It's Primary Day! I'm off to vote and join the Green Party for about 3 minutes.
Polls are open late, so make time to get there today. You can
find your polling place here.
I'm going to kick back tonight and celebrate democracy with a Sam Adams (Brewer. Patriot.) and hopefully watch the political careers of John Harwood and Garry Reilly come to a quick end. You guys have to make it happen, though. Get to it!
UPDATE: I just came from voting in a booth for the first time in my life. I don't know what happened to the old booths with the curtains I remember from when I was a kid, but I liked those better than the plastic stand I stood at to connect my arrows. After marking your ballot you have to feed it into a machine that reminds me a little too much of a paper shredder. Still, this beats absentee voting any day.
Also, I think I am going to lodge a complaint because of voter intimidation. Every single poll worker gave me crap for not rooting for the Yankees. Luckily I know my rights and stood firm for democracy and the Red Sox Nation. At least I got to rub it in that the Evil Empire took an embarrassing 13-run shellacking yesterday.
It was early, of course, but my vote in the Green Party primary was the only Green vote cast. I am predicting 500 votes city-wide. I bet Cranston is jumping, though...
Since we're voting today I thought it would be a good time to mention that The Presidents of the United States of America have
a new album out and it's got my vote.
I heard the single "Some Postman" on the radio a few weeks ago, and now that song makes me want to jump around the house every time I hear it (Em has witnessed this, actually). The whole album has a really fun, pop-rock vibe, channeling at times OK Go, the Aquabats, and They Might Be Giants. And it's quirky in a delightful way, moreso than their bizarre (but excellent) self titled album from 1996 ("millions of peaches, peaches for free...").
Check it out, it'll get you back in ass kicking mood after chilling out with the
Garden State soundtrack.
I was busy this weekend, so I didn't peruse the blogworld's marking of 9/11/+3 until yesterday. The post that really stood out to me was
this one from Matt Yglesias.
Don Rumsfeld wrote a while back that we not only don't know if we're succeeding in the war on terrorism, we don't even have metrics of success. And he was right. We get jammed up in a conversation about whether the [War on Terror] is "really" a war, and don't talk about the fact that whatever it is (I think "war" is a serviceable term) we don't really know who it's directed against. We don't know what we're trying to do, we don't know if we're succeeding at doing it, and we have barely any idea how we're going to figure it out. We're in the midst of an impassioned political campaign in which I -- like many others -- have become, somewhat against or wills and intentions, a fairly active (albeit fairly unimportant) participant. But whoever wins will still be faced with the reality that ignorance -- public, official, and elite -- is massive. Confusion is still as widespread as it was on 9-12-01 but back then we at least felt confused. Like Socrates we knew, to some extent at least, what we did not know. Now the worst are filled with passionate intensity. The ratio of unknown unknowns to known unknowns is frighteningly high.
I don't have the stomach for tearful reminisces this year, or the self-congratulatory nod towards to American values, or the reaffirmation of the nationalism that has since been put to ugly political use. And honestly, I don't even feel the need to work up indignation at the Bush administration and its supporters who attempt to claim 9/11 as their own. That's what I like about the post linked above; it's honest.
I do pretty well with comment spam, averaging maybe one or two a day. MT-blacklist filters out a ton, which is great. Today, though, I've started getting comment spam that doesn't link to anything! What's the point?! All it says is "Your ultimate video on demand solutions." No name, no link to anything. I just don't get it.
This weekend, of course, was the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I'm sure the mention of that date evokes the fear and confusion and anger we all felt that day in 2001. Three years on, though, I felt lucky to be among family, celebrating, at the other end of the emotional spectrum, my cousin's wedding.
What does it mean to be able to take a day of sadness and claim it as the reminder of the strongest expression of love? I think it shows the best in us, strength and hope. Congratulations, Lindsay and Oscar!
Imagine you have a new friend who's really cool. He makes you a CD with a bunch of songs, old and new, that you've probably never heard. One listen through and you know it could be a soundtrack to your autumn.
Well, meet your new friend
Zach Braff. He made you a sweet mix tape, and calling it a soundtrack to something would be 100% correct. I just picked up the
Garden State soundtrack, with music from The Shins, Frou Frou, Coldplay, Nick Drake, and a neat cover of the Postal Service. Definitely worth a listen next time your looking for some new music. And see the movie! (I plan on writing about that later. Don't count on it, though)
(And really, how much longer can the term "mix tape" survive? I don't imagine anyone under the age of, say 18, would use the phrase. But then, we still roll down our automatic windows, don't we...)
The ability to turn any item/event into a money-maker continues on
eBay. You can purchase that nice little graphic up there on a t-shirt or a sticker and probably a thong.
Maybe you're Alan Shawn Feinstein* and can get people to buy
worthless "hurricane memorabilia"by claiming that one day it will be priceless. You also might want
these because they smell nice.
Apparently, hurricane victims can also buy 90 minute prayers. Yay America.
*ASF had nothing to do with this (I crave more Google hits).
Dear World Champion Patriots,
First, let me apologize for last season. For two months of your season I was sort of marginally aware of your games. There was that little matter of the most exciting Red Sox season in my memory. This year the Sox are looking even better than last year as the stretch run approaches.
I know how awesome you are. You are the epitome of what's still good about sports in this age of celebrity and glamour. Unlike the Sox, you've never been so cruel to me in the waning weeks of the season. Even when you lost that Superbowl to Green Bay, you did it without ripping out my heart. I really do appreciate all you do. So I hope you'll understand as I live and die with Olde Towne Team. Don't be hurt. You know I'll come back in November, every Sunday, just you and me.
And this season, full of promise in your defense of the title, I will try. I'll try to tune in games 1-16. I'll remember Tom Brady's stats and everything. I'll try. Starting tonight, when you open the season in Foxboro, I'll be there for you, watching, screaming, gasping. Most of the time. The Sox play at 10, so there will be some switching. It's the best I can do. I really do love you. Go get them Colts.
Your loyal fan,
Bil
Oh boy, this is going to the top of my reading list:
The Daily Show presents America (the Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
Cheeky, irreverent and playfully ingenuous, this abbreviated history of democracy is everything one would expect from the writers of Comedy Central's fake news program, which recently (and somewhat scandalously) won the Television Critics Association's award for outstanding news and public affairs series. The book is laid out like a textbook, with "Discussion Questions" ("Why do you think the Framers made the Constitution so soul-crushingly boring?"), "Classroom Activities" ("Using felt and yarn, make a hand puppet of Clarence Thomas. Ta-da! You're Antonin Scalia!") and plenty of amusing graphics, including a board game that resembles the game Life but which follows a presidential term: "Optimistic press release on economy ineffective. Spin again."
I had a nice day all planned out today that included getting up early, attending a noon meeting of the Capital Center Commission downtown, then seeing Howard Dean speak at Brown at 4pm. The last part of my plan didn't work out so well. After the CCC thing, I killed some time reading in a downtown coffee shop then trudged up College Hill to Brown. I got to the main quad thirty minutes before Dean was supposed to speak. What greeted me was a line of about 100 people (I found out later that the auditorium was already full at that point and we were all waiting in vain).
So that sucked. I guess I'll just have to read about it tomorrow.
Sheila Lennon had a link for me today to satisfy my Dean jones, though. Check out
this interview, it's pretty interesting.
You probably didn't notice, but election day is next Tuesday. Well, the primary election, at least. You'll want to read David Grenier's post about
why primary voting is so important. We like to focus on the presidential race, but in many cases local officials have a greater impact on your daily life.
Rhode Island's primary is this coming Tuesday, September 14th. The most intriguing local race to watch on that day will be to see whether the
Great Union Disaffiliation will be successful in ousting Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey. There's really no excuse for a Cranston resident not to vote on that one. Another primary race that bears watching is Pawtucket's 59th RI House district, where J. Patrick O'Neill is looking to unseat former speaker John Harwood. Mr. O'Neill left a
comment for everyone here.
Closer to (my) home, a non-partisan primary for Warwick school committee will be held next Tuesday. This means that no matter which party primary* you choose to vote in you can still vote for school committee. There are seven candidates for two spots, so the top four vote getters will square off in November. I mention this mostly because the mother of one of my friends from high school is running. I'll vouch for Lucille Mota-Costa being exactly the kind of school committee member we need. She's always been concerned with quality education for as long as I've known her, and she doesn't put up with any crap. If you're voting in Warwick, I heartily urge you to check off her name. Here's a list of
the other candidates.
If DG's post didn't convince you of the importance of primary voting, think about this: your vote counts even more because primaries have lower turnout. In 2002, the statewide turnout for the primary races was under 23%. In the Republican primary in Cranston, only 1,879 out of 36,092 eligible voters (5.2%) went to the polls. You can check your town
here.
As for the technical stuff: you have to be already registered in the district/town/ward that you want to vote it. It's too late to register for the primaries (still time for the general election, though!!) To vote in a Republican primary you must be a registered Republican or an unaffiliated voter. Registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters can vote in a Democratic primary, and registered Greens and UVs can vote in the Green primary.
I'll remind everyone again, of course, but pencil in some time next Tuesday to get your vote on. To paraphrase the Bush twins, it's, like, important and stuff.
*I called the Warwick Board of Canvassers to confirm this, and I was told that there wasn't really any contested primaries going on, since the guy challenging Jim Langevin had withdrawn (I can't find any confirmation of this, though). I asked about the
Green Party mayoral primary, and "oh yeah, there's that one, too."
I can't believe Bil hasn't posted about the
gut wrenching milestone reached yesterday in Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.). Can you picture one thousand families reeling from the loss of a loved one in a hell-hole thousands of miles away? What would the man who sent those men and women to their deaths say? Something like this?
No, seriously, the terrorists are really getting desperate now. Because they hate freedom. We're turning a corner. Mission Accomplished. No, I mean, Major Combat operations have ended. We have rid Iraq of its potential for someday acquiring weapons of mass destruction related programs. Ba'athist dead-enders are making their last stand. And so are Muqtada al-Sadr's radical insurgents. And so are the ranks of al Qaeda who, since Saddam's ouster, now have another place to operate with relative impunity. To them we say, Bring it on.
Check out this liberal media biased
chart. It doesn't even say that Saddam threw babies against the wall!
Now let's see how many knuckleheads out there will read this and think I'm committing treason and stabbing our troops in the back. Holding leaders to account for their awful policies isn't treason; it's patriotism.
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