Bukowski's Muse

Awesome.

2008-03-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

David Lee Roth "Runnin' With The Devil" Vocal Track
Highlights: 1:26, the train whistle at 1:56 and the hard rockin' beginning at 3:01 which by 3:04 leaves him winded.

It's only teen age wasteland

2007-08-30T20:13:00.001-07:00

Top 3 songs to listen to while watching that:
Lou Reed, Perfect Day
The Who, Baba O'Riley
Time After Time, Cindi Lauper (Featuring Sarah McLachlan. This may seem arbitrary, but really it's sort of important to the experience of this animated .gif. The duet speaks to a lesbian-experimentation-gone-awry-hands-and-feet-under-the-table-at-the-PTA-meeting-but-we-were-outed-and-now-have-been-driven-apart-by-the-media sort of thing)

2007-08-30T19:59:00.001-07:00

2007-08-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

Ever drink so much it actually makes you wake up earlier? I can't sleep right now and I've no idea why. I should be asleep. I feel like maybe the Tikka Massala did something to me last night--made me stronger somehow--better--more resistant to toxins.

Gupta, what did you put on my chicken? What oriental witchery have you wrought upon me!?? Seriously though. Doesn't some indian food have the look of like radioactive waste? Like the shit that made the TNMT?

Somebody check me on this. I was describing Filipino food to a friend yesterday and I said that Filipino food is to Asia as English food is to Europe: everything is either boiled or fried. Except for pancit, which is actually boiled noodles which are then fried. Was I right about that? I can't think of a single entree that's broiled or pan-seared.

I have a news ticker running, and it just occurred to me that I haven't been following this mine thing in Utah. And it makes me wonder what else I'm missing. This job has the odd effect of turning you off to everything that isn't within your immediate actionable radar or, even sadder, part of the calculus of reelection. For this reason I'm actually farther away from what I want to deal with (foreign policy) and closer to those things which I'm maybe kind of not that interested in (agriculture and the environment).

I am getting a good mix of policy though and that was really the goal. I miss writing though. Id really like to get back into it. Oh, I write plenty now, but it's all crappy, hurried, antiseptic memo shit or (and this is the worst) bullshit letters where I affect the voice of my employer. Where I say things like "I wish upon you a strengthful return to...blah blah blah" STRENGTHFUL? I'm serious. This has happened. That's not even a fucking word, bitch! What're you Warren Harding? Actualy hahha I think this is what he has in mind when he asks me to write crap like this: dissatisfied by the lexicon of commoners, Congressman X develops his own language--one more suited to convey his high-minded ideals and revolutionary theories of policy. Thus, may I present to you the most recent editions to the new language of change:

Strengthful. Competitioners. Infocrease. Durple. (okay this last one's still in the testing stages and has not been deployed in any official correspondence)

Gun Control

2007-04-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

An argument against...

An argument for...

Associated Press: "One law enforcement official said Cho's backpack contained a receipt for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Cho held a green card, meaning he was a legal, permanent resident, federal officials said. That meant he was eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony."

Yep.

2007-04-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

So I'm getting off my ass and posting some stuff I'd written over the past couple of months...Enjoy. (Or don't. I always thought it was a little weird and presumptuous when people prefaced something they've prepared or created with that. "enjoy") Whatever.

Enjoy.

February 25, 2007

There’s a saying in retail that goes something like, "the more you talk, the less you make.” The actual idiom is far catchier than that, but the upshot is this: To sell to the public, be it telephones or timeshares, you have to sort of halt the stampede of thoughts and choices in a customer’s head by reigning in his field of vision and telling him what’s good for him and what’s not—keeping the length of your sales pitch in proportion with the customer’s presumed attention span, while using keeshond appropriate tones and grammar.

For example, you go to the Good Guys to buy a cordless phone. Without a sales person, you’re struck immediately by the choices in front of you: fifty, maybe sixty phones on display. A good salesperson—as suggested by the idiom—will, as a courtesy, ask you what you want in a phone, then take the mind numbing array of choices and boil them down to two models: the one he wants to sell you and one that only reinforces that choice by typifying the competition. When he chooses correctly, he’s rewarded with affirmation either verbally (“great choice”) or, for the truly skilled sales person, materially via undocumented accessories from the last inventory, (“don’t worry about the extra battery. That’s between you and me.”)

From the seller’s standpoint, this is good stuff. It capitalizes on the conventional wisdom that if given the choice between having to think and not, people will choose not. Republicans have done well to incorporate this into its policy shilling. Democrats haven’t. But I think this is a good thing.

Whether you think it’s a linguistics game , or capitalizing on some latent mid-western backlash against intellectual, non-patriot hippies , Republicans have perfected this notion of throwing thumbtacks at Americans’dual Achille’s heels: their attention spans and, well, literacy.

I bring this up now because here we are, three months after the Democrats have taken control of congress, and they still seem to be entirely incapable of framing a debate or breaking away from the nagging image of being ginormous pussies who do nothing but play call and response with Republicans at every rhetorical turn.

Democrats are selling to Americans out of the Republican training book and it just doesn’t work for them.

For example, the administration has dubbed its current troop increase a “surge”. As innocuous as this seems, rhetorically, it does the job they want. “Surge” conjures purpose, control, power—all the good stuff that Americans want to hear after realizing, and consequently voting against, the policy bumble-fuck in Iraq. But rather than take the high road and move away from Republican rhetoric, Dems did what they always do which is to incorporate it into their own Lonely Planet phrase books. The result is powerhouse phrases like “surge of caring” ala Carl Levin, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, or “surge of diplomacy” ala presidential hopeful, Barak Obama. It’s embarrassing. Fuck conventional wisdom. Sell on your own terms.

Going back to Carl Levin, he’s a smart guy who’s clearly had some experience with thorough explication (Swarthmore and Harvard, civil rights attorney, assistant attorney general for Michigan). But when he clearly and decisively explains his stance on Iraq (that he’s against abandoning presently deployed troops and that he wants to see a greater emphasis on training than combat), then ends the interview with the phrase “surge of caring”, different topic or not, people will walk away from their TV’s singing “surge of caring” to a Gershwin melody and continue to see Dems as weak on defense, security and foreign policy.

Don’t give it to them Carl. Don’t give them the soundbite. Make a concerted effort to speak in complete sentences, and give us all the options. Tell us why caller ID is necessary. Convince us to go with the 2.4ghz model over the 1.2 (Is this even still a feature? I haven't bought a phone in forever). Force the media into more comprehensive coverage of your remarks. If you do, you’ll find that Americans will be receptive to it. At least I think so.

We live in a security state. 9-11 isn’t that far from people’s minds. Look at the way Boston handled the Light-Bright thing for god’s sake. You can’t expect a city that stopped working because of the Cartoon Network to be at all comforted by leaders that use phrases like “surge of caring.”

But beyond rhetoric there’s action, legislative action. And, again...hea cum da Pussy Parade ,waving from atop a hundred-foot tall, non-binding-resolution float. I sort of get the idea of presenting Americans with an ideological consensus, but you can do that while introducing a measure with some teeth, can’t you? Why not go straight into Jack Murtha’s plan? Or the new Biden/Levin Plan? Instead, the headline people get is that the Democratic led Senate can’t get passed a debate on how to debate—all this to pass a measure that does nothing but flaccidly state opposition to the troop increase. It’s like the guy that makes a big show of taking off his coat and glasses in a street fight only to get his ass kicked while his arm’s caught in the sleeve. They got beaten without throwing a punch, when they should have entered congress the way you’re supposed to enter prison; kicking the shit out of the biggest guy in the cell block.

Democrats didn’t take back the Legislature because of what they had to offer, but because of what they didn’t—namely, page-groping, ethics-violating, invariable deference to an incompetent administration. And to get back to my point, Dems had better start selling substantive legislation with meaningful rhetoric and stop using second-hand Republican bubble wrap, or, come '08, they’re liable to get their sales returned.

In Moooohamad We Trust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

My favorite part of this is his suggestion that escalating sectarian violence, encouraged by the House's non-binding resolution, could result in the mass immigration of Iraqis into the United States.

Top 3 shows I kind of wish I'd started watching when they first came on, and are now so far along that just beginning to watch them seems kind of pointless.

1) 24
2) The Wire
3) Lost (sort of)

2007-02-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Back to Boston

2007-01-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

On the Mass Pike back to Boston. Actually, Franklin which is maybe forty-five minutes west of Boston. I was supposed to be signing W-2’s today, but I’m not taking the job. Instead, we’re visiting K’s sister and niece. I am incredibly disappointed. About the job, that is. Her niece is great.

In the last week,I’ve been counseled by maybe a half-dozen people. Some in politics and some just Boston residents. But all of whom have been incredibly candid and objective and great. Thanks guys. I just don’t have the experience here to know how bad the potential for damage is. The conclusion I’ve come to is this: Subpoenas and blacklists aside, the job (and indeed any other job I’ve had a lead on at the state level here) doesn’t necessarily bring me any closer to foreign policy, and so to take the risk of being shored up in Boston with no allies and no fall back position sort of doesn’t make any sense. Take that and add to it the fact that I have a federal position waiting for me at home, and there you go. Makes more sense to stay.

This isn’t to say that I’m in the Bay Area forever (as I’ve told myself over and over again in the past week). It just means that I need to sit tight until something opens up, all the while allowing my resume to gestate under Congressman X. Ugh. In any case BU’s JD/Foreign Policy program is still on the agenda. So either way, I’m shipping up to Boston at some point.

Which reminds me: Top 3 soundtracks of 2006.

1)Children of Men
2)The Departed
3)Pick of Destiny. Which I haven’t seen, but understand it’s better than a Citizen Kane.

Dead Bugs as an Omen

2007-01-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

12 hours ago, two Gibson’s deep, in front of a plate of stout-marinated London Broil, I was completely certain—indeed giddy—over finally accepting a position in Boston.

A progressive, incumbent senator was beginning her umpteenth term with a staff overhaul. Her team was still largely incomplete, save her Chief of Staff and Scheduler. But she came one step closer to that completion yesterday morning when I agreed to be her Legislative Director.

I was busting. It was perfect. Her legislative record was amazing, substantive, and incredibly irreverent to long-established cultural conventions. I would sleep soundly at night with my soul intact and uncompromised. I was busting. It was perfect…for about eight hours—until I was made privy to Senator Wilkersson’s fucking rap sheet.

Fucking fuck.

As we were leaving dinner at the Troy Pub, K got a message from her oldest friend who, coincidentally, is a Boston/Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney. “Neat,” I thought, “My first Bostonian congratulation”.

“Has Dennis done his research?” she asked. “Is he certain he wants this association?” she continued. “The senator is not well liked. The senator is a felon.”

I was floored. Yes, I’d done a check on her but only a perfunctory one. Fuck! I sent out like a million resumes. I didn’t think to check with Dog The Bounty Hunter for each dickhead legislator I rang for work. FUCK

I looked, primarily, at two things: legislative and voting records and November election margins. I’m not crazy right? That seems like a reasonable way to gauge your boss, doesn’t it? Where does he stand on things and do people like him? Next candidate.

We sped home. I had to find out for myself what the hell the senator’s story was. I have yet to determine whether what I found was good or bad. I’m still parsing all of the info out.

Chew on this though. Jesus.

Musica del ano 2006

2007-01-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

Still no snow. But there’s ice. Lots and lots of ice.

And it’s cold. Like painful cold. Not like Tahoe Cold (which I use interchangeably now with Pussy Cold), but two-pairs-of-pants, worry-about-birds-and-homeless-people-cold. Without the snow, there’s nothing charming about it. It’s just cold.

On a brighter note, all the ice has resulted in two phenomenal, really show-stopping falls from Karen (one down a flight of cement stairs without spilling her coffee and one at the shore of a lake which resulted in her shoe flying off.) There’s nothing like seeing loved ones lose their balance.

2006 was pretty good for music. I like the new Neil Diamond a lot and the new Ben Kweller. Cat Stevens’ album (I don’t give a fuck what your name is now. You’re CAT STEVENS and you sing about Saturday nights) is good if only for the fact that his 20-year performance hiatus has preserved his voice perfectly.

I’m gonna say that my favorite album was How We Operate, Gomez. Buy it. Say whatever you want about Dave Matthews, but his label consistently signs quality. Gomez’ single compendium came out this year too. It’s gerdness goes without saying.

The new Incubus was boring—monotonous and over-produced. I think the same goes for the new Strokes. Did U2 put anything out this year? If they did, I’m sure it was shit too. They’re the only band I can think of whose music has devolved over the course of its career. From Sunday Bloody Sunday to It’s a Beautiful Day. Pretty pathetic.

What else came out? Oh right! Thom Yorke’s album. So good. The Radiohead stuff that was leaked this year was awesome too. If you haven’t heard it, make it a point to: The Heineken Arena Show.

The Beatles’ Love thing was HORRIBLE. George Martin just needs to stop. Whenever people argue with me about the importance and influence of George Martin on the Beatles’ music, all I do is ask them to take a listen to some of the other stuff he’s produced. Oh, wait. Can’t think of any? My point exactly.

Hahahha As I’m writing this, there’s a cat with asthma humping my knee. Wheez wheez purr purr. Hahah Crazy.

Which reminds me, Doug The Sage suggested I check out Regina Spektor and I’m suggesting the same to you. I like Samson and so does this cat. It's making his little cat balls swell with the syncopations of her piano work. The Sage once said all of Coldplay's music sounds the same as their first single. I don't think that's true, do you? I think they maybe rely on the same instrumentation and production a little too much, but otherwise it's pretty varied.

This is what happens when you fall asleep with headphones on. I’m going back to bed. More soon. Lot’s of job update stuff that I have to sort through. Got an offer yesterday. I’ve a few apprehensions about the position but otherwise it’s perfect. Too tired though, so I’m gonna give this cat a nice reach-around then pass out.

Ah, Upstate…

2007-01-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

It finally just started snowing here. Just started getting cold, come to mention it. When I got off the plane at 4pm last Friday it was a balmy 57 degrees in Albany. It is January, right? So weird. Weather notwithstanding, there are still a few things you can count on in Upstate New York…

Karen: Mr. Hardcastle, I want you to meet someone. This is Dennis. I used to babysit Mr. Hardcastle’s kids.

Me: Good to meet you, Mr. Hardcastle…

Mr. Hardcastle: Yeah, so what’re you Chinese?

Me: No. No, I’m not.

Mr Hardcastle: Oh…Well, I was in Vietnam.

Me: Okay.

I was really hoping to know my ass from my elbow by now. But alas, I’ve no idea what the hell is happening with my work and living situations: Still waiting on salary approval in the Bay Area. Still interviewing in Boston in a couple of weeks. Ultimately, still having to make a choice between staying and leaving.

As if things weren’t complicated enough, one of the aides I’d worked with in SC has decided to move to Boston and work for the governor. She called me the night before last to get a copy of my resume to give to the governor's handlers(which excites me,) and also to let me know that she threw my name out there as her replacement in SC in the event that I decide to stay in California (which grosses me out).

Bear with me while I think this through

Reflexively I’m thinkin’, “There’s no way I’m going back to Santa Cruz. Fuck that.” But the reality of it is that if I were to stay in California, it’s probably the best way to go. With Nancy Pelosi keeping everyone in Washington longer, the regional aides become instrumental in working with the district. In the past, House members generally did their own dog and pony shows—-making appearances, briefing local leaders on policy and being a punching bag for invariably Congress-wary constituents--with staff in tow. Now, though, aides will have to do the bulk of this stuff alone. That being said, I’m in a much better position to do that in SC than in the East Bay. I've already worked with the SC political establishment and have built some good relationships there. I’m also gnawing working a SC district State Assembly campaign in ’08. Working for the House in the year leading to it gives my candidate (and consequently, me) certain advantages.

But I hate Santa Cruz and so does Karen. I don’t think that’s something either of us is prepared to compromise on, despite what it may do for my career. Santa Cruz means Mountain folk, hippies, resentful contractors, and, of course, surfers (the most loathsome of the bunch). It means 5 restaurants, just as many decent bars, and the Capitola Mall. There's just no way I can deal with another two years of faux-Namaste.

Now, also in California is the East Bay gig. It shares some similar advantages with the SC gig, minus the familiarity with East Bay politicos and the advantages in running the Assembly campaign. Not a big deal when weighed against 1) the House member himself, whose seniority is bound to help me down the line and 2) the fact that I could live in more reasonable surroundings. The problem here is the $$ or, more appropriately, the lack thereof. I'm not going to get what I want here. I'm fairly certain of that.

This leaves Boston. For a million reasons, this is my fvorite option. Just writing out the word "Boston" seems to pick me up a bit. BUT I'm not going if it means putting my resume on the back-burner just so I can fulfill some obsession with the East Coast. Finding a position here has been hard.

I've learned an important lesson in the last few months: parleying West Coast political experience into an East Coast position is difficult, if not impossible, at my level. Patronage is alive and well here. Andrew Jackson would be proud. If Amy's sister (a veteran of the Boston non-profit community) didn't know the governor's Chief of Staff personally, I doubt she'd be moving to Boston.

I guess I sort of have to just wait and see what happens. As it stands, I'm going to take the East Bay position while I continue to snoop around for a better gig in Boston. I'll entertain SC and go through their process (meaning see what kindd of $$ we're talking about) but ultimately turn it down unless it's amazing.

It's stopped snowing again. That's depressing.

Dennis has returned from Away...

2007-01-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

I don't know who scares me more: Virgil Goode or the constituents that prompted his statement.

What a fucking goon. More later.

Summer Movies: Part I

2006-08-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

Lady in the Water: Bad

I have so much irrevocable contempt for M. Night Shabaranks that I can hardly contain myself. Sixth Sense was good. So was Unbreakable. But this? This movie was so incredibly incoherent, self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing, that it begs a 288 page explanation. Oh. Wait. There is one.

The Descent: Awesome

Interesting that more movie studios haven’t taken spelunking as a natural backdrop for suspense films. Caves are dark. They’re moist. Moving around in them requires wearing really tight, lycra pants. Frankly, I think the latest Basic Instinct installment may have done better at the box office had it been set in the heart of a mountain. Basic Instinct: The Caving

The Descent isn’t a summer blockbuster by any traditional measure, but I really think that this was the best movie, let alone action movie, that I’ve seen all summer. It was just really fun to watch, barring the second half of the first act which was horribly fucking acted.

Sci-fi and horror writer/directors are notoriously inept at scripting interaction not involving the undead. Neil Marshall is no exception to this fact. Watch it and tell me what you think of all of Jade’s exposition in the cabins setting her up as the “leader” and hard-ass. Bleh. Felt like something John Woo would do. Awesome movie though.

WTC: Bad (I think)

Karen maintains the position that you can’t really hate or love the movie by virtue of the weight and proximity of its source material. On the one hand, you want to say that the dialog is unforgivably schmaltzy; but on the other hand, it’s so ingrained in us (and perhaps rightfully so) that we should treat 9/11 with a certain level of reverence (because it was terrible and relatively recent,) that even the slightest suggestion that the movie sucked feels like sacrilege. To complicate things further, (as if I’m not being neurotic enough) saying you loved the movie sort of feels as though you’re a party to the commoditization of 9/11 which is equally bad mojo. So what do you do?

Okay, the movie was basically good insofar as you get a real feel for the scale of the towers coming down, and a sense of what happened at ground zero in the moments immediately following--while the rest of us were still trying to figure out what the hell was happening. BUT, most of the dialog seemed copped from something on Lifetime and Maggie Gyllenhaal is super-fucking annoying. Maybe it would have been better with Judith Light in the lead. Did you know she was a lesbian?

More later. I've taken some valerian root and need to fall down now.

There Goes the Ethnohood...

2006-08-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, for every simpleton asshole I've ever stood behind in line at the airport, who bitched about being searched because he was not a "towelhead", who scoffed because his stupid marketing-rep-generation-Y-reality-tv-starring ass was delayed getting from LA to Vegas...I give you Don Stewart-Whyte, whose assetts were just frozen in the UK for allegedly trying to blow up a fucking airplane.

Uh.Oh.

And another thing...

2006-07-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

If the Hezbollah is arguably the only representation that Lebanon's Shia population has (comprising 40% of the total population) doesn't a refusal to enter talks sort of conflict with the "spread democracy" rhetoric that the right's so fond of, saying nothing of our policies towards the Palestinians and Hamas? Pluralism is fine, I guess, so long as the end result is a West-friendly regime change.

On the other hand, sometimes people are dumb.

My teeth are sweating

2006-07-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Jesus. It is effing hot. Oh, right. The world's on fire...

Now, before launching into any hyper-redundant spiel on everything that's been going on in the world, I should mention that I've been advised by co-workers that blogging about the behind the scenes activities of a congressman (or his office, generally speaking) is sort of, well, frowned upon. Particularly when you're critical. Even more particularly when you're relatively new to the staff. So, with that in mind, I'm going to be inordinately vague going forward. Not that I think either of the two people that read this could ever possibly imperil my career, or that I am anything but the equivalent to Greg from CSI at the office (meaning two steps away from ordering office supplies), but just to be safe I guess. Because you never know. I feel as though VoodooChild knows everyone, and it's only a matter of time before our chief of staff shows up for burrito's at some BRL function and I'm unceremoniously drummed out of public service. This is also the type of shit that could bite one on the ass in twenty years, depending on where his career path takes him.

Maybe I should just assume a similarly clever GI Joe-ish nom de plume like the rest of my fellow BRLers. Maybe The Viper. I could even spell it all edgy and urban like, maybe...Da Vyper.

Anyway. World on fire.

It's interesting that I field so many pro-Israeli calls from constituents. It shouldn't be, considering that a good portion of our district is decidedly conservative and consequently all about letting the Long War shape foreign policy. But I guess I never associated the austere right with activism, even on a level so benign as calling your congressman. But these people are pissed. Jesus forbid that the congressman (who from this point on we shall refer to as "Bud") sign on with the Kucinich bill advocating a cease fire.

Not letting "Israel defend herself" aside, what people mostly object to about the bill is it's lack of pre-conditions, or, more specifically, the possibility of entering talks with the Hezbollah.

I've had to espouse Bud's views on continued hostilities so often in the past few weeks that I guess I'm at a point where I just feel like, "Why not enter talks with them?" Maybe if they had more occasion to actually voice their displeasure with the western establishment then they wouldn't have to strap their messages to a Qassam. This is a very unpopular and arguably taboo perspective, and I understand that. But the sort of insanely haphazard bombings Israel's been dealing out has, at least in my mind, blurred the pre-packaged distinction between the West and (T)error groups. Israel has killed, what, four UN observers as part of a day-long targeting "mistake"? The shelling of Lebanon is a PUNATIVE action against its government for not controlling the Hezbollah? That's a pretty heavy hand for a military that calls itself the Israeli Defense Force.

If anything, a cease fire would buy a lot of people time to get groceries and bury their dead. And that's really where I'm at with all of this.

Oh, and don't get me wrong here. I'm not backing groups like Hezbollah. I think Israel does have a duty and a right to defend herself. But for one of the greatest military powers in the world, isn't there something slightly more surgical you could do in Lebanon? Je.Sus.

It's the Super Bowl of Who Gives a Shit

2006-06-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of over the bandwagon-jumping horse shit surrounding soccer from the intelligencia of late.

Someone's finally written an article regarding "World Cup Fever" that doesn't take Pele in his mouth and suckle for bullshit, liberal-cultured coolness. Good for you John Tierney.

2006-06-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have this recurring dream where Ann Coulter and I drink a bottle of scotch and get into a tickle fight. After which, as we lay heaving on the floor of the White House press room, she apologizes for all the times she's spoken to me out of anger.

I've nothing else to say on this matter.

Whistling Dixiecrap

2006-06-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

A Republican mutiny of the Voting Rights Act renewal doesn't strike me as odd, really. Renewing the VRA, particularly before midterms, seems like a no-brainer. It's just that sort of legacy legislation that would seem politically suicidal to contest. But between this congress' civil rights track record (which is perhaps on a par with our World Cup record) and the DeLayified redistricting of Texas, it seems that taking down, at least in part, the cornerstone of modern American suffrage is business as usual on the hill.

In addition to multilingual ballots, Southern Republicans evidently have a problem with the preclearance provision of the VRA which essentially mandates that changes in voting practice or districting be cleared through the Dept. of Justice. They don't have a problem with the provision, per se, but its limited application to a handful of towns, counties and states--places where the net effect of election practices has historically been to discriminate racially and/or economically.

It's interesting to see how this will play out. I agree with them insofar as, no, it doesn't seem quite fair, or even wise, to limit DOJ oversight to some historically effed up places. Discrimination, even just in the totality of its circumstances, has the potential to crop up just about anywhere in the US. But, in terms of a solution, I sit on the other side of the fence. Meaning, that I think that all electoral changes should go through the DOJ.

In Michigan, for example (where the DOJ has very limited oversight) the DNC was able to push through online voting in the 04 primaries. If adopted statewide in federal elections, online voting could very well be taken as a new-fangled polltax as Al Sharpton has pointed out. The argument goes that online voting would effectively give a voting advantage to all but those without internet access: If I can vote from my living room, but a quadriplegic without net access has to be rolled to his local polling station then, voila, you have le discrimination. With a broadening of preclearance, this could be avoided or at least worked through to equity.

But the likelihood of seeing the preclearance provision of the VRA broadened to encompass all jurisdictions is highly unlikely given the already pathetic amount of resources we dedicate to the electoral process in this country. Frankly, I don't think there are enough senior citizens left to man another layer of electoral administration.

My guess would be that, like the gay amendment thing, the flag burning amendment thing and every other pathetic attempt at riling their constituencies before the midterm elections, the SoReps will cause a fuss but ultimately give up the ghost having accomplished the task of the hour: impressing their conservative bases with the perception that they are looking out for their particular ilk of civil rights reversion and bigotry.

Miscelania

2006-06-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

Geekiness be damned; I can't stop effing with my new iPod. This has got to be the coolest thing I've gotten in a really, really long time.

Unlike my previous iPod, this one is going to be kept scratch and wine-splash free. I've bought a case. And not just any case, but this crazy, inch-thick rubber, black sarcophagus job with a window made, I think, of the same material as space shuttle windows.

I'm still confined to Itunes though. I know there are alternatives out there, but unlike the rest of the open-source whoring world, I don't have time to try out freeware all day long until I find something I like. So Itunes it is.

According to Itunes I've listened to John Mayer's cover of Kid A 219 times. Thats 50 times more than I've listened to A Day in the Life, and nearly twice as many times as I've listened to anything else from in the Beatles catalog. And yet, I've absolutely no recollection of actively selecting that song that many times. I mean, it's a good cover. A really good cover actually. But 219 times? That sorta seems like horse shit to me. I wonder if Apple tweaks those statistics in some effort to bend the will of the public towards corporately allied artists. Hmm...John Mayer is all over Itunes. The Beatles are not on Itunes AND have just come out of litigation with Apple on the losing side . Hmmmmmmm

Top 5 Covers that Come to Mind Without Any Real Thought or Deliberation:

5) Joe Cocker: She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

4) John Mayer: Kid A

3) Ben Folds: Careless Whisper (I'm not going to dignify any mockery with an explanation here, and just stand by the fact that this is a good cover.)

2) Thom Yorke: After the Goldrush

1) The Get Up Kids: Close to Me

Cover appreciation tends to fall into one of two schools of thought: 1)The cover must somehow be different or unique or have some personalized spin on the original artist's version. This is fine in theory, but what you wind up getting more often than not is something akin to William Shatner doing Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds or Elton John doing it, for that matter, who seemed content to just sort of gay it up.

The second, less appreciated school of thought (and the one to which I subscribe) is to stay as true as possible to the original without crossing over into mimicry. A homage is fine (Paul McCartney doing Long Tall Sally,) but trying to sound spot-on like the original artist is maybe not so good (Paul McCartney doing Blue Moon of Kentucky).

There are a handful of really good covers on the I am Sam Soundtrack for this very reason. The Vines track is good. The sara mclaughlin one is good too, and so is the Eddie Vedder one. I hate to keep referencing the Beatles, but there really isn't a band that makes this point with the same poignance. It's like you love these songs so much, and have listened to them so often, that you sort of welcome covers as an excuse to listen to them again without seeming pathetic. A bad cover, however, becomes a sort of betrayal of fandome and a waste of the source material--like putting ketchup on a steak for the simple fact that no one's done it. You want to add some string beans instead of broccolli? Fine. But for god's sake, don't put ketchup on your steak, Elton. Jazz could be taken as a counter argument, but, for some pretty obvious reasons, improvising through Oleo is not the same thing as Cake doing I Will Survive. Kitchy, talentless band that they are. Except for Mexico. Mexico is a good song.

Done.Done.Done.Done.Done.Done.Done.Done.

2006-06-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

All done. At least for now. Whew. Fuck this quarter.

One thing I've learned (and excuse me if this is a complete no-brainer to you) but when a program has the word "interdisciplinary" anywhere in its description, you can bet that you're going to come away feeling at least partly dissatisfied with your degree. That was Legal Studies' hook: An interdisciplinary approach to studying the law. It’s supposed to be similar to a pre-law degree, but juiced-up or something. That's fine on paper, but in practice it's a whole other story. The problem is these hybrid classes.

So they offer these courses like “Anthropology and the Law” or “Psychology of Law” where they take a professor, distinguished in one field or another, and have him lecture on his research with an emphasis on its legal implications. Fine. But because he lacks any substantive authority on our Constitution (or anybody's constitution for that matter) half the lectures are taken up by Legal Studies students correcting or otherwise objecting to everything this anthro or psych or sociology professor has to say.

All lawyers do is game the system, even more so when they smell a lack of credibility. There’s this sort of general feeling amongst LS majors that the more you can shake a professor's confidence with regards to the law, the more lattitude you have in bullshitting through a paper. So when you throw these scientists in front of a bunch of wannabe policy makers and trial lawyers it’s like watching an expert witness cross-examined for two hours. What’s funny is that the students lack credibility too, having only studied the law specifically for two or three years tops. So, because nobody knows what the fuck they’re saying, what winds up happening is that any attempts at fruitful discourse become reduced to this weird, bumbling cha-cha of aggression and deference.

I’m only partly dissatisfied though. I guarantee you that if I’d stuck with poli-sci I would’ve been bitching about how narrow my program was. Anyway, back to work. Here. Support the cause…

http://www.digitaluniverse.net/

Little Win

2006-06-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, one paper and one final to go.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that if you can make the Chair of the Feminist Studies Department pee herself over a joke about wrongful conception torts, then your thesis presentation went well.

Tired

This is a picture of Karen with a parrot.

LOL

2006-06-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqrI42XVOrY

Welcome Home

2006-06-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

The newest member of the BRL crew...Bukowski's Muse promises to throw down some quality reading, so check back often.

Peas,
Voodoo