i think the schwarzenegger campaign has broken through some kind of fourth wall by getting rob lowe on board. i’m sure they will figure out something for him to do soon, but right now it appears he’s functioning perfectly as a way to get even free press despite the fact that it seems he doesn’t have …any official title with the campaign and his future role seems to be still evolving.”.

i suspect that jesus jones is doing much better financially by playing corporate gigs than, say, rerun is doing by personally greeting fans on the phone. maybe not though. i almost bought a little of reruns time to call kris today on her birthday.

holy crap. big, big, big power outtages all over the place. nyc and detroit are reportedly without power. apparently not terrorism. i’m in west michigan and the power is still on here, but the outtages are as close as lansing.

pssst. hey! yeah, you news.google. entire cities are without power. you might want to update your home page, people are reporting it. update: o.k. at 5:20 eastern it’s up on the front page. so it only took at least 45 minutes for it to make it the front page.

update:michigan public radio reported that apparently the niagara mohawk power grid is overloaded; i can’t verify who reported this because the radio station went off the air again.

despite the fact that we’re sinister, today is left handers day!

warning:

the following is an incoherent, rambling, liberal-leaning, rough
draft of a political “essay” which is mostly meant for me. being the
narcissist that i am, i thought i’d make it public and see if
anyone else was having similar thoughts. if you’re a conservative,
i hope we can still be friends. whatever your political leaning,
send an
email

and let me know what you think.

i tend to think of myself as a political centrist who is not
strongly tied to any particular political party, despite the fact
that i almost always vote democratic. i vote. even in midterm and
local elections and i do my best to stay on top of candidate
positions, although my better half, kristine, is usually much
better at this than myself.

but as this election cycle gets rolling, moreso than any other, i’m
finding that i’m not vaguely centrist. i’m a liberal. i’m a
liberal’s liberal. i’m as progressive as they come. o.k. i know i
did go to that bastion of northwest liberalism,
the evergreen state college

, but i’m still as surprised as anyone that i’m apparently becoming
more liberal over time. i thought you were supposed to chill out
and get all moderate as you age gracefully.

no, instead, i’m feeling marginalized and disenfranchised and i’m
tired of it.

so what’s a liberal’s liberal to do? well, normally you’d support
dennis kucinich

[ who is, b.t.w.,
guest blogging

for lawrence lessig at the moment ]. i admit to having some initial
adverse reactions which were mostly the result of media soundbites
on his positions and opinions on his electibility. but when i look
at his
“progressive
vision”

, i’d have to say it articulates things in a way that i strongly
identify with. so i guess that makes me a progressive, liberal
kook. so sue me.

my problem is that i have this heart and head thing going on. my
heart says i should voluteer for the
dennis kucinich

campaign and help him get out the vote. but my head says that i
should just go with
dean

. my heart says that i know they are
not the
same

and i’m sick-and-tired of compromising, but my head says politics
is compromise and that voting with the heart

isn’t necessarily the most effective way to achieve desired polical
ends

. my heart says, “viva la revolution!”, while my head says that
things aren’t looking so good in kucinich-land when molly ivans, of
all people, reduces kucinich to,
“… a
no-hoper. Can’t elect a guy that short and skinny, not to mention
vegetarian. Accuse me of cynicism in my old age, but I am
interested in winning this one. Decent, kind, excellent: no Elvis,
no hope.”

. a cheap shot, unfair, and despicable in its own way, but we are
living in a country where an important electoral state apparently
is
in favor of
voting arnold schwarzenegger into the governor’s office

, without hearing one word about where he stands on
anything

substantive. if people are worried about

dean being too short to be electable

, then i guess kucinich is not viable as candidate based on his
haircut alone.

so will my heart or head win out in the end? i don’t know. i still
have a lot of work to do as a citizen to kick the tires on
kucinich’s
“progressive vision”

and decide for myself whether it’s tenable or just “feels
good”.

who knew that kevin costner has started a
company which has
developed a centrifugal process to separate oil
from water?

” Describing it, he is a CEO dream-maker:

“It’s going to solve a very big problem. If something happens in
your beautiful San Diego Bay, you shouldn’t stand there in rubber
boots soaking up oil with straw. I couldn’t stand that approach.
I’ve been working on it nine years; it’s going to be really big
though we are still under the radar as a global company. The oil
companies want it not just to clean spills, but because they can
recover the oil. As a company, we are about to hit the light of day
in a very cool way.” “

own a mac and longing for new ways to lower your productivity? well, my friends,
glider is now “free as in beer” due to the unfortunate demise of the original distributer, Casady & Greene. a word to the wise, if you download it, you will find yourself spending far, far too much time attempting to navigate a paper airplane through a house.

[ via
laughingmeme ]