DNC Rules & Bylaws

Today's the big day, in which Hillary Clinton pins her hopes on the democratic party's Rules & Bylaws Committee to change the rules in the middle of the game, to her benefit.

For the past few weeks, Senator Clinton's been championing the cause of the Florida and Michigan voters, and the DNC's decision to not seat the delegates from these states. Of course, Clinton said nothing when these rules were imposed last year, only discovering her voters' rights activism when she began losing to Senator Obama.

I watched about 40 minutes of the proceedings this morning, before finally turning it off in disgust. Florida state senator Joyner insists on seating all the delegates, as the votes were cast, in spite of the fact that Florida voters had previously been told their votes would not count. Why does this matter? Because the state has 4 million registered voters, and only 1.7 million turned out to vote in the primary. Joyner's concerned with disenfranchising these 1.7 million, but doesn't seem concerned with the other 2.3. IMHO, the only way to resolve Florida is to hold a new primary, which the state already decided not to do.

Florida state representative Wexler, on the other hand, proposed a concession from the Obama campaign, proposing the Florida delegates be seated at 50%, per the DNC rules. They don't support seating the full delegation, as the rules specifically limit seating to 50%. This will give Clinton an additional 19 delegates, which is still not sufficient to put her within reach of the party nomination. Shy the Rules Committee seating Florida and Michigan fully, Obama will still become the party nominee.

One member of the committee asked Wexler why seating half the delegates would lead to party unity, rather than seating the full set of delegates. Wexler didn't answer the question directly, instead pointing out that the rules only allow for half the delegates to be seated. My answer to the question is that party unity cannot be accomplished without holding a new election, allowing all 4 million voters to have their say. Further, the decision to strip the delegates was based upon Florida's decision to move its primary ahead of Super Tuesday, in violation of the committee's rules, and the punishment must remain in effect. If the Rules Committee can't stick to its guns, it loses all credibility in enforcing party bylaws. In 2012 we may well see other states move their primaries forward, in violation of DNC rules, knowing that the committee won't have the testicular fortitude to enforce its own policies.

Michigan's another matter. Obama, again following the rules, removed his name from the ballot and had no representation there. Clinton remained on the ballot, and by her math won the state handily. But again, she's conflicting her own ideas regarding voters' rights. Since no votes were cast for Obama, those who support him will have no voice if Michigan is seated. Michigan party officials are proposing full seating of the delegation, with a ten point spread in Clinton's favor. This still isn't enough to help her defeat Obama, and is little more than another concession. But again, the only valid way of determining Obama's support within the state is to hold another primary -- which the state rejected, as did Florida.

Interestingly, a large number of labor organizations have come out in favor of Obama. I saw a recent article, posted on DemConWatch, mentioning 36 recently appointed delegates in Michigan. Of the 36, the names of three could not be found, the nine specified no affiliation with either campaign. Twenty-two, however, support Obama. And of these, many appear to be Teamsters or United Auto Workers. If a new election had been held, I suspect Obama may well have won the state.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. I still don't think Clinton has a chance, and frankly wish she'd just go away. I predict Florida will be seated at half, Michigan will be seated according to their proposal to give Clinton a slight edge, Clinton will take Puerto Rico, Obama will take Montana and South Dakota, and Clinton will throw in the towel by the end of next week. But I could be wrong. She may well try to push this all the way to the convention in August, which would be a mistake. After Tuesday we're going to see McCain and Obama continue to campaign against one another, and the press will lose all interest in Clinton. The superdelegates have been moving heavily in Obama's direction, and if Clinton really does want to "unify the party," getting out of the race is the best way to accomplish that goal.

This looked dreadful on Firefox

I fixed the problem, so my blog should now appear correctly on Firefox (though why anyone would want to use a browser other than Safari puzzles me). :)

This looks dreadful on Firefox

A friend sent me an email, letting me know that my blog looks like crap on Firefox. I took a look, and sure enough, it's completely mis-formatted.

I didn't actually write this page, rather it's one of the blog template options from Blogger. At this point I should probably just overhaul the template so that it validates properly, and renders correctly across multiple browsers. I'd never noticed it before, as I only ever use Safari on my Mac.

West Nile

I just had someone from the county come by, and tell me of 47 mosquitos trapped on the street, one tested positive for West Nile Virus. Oh, joy. I got munched by mosquitos a couple weeks ago, watering the lawn in the back yard. It was my reminder to stay indoors at dusk.

Anyway, he'd come by to ask if there was any standing water on the property, and to confirm the pool was still empty and dry. Yeah, it is. Unfortunately. I emptied it in early 2006, with plans to have it resurfaced (as it had lots of cracks, and appeared to be leaking). But then my sister got arrested, and I had to deal with that financial mess, and could no longer afford to have the pool repaired. So it still sits empty.

When it was full, I had the filter running eight hours a day during the summer, and plenty of chlorine, so it was never a breeding ground for mosquitos, anyway. However, one of my backyard neighbors seems to have their sprinklers running around 2 AM every morning, so it's likely one of them is breeding the little blood suckers without even realizing it.

--edit--
Another county employee came by, to again tell me about the discovery of West Nile Virus on the street. Only this fellow actually lives here, and was able to tell me in which yard the infected mosquito was found. Way down on the opposite end from me, which is wonderful.

Die Roller

I wrote up a D&D Die Roller recently, for the iPhone (though it's also easily usable by laptop or desktop). Enjoy...

--edit--
Hmm, I probably don't need to total up the d20's. Will add that to the To Do list.

Recent Readings

Interface by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George

Fascinating read. The President gave a speech, announcing his intention to forgive the national debt. This angered the Network, the mysterious them behind the scenes, who pull all the strings for their own financial gain. Fortunately a recent development in technology provided the Network with a means of implanting a chip in the brain of Governor William A. Cozzano, allowing them to effectively control his actions. Soon began a perfectly scripted plot to make Cozzano President.

I'd only read one other Stephenson novel, Snow Crash. I found this one a captivating read, and quite enjoyed it. Especially after suffering through a couple of Anne Rice novels, below.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

I read this a couple of weeks ago, in advance of the release of the film (which I haven't yet seen). It's a quick read, and a really short story, and frankly, I don't know how they're going to turn this into a 90 minute film. Really the only thing that happens, of any relevance, is the battle, so I figure it's probably 15 minutes of the children talking, and 75 minutes of special effects. The story's really not that interesting. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite of all the books, though if memory serves, I also enjoyed The Magician's Nephew (which relates the story of the creation of Narnia, and, I believe, the genesis of the White Witch).

Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle by Anne Rice

I don't know what happened to Anne Rice. I loved Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned. The Tale of the Body Thief was okay, but most of the others have been lackluster. BWF and BC were utterly dreadful. But I had to read them, to complete the set (which I actually haven't yet accomplished, as I haven't yet read Violin).

Blackwood Farm tells the story of Quinn Blackwood, though for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I should care. The story didn't get interesting until about 3,000 pages in, when Quinn finally got turned. And even then, it seemed Anne Rice had adopted Laurell K. Hamilton's love of vampire porn. Bleah. Sorry, but vampire porn is not my thing. I'd read the Anita Blake books through Obsidian Butterfly, which completely turned me off reading another one of her novels.

Blood Canticle continued the story where it left off, only in this one she'd returned to having Lestat narrate the story. And what'd she do here? She spent the first several pages, as Lestat, complaining about all the people who didn't like Memnoch the Devil! Sorry Anne, but Memnoch was crap. No, I'm not at all suggesting I could do better, I'm merely saying that Memnoch was crap.

But what really turned me off was Lestat speaking like some surfer from Santa Monica. I'm sorry, but the word "dude" should never pass Lestat's lips. Hopefully, she'll stop writing vampire novels altogether. I'd hate to see her destroy her mythos more than she already has.

Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Above I commented on the handful of vampire novels I liked. I'd omitted this one from this list, as I'd planned on providing its own entry, as a recently read book. I finished this one a year ago, before I began my year-long saga to force my way through Blackwood Farm. (I'd forgotten to mention that above, but yes, it took me a full year to get through Blackwood Farm -- it was so dull!)

Blood and Gold, however, was fascinating. This one told the story of Marius, from his beginning in Rome. It tells of his efforts to protect Ankil and Akasha across the centuries, of his battles with the religious vampires, of his patronage of Botticelli, of his search for Pandora, and of his creating Armand. The tale is narrated to Thorne, an ancient who had been turned by Maharet, and who had awakened in modern times after centuries of sleep. Of the few I'd mentioned above, I'd add this to the list of enjoyable Anne Rice vampire novels.

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

I absolutely love the Odd Thomas books (Odd Thomas and Forever Odd being this one's predecessors). In this one Odd has taken up residence in a monastery, to recover from his prior adventure. Soon we encounter the bone beast, and Odds efforts to discover its origins. As usual, the ghost of Elvis is there to keep him company.

I heard a radio ad for a new Odd Thomas book, which I'm going to have to order, in spite of not having any income at the moment. :)