Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
(28 October - 6 November 2004)

6 November 2004
-"The Incredibles" was good, but might be my least-favorite Pixar flick of all-time, which I could've predicted.  The superhero thing just isn't exactly my thing, & though his tactics were off, the motives of the villain almost made sense at times.  Regardless, all Pixar flicks are great fun.
-Even when I don't win Settlers, I love it.  What a game!

5 November 2004
-I really hope no one ever cleans things up because I'm coming over.  Unless it provides an excuse to do a cleaning that was overdue.  But even then, it really doesn't matter to me.  I guess these are more reasons why I'm an alien.
-Jaaaaaake!  Everyone should come to California; it makes things so much easier.

4 November 2004
-Looks like in-person poker is slipping through the cracks this week, so of course it's time for online poker.
-Patched up enough notes, but it's really time for a change.  How much can I convince myself to actually reform?

3 November 2004
-Absolutely no surprises, except how early Kerry has decided to concede.  The Depublican Party is in Deep Sununu, as I used to say, & needs to figure out how to stop imitating Republican policy if it has any desire not to go the way of the Whigs.  Kerry's talk of the need for unity just reminds me how similar the two candidates are, & ultimately that their priorities are in line with each other.  It seems John Edwards disagrees, but I'm most interested to see how everyone in the public reacts to this.  Already I see stunning signs of resignation for people that felt this was the most important decision time of their lives.
-I don't know if "smug" as Lisha put it is a good description of the above post, but I do think it was pretty obvious what would happen.  Two things I want to put on the record... first, I am stunned by resignation as opposed to outrage & mobilization, not as opposed to dance parties.  I would've thought that in an electoral process this close, there would be more fervency than quietly shuffling back into line which I've seen from many many Kerry supporters.  As far as Nader's impact, it was indeed minimal.  However, I don't think one can say that Kerry galvanized all the support that the left could've raised.  If he'd had the guts to contrast with Bush on major issues, especially the war, then he would've gained a lot of confidence & support from people who didn't want Bush-Lite.  Trying to beat Bush by being very similar to Bush but with a D in front of his name was a losing strategy.  His flip-floppy pandering was his undoing, not the assertion that the country is overwhelmingly rolling right.

2 November 2004
-Like two days ago, I'm exhausted & really don't want to work today.  But I don't really have a choice.
-Speaking of choices, I really can't believe how many people think that today's decisions make so much of a difference.  I know I've hashed this over with people time & again, but has anyone been listening to Kerry's "slaughter-the-terrorists" rhetoric?  I know the war(s) that Bush & Kerry will fight is/are not the biggest issue for everyone, but it seems to be clearly the issue that will have the most impact on the next four years.  Both want to expand the Iraq War, Kerry a little more so.  Bush would probably start a war with Iran, Kerry with North Korea.  Both have promised to search-&-destroy for al-Qaeda, which could mean wars with any number of nations, & bombing missions elsewhere.  Given the fatalistic reality of war-without-end facing our society, does today really make the difference you think it does?  Yes, Kerry will propose legislation that gets rejected by the Republican-dominated Congress, while Bush might slightly increase the amount of bad legislation that gets passed.  Kerry by a centimeter.  No matter what happens, Roe v. Wade will never be overturned (though I personally don't think this issue is as clear-cut as most of my readers do), because the Supreme Court will never start a nationwide riot.  & to my sadness, no Supreme Court in the next 25 years will force gay marriage upon the unwilling populous, so the only really important issues the Court could decide will remain stationary.  Where is this big difference?  Why is there so much seeming urgency?  What are you people talking about?  I know I'm on the far-out fringe of opinion in this country on this matter, but I'm almost hoping for a Kerry administration just so I can spend 4 years showing you how he's a Bush-clone.
-To come clean on my record, since some people still seem to be expressing confusion about it (mostly Jordan, whose late post I replied to in his comments), I'm not voting this election.  I will reconsider whether to vote in US elections in February 2006, when I am no longer subject to Selective Service (SS) laws which I have been disobeying since the day I turned 18.  At this point, I may have a social contract with this country & feel like I am philosophically eligible to vote.  If I were voting this year, I would write-in Nader/Camejo as they most closely align to my beliefs, Peter Camejo being perhaps my favorite politician alive right now.  I strongly advocate that those who do feel like they have a valid social contract in the USA vote for Nader/Camejo.  My favorite outcome of the election this year, though I do not predict it (see my predictions from earlier posts), would be that Nader's votes outweigh the margin of difference between Kerry & Bush, being perceived as "costing Kerry the election", so that the Democrats will someday nominate someone for President who does not promise to fight more wars & hunt down & slaughter people.
-I really shouldn't have gone to work today.

1 November 2004
-Given how much flying these candidates do in election season, it's amazing that none of them ever crash.  Imagine the pressure of being the November 1st pilot of a presidential contender.
-At about 4:20 Pacific time tomorrow, you'll be able to tell where this election is going.  There will either be a map with 150-200 electoral votes already in the Bush camp, in which case you can turn the TV off knowing that the election's over & Bush has been re-elected; or there will be a virtually blank map with maybe 30-40 electoral votes apiece for Bush & Kerry, in which case you can turn the TV off for about 6 hours & check back to see when they actually start filling things in, knowing that our actual President will be determined in 2005.  A very long sentence, but one that I would take to heart tomorrow.  Like I said, it's either a Bush slide or obscenely close to call.  In the latter case, prepare to get to know your electoral voters very well, & probably watch some of them disappear before they get a chance to vote.

31 October 2004
-I am so sad to be working all day today.
-After all that, not even trick-or-treating for me.  But it's all for the best & I still had plenty of Halloween spirit with my makeshift Blue (the house fish) costume.
-When things in this job end up being decided on the basis of size & physical intimidation is when I am most frustrated.
-0-for-4.  But the rest of the days are good!

30 October 2004
-Lots of notes done, lots of notes to go.  Sigh.
-Maybe there is reason for hope after all.  After a tour through the Lake Merritt farmer's market, I've spoken with a group of folks who believe Kerry & Bush are equally worthless & want to know what to do, a group of people selling the Socialist Worker newspaper which is endorsing Nader/Camejo, & someone handing out the Green Party voter's guide which is co-endorsing the actual Green candidate & Nader/Camejo, despite the Greens rejecting Nader at their convention.  How about that?  It was like a convention of like-minded political thinkers for me & made me wonder if there are really so few of us as CNN & the rest of the media wants me to believe.  Granted it's in Oakland, at a farmer's market, so it's definitely the most likely place to find such folks.  But given that the mainstream media would have you believe that these people don't exist, it's reassuring nonetheless to see them & discuss things with them in real life.
-Pumpkins!  I actually made rounded carving work for once.
-Cookies didn't work out quite as well, but life goes on.

29 October 2004
-Lost a lot at poker.  Just kept getting needled, when it all started with Edwin out-drawing me on a double-gutshot straight-draw.  I had a KQ down against his Q9 on a K56 flop.  He drew the 7 on the turn & the 8 on the river to win.  After that, I saw a couple of wins but almost entirely losses.  But Em ended up & it was fun to host it again.  & I'm up $43 for 3 weeks of effort.  So I really can't complain.
-Slow progress is still progress.  I hate these ends of the month.  Enough to substantially change them?  No.  It's just so hard for me to tell myself that one really bad day (or two) a month isn't worth slacking the rest of the month.  Sigh.
-So four years ago I predicted something that was pretty darn absurd.  For nostalgia's sake, you can read it again for the first time.  In this I argued many things, two things most prominently, one of which was painfully false, but the other of which was true, in a sense.  First I argued that Gore was only capable of hauling down 14 states worth of electoral votes.  Obviously, that wound up being ridiculous, though I also put Tennessee in the definite win column for Gore, which turned out to be a big part of his downfall.  But the second thing I argued, that Gore had no chance of winning, turned out to be strangely true in the way in which Florida was mangled & Gore found a way to lose despite seemingly winning.  I don't think I have the time to write a diatribe about this year's election given that I'm 93 notes behind going into Halloween & I have a Halloween of work to prepare for.  But I continue to be utterly baffled by the fact that, as is currently displayed on CNN's home page, three-quarters of those who voted in their recent poll believe this to be the most important election of their lifetime.  Without descending into my extensive rhetoric on why Bush & Kerry are practically clones (though there's an interesting difference of whether we want war with Iran or North Korea distinguishing them), dare I make a prediction as to the electoral result on Tuesday?  I see two possibilities, both of which seem strangely equal in their likelihood to me.  I can see either Bush breaking out ahead in every perceived swing-state, giving him an electoral count around 300-350 & a decisive win.  I can equally see something so hopelessly close that it makes 2000 look like a landslide.  Something where literally five or seven states are decided in endless recounts, court cases, & chaos.  Or the fabled 269-269 split, giving it to Bush in a House vote.  Or a faithless elector ending up being the only vote that actually counts in the entire nation.  All of these things seem probable to me, though if I had to guess, it'd be the Bush 350 over the even split.  But so much depends on which way the winds turn in the next few days, & how many people get to vote multiple times with all the early voting going on.  It'll be exciting, even though the results don't matter.
-Osama speaks just days before the election?  Emphasizing that policy will change America's fate?  This looks fishily like an October surprise orchestrated by the Bush folks.  I am apt to refer to the possibility that Osama is a CIA operative.  If he shows up in custody in the next 72 hours, it's all over.

28 October 2004
-So often, I'm just drawn towards punting everything.  The procrastinatory lifestyle works at times, but not at all times.  Sigh.  I'll get everything done... tomorrow.  No, I'm serious!

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