"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Bayrea

Down in the Bay Area... legitimately "the area" too, since I spent last night in Marin where Kristin (the Girthly companion) has a sweet house-sitting gig. Today is all business and tomorrow I head back.

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Rash of Politix / Real Life Update

There's been a rash of political postings here lately. Apologies to those who find that sort of shit boring.

It's been a good week. Fairly productive, though I think I'm likely to make it a worky weekend to get ahead of next week's houseguests. It's been lovely sunny here and in the '70s. Record heat for the rest of CA was good news for the north coast.

Today it's foggy and cold, as it promises to be for a while. Mark and I are going to pour some concrete to solidify the posts for the new section of fence at the house. It goes around the area where we've previously been clearing brush, new land reclaimed from the brambles. He's headed up to Portland this weekend for a family wedding. I plan to lay low and get a little work/rest done.

Yesterday I took my bike down to town and went to the gym. It still takes about 45 minutes, although I was riding on a dinged rear rim, which I had replaced down at the shop. I'm thinking about getting a cheap-ass bike computer to (statistics) help spur myself to ride faster. I also retain my old rear hub, which has nothing wrong with it, and am considering some kind of home-made exercise-mount or perhaps power-transfer device (e.g. a margarita machine). Could be my starter ticket for bike-theater...

The gym is working out well. Kelly is a day-to-day authority figure at the community pool, and they have a very low-end workout room which I can use for free. It's got everything I need though, and it's usually deserted. I get there about twice a week on average, and have been doing other bike rides, yoga, pushups, crunches, etc here at home. It feels good to be getting overall strength back into my body, feeling the slack getting taken up, the finer control, balance, and surity of motion returning. It's good for my mind, too.

Monday I'll probably make my way down to the Bay. Got some business and an airport redezvous. We've also got guests coming down from Portland, and next week Luke and Julia should be visiting, and then we're headed up to Eugene for a friendly wedding thinger. I'm also headed back to NYC for the last weekend in August for another wedding celebration. Lots on tap.

I'm thinking about mothballing this website for the month. The idea would be to take the time off reading and writing to actually work on rebuilding and relaunching, something I've been wanting to do for more than a year now. Perhaps if I use the time I usually spend reading and posting to work on the new thing it might actually get done. As a bonus I could ignore the march to WWIII for a spell; spare myself some anguish. We'll see.

... yeah 1,300lbs of concrete and it turned into a beautiful day. Quesadillas and Fosters all around.

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Rich get Richer -- Black Gold Special Edition

It's official! Record profits for both Exxon/Mobil and Chevron/Texaco. That rounds out the "big five" and everyone's up about 30-35% over last year.

You know what else is up about 30-35%?

Gas prices.

Gee, what a coincidence.

The invisible hand is picking your pocket, America.

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Should Have Been President

Glenn Greenwald turns on the wayback machine and shows how Howard Dean was right about Iraq at every turn, and notes how he was (and still is) belittled by people who have been just as consistantly wrong as some kind of extremist or unserious person. After a lengthy quote from a 2003 speech that literally hurts it's so right-on, Greenwald summarizes the current mindset within the traditional media and power-elite:

If you want to know what the U.S. should do about the new Middle East war and any other complex, grave national security matter, you have to talk to Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes and Stephen Hadley and Peter Beinart and Joe Lieberman and John McCain and Tom Friedman and Rich Lowry and Newt Gingrich and all the other "serious" tough guys who might have been wrong about every single thing they said about Iraq but, for some reason that is impossible to discern, are supposed to be the only ones with any credibility on these questions -- still. But whatever you do, just don't listen to Howard Dean or anyone of his ilk, no matter how right he might have been about Iraq.

This is our national debate, and its complete and utter lack of substance is a liability. It's because of shit like this -- and the inability of anyone (journalists and Democrats and activists alike) to do anything about it -- that we are where we are; stuck being hustled into Armageddon by an ignorant born-again ex-playboy who likes to play dress up as "Leader of the Free World."

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