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Superdelegates are unnecessary

The election processs in the US has the reputation of being democratic and fair. It’s a nice idea, but it’s far from the truth. With the Electoral College making the actual nominations, it’s becoming more and more irrelevant who the actual populace votes for to represent a party.

From Wikipedia: “electors are simply important persons whose wisdom, it is hoped, would provide a better choice than a larger body.” And this gem: “The system can ignore the wishes of a general membership, whose thinking may not be considered.”

Ya think? The electoral college is an ancient technique used by the church for crying out loud! It should be abolished.

Add the Democrats’ superdelegates to the mix and you get even less input as to who will represent the party. Republicans have something similar (Republican National Convention), but not nearly to the extent as the Dems.

I think we have the technology to count the actual votes in this country. I think the Electoral College has ceased to be relevant. I think that we’d have more participation if a person felt that his actual vote was counted. As it is – despite the fact that most young people don’t even know how the election process works – the more one finds out about the process, the more marginalised one feels.

Here’s a final quote from Wiki to get your dander up for the day:

“At the 2008 Democratic National Convention the superdelegates will make up approximately one-fifth of the total number of delegates. The […] closeness of the race between the leading contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama following Super Tuesday has focused attention on the potential role of the superdelegates in selecting the Democratic nominee, inasmuch as in the aggregate they could come to be kingmakers to a degree not seen in previous election cycles.[2] Such an outcome would result in the first brokered convention [make SURE to read what this means!] since 1952.”

Put that in your democracy and smoke it.

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Happy Valentine’s Day 08!

I love Valentine’s Day! It’s fun to be all smooshy with my sweetie!

Tonite I’m making a nice dinner for us to enjoy here in our little cozy cottage.

Updated Menu:

  • IL Prosecco
  • Baked Oysters w/ lemon caper pesto
  • Beet and fresh Mozarella Salad
  • Toasted Head Chardonnay
  • Roasted Red Pepper Soup
  • Brined Cornish Hen with Blood Orange glaze
  • Gingered Carrots
  • Oyster and Raisin Dressing
  • Asparagus with Lemon Butter
  • Ruby Port
  • Tira Misu

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s!

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Dumbass, pt 2

I had to refile the lawsuit the other day and within hours here come the calls from Judges Judy and Brown. Lucky me! Then I get 2 identical DHL letters from them yesterday.

Do they have an RSS feed from the courthouse or what? How can they know about these suits so fast?

NO, I’m not going to take the guaranteed money. It’s tempting, but no. I want the defendant to nut up and acknowledge his debts and I don’t want a show to pay. I also have no desire to be on TV.

We wouldn’t be in this situation if he’d simply call and work something out. He wants to be an ass, fine. I’ll let the courts do their thing. Meanwhile, the debt grows.

Dumbass, indeed.

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Dumbass!

You know what I hate? I hate it when some dumbass sends an unsolicited email to me with his resume attached fishing for a job. What I usually do is write back nicely and explain that we are a 2 person shop, blah blah. Or I’ll occasionally spam them back with my own solicitation to do their website at a great price.

I solicit back because anyone who trolls the internet looking for companies to spam clearly has no clue and they never have their own site, either.

So I get one of these fishing emails from some dude looking for a clothing job. Well, we don’t do clothing and I tell him so. I also spam him back with an offer to do a portfolio site since he doesn’t have one.

So, what does dumbass do? He sends me not one, but two emails back telling me first how “VERY STRONG” his graphic design background is and he’s available to help us if we need it and second “he’s got his portfolio up at blahblah.com – just search for his name!”

The reason he’s a dumbass is that he is spamming looking for work and he doesn’t even understand that using a portfolio site is not the same as having your own site. He can’t even provide a link to his portfolio, either. No, he tells the potential companies to ‘search for his name’. Gods.

Good luck with that.

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Van Halen 08

Well.

It was as good as possible, I suppose. I’m glad I didn’t spend more than what I did for tickets ($79.50ea + ticketbastard fees)

The bad parts: DLR (David Lee Roth for the youngsters) can’t sing anymore, the sound system was fucked and even when the mic did work, it was like karaoke – you got music and backup vocals with the audience singing. The whole sound system crashed (I saw them rebooting what looked like a DOS system with my binoculars) in the middle of Eddie’s 10 minute solo. We heard a good chunk of it through the monitors. Brilliant.

Yah. For the exorbitant prices they charge for tickets, I expect BETTER. I’ve not seen a clean, well mixed, well performed concert since the 80s, I swear. Which is why I rarely waste my money on them anymore. I don’t think people even know what a well done show sounds like any more. Judging from the crap I’ve heard from the last decade, I’d say the bar is set very, very low. It’s too bad, really.

In the defense of the band, it would be difficult to get your groove on when your mics are spotty and your sound system crashes. However, even when DLR could be heard, he sounded like an old Jewish woman. Oy! I have to demote Diamond Dave to CZ Dave, sorry.

The good parts: the band sounded amazing even with bad mixing. Eddie looked ok, but OLD and a little thin – but good considering he had cancer. His son, Wolfgang, was on bass and my gods is he awesome. The boy can play some bass – and drums, guitar and piano, too, apparently. Eddie says he’s a better musician than he is, which means we’ll be hearing from the Van Halen family for quite some time. I can’t wait to see what he does. Eddie’s also got a Wolfgang tat on his right bicep – very sweet! Wolfgang also sang backup with Alex and Eddie. The backups sounded perfect. DLR looked old, but in great shape. He gamely gave some kicks and an occasional crotch grab, but overall was sedate. He had a maniacal grin on his face for most of the show – even when he was singing – which was odd. I think perhaps it’s the plastic surgery gone awry or something.

I think my having seen the band in 1984 and remembering that show vividly really gave me issue when trying to listen to this older version of the band. It’s tough to watch your rock heroes get old and gnarly. I feel similarly about Pat Benatar and Stevie Nicks. I would have appreciated it if DLR had at least attempted to sing a bit more rather than just jump in with a few words every now and then. I think the foray into bluegrass ruined him! LOL

I’m very glad to have seen VH one more time before they disband completely (hmm, maybe Wolfgang will continue the band?). Despite the problems with the show and the issues with DLR, it was fun and worth $282 (tix $200, shirt $35, parking $15, 4 beers, $32) for a lovely Valentine present to my sweetie! He had a great time and so did I. :-)

Look for the complete (as much as we could decipher w/ the crappy sound) set list in Nick’s post.