goddess of clarity: a blog about politics, culture, and serenity
Archive: May 1 - May 31, 2008
May 21, 2008 — 19:12 EDT
"It's wrong when people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded. We're seeing that right now in Zimbabwe. Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people."
—Hillary Clinton, speaking
to a crowd of senior citizens in Florida
Comparing the Democratic Party's bureaucratic cock-up in Florida to a contested election of an dictator in which people actually died? Did I say Florida was going to get ugly? I lied, it's going to get really ugly.
—lori.
May 20, 2008 — 19:14 EDT
It's political deja vu: another two-fer Tuesday on the Democratic primary calendar, with Clinton expected to win Kentucky and Obama expected to win Oregon.
Tomorrow both candidates head off to Florida for what is shaping up to be a battle of lawyers, rules committees, and bylaws to decide what to do about the mess down there. I really hope I'm wrong; what a deflating let-down that would be from what started out as the most inspirational campaign ever.
The only thing that must be keeping Clinton going is her deep, palpable belief -- down to the bottom of her sensible shoes -- that she is simply the best person to be president right now, and if we could all just see that and let her be president, everything would be soooo great.
Hillary Clinton is Tracy Flick
—lori.
May 6, 2008 — 19:08 EDT
A prediction, if I may: Hillary Clinton will win Indiana, and Barack Obama will win North Carolina. Both by eight points. Exciting, huh?
For about the sixth time during this Democratic campaign, we've reached a "turning point" in the race, this time the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. I'm sitting down to my "CNN Election Center" glass of wine and some sweet potato parpadelle with walnut mascapone cream (the local farmer's market opened this week -- yippee!) to check out the returns this time around.
In Indiana, to my surprise, most of the polls have already closed by 6pm. There are about a dozen or so counties where the polls are still open, I guess because some counties in the state are in the Central time zone and some are in the Eastern time zone? Or maybe it's because some counties in Indiana don't recognize Daylight Savings Time? I don't know; what's up with Indiana? I bet there are three counties in the state that still count twenty shillings to the pound.
The polls close at 7:30 in North Carolina and at 7:30 and two seconds, Wolf Blitzer calls the state for Barack Obama. So no surprise there. It is worth noting that North Carolina -- with 85 delegates -- has more delegates to award than the rest of the remaining five primary states combined. It is also worth noting that it is mathematically impossible for Hillary Clinton to win the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination unless she can persuade a bunch of superdelegates who've already said they plan to vote for Barack Obama to change their minds and vote for her. I know the Clintons have some weird combination of magical charm and bullying thuggery that they wield within the Democratic party, but why is it that we're still pretending she has a shot at this?
In other news, I am officially done with Lou Dobbs. Good day to you, old man. I said good day!
Finally, all the pundits on "the best political team on television" are predicting that Clinton is -- more or less -- out of this race. In the best zinger of the night, Republican analyst Alex Castellanos compares Clinton's current situation to "the last trip the family makes to the vet. Nobody wants to do it. You wish someone else would do it. But somebody has to do it."
In other news, I officially despise Campbell Brown. She makes me yearn for Anderson Cooper.
—lori.
UPDATE: What the hell, Gary, Indiana? I know the running joke on CNN is that urban counties seem to be slower in reporting their returns -- they can't afford #2 pencils and fax machines, dontcha know -- but it's 11pm and Lake County has not returned any elections results at all. Meanwhile, Obama has closed to within four percentage points.
ANOTHER UPDATE: OK, it's after midnight and it's getting ugly in Lake County, Indiana. Man, I hope this doesn't turn even uglier. The vote is coming in late, some mayors are saying that their cities' vote tallies were called in hours ago. Advocates on both sides are spinning like mad. Why doesn't anyone care any more about trying to count as accurately as possible the actual votes cast? Please, gods of democracy and truth, please don't let this go down ugly.
LAST UPDATE: Whatever the hell happens the rest of this evening (now morning) on thing is certain: my predictions suck.
May 3, 2008 — 12:00 EDT
Live music is a tonic. When the band is good and the crowd is fun, it's a cure for whatever ails you.
Last night, Mr. Goddess and I took in a show by Railroad Earth, at a weird little venue called the German House. I love Railroad Earth. They were one of my favorite discoveries from last year's Bonnaroo festival. If the Dave Matthews Band and Runrig had a child that was raised by Buffalo Springfield, that's Railroad Earth: more country than jazzy compared to Dave Matthews, more American than Celtic compared to Runrig, more bluesy than folksy compared to Buffalo Springfield.
The lead singer/guitarist looks like an introverted auto mechanic, the upright bass player looks like his juvenile deliquent son, and the rest of the band look like college physics professors. But this six-piece jam band can play. One of the physics professors switched back and forth between a guitar, a mandolin, a banjo, and the saxophone. During the encore he played two saxophones. At once.
As a jam band, a Railroad Earth audience has more than its fair share of hippies. Hippies get on my nerves; I went through an embarrassing tie-dye phase in high school but have since developed a bit of an allergy to drum circles and patchouli. However, I will admit that it does the heart good to spend three hours surounded by people who are completely harmless.
For a Railroad Earth taster, here's the first song I heard from them, "Bird in a House."
I want to sing my own song, that's all
Cried the bird and flew into a wall.
There must be some way out, he cried
And his desperation echoed down the hall.
Just another bird in a house
Dying to get out.
Just another bird in a house
Dying to get out.
I want to join my own kind, that's all
Cried the bird and smashed from wall to wall.
There must be some way out, he cried
And his desperation echoed down the hall.
Just another bird in a house
Dying to get out.
Just another bird in a house
Dying to get out.
—lori.
May 1, 2008 — 13:13 EDT
Today's date: Thursday, May 1st
Temperature when I woke up this morning:
32 degrees Fahrenheit.
What the f@%k!
—lori.
