| Celebration of Poe, Caucus Races, Cloverfield and Cunning Moves |
[jan. 20e, 2008|02:45 pm] |
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jyo74mhvMgfw4JSX51A63Hp5WksQD8U915OO0
The Poe Toaster returns for another year. Happy Birthday to Poe. I would like to be part of the crowd watching that eventually.
Yesterday was the Nevada Caucus. Since my day was more or less clear (the business of a class was and still is up in the air as far as I'm concerned- I'm just not going in ever again), I thought it would be a pleasant way to spend a couple hours and feel like I was involved in the US Political process. And how! Of course- it made me think of Alice in Wonderland's caucus race...
`What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone, `was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.'
`What is a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
`Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.' (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One, two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, `But who has won?'
Who has won?
Before we went, I had my dad read this and we laughed. I had a sneaking suspicion that the caucus would be like this, somewhat. So- my dad and I went to the local high school and got in line to sign in. This took 45 minutes since there was 193 people from my precinct (there are 2000 or so in the one I'm in...1200 Republicans and 400 Democrats and the rest are not important in the eyes of the two parties) rather than the 78 they'd projected and printed cards for. After much corralling, we got in line and ready to go caucus. My dad and I got a piece of printer paper since they'd run out of ballots and we went into the theater where our precinct was meeting.
After another while the time came to caucus. We all separated into our groups and I went to Dennis Kucinich's camp. I've spent the last few days studying the main Democratic cancidates and I have found that Kucinich is an actual Democrat- he voted against the war, he's against NAFTA and the WTO, I like his idea of the Department of Peace and many of the rest of his positions. I decided to caucus for Dennis Kucinich...and my dad came along too. The people who ran the caucus determined that for a candidate to be viable there had to be at least 29 people for him...and Dennis Kucinich only had 14, even before the first count. Instead of sticking to our guns and staying for Dennis Kucinich, most of the people for him went to Edwards or Obama. I went to Obama, who I feel is the only Democrat who would be able to beat the Republicans and was my second choice. But I was never able to mark down my first choice
Then- the first count was made and Obama had 96, Clinton had 65 and Edwards had 32. Just like everywhere else, there were more voting against Clinton than for her. Obama won our precinct and all of Washoe County as well.
The Statewide results here
The ONLY reason why Clinton won was she won in Vegas...she lost nearly everywhere else or just barely won. If Clinton is the Democratic candidate I won't vote for her...or it will be at least a vote that will be very hard to make. For me, she represents the past and a return to what was...I think we need someone who is new and has new ideas like Kucinich or Obama.
But, with people like Huckabee (a great article all about why Huckabee is a nut and making Republicans rethink the whole religious connection) and Romney ( All about Romney and how his former company, Bain Capital has made money by laying off people and off-shoring everything)) and McCain ( McCain has voted for everything Bush the Lesser has and he's no different on any issues than Bush), even Hillary might be better...I don't know. Yet again, no one who truly represents what my political beliefs
For dinner, my dad and I went to the Santa Fe Basque Restaurant, which is great and had a good time. I love Picon Punch and they have a great one. It was fun.
Cloverfield. A brilliant B-movie. It is pure bulldada- a good badmovie. 7.5/10 only because of the damn shaky camera- the actors were good and the special effects were fine and the monster was amazing. The gratuitous 9/11 shot of the oncoming cloud was freaky and possibly in bad taste. To be fair though the first act of the movie was a bad soap opera until the "earthquake" hit, and the movie didn't answer any of the questions and the last bit at the end of the movie...interesting there just might be a sequel and I'd welcome that.
Other Recent Movies
The Company of Wolves 9/10
An amazing werewolf/fairy tale movie but far more than that since the movie has so many levels it can be read on, it is very much worth multiple viewings.
The Great Gatsby 1949 6/10
Nothing like the novel- The Great Gatsby could be made into a really, really good movie. Alan Ladd as Gatsby was all right but the story and everything put up around him was silly. The best part was seeing Howard da Silva as George Wilson and Shelley Winters as Myrtle Wilson. Only marginally better than the 1974 version and it's too bad the silent version is missing.
I just got back from a bike ride and as I rode through the park next door to our house, I saw a coyote passing through. It went from the middle of the park over to the drainage ditch for a drink of water, then ran across the street to the gated community across the road. I've never seen a coyote around here during the day, so it must mean that winter's returning.
It looks like getting a PS3 was a good idea too...
Go Giants! |
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