphlets and get your organization disciplined, and organized! Watch your back and for God’s sake, be careful about how you take on the media – otherwise others may cash in on the fear you generate with these folks.)
� 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

A Rather Accurate Account of How Weird Presidential Caucuses Are

If you’ve never been to a presidential caucus and are wondering if this process is an open, small-d democratic way to do things, check out this story at the LA Times and read an interesting account of a caucus meeting in Bellevue, WA.
I can vouch for such an account – when I lived in Seattle I went through the caucus system in 1996 and 2000, and they are not much fun. Years of adding rules and regulations to ensure everything from diversity to preventing the “wrong” candidates from winning, makes it a mess.
In 1996 I remember going to a caucus in my neighborhood, West Seattle, held at a community center. I picked the room that seemed to be the right one, and sat in the back, late. I looked around and it looked like people from the neighborhood were all there talking about something Really Important.
Then I realized I wasn’t in the right place. In fact, I was at a meeting of the Little League parents’ group. I left and went to the right room, next door. It was sparsely attended, save for a few old-time Democratic partisans, and a lot of people I knew who lived in the area and worked as political consultants or for city and county government. The guy running the caucus was a real trooper for wading through countless pages of counter-intuitive rules to make sure everything ended up OK. That guy was…(Paul Harvey moment..) Tom Carr, who later became Seattle’s elected City Attorney.
It was an interesting contrast. In one room were the people who might have an interest in participating in the caucus process but who had better things to do that night. In the other were a pack of mostly well intentioned civil service employees, and political staffers, who themselves did not completely understand the byzantine structure of the evening.
One final note: Out of a state of millions of voters in Washington State, only about 10,000 voted for John Kerry. More people vote for a city councilmember in rural cities than for presidential nominees. Hmm.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

You Can Disagree and Still Think Someone Kicks Ass!

Hate to dilute my posting on Stargate SG-1 since I like it so much…but upon reading one of my favorite comic author’s works online I had to publicize it because it was fun to read.
Peter Bagge has been one of my all-time favorite comic book artists. His work on “Neat Stuff” was no less than genius, and his focus in the 1990s on one of the characters from “Neat Stuff”, Buddy Bradley, in his later series, “Hate“, was witty and inciteful. If you want to read a great account of what Seattle was really like in the early 90s read his trade paperback “Buddy the Dreamer” ! He combines an intense drawing style with very well written stories.
Now, I’m one of those people who would like to see themselves as someone with unique opinions, and who does not fit in to the neat, BS categories our lovely corporate media try to put us all in to. So when I say I like what Peter has to say, I don’t necessarily agree with him 100%.
That said, I shouldn’t have to. Personal politics and opinions should not have to conform with corporate media notions of what we “should” believe 100% – they should be our own feelings and thoughts. There are natural convergences of all sorts, and when you let people talk outside the construct, you’d be shocked at how people can find common ground in the most unusual of circumstances.
Thus, when I read about his relevant observations on war protesters in 2002 I can’t argue with them too much. Now, given the latest information we now have after the fact, it makes some of these points moot, but the cult-like, weirdo mentality we were dealing with was a problem & he still he does make some good points.
So what is mypoint? Simply this: people can have varied opinions that do not necessarily fit the media bullshit constructs we’re led to believe we must take. Life does not exists in black and white but in shades of grey, and in those shades there are convergences that surprise even the most jaded of us. It’s just unfortunate corporate/big government media doesn’t want us to express those shades of grey but instead keep us in a world of red state/blue state, us vs. “them” and me vs. you.
I can be a lefty liberal guy and yet still hate the state for infringing on my rights. I can be someone who doesn’t like fascism and corporatism, and yet still distrust statism as well. I can be someone who believes in a happy medium that says that our systems can be oriented towards the good of all, and yet still enrich those who work.
Problem with that is, of course, that the construct created to “discuss” issues is more about labels and pre-conceived attack and counter-attack. Anything that doesn’t fit the construct is tossed aside. It’s great for keeping real debate dead and fast-food punditry alive – and distract us from real issues.
Crazy talk? Sure it is. But only if you believe that one way is the right way, and that there’s no room for all of us to get along.
And that is just what “they” would love you to think.
Note to my Halliburton Fans: Tell your bosses to give back the money they “accidentally” took. It’s good for Halliburton’s karma.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

Stargate SG-1 And New Friends From Houston….

As I’ve stated before, most of the science-fiction based entertainment out there these days is not very good. Thus, when I come across something that is truly interesting and unique, I feel a need to evangelize a little. Besides, when you see what passes for news these days, it’s nice to find entertainment that has nothing to do with eating bugs, cow innards, or fat, weird guys terrorizing their phony fiancee’s family.
When I first heard of the plans to create Stargate SG-1 as a direct-to-syndication/cable TV series, I was skeptical. The movie was fine, but how such a premise be made into a series? So, I skipped it, my avoidance made easier by the fact that this show was on cable and in the direct-to-syndication route, which made it almost impossible to find for the causal viewer such as myself.
I had no idea what I was missing, nor did I realize that a huge Stargate SG-1 fan movement was building both here and abroad. It was not until I joined Netflix and picked up the DVD of the first season did I give this a chance. Although my source on this was a trusted one, I was still skeptical. Even if the first DVD was good, most television (and in particular most sci-fi TV) tends to crap out after a few good episodes or seasons.
Then I put in the first DVD and watched the 2-hour pilot. Suddenly the skeptic was converted. I began to see why TV Guide put the SG-1 team on the cover with the tagline “Forget Trek! Stargate SG-1 is now sci-fi’s biggest hit!”
Here was a program that had everything that the doomed Trek franchise could never have – non stop action, intelligent stories, and long-ranging plotlines that were used to advance the development of complex characters, and keep the series new and exciting. In other words, some people got together and read the “How to Make Programming That Doesn’t Suck” textbook, and decided to create a series. Oddly enough, they’ve made a big pile money doing it too!
The premise is simple: A “Stargate” which can create artificial wormholes is discovered by the US military and exists hidden away in the Air Force’s Cheyenne Mountain complex. The show focuses on the lead team assigned to investigate the new worlds and explore the galaxy by simply stepping through the gate and on to other worlds.
Richard Dean Anderson (of MacGuyver fame) plays Col. Jack O’Neill, who leads his team and the adventures ensue. Because many humans in the past were taken from Earth and enslaved by the Bad Aliens (Goa’ulds), the team encounters all sorts of humans with all sorts of unusual quirks. At least it explains why they mostly speak English.
Best of all, it’s a program you don’t have to be a total fan who’s seen every single episode to enjoy. When I visited my dad in San Francisco during a business trip, he wanted to see my new PowerBook. Demonstrating the capabilities of the 12″ PowerBook, I popped in a Stargate DVD to show him how it could play movies. We ended up watching an episode, and he really enjoyed it. It had both the action and a sense of humor we could both enjoy, but for our own reasons.
Now, my dad is not a dyed-in-a-wool sci-fi fan – he tends to enjoy more mainstream entertainment. But even though he didn’t know the intimate details of what a Jaffa was, or the long-running conflicts of Goa’ulds, Tok’ras, and assorted running gags, the story was still entertaining for him and it was something we both enjoyed watching together.
Thus Stargate SG-1 was able to jump the high hurdle the disasters known as Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager and countless other longwinded, heavy handed PC sci-fi crashed and burned on consistently over the years – it provided intelligent drama and action first, and kept the technobabble down to acceptable levels.
What I enjoy most about this show is its inherent unpredictability. As I’ve watched the many seasons out on DVD so far, I keep wondering if the show’s hit a plateau, or if the innovation and excitement of the first seasons will begin to wane. It doesn’t.
Unlike Star Trek, with its predictable “guy in a red shirt gets it when they go to the planet” routines, and constant re-telling of the same stories (“hey let’s go back in time to 20th Century Earth!”) over and over and over and over again…the writing team continues to maintain a consistency level of interest and twists that more accurately reflect what would happen if the US Military was investigating the Stargate system and defending Earth from all sorts of alien-induced mayhem.
The Stargate unit is not out of the reach of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who would use their work for nefarious ends, and the team has to deal with the mayhem caused by cloak and dagger shenanigans on their end as well as around the galaxy.
It’s one of many nice plotlines that probably reflect more accurately the pressures such a program and its officers would face in the “real” world. (Although I think if such a device did exist, we’d be contracting it out to Halliburton for that lucrative gasoline and taco supply line to Abydos, but I digress…)
Seriously, I urge people to check this program out. I’ve deliberately avoided talking too much about the specifics of the program or its many episodes so that folks will check ’em out and form their own opinion.
However I have found almost consistently that, like Battlestar Galactica, even people who aren’t big sci-fi fans, but who do appreciate a well written and conceived piece of programming, have found it to be entertaining. Check it out – you may surprise yourself at how much you enjoy it!
Note to readers: I’d like to take this time to welcome our new fans from the Halliburton Corporation. Thanks for reading and be sure to tell your friends and coworkers about our three times a week updates! I’m sure you’ll find it fun and amusing on your coffee breaks.
“How is it possible,” you ask “that you know that Halliburton’s reading your site?”
Simple really. Journalspace is kind enough to log IP Addresses for visitors to this site. For fun, I decided to enter a few at random to see what would come up.
Using a combination of IP2Location.com and ARIN I was able to track back this one little IP address, and here’s what I found!
Search results for: 34.69-93-8.reverse.theplanet.com
OrgName: Halliburton Company
OrgID: HALLIB-1
Address: 10200 Bellaire Blvd
City: Houston
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 77072-5299
Country: US
NetRange: 34.0.0.0 – 34.255.255.255
CIDR: 34.0.0.0/8
NetName: HALLIBURTON
NetHandle: NET-34-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Direct Assignment
OrgTechHandle: DNSAD52-ARIN
OrgTechName: DNSADMIN POC
OrgTechPhone: +1-281-575-3000
OrgTechEmail: dnsadmin@halliburton.com
Thanks again for your support guys! We appreciate you checking out the site!

© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

Maybe MoveOn.org Shoulda Used a Farting Horse?

After watching some of the raunchiest (and least entertaining) ads ever aired on television, it was clear CBS was either lying when they gave their reasons for not running Moveon.org‘s ad, or truly believe they are the Guardian of Democracy, and that our impressionable little minds would have been scarred for life and caused severe public mayhem, had 30 seconds of a four hour spectacle be devoted to and ad politely pointing out the effects of federal spending out of control.
Thanks to CBS’s firewall of decency and protection, the Republic was saved, and the CBS commitment to tasteful, “non threatening” advertising was in full force for the big game. True, within moments of the first quarter, we were entertained by an endless array of penis-related humor (including a dog biting a man in the crotch for Bud Lite) and penis-related medication, but that’s ok. Who knew that so many options existed for male erectile issues – or so many cutesy metaphors to refer to them?
Perhaps MoveOn.org should go into the brewing business, come out with a beer brand and use some farting horses in a new ad to get some exposure. Or perhaps they could buy the naming rights to Viagra II or some other male enhancement drugs, and bypass the media firewall that way?
Breathe easy folks. Amidst a rain of advertising, that one little thirty second ad raising questions about a federal budget with more red ink than a Red Army recruitment poster wasn’t shown. The fragile minds of the “mob” were spared this horror.
FCC Chairman Mike “My Dad Went To DC And All I Got Was This Job” Powell saw no problem with public airwaves being used to sell beer, penis medications, or endless potty humor, nor did he see a problem with public airwaves being denied to a group who wanted to raise some issues regarding out-of-control government spending – but you can bet someone’s gonna hang once they get to the bottom of “Breastgate.”
Writing a column like this and adding to the pile of “Why did they do that when they air blah blah blah” is almost superfluous at this point – I’m sure if someone did a Lexis Nexis search of ideological moral outrage filed in the press and online, they would find a plethora of similar columns. So why add to the pile?
It’s an issue bigger than one ad – we’re beginning to see the effects of the centralized control of our media by the corporations that fund federal elections and want to exorcise all public interest out of governing and our daily lives.
I’ve never bought into the idea that the media has a “right/left” bias – but it is not hard to see it does have a narrow bias geared towards making more money for themselves, and the truth be damned.
The fact that it does tend to lean rightward on some issues is not as much about the ideology of their owners but about the convenient convergence of conservative interests (at least today) and narrow business interests which tend to be at odd with those of small business and individual needs. (Maybe in the case of Rupert Murdoch there’s an exception to this rule, but the jury’s still out on that one for me.)
Thus, it’s no accident that Howard Dean took an avalanche of negative press concluding with the silly “news coverage” of Dean’s Iowa “scream” – something the press wizards have belatedly admit was foolish – and wrong. It’s also no accident that Sen. John Kerry, who was able to save his faltering bid with a pile of his own money, is now “the sensible choice” to rally around, and the one least likely to upset the status quo if elected in 2004.
True, the media is not responsible for Howard Dean’s dumb campaign decisions, nor are they responsible for Kerry’s ability to get a loan at prime rate to save his campaign. They are responsible for covering issues, and bringing up difficult questions all candidates, and the President, need to answer – and they simply do not, opting instead to do what makes for a good “story” with cutesy, smart-ass commentary, all of which ultimately benefits their bosses – and no one else.
Thus, when even the last resort – buying time at market rate to get some issues discussed – is denied by networks operating over public airwaves – it’s time to take action.
For myself, I’ll back anyone who can convince me they’d go to Washington, kick ass and take names at the FCC. Even if they don’t succeed, it sure would be fun to see the suits sweat if a President, who didn’t owe them anything, got into power, even if it was for just a few short years.
Now that’s a story with some real drama – and would make for an interesting read in the papers once in a while.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com