Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (aka glecharles) (aka loudpoet)

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Monday Mash-up, 2/18/08

1) Spindle had a great week last week with a strong February update that generated our highest single-day traffic spike yet, and the announcement of our first contest, “Play Ball” — which offers a $50 honorarium for the best baseball / stickball / cricket-related poetry, fiction and non-fiction from a New York City perspective — has been well-received. The winner will be published in April as part of the “Play Ball” issue which I’m really looking forward to. Sports + writing = more fun than work.

2) Speaking of work, issue closings at the day job usually make for a rough week or two but the May/June issue closed last Tuesday without too much ado, partly because I’ve already locked up about 85% of our advertisers for the year. That last 15% is the difference between a solid issue and a great issue, though, so it wasn’t exactly a cake walk, especially since this issue was over-budgeted based on inflated numbers from last year, partly due to the change from a monthly schedule to bi-monthly the summer before. Overall, though, it’s shaping up to be a really good year and career-wise, the decisions I made over the past 18 months have really paid off.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

I Love Keith Olbermann

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=NGPwXYAmZzQ] "If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come out and say it. There is a dictionary definition; one word that describes that toxic blend. You're a fascist! Get them to print you a t-shirt with 'Fascist' on it!" Keith Olbermann's latest Special Comment nails President Bush to the wall, taking him to task on playing the "fear card" (again) and the civil rights fiasco that is the FISA bill. For all of the over-the-top bluff and bluster of most political pundits, I like that Olbermann saves his righteous indignation for key moments like this,…

Continue ReadingI Love Keith Olbermann
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Not just empty words, not just false hope

Not all Obama supporters are being driven solely by emotion and recent articles about the “cult-like” aura surrounding his campaign seem to suggest there’s a not-unexpected backlash brewing in the media. The most overt instance of this was probably the FOX News stunt with one of Frank Luntz’ post-debate “focus groups” where several Obama supporters were asked to name a single accomplishment of his and none of them could. Of course, the combination of FOX News and Luntz has about as much credibility as Jay Leno’s “stupid people” quiz show skit, but they’re not the only ones guilty of such disingenous “gotcha” tactics.

There’s a great video clip on YouTube that’s getting a lot of attention right now of an interview with an Obama supporter outside of the Kodak Theater before the debate a couple of weeks ago, and what starts out looking like a weak attempt at a “gotcha” sound bite turns into the kind of moment that rarely gets any play on the evening news:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kica8hmSdAM] 

This kid is much more representative of the majority of people I know who are supporting Obama, and anyone who has primarily been swept up by the undeniable emotional appeal of his message owes it to themselves to learn about what he actually stands for, not just to counter inaccurate assertions about his campaign, but because it’s important to be an educated voter.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Spindle: February ’08

Spindle Spokesbaby: Will DiazIn the midst of all the political blogging I’ve been doing lately, I had a Spindle update looming on the calendar for today and stole time here and there over the past two weeks to sift through the surprisingly steady stream of submissions that have come in since last month.

I was worried in mid-January that the aggressive “official launch” schedule I’d set up for January, posting 15 new pieces over three weeks, would deplete my inventory and leave me scraping through some marginal work to get something up this month but it all worked out nicely in the end as we have new work from Alan King, Eric Payne, Rachel L. Olivares and Julian Taub, plus new columns from Stephanie R. Myers (Myers Music Experience) and Brooke Wacha (On the 1).

Log on now and get into a New York state of mind @ http://www.spindlezine.com

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Like Hope, But Different

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs]

(Warning: Put down any hot beverages you may be drinking before pressing play.)

On a more serious note, via The Atlantic‘s excellent Andrew Sullivan, comes Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal and a post, “Wisdom from the Homefront“, about some of the mail soliders in Iraq receive from American schoolchildren:

…my favorite portion of the miscellaneous stack of our mail room are the letters written to soldiers by American schoolchildren. Most of them offer the same commonplace banalities sent our way from the greater American public – thank you for what you do, please return home safely, we’ll pray for you. Empty words from an empty people; they want to show that they care, but this experience is so unlike anything in their realm of understanding only trodden clichés can fill their vacuum of confusion. I’m not bitter – yet – I’m just commenting on reality.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Latino politics follow-up

There’s been some interesting comments so far in Friday’s “When politics gets personal for Latinos” post, including the one point the media often overlooks, that Latinos are not some monolothic entity that can be stereotyped in one particular way. Today, I came across a couple more interesting nuggets, one that digs a little deeper into Clinton and Obama’s support within the Latino community to-date, and another that breaks down Texas’ upcoming complicated not-really-a-primary contest on March 4th that Clinton’s effectively betting the house on.

NOTE: Check out the original post, too, as I added a couple of new references, including one that looks at the potential scenario of the Democratic nomination coming down to the final contest in Puerto Rico on June 7th!

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

A relevant look at Health Care from a new mother

Politicians love citing individual stories on the campaign trail to illustrate their ability to connect with the average voter and reinforce the superiority of their positions on any given subject. These stories are often moving, if rarely informative, but it’s always more interesting to me to hear the background on how someone came to the decision to support a particular candidate.

A friend of mine who lives in Texas — an intelligent, married white woman under 40 who recently had her first child — posted privately in her journal yesterday about how she ultimately determined her preferred candidate based on her own research (imagine that!) of their positions on health care and I asked her permission to repost it (with personal details removed) because it’s as clear, unbiased and relevant an explanation of the differences between Clinton and Obama’s health care proposals as I’ve come across so far.

I’ve made up my mind about my democratic candidate, and it’s based on health care.

And my choice is Barack Obama.  Here is why.

My #1 issue this year is universal health care.  It’s a personal issue for me.  It was a terrifying experience for me to be pregnant and slightly above the income level Medicaid.  Since I was unemployed during [my daughter’s] birth and most of my pregnancy, I had to have health insurance.  And the only thing available to me was to continue my employer’s plan through COBRA, which was difficult to apply when I moved from PA to TX, and whose premiums were incredibly expensive.  Now, with [my daughter] to cover, I’m spending $600 a month to cover both of us monthly.  And that’s before co-pays, deductibles, and lab fees.  I’ve had to pay this with no income of my own–my daughter and I wouldn’t have insurance unless my mom hadn’t graciously paid the vast majority of my COBRA premiums.  I’m usually on the phone at least once a week with my insurance carrier getting bills adjusted, and I’m convinced the the system is utterly broken.  I loathe going to the doctor because I know it means I’m going to have to spend a couple hours on the phone with the insurance company in two months to get the visit paid for.  [My husband], who is working full-time as a contractor right now, has not had health insurance for about a year and remains uninsured.

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