Commentary (and rants) on national and local politics.
An interesting take on things from the NY Times: The move carries obvious potential rewards, but equally obvious risks, for both men. The sudden marriage of such a seeming odd couple could wind up being seen as so politically expedient as to seem almost unprincipled, playing into the public's worst perceptions that campaigns are about power and winning, not big ideas. "It plays into Republicans, who want to re-fight the last election and run against Democrats as not having firm moral values or beliefs," one Democratic strategist said. "They're going to use it against Gore, saying he threw out everything…
Say it ain't so, Al! Gore Endorses Dean This is just politics at its pettiest as Al Gore desperately tries to remain relevant in the Democratic Party. He's a sore loser looking for revenge. MoveOn.org gave him a couple of nice handjobs over the last year, providing partisan forums where he could safely bash Bush (where was that passion when it could have helped?) and now he's addicted to the rush. How can he possibly justify circumventing the primary process (knowing exactly how influential his endorsement is at this early stage of the game) and hop on the bandwagon of…
Christmas time. Hmmph! I'm already sick of all the commercials for diamonds and Lexus and power tools. The diamond ones are particularly offensive as they make women look pretty shallow and encourage men to indulge that shallowness. Or guilt them into it might be more appropriate. I've always had a problem with the whole engagement ring tradition, too. How come the guy doesn't get anything? If the logic of "a diamond is a girl's best friend" is to be believed, shouldn't the groom-to-be get a dog? If so, would size count? If you really love him, you'll get him a…
Phil West has a great write-up on last night's debate. Funny stuff. My take on things? It was all a little depressing, really. With Kucinich, I'm at the point where I'm just hoping he sticks it out for the long haul and snags enough delegates to be a presence at the national convention. It says many sad and depressing things that someone like him doesn't have a shot to lead this country of ours. (In related news, I just found out that I may not be allowed to vote in NY's Democratic primary as some previously unknown deadline to change…
It's been a long time since I've walked out on a movie. It has to be really, really bad for me to call it a loss and give in. Dragnet (the Tom Hanks/Dan Akroyd version) was pretty damn terrible but I stuck it out to the disappointing end. Same for American Beauty. Not so The Cat in the Hat. We caught a matinee on Saturday and lasted 40 minutes before giving up. It didn't help that it was India's first movie and we found out she's not a movie baby. That didn't happen until we were 30 minutes into the…
Add Tito Puente's to my short list of favorite restaurants; top of the list on City Island. Went last night for Salomé's birthday and I am still full! We both had these monster seafood dishes - lobster, snow crab, scallops, clams, mussels, oh my!; her's with pasta, mine with mofongo, both in an amazing red sauce - along with a filling appetizer of lobster empanadas, coconut shrimp, maduros and tostones. Yum! Their mojitos are really good, too; nice and smooth, less hardcore than Esperanto's. It's on the pricey side and I'd never go anywhere near it on the weekends, but…
This has felt like an unusually long week that I managed to make feel even longer by taking an early lunch. The minutes they are a'ticking slowly... I'm simultaneously reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America and Irving Rouse's The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. I resisted Nickel and Dimed for a couple of years, annoyed by the "duh!" factor of someone doing a study on how hard it is to be poor. Happily, though, I was wrong, finding Ehrenreich's honesty about her project refreshing ("Almost anyone could do what…
