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October 14, 2004

The whole band is in town rehearsing for our shows this weekend. Lots of different meetings last few nights. Made some time to watch the debates right in the middle of one meeting with one management team. They were in shock as I flipped on the TV right in the middle of the meeting so I could watch the debates. I just turned the volume way up and got really absorbed into it while everyone played name their favorite band while they waited for me. I think that they all think that I am insane. but I wasn’t going to miss it.

So the entire country watched John Kerry wipe the floor with a very nervous and fidgety George w. bush. At times it almost appeared that bush was so scared or frustrated with his own performance and lack of information and knowledge that he wanted to walk off the stage. I don’t think we have ever had a president so unfit for the job. None perhaps besides Ford of course, who never wanted to be president in the first place and just ended up there by some crazy twist of unfortunate luck. But boy Bush was just really off last night and Kerry of course was better than ever. I felt proud watching him and listening to him last night at the thought he may eventually be our president. But at heart I am pretty much a blind idealist so I wouldn’t take my admiration of the man too seriously. not even I do. I felt the same way about Clinton/gore in 92 as a kid, and we all know how they turned out. I’m not saying it was all bad —the nineties were a pretty wonderful time for us in American, but that administration had its fair share of problems, that’s for sure.

I know some people don’t agree with me, but that’s cool. I respect that. I always bounce back and forth in elections. Never take the repub or the democrat side a hundred percent of the time. just depends on the year and the candidate and the issues that are most important for the country that year. this year its Kerry and the dems. Maybe in four years it will be the other side or a whole different party. Just have to wait and see.

I was amazed to learn that we’re in the middle of a dead heat right now, which I think is truly amazing because I really can’t imagine anyone voting for bush after seeing him in these last three debates. I wouldn’t vote for him for president of any of my own little companies, let alone the biggest most powerful country in the known universe. I honestly can’t figure out what people are thinking when they see him speak and still want to vote for him for anything. But that’s just me.

Although if you take a look at the map of the United States and how we voted in the year 2000, it is actually quite telling. It is divided between the blue democratic states and the red republican states. what you notice is that all the big city states like New York and la and Boston and phili and Chicago and Seattle voted democrat. And so did all the cool states like new Mexico and Wisconsin and Oregon and of course the predominantly upper class New England states. but then the majority of the states actually, all the small town American states, the rural states and farming states and southern states, what we city folk call the scary places in America all voted republican. telling indeed.

I guess its easier to sell “values” as a word or a concept rather than a real tangible thing we can put into action to these states. they can lose their jobs and income and health care and education and even lose their loved ones in misleading wars and still be sold “values” as a concept, rather than just voting for real values. It’s a phenomenon of the frailty of the human mind really.

And this whole thing about the word liberal being a bad word to these people is hilarious our country was founded on the idea of liberty. And we have worked our asses off at defining and defending those liberties. Why the hell would liberal be a bad word? My brother and his wife voted for W in 2000 for no other reason than the abortion issue. I respected that. but they sure have changed their tune in the last four years. I think a lot of people have. but if these crazies somehow find a way to get W back in office for another four years and things keep going the way they are going for this country for another four years, God help us all, I think the whole damn country is just going to go berserk on the guy and mutiny. There’s only so far the values card can be played before even the simplest minds begin to get the real picture.

Anyway, enough of that. Beaver is going crazy. being promoted again at his big oil company. Something has shifted in him now. he realizes that he is wasting his life by not being in a job that is more focused on helping people. so mom just left me and flew home and now she is headed back out on a flight tonight to be with Beav and his family. I’ll tell you, we are the luckiest guys in the world to have the mom that we do. she is just so there for us in her role as mother. Its so inspiring. She just says hang on I’ll be there in five hours and hops on a plane to come be by our side and help us. she’s always been that way since we we’re little kids. God bless her a hundred times a day please.

We have a real chance that our next election will be a tie and no man will win the majority of votes needed to win the white house. so I did some research to see what would happen. google it. its fascinating stuff:

How the Electoral College works
(CNN) — The 2000 election was the fourth time the Electoral College selected a candidate other than the one who won the popular vote.
So do we the people really elect the president and vice president? Technically, we don’t. Presidents are elected by the states and the District of Columbia, not by a national tally of voters. When you vote, you cast your ballot for electors who will vote for a candidate they are politically aligned with.
Most of the time, that means the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins the Electoral College vote.
There are 538 Electoral College voters, one per senator and representative from each state. The District of Columbia, which has no congressional representation, has three votes – the minimum.
California has 55 votes, while Texas (34) and New York (31) have the second and third most, respectively. Besides D.C., seven states have three votes.

To Vote or Not To Vote?

July 28, 2004

Watching the democratic national convention every day on the Internet. Caught up a bit tonight till about 4 in the morning actually, watching everyone deliver their speeches. Dare I say I almost feel hopeful? I guess compared to what we have now, even the democrats seem inspiring.

Later in the day, I’m in the office and everyone is abuzz about the speeches the last few days. Al Sharpton and Bill Clinton and of course jimmy carter are the speeches that are the most brought up. People cannot stop talking about them. the republicans may have stolen the white house, but they don’t have many current heroes to speak of unfortunately. Except John mccain, who of course is a hero and should be joining up anyday. Hehe. Old guard. Old tricks. Old hat. No one that people look up to in their party anymore now that Reagan passed on. but the democrats on the other hand…. if you’re a young idealist patriotic American or even just a ultra-concerned-liberal citizen of the world, the democratic party offers so many heroic visionaries and leaders. Bill and Hillary are basically rock stars now, for better or worse. All the guys in the office were on the Internet researching to see if Clinton could serve again. They were actually on the Internet researching the constitution. [we looked it up: he cannot run again for president. Congress passed an amendment in the fifties limiting it to two terms max because of FDR getting elected four times consecutively. BUT Zeke reminds me that he CAN run for VP under someone else just to grab another eight years if he or we wanted him to. Let us hope it never comes to that. [as we well remember, even though I volunteered for his election campaign as a bright-eyed young college kid, the minute he got on TV and lied I was one of the first to jump on the ‘o.k. impeach that fucker’ band wagon. I have no tolerance for liars, unless perhaps we’re talking about matters of national security. Other than that, get the hell out of dodge pal.] I think there are probably plenty of guys who can do just as good of a job or even better. But boy what a speech he delivered. It was spellbindingly to the point and coherent and intelligent and just a wee bit smarmy.] This guy says to me ‘man I don’t know why we can’t just get bill back for a while. at least till things smooth out a bit. Just another four years.

But its true. the dems now, they have Al Gore, Jimmy carter, Ted Kennedy has always voted for the people, so he’s a true liberal hero. Al Sharpton? Forget it. that guy was awesome. Jesse is always good. he’s like ‘take it for granted kind of good;’ that’s how good of a speechmaker he is. John Edwards is like the wunderkind of the party; the future Clinton. But hopefully he’ll keep it in his pants, or at least do it somewhere other than the oval office. They even have Ronald Reagan’s son Ron. Basically a rock concert of bright idealistic heart on their sleeve liberals. I can’t say I’m not against any of it. [I mean, lets try to forget that they killed 180 innocent Americans in Waco, Texas under Clintons watch and no one did shit about that. so because of that, McVeigh retaliated at Oklahoma city. yes times are changing. People are fighting back now. And I’m not going to bring up all the rumors of them selling military secrets to China…] But at least the dems have heroes. Real American heroes. People like us. I’m not saying these people are any less shifty than the other lot of slimy script reading hand shaking short-hairs. I mean cheese is cheese. Occasionally cheese can be good; like brie or Roquefort or feta or mozzarella. Yum! But of course American cheese just sucks. And both parties are super American-cheesy. No taste and filled with artificial shit and preservatives. Hence to belong to either party at this point is choosing hamburger over steak. But man, where is the fucking steak? That’s probably what a lot of Americans are wondering. Well perhaps in Kerry we have a bit of steak. We’ll just have to wait and see.

But you get the feeling that the repubs are those people in school who were just full of shit and didn’t understand anything about life. they were the sheep who drank their milk and watched their TV and spoke their lies when they had to. just to keep face and keep the money in the right hands. Whereas with the dems, you find this kind of idealism…. this underdog fight for the rights of your fellow man kind of thing that I can relate to a lot more readily. Normal people that you can talk to and talk about issues with. People that care about other people. .. and of course they have all the actors and singers and writers too. I couldn’t imagine being an entertainer and being a republican. i guess you just have to keep it a secret so you’re not embarrassed…. imagine if they ask you to speak at their convention and you’re like ‘uh well yeah I mean that’s a great idea but uh yeah I’m uh going to be out of the country that week. gosh I’m really sorry guys….’ . I can not imagine being up there at the republican convention and trying to come up with good things to say about this current administration. You would just have to throw truth to the wind and just say fuck it and come up with a bunch of bullshit platitudes and hollow words about values and strength and courage and all that other empty crap.

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November 27, 2002

I’m in the airport. There is this Latin girl with a tight shirt on and no bra. Her breasts are just popping out. She has received more than her fair share of secret looks from other passengers here waiting for the plane. A few minutes later I looked up and she was standing up talking on her phone. Her nipples were really sticking out. And there is this guy sitting down about four feet away from her. He had a book in his hand but he was staring at her standing there talking on the phone and his mouth was hanging open, and then about five feet away from him there was this other girl who was staring at the guy and at the girl observing how this guy was so absorbed by the girl on the phone with the tight shirt and no bra, and she was completely absorbed in watching the two of them. She had this look on her face like, ‘I can’t believe that guy. Why does he care about that slut with the big boobs.” And then I’m sitting there watching all three of them doing their thing. And I’m thinking, ‘I wonder if there is anyone watching me?’ Look how we watch each other. Each of us making our own little judgments about each other based on our own different sets of beliefs.

O.k. I’m on the plane now—America West—and they are playing all these country music videos. Man what is this? I think I have been in Miami too long. I feel like culture shocked. I’m sitting here looking at the TV and hearing this strange music and these goofy looking people and my mouth is hanging open. I forget that America is filled with people like this. I keep looking at the other passengers on the plane with me, like, “do you see this on the tv? Can you believe it?” Maybe they are from out west or something, flying home for the holiday. And they are used to it. The longer I live in Miami, the more I start to realize that it is not really part of the rest of the country. It’s like we live in an alternate reality compared to the rest of America. I’m sitting next to his couple who packed their own lunch since airlines don’t serve food anymore. They are eating bologna sandwiches on white bread with yellow mustard and yellow American cheese. I haven’t seen something like that in ten years. I knew they sold that stuff in the supermarkets. I just could never figure out who actually bought it. o.k. so yea, Miami is not really part of America.

We’re in the air now. I’m watching the in-flight movie sporadically while reading and writing. Bourne identity baby!!! I love this movie. Great soundtrack. Reading time magazine—twelve letters from readers from all over the country saying they do not support Bush’s planned invasion of Iraq. I will scan these in. They receive thousands of letters per week one would assume with the printed ones being a small representation of the bulk of them. The media continues to report about the coming Iraq war (not a war at all, but really an invasion, since they haven’t attacked us and aren’t really even a worthy opponent of ours) and all of Bush’s activities to prepare for this war on a daily Bas is. The media continues to ignore the fact that most Americans do not support Mr. Bush in this. and so when you turn on the television, you get bombarded by corporate bullshit and propaganda about an America that is not ours, but belongs to a hostile government who stole the presidency and will do whatever it wants to whenever it wants to regardless of the American people—as one reader wrote in to time magazine, ‘I will support Bush’s military action in Iraq as soon as he enlists his two daughters in the military.’ Funny.

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