In the last few weeks or so, it's become clear that "THE SURGE" may not be all that McCain/Bush made it out to be. General Petraues may not be the genius everyone thought.
The real reduction in violence was supplied by you and I, the American taxpayer, in the form of bribes. We payed off Sadr for a cease-fire, we paid off the Sunni's to stop the civil war and oppose the Iraqi formed al-Qaeda, and we've paid zillions to the Iraqi government which runs the Badr Brigades (and is pretty much run by Iran) the other main militia in Iraq.
So, like an episode from the Sopranos, we must have missed a payoff this week and people got pissed. What kind of money is it going to take to make these people stop fighting? How long will our tax money be taxed by Iraqi militias? I don't think that quagmire has ever been as appropriate as now.
What to do? Keep bribing? It's fucked. Back out? That's fucked too. We're fucked ten ways till Tuesday. Our bumbling ignoramus president brought about our downfall, and it appears that we will elect his step-brother.
McCain's rhetoric is wrong (retreat, and all that), but his basic principle, in my opnion, is right: we started all this this shit, regardless of right or wrong, and if we back out it's going to be anarchy (and the British retreat in Basra will serve as the object lesson). Al-Qaeda is our enemy. They were not in Iraq before the war but they are now. The only reason Sunnis are opposing them now is because were paying bribes. If we, and our bribes, leave, then they have a new safe-haven. We can shift troops to Afghanistan, but then Al-Qaeda will just go to Iraq. We're fucked of our own doing.
Anyone have any good solutions?
I read something very interesting the other day about the Iraq conflict that expresses just how motherfucked we are. I believe it was said by shitass number one, Ahmed Chalabi, who probably had more to do with getting us into this mess than we realize. He said something along the lines of this: your best friend is allied with your enemy, and your enemy is allied with your best friend.
To translate: He said something along the lines of this: your best friend (elected shiite Maliki government) is allied with your enemy (Iran) , and your enemy (Al-Qaeda) is allied with your best friend (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt).
Blech.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Lambert's
I went to Lambert's on White Settlement for lunch on Friday. It was great. I was with someone who hates Grady Spears with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns, and this person had nothing but compliments. I always thought a club sandwich was a club sandwich, but they've got something up there that absolutely transcends the description. I had a delicious prime-rib sandwich with havarti and horseradish, with some arugula. It was accompanied by some pretty delicious fries; as it happens they make all their fries, chips, and bread there from scratch.
I'd pretty much written of this location as cursed, when so many previous occupants have failed. These guys might have something. Parking is a bitch, so it's handy that they have a valet alternative. It's not terribly expensive at lunch however. The sandwiches are all under 10 bucks, and when coupled with a $2 iced tea is not that bad a deal for this quality. We didn't settle for iced teas, of course, and had four bottles from a very limited wine list. We also sampled all five items from the appetizer menu and all were deemed good. Corn muffins were abundant and tasty.
You should know, in case you order the queso as an appetizer, that the accompanying peppers are serranos, not jalapenos. One of the members of our party made this mistake and learned an invaluable lesson.
I'd pretty much written of this location as cursed, when so many previous occupants have failed. These guys might have something. Parking is a bitch, so it's handy that they have a valet alternative. It's not terribly expensive at lunch however. The sandwiches are all under 10 bucks, and when coupled with a $2 iced tea is not that bad a deal for this quality. We didn't settle for iced teas, of course, and had four bottles from a very limited wine list. We also sampled all five items from the appetizer menu and all were deemed good. Corn muffins were abundant and tasty.
You should know, in case you order the queso as an appetizer, that the accompanying peppers are serranos, not jalapenos. One of the members of our party made this mistake and learned an invaluable lesson.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Reader Creativity Contest
A Special Award awaits the reader who can most creatively explain the following two sentences (source article here):
A scheme that trades one male status symbol for another has achieved a large rise in the number of men undergoing vasectomies in a bandit-ridden region of central India.
Shivpuri district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, an overpopulated area renowned for its machismo culture, has started to offer fast-tracked gun licences for those who agree to be sterilised.
A scheme that trades one male status symbol for another has achieved a large rise in the number of men undergoing vasectomies in a bandit-ridden region of central India.
Shivpuri district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, an overpopulated area renowned for its machismo culture, has started to offer fast-tracked gun licences for those who agree to be sterilised.
Tactical vs. Strategic
In the current debate about the effectiveness of "THE SURGE" in Iraq, I think an important point is being missed. As anyone that's ever taken an management course knows, there's a big difference between tactical and strategic plans. GW Bush, our first MBA president, from Harvard no less, should know the difference:
Tactical thinking focuses on means and narrow ends, not global ends, and sees things through a relatively short time period. It is narrow in scope, and affects few functional areas.
Strategic thinking employs tactics. There is a parent-child relationship where a strategy seeks the end; and tactics provide the means to that end. Strategic thinking is broad and has a long time horizon.
The "end" that we are talking about is a stable Iraq with political reconciliation. The Bush folks have enunciated this end in many various ways throughout our five years of war, but with respect to "THE SURGE", they did what any proper businessperson would do. They established benchmarks and timetables (to evaluate the accomplishment of these benchmarks.) This is Management 101...you can't manage what you can't measure.
The tactics employed were a combination of military ("THE SURGE") financial assistance, and diplomatic efforts to effect accomplishment of 18 goals (the strategic "end"). All of this was beat to death in the press right after the 2007 SOTU speech with the promise being that we'd have concrete evidence of results in the early summer of that year.
Well, the deadline was extended into September (which might have got me fired as a project manager). And when Petraeus and Crocker reported back to the government in September, only a couple of the 18 goals that had been promised to the American taxpayers to be complete months before had been accomplished. September was six months ago and there is still very minor progress on those 18 goals that were layed out after the SOTU speech in January of 2007.
This can been seen only as a massive strategic failure.
Yet, the government and Republican nominee have been shouting from the hilltops about the success of "THE SURGE". Let me remind you that "THE SURGE" was but one tactic employed to achieve those 18 goals, two or three of which may have been accomplished. Other tactics were dimplomacy and financial assistance.
But yes, violence is down, and there has been an achievement of a narrow end. This narrow end was but one component for accomplishment of the strategic end. Reduce violence so that the government can achieve reconciliation. The politicians claim that "THE SURGE" has been a success. As more and more information filters out from the Iraqi morass, it seems the "financial assistance" may deserve more credit that "THE SURGE". I've heard more and more that the additional US troops have helped a little, but the bribes we've been paying to former militia are helping much more. All the while the US economy heads for recession. We're paying blood money to keep people peaceful. That does not sound like a lasting peace.
But yet again, the goalposts have been moved. Instead of admitting that the strategic end of the 18 goals declared in January 2007 has been a failure, we're being told that one component...one tactic of the overall strategy worked. McCain has taken this as his clarion call for election. But the questionable success of one tactic does not make a strategic victory.
Suppose I were to introduce a new line of shoes. I had a marketing person with a brilliant campaign where people flocked to stores to check out the shoes. Yet when people tried the shoes on they were uncomfortable and did not buy them. The performance of the marketing person is superior (tactics), but the performance of the offering is terrible (strategy). (We could have paid them money to wear the shoes, but how long could we do that without going broke?)
Basically, John McCain and George Bush are running around telling everyone that "THE SURGE" worked, but we didn't sell any shoes.
Tactical thinking focuses on means and narrow ends, not global ends, and sees things through a relatively short time period. It is narrow in scope, and affects few functional areas.
Strategic thinking employs tactics. There is a parent-child relationship where a strategy seeks the end; and tactics provide the means to that end. Strategic thinking is broad and has a long time horizon.
The "end" that we are talking about is a stable Iraq with political reconciliation. The Bush folks have enunciated this end in many various ways throughout our five years of war, but with respect to "THE SURGE", they did what any proper businessperson would do. They established benchmarks and timetables (to evaluate the accomplishment of these benchmarks.) This is Management 101...you can't manage what you can't measure.
The tactics employed were a combination of military ("THE SURGE") financial assistance, and diplomatic efforts to effect accomplishment of 18 goals (the strategic "end"). All of this was beat to death in the press right after the 2007 SOTU speech with the promise being that we'd have concrete evidence of results in the early summer of that year.
Well, the deadline was extended into September (which might have got me fired as a project manager). And when Petraeus and Crocker reported back to the government in September, only a couple of the 18 goals that had been promised to the American taxpayers to be complete months before had been accomplished. September was six months ago and there is still very minor progress on those 18 goals that were layed out after the SOTU speech in January of 2007.
This can been seen only as a massive strategic failure.
Yet, the government and Republican nominee have been shouting from the hilltops about the success of "THE SURGE". Let me remind you that "THE SURGE" was but one tactic employed to achieve those 18 goals, two or three of which may have been accomplished. Other tactics were dimplomacy and financial assistance.
But yes, violence is down, and there has been an achievement of a narrow end. This narrow end was but one component for accomplishment of the strategic end. Reduce violence so that the government can achieve reconciliation. The politicians claim that "THE SURGE" has been a success. As more and more information filters out from the Iraqi morass, it seems the "financial assistance" may deserve more credit that "THE SURGE". I've heard more and more that the additional US troops have helped a little, but the bribes we've been paying to former militia are helping much more. All the while the US economy heads for recession. We're paying blood money to keep people peaceful. That does not sound like a lasting peace.
But yet again, the goalposts have been moved. Instead of admitting that the strategic end of the 18 goals declared in January 2007 has been a failure, we're being told that one component...one tactic of the overall strategy worked. McCain has taken this as his clarion call for election. But the questionable success of one tactic does not make a strategic victory.
Suppose I were to introduce a new line of shoes. I had a marketing person with a brilliant campaign where people flocked to stores to check out the shoes. Yet when people tried the shoes on they were uncomfortable and did not buy them. The performance of the marketing person is superior (tactics), but the performance of the offering is terrible (strategy). (We could have paid them money to wear the shoes, but how long could we do that without going broke?)
Basically, John McCain and George Bush are running around telling everyone that "THE SURGE" worked, but we didn't sell any shoes.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Pendery's
As I lifelong resident of Fort Worth, I was unfamiliar with the history of Pendery's. I just knew it was one of the best smelling stores I've ever entered and our ouside freezer is full of the familiar bags of spices and blends.
Pendery's is a spice merchant extraordinaire, specializing in chile blends. They have an excellent catalog, but that is no substitute for the retail store, which has been in FW for 140 years give-or-take in various locations. Check out this article to learn about their history. Or hit their website here.
Pendery's is a spice merchant extraordinaire, specializing in chile blends. They have an excellent catalog, but that is no substitute for the retail store, which has been in FW for 140 years give-or-take in various locations. Check out this article to learn about their history. Or hit their website here.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Temporary Gas
I think the most important thing that I took out of the podcast about gas (below) is how short the shelf-life it. We're going to be a natural gas boomtown for 5 to 10 years before they've extracted all of the juice out of the Barnett Shale. And I totally support the ideas of turning the Barnett Shale revenue into a FW that is a center for renewable energy. If we don't capitalize on our our current benefits and attract long-term high-paying jobs along with renewable energy, we're poised to be a ghost town.
Scarce resources gave rise to the term ghost-town. We should heed this warning.
Scarce resources gave rise to the term ghost-town. We should heed this warning.
Heads up for FW Residents
The guys over at West and Clear hosted the attorney for the Trinity Trees case on their weekly podcast. Some of you might remember me jabbering on in their podcast from two weeks ago about national politics. But this time they're focused on the issue of how taxpayers of FW are being cut out of the decision about locations of high-impact natural gas wells. I would encourage all FW citizens to have a listen.
Just go to this site and you'll see a "play" button at the bottom. Click play and you'll listen to a bunch of people who are in the know about drilling in FW, including the attorney for the lady that's fighting a high-impact gas well next to a city park where there was some apparent underhanded dealing.
Just go to this site and you'll see a "play" button at the bottom. Click play and you'll listen to a bunch of people who are in the know about drilling in FW, including the attorney for the lady that's fighting a high-impact gas well next to a city park where there was some apparent underhanded dealing.
Friday, March 14, 2008
How Dumb are Americans? Now With ODDS!
Here's my prediction: somehow, someway, Osamy bin Laden will ENDORSE the Democratic nominee.
We're already seeing signs of it. The Republican Scare the Shit Out of People Machine is at work as it has been in '02, '04, and '06. Didn't McCain say that 9 out of 10 terrorists prefer Obama over McCain or some such? Will the people continue to believe that terrorists are afraid of Republicans but emboldened by Democrats? The Republican Party might as well be considered the recruiting arm of Al Qaeda. Republicans are the Super Bowl team that gurantees a win in the press before the game. They keep guaranteeing victory and terrorists keep posting the clippings on their cave-bulletin boards.
Haven't we seen where all this bipolar victory or death guaranteeing gets us? In a bind, by god. With no leverage, because we've sworn off negotiation or compromise as pure French pussy-ism.
Petraeus came out today and announce the surge has failed. It wasn't reported at all. The goal of the surge was achieve 18 benchmarks, 2 of which have been partially achieved. Republicans like Lindsay Graham (McCain's biggest supporter) were saying when the surge was announced during the 2007 SOTU speech that if these 18 goals weren't met by last summer we'd need to consider pulling out. Well, it's 9 months later and they haven't been met. Petraeus said as much today...the Iraqi government isn't reconciling...the goals that were supposed to be met nine months ago or we had justification for withdrawal, per a hawk ex-military Republican, haven't been met. How does everyone forget this?
But Bush does what he's best at. Moving goalposts. How many times have we "turned the corner", or captured the #3 guy. The worst job in the world is Al-Qaeda's #3, because he's killed once a month. How much smoke can one collective country have blown up its collective ass?
The unspoken collusion between Republicans and Al-Qaeda is so Cold War obvious. It's such a win-win proposition. McCain will guarantee a 1000 year crusade thereby energizing Osamy's base and Osamy will guarantee a 1000 year jihad against America thereby energizing McCain's "security-over-freedom, assault-weapons for all, old people and Red Dawn lovers" base and maybe manage to grab up some evangelical rapturists. Meanwhile we keep funneling half the earth's GDP into Lockheed and Boeing who reciprocate by contributing to all the Republican campaigns. I know Eisenhower's quote is trite now, but the Government-Military Industrial Complex circle jerk has gone off the radar.
And America will, by god, buy it. Hook, line, and sinker. McCain will scare the shit out of everyone, and they'll vote for him, and the circle jerk will remain unbroken.
I'm not willing to make a prediction quite yet (but I'll give the Blogorrhea line later), but I'm feeling like McCain will take Rove's 2000 South Carolina playbook and work the Obama Hussein angle, carefully hidden through proxies and surrogates, and win his necessary eternal war by slime. His VP might be someone with economic chops because the economy has tanked and the Swiss Franc is worth more than a Wasington, but more likely, and much more unfortunately he'll sell himself out to get someone to pull in the Christianists. That timeworn formula has worked too well for too long, especially when you have a Democratic Party irrevocably fractured by Hillary and Bill's scorched-earth path to victory or death.
Despite the incalculable seven-year monotony of stupidity, cronyism, law-breaking, scandals, secrecy, vengeance, division, warmongering, and on and on and on... Blogorrhea has Pachyderms 3-2 over Asses. Odds are likely to rise on the Pachyderms unless Hillary chooses a path other than mutually assured destruction. (as an aside...isn't her campaign enough to disqualify her from any leadership position? The hell with that 35 years load of crap, I've seen enough in the last six months to know she shouldn't be in charge of anything more than a hot dog stand.)
A final plea: Americans, please follow the money. Post cold-war Republicans have realized they NEED terrorism to keep the money flowing into their coffers and the terrorists NEED bellicose Republicans to keep up the flow of recruits. A more peace-minded candidate stagnates terrorist recruiting based on lack of invective (and lack of holy-land invasions), and diminshes trillion dollar wars bought on Chinese credit cards, which is better for the economy.
Ramble Over.
We're already seeing signs of it. The Republican Scare the Shit Out of People Machine is at work as it has been in '02, '04, and '06. Didn't McCain say that 9 out of 10 terrorists prefer Obama over McCain or some such? Will the people continue to believe that terrorists are afraid of Republicans but emboldened by Democrats? The Republican Party might as well be considered the recruiting arm of Al Qaeda. Republicans are the Super Bowl team that gurantees a win in the press before the game. They keep guaranteeing victory and terrorists keep posting the clippings on their cave-bulletin boards.
Haven't we seen where all this bipolar victory or death guaranteeing gets us? In a bind, by god. With no leverage, because we've sworn off negotiation or compromise as pure French pussy-ism.
Petraeus came out today and announce the surge has failed. It wasn't reported at all. The goal of the surge was achieve 18 benchmarks, 2 of which have been partially achieved. Republicans like Lindsay Graham (McCain's biggest supporter) were saying when the surge was announced during the 2007 SOTU speech that if these 18 goals weren't met by last summer we'd need to consider pulling out. Well, it's 9 months later and they haven't been met. Petraeus said as much today...the Iraqi government isn't reconciling...the goals that were supposed to be met nine months ago or we had justification for withdrawal, per a hawk ex-military Republican, haven't been met. How does everyone forget this?
But Bush does what he's best at. Moving goalposts. How many times have we "turned the corner", or captured the #3 guy. The worst job in the world is Al-Qaeda's #3, because he's killed once a month. How much smoke can one collective country have blown up its collective ass?
The unspoken collusion between Republicans and Al-Qaeda is so Cold War obvious. It's such a win-win proposition. McCain will guarantee a 1000 year crusade thereby energizing Osamy's base and Osamy will guarantee a 1000 year jihad against America thereby energizing McCain's "security-over-freedom, assault-weapons for all, old people and Red Dawn lovers" base and maybe manage to grab up some evangelical rapturists. Meanwhile we keep funneling half the earth's GDP into Lockheed and Boeing who reciprocate by contributing to all the Republican campaigns. I know Eisenhower's quote is trite now, but the Government-Military Industrial Complex circle jerk has gone off the radar.
And America will, by god, buy it. Hook, line, and sinker. McCain will scare the shit out of everyone, and they'll vote for him, and the circle jerk will remain unbroken.
I'm not willing to make a prediction quite yet (but I'll give the Blogorrhea line later), but I'm feeling like McCain will take Rove's 2000 South Carolina playbook and work the Obama Hussein angle, carefully hidden through proxies and surrogates, and win his necessary eternal war by slime. His VP might be someone with economic chops because the economy has tanked and the Swiss Franc is worth more than a Wasington, but more likely, and much more unfortunately he'll sell himself out to get someone to pull in the Christianists. That timeworn formula has worked too well for too long, especially when you have a Democratic Party irrevocably fractured by Hillary and Bill's scorched-earth path to victory or death.
Despite the incalculable seven-year monotony of stupidity, cronyism, law-breaking, scandals, secrecy, vengeance, division, warmongering, and on and on and on... Blogorrhea has Pachyderms 3-2 over Asses. Odds are likely to rise on the Pachyderms unless Hillary chooses a path other than mutually assured destruction. (as an aside...isn't her campaign enough to disqualify her from any leadership position? The hell with that 35 years load of crap, I've seen enough in the last six months to know she shouldn't be in charge of anything more than a hot dog stand.)
A final plea: Americans, please follow the money. Post cold-war Republicans have realized they NEED terrorism to keep the money flowing into their coffers and the terrorists NEED bellicose Republicans to keep up the flow of recruits. A more peace-minded candidate stagnates terrorist recruiting based on lack of invective (and lack of holy-land invasions), and diminshes trillion dollar wars bought on Chinese credit cards, which is better for the economy.
Ramble Over.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Kincaid's Under Siege
Gas wells be damned. Put one in my backyard. Just don't take away my Kincaid's. The previous links to a story in the Startlegram about how the slumlords over on Collinwood are trying to stick it to FW burger institution Kincaids. I charge fraud!, blackmail!, extortion!, graft!, usury!, burgernapping! They're trying to charge Kincaid's, the lessee, $10 more per square foot than any building in that area could fetch, while garnishing 6% of the take. Plus the building is grandfathered out of many existing regulations, thus making the retrofit cost skyrocket. This is dangerous game of chicken these blackguards are playing with my beef.
The Anti-Bigfoot Faction
The Anti-Bigfoot crowd has been making a surge in the polls. Now it's tied between those that think a bigfoot could exist an the skeptics out there that are damn sure he/she doesn't. By the way, I take Skeptic magazine, but you might be surprised how I voted. Maybe I'm skeptical of my skepticism sometimes. Although you'd think with all the heat-signature infrared whizbangery we have now, we might be able to detect a ten foot apeman in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest or the Okeefenokee.
Our Romantic President
Check this out regarding Afghanistan:
"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."
"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger..."
When I think Afghanistan, I think romance. As I recall, he had his shot at the romance of bringing democracy to that Gay Paree of the Far East, Vietnam. I guess he just wasn't as romantic back then.
"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."
"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger..."
When I think Afghanistan, I think romance. As I recall, he had his shot at the romance of bringing democracy to that Gay Paree of the Far East, Vietnam. I guess he just wasn't as romantic back then.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
SW to NE Rail Line
From a post by the West and Clear guys, I got clued in to the public meetings about to be held for a southwest to northeast commuter rail line in Fort Worth. It's about time. Basically the line goes from my house to downtown to the airport. How cool is that. So instead of asking my wife to drive me 35 miles to the airport, I can ask her to drive me one block to the station...easily done in PJ's and comfy slippers in about three minutes. Hell, I could even hoof it on a pretty day. It's pathetic that rail transportation isn't prevalent in Texas. We should have TGV's down the 35 and 45 corridors, but I'm sure we can thank the gas lobby for that. This, to me, is a great first step in the right direction.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est La Meme Chose - Au Revoir La "Wire"
I was going to have a big post signifying the end of The Wire, including characters and their Shakespearean or Dickensian analogs. But I'm not that smart about Shakespeare or Dickens, and my greatest hope is that The Wire has great success in the DVD market. It was an amazing run with too many great characters to even mention. I defy those that didn't like season 2, because it made seasons 3-5 possible and turned the show from a street vs. cops drama into a magnum opus with the City of Baltimore as the main character.
To those of you who haven't watched The Wire, rent it. Watch season one, and see if you don't get hooked.
To those of you who haven't watched The Wire, rent it. Watch season one, and see if you don't get hooked.
Spitzer
All I've got is rhetorical questions...
How did this knucklehead think he wasn't going to get caught? He's the most famous white-collar crimefighter in America and now the Governor of NY freakin' State? Think he may have made a few enemies along the way that have the means to get some dope on him? He makes his name busting Wall St. crooks and he doesn't think they will hire a P.I.? Everyone gets caught. How can the hoi polloi think they are so far above the law?
It saddens me that a true crusader against corporate graft gets taken down by his own hubris. I expect it from congressional bribetakers that have always bent over backwards for they corporate chieftans.
And he gets brought down on a wiretap. Word to all that seek to evade the police: watch The Wire, seasons 1-5. The hoppers on the streets of Baltimore are smarter than the Harvard Law educated Governor of New York.
Makes me miss the passing of The Wire even more.
How did this knucklehead think he wasn't going to get caught? He's the most famous white-collar crimefighter in America and now the Governor of NY freakin' State? Think he may have made a few enemies along the way that have the means to get some dope on him? He makes his name busting Wall St. crooks and he doesn't think they will hire a P.I.? Everyone gets caught. How can the hoi polloi think they are so far above the law?
It saddens me that a true crusader against corporate graft gets taken down by his own hubris. I expect it from congressional bribetakers that have always bent over backwards for they corporate chieftans.
And he gets brought down on a wiretap. Word to all that seek to evade the police: watch The Wire, seasons 1-5. The hoppers on the streets of Baltimore are smarter than the Harvard Law educated Governor of New York.
Makes me miss the passing of The Wire even more.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Joe Ely
I hate to take the headline away from more important stories about the election, but I saw the Joe Ely show at Bass Hall tonight. Joe Ely is to me, the best live act I've seen. But Bass Hall ain't his forum...Gruene Hall is better, or a parking lot. But I have to admit I was mesmerized by the first six or seven songs...they were food for my heart, a chance to relax and see a seasoned master at his work. We lucked out and got some last minute seats in a box right on the curve between stage right and dead center. Problem was, the box stageside was populated about six songs in by a couple who had neither bought box seats, cared about the show, or cared about anybody that cared about the show. They spoke at high volume throughout the balance of the show, driving me to near fever pitch. Were it not for my wife (who is not known as a patient sort), I was ready to throw down. I went to seek ushers and none were around such was their disrespect. My wife asked them to pipe down and they seemed to wear hear reproach as a badge of honor and kept on yakking. My fury was honed to a sharp blade by the time the show ended and I was ready to turn into American Yakuza. However my wife kept me from this.
All in all, I hate people that have no respect.
All in all, I hate people that have no respect.
Jim Crow or a Metaphor of Modern Life?
If you haven't read my report from my caucus, please read it below before reading this.
I've been reading the stories of the caucus catastrophes and stories of the pure Jeffersonian bliss experienced by FW'ers yesterday. I'm struck by how the chaotic stories tend to happen in minority rich areas (like mine) and the Jeffersonian stories are from predominantly white areas. I've received feedback about how nobody in my precinct knew how to run a caucus, a fact that was self-evident to everybody waiting in that line last night. And that if we had people that were experienced, it would have run better. I don't know about that because the facilities we were given were not suited to the crowd that showed up. There would have had to have been outdoor heaters, PA systems, hundreds of chairs, etc.
After thinking about it, it just appears like another situation where people don't allocate resources or planning for minorities (see Katrina.) It was my first caucus and I could have been, and should have been, trained up on caucusing. But I was just as bewildered as fellow line-standers. Had I been fully trained, I would have needed an army of people and a facility ten times bigger to deal with the crowd.
Hundreds of people in our precinct were told to caucus where you voted, even if you voted early. The S-T printed that. It wasn't true. If you voted early at place x, you likely caucused at place y.
I can guess how it appeared to the folks in the crowd that remembered Jim Crow. Short-end again. The man ain't letting us vote. These are sentiments I heard many times while standing in line, and I don't blame them because I had the same feelings, minus 150-300 years of disenfranchisement.
So was my experience just a witnessing of classic Jim Crow voter suppression? I don't think so. I think it's more endemic of modern life, where the minorities and the lower classes always seem to end up with less resources and less education than the rest. Were there not enough people that knew how to run a caucus? Apparently there were plenty in lilly-white precincts where Jeffersonian democracy prevailed. There damn sure weren't any in my precinct, which was probably 50% black, 20% latino, and 20% white. I guess it's just like schools, though, no good teachers and no proper resources where they are needed most.
Seems like we continue to provide the most help to those who need it least, and provide the least help to those who need it most.
I've been reading the stories of the caucus catastrophes and stories of the pure Jeffersonian bliss experienced by FW'ers yesterday. I'm struck by how the chaotic stories tend to happen in minority rich areas (like mine) and the Jeffersonian stories are from predominantly white areas. I've received feedback about how nobody in my precinct knew how to run a caucus, a fact that was self-evident to everybody waiting in that line last night. And that if we had people that were experienced, it would have run better. I don't know about that because the facilities we were given were not suited to the crowd that showed up. There would have had to have been outdoor heaters, PA systems, hundreds of chairs, etc.
After thinking about it, it just appears like another situation where people don't allocate resources or planning for minorities (see Katrina.) It was my first caucus and I could have been, and should have been, trained up on caucusing. But I was just as bewildered as fellow line-standers. Had I been fully trained, I would have needed an army of people and a facility ten times bigger to deal with the crowd.
Hundreds of people in our precinct were told to caucus where you voted, even if you voted early. The S-T printed that. It wasn't true. If you voted early at place x, you likely caucused at place y.
I can guess how it appeared to the folks in the crowd that remembered Jim Crow. Short-end again. The man ain't letting us vote. These are sentiments I heard many times while standing in line, and I don't blame them because I had the same feelings, minus 150-300 years of disenfranchisement.
So was my experience just a witnessing of classic Jim Crow voter suppression? I don't think so. I think it's more endemic of modern life, where the minorities and the lower classes always seem to end up with less resources and less education than the rest. Were there not enough people that knew how to run a caucus? Apparently there were plenty in lilly-white precincts where Jeffersonian democracy prevailed. There damn sure weren't any in my precinct, which was probably 50% black, 20% latino, and 20% white. I guess it's just like schools, though, no good teachers and no proper resources where they are needed most.
Seems like we continue to provide the most help to those who need it least, and provide the least help to those who need it most.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Bad Caucus Experience
Having never participated in a caucus, I was looking forward to rockin' out with my caucus out. However, I was sorely disappointed by the nexus of chaos that was the Southwest Sub-Courthouse. Talk about voting irregularities. I haven't had time to fully digest what I experienced, and therefore cannot even attempt to form cogent analysis. So I can only present you with some observations:
An election official named Gene Cates provided what appears to be misinformation leading to potential disenfranchisement of voters. Former city manager Charles Boswell can confirm as the following was spoken directly to his face about five people in front of me. I paraphrase Cates: if voters didn't stay on-site for the actual election of delegates after they signed in, their votes would not count.
An election official named Gene Cates provided what appears to be misinformation leading to potential disenfranchisement of voters. Former city manager Charles Boswell can confirm as the following was spoken directly to his face about five people in front of me. I paraphrase Cates: if voters didn't stay on-site for the actual election of delegates after they signed in, their votes would not count.
This appears to directly contradict the Texas Election Code Section 174.022 (c) which says: If...participants have signed in, any participant who wishes to leave may do so and their sign in WILL count toward the delegate allocation for each candidate.
Not only do Cates' statements appear to be wrong, it would have been logistically impossible for the hundreds, maybe up to a thousand people to wait for the three hours in a heated area. I saw groups of people leave after hearing this message. The workers behind the table were telling each participant the opposite...that they were welcome to stay but did not have to. This was terribly irregular, and it must have been very disappointing for first time voters. Some voters would have to wait in line for at least an hour and in many cases much longer to receive this message. Cates was sending surrogates (other voters) to spread the "your vote wont count unless you hang around for three more hours" message to the incredibly long lines of participants waiting to sign in.
Additionally, the scene completely lacked order. They were running out of sign-in sheets and people were rushing around to make copies. Lines were around the building, and it wasn't until I'd been waiting for about 30 minutes that somebody told us there was a much shorter line for my precinct. There was no signage and such a severe shortage of precinct workers that people were being pulled out of the crowd to work behind the tables checking names and addresses.
Obviously, very disappointing, and I hate the effect that this must have had on the high percentage of voters that have been energized by this amazing election where we will have an African-American or female Democratic nominee.
Turnout Problems?
Voted today. No line. In and out quick. Nobody at the Republican table. Four or five folks at the Dem table. Weather is always the big variable in primaries and last night's snow could have scared people in.
Podcasting Debut
I was a guest contributor to this week's West and Clear Podcast. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm really hoping Pete edited out some of my more nervous moments where my way with words was, er, compromised at best...stumbling and incoherent at worst.
I really want to thank Pete, Steve-O, and Kevin for letting me check things out from the other side of the microphone.
I really want to thank Pete, Steve-O, and Kevin for letting me check things out from the other side of the microphone.
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