can i breathe now please?

jeebus what a week. i think i’ve just come up for air. to everyone popping by who’s emailed this week, i swear to god that i’ll get to it all sometime later today. i’ve been up to my ears in ISO crap all week at work. for those who do not know what ISO is, it’s a pain in the ass! LOL seriously though, it sucks. it’s an international standard for quality assurance which mandates that everything you do at your job is documented and put into a quality control system. i was the “lucky ducky” who was tasked with doing tech writing documenting everything we do at work. it has not been fun. i have literally been working on this project for over a year. and it’s been like pulling teeth. i’ve had to ride my coworkers and generally annoy them, which has not been fun. i mean, it’s hard enough to get technical people to quantify what they do, much less document it. since i’m the only person in my group who can correctly punctuate a sentence (no offense paul, i know you can do this too), i was tasked with writing most of the documentation. well, we finally had our audit this week. tuesday i spent all day running on empty. i was so wound up you could have spun me like a top. i had to spend over an hour with the auditor, then i had to escort him around my group and pretend i knew what i was talking about. it stressed me out so badly that i spent wednesday at home sick from exhaustion. thursday i went back to work and stressed some more, then stressed all day friday until the closing meeting. we passed, thank the heathen pagan goddess. now my boss can get off my ass about this, our bonuses won’t be all screwed up (we wouuld have been docked if we didn’t pass), and i can go back to doing my regular job. FINALLY.

now today’s going to be crazy. i am going to be an election judge for our march 7 primary. it wasn’t something i originally considered, but my friend michelle urged me to do it. but now i’m glad i’m doing it, because i’m majorly concerned with election integrity and the only way i can be sure that things are going right is to actually get down and be an election judge. i wish everyone else would sign up to do this. anyway, i have to go to machine training this afternoon. now *this* should be interesting. i get to learn how to turn them on and off, how to troubleshoot them, etc etc. you can be sure i will raise some questions if i’m not satisfied about the security and integrity of the machines. i’ll update this post with all the gory details when i get back. for now i’ve really gotta get some breakfast and then get ready to go. be back later…

More pie in HD94; Grusendorf plays the race card and Patrick pulls the gay card

x-posted at BOR

Mmmmmm pie. Just when I thought that we might get a few spam-free days here in HD94, Grusendorf and Patrick both went and kicked it up a notch.

First, I was mistaken when I wrote the other day about Grusendorf going on the air on the local non-cable channels. I wasn’t paying too much attention when I saw that first commercial. He may very well be running on the non-cable outlets, but I can only confirm that Grusendorf is on the air on the USA channel. I spotted his ad when I was watching Olympic Ice, and now that I think about it, that’s when & where I spotted his first ad. Anyway, I caught the ad again yesterday. It could only be described as a positive spot, and doesn’t mention Patrick at all.

After I wrote that entry the other day, we got a bigass door flier from Grusendorf. It’s full color, high gloss, and features a picture of Gov. Goodhair and a statement from him endorsing Grusendorf. Now, considering Perry’s only pulling a thirty-something approval rating right now, I have to question the wisdom of the Grusendorf campaign. But hey, if they wanna blow their shot at re-election by aligning with Perry, then by all means they should go for it. LOL The back of the flier features a picture of Grusendorf and a women whom I assume is supposed to be a teacher standing in front of some wall lockers inside a school. It then lists some bullet points. This is supposed to be Grusendorf’s campaign platform, although it cribs heavily from Patrick’s platform:

- More fiscal accountability for school administrators.
- More local control of cirriculum for teachers.
- Move school board elections to the November ballot to ensure maximum voter accountability.
- Stand up to the teacher unions and the liberal special interests who oppose reform.
- Strengthen Texas borders. Illegal immigration is straining our school funding.
- Cut property taxes by at least 33% and cap appraisals.

That third bullet point caught my eye because once again Grusendorf raises the spectre of Democratic boogeymen supporting Patrick. But I’m still suprised that he painted teachers in a negative light. That is soooo not going to fly here in Arlington. I also wonder how Grusendorf can claim that he’s going to cut property taxes by 33% and cap appraisals. Since we don’t have a state income tax, where the hell else is Grusendorf planning on getting the money to replace Robin Hood? Note that I’m not advocating replacing Robin Hood (which has been proven to WORK); I’m just pointing out the contradictions here.

On the same day, we received a peice of mail from the Texas Federation of Teachers. It’s a little card with a kid at a chalkboard on the front. Inside it says:

“Teachers and school employees need your help. The legislature has failed repeatedly to provide for the high-quality public education our children deserve. We need new leadership in Austin. And you can make it happen.”

Then there’s a handwritten note that says, “School employees ask that you vote for the best educational candidate.” It then endorses Patrick and lists the early voting locations.

The next day we got a mailer from the “Texas Opportunity PAC”, based west of Austin. It’s a two page folded, full color flier going negative on Patrick. This flier is pretty disgusting, as it plays the race card. It begins with this message:

While illegal aliens are flooding Texas, taking our jobs and running up huge bills as taxpayer expense, the man running Diane Patrick’s campaign is a top adviser to the Mexican government. Diane Patrick’s campaign consultant, Rob Allyn of Dallas, is being paid nearly one million dollars to advise the Mexican government and President Fox who wants to “open up” the border with the United States.

Oh no, the Mexicans are coming! Nevermind the fact that this is a piss-poor attack and that there’s a big difference between being a top advisor and a campaign consultant, it’s just racist. The flier also has a little picture of a hummer and a map of Texas that Grusendorf claims is being given to illegals by the Mexican government. It also adds that “There have been over 200 documented cases of the Mexican Army escorting and protecting illegal drug shipments into the USA.” I guess Grusendorf doesn’t realise that border security is the domain of the federal government. The racist smears included in this flier include painting all Mexicans as job-stealing, drug-running, money-grubbing parasites on our economy. It’s really disgusting.

The next mailer we got was a negative/positive mailer from Patrick. Like the first one we received, it’s an expensive flier. The front is solid black and says “The Facts On The Race For Texas House”. Inside it features a side by side comparision of Grusendorf’s record and Patrick’s campaign promises:

A Failed Record: The Facts on Kent Grusendorf
Fact: Failed to Solve School Finance Crisis Five Times
Fact: Poor Leadership for our Schools (i’ll copy the entire text here because it’s pretty good): When Texas Monthly named him on of the “Ten Worst Legislators” for the second time, they called his school plan “so full of shams… so bad it was perished in the session’s closing hours.”
Fact: Increased Property Taxes, then Used School Funds to Increase His Pay
Fact: Supported by Austin Lobbyists and Special Interests
Fact: Worked with Liberals To Promote Anti-Family Legislations (mentions the casino bills in this section)

The other side gives Patrick’s promises, and pulls the gay card. Patrick claims that pro-gay materials are included in our textbooks, and promises to purge our textbooks of anything that paints gay people in a postive light. I’m pretty disgusted by this, although it’s par for the course in a state where hatin’ on the gays is considered a recreational sport. You know for about five minutes I was actually starting to like Patrick, but now I’m disgusted by her as well. I still think she would do a better job than Grusendorf, but I can’t endorse her pulling the gay card. It’s just disgusting. Appealing to peoples’ worst instincts is a lowly campaign tactic that makes me sick. It’s the same shit that Nixon pulled with his infamous Southern Strategy, only this time gay is the new black.

The next flier we received was a one page, high gloss, color Grusendorf ad. It shows him on one side holding what appears to be a pay stub. This flier is designed to knock down Patrick’s claim that Kent voted himself a pay raise, and asks “Can Diane Patrick win with a lie?” The back of the flier attacks Patrick for having Rob Allyn on her staff, for supposedly being backed by Democratic boogeymen (are we sensing a pattern here? I guess Grusendorf thinks he can repeat something again and again until it becomes truthy), and for being a “Liberal College Professor” who “Voted with Democrats on the State Board of Education” and “Raised Property Taxes by 92% while on AISD”. In other words, he’s pulling stuff out of his ass at this point.

You know, I must say that this has proven to be one incredibly entertaining primary race. Definitely more fun to watch than some of the other local races. Grusendorf and Patrick are beating the crap out of each other, assuming perhaps correctly that whomever wins the GOP primary will be the next rep from HD94. What I’d like to know is where in the world is David Pilow in all this? Hopefully he’s kicking back and biding his time while his opponents beat each other up. But I sure hope he’s got something going on that I’m not privy to, because the GOP primary has gotten so ugly that Pilow could benefit from this. How much I’m not sure, but damn, this is like a golden opportunity here. Both campaigns are providing all the oppo research Pilow could ever need. I hope he take advantage.

Also, the sign wars haven’t kicked up any further. The ratio of Patrick:Grusendorf signs is still running about 20:1 at this point, and I am still confidently betting on a Patrick victory at this point. But then again, I’m not plugged in to the local GOP organisations; I’m only going on what I’m seeing and what I’m getting in the mail. And regardless of how disgusted I am at Patrick for pulling the gay card, I hope to hell she takes out “Do Nothing” Kent.

GOP Piefight in HD94

note: this is a copy of a diary i wrote for BOR yesterday, which philip kindly front-paged.

Ladies and gentleman, we have ourselves a bonafide GOP Piefight in the race to represent HD94 (my district). The candidates are Rep. Kent Grusendorf and Dr. Diane Patrick. I’ll go ahead and make a bold prediction: Grusendorf is going down, and that might increase our chances for a Democratic pickup in this district.

take that, westies!

HA! now THIS is how you do it:

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) — Wearing vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier’s funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters.

They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals.

Phelps believes American deaths in Iraq are divine punishment for a country that he says harbors homosexuals. His protesters carry signs thanking God for so-called IEDs — explosives that are a major killer of soldiers in Iraq.

The bikers shield the families of dead soldiers from the protesters, and overshadow the jeers with patriotic chants and a sea of red, white and blue flags.

“The most important thing we can do is let families know that the nation cares,” said Don Woodrick, the group’s Kentucky captain. “When a total stranger gets on a motorcycle in the middle of winter and drives 300 miles to hold a flag, that makes a powerful statement.”

hell yea! i am so glad that they had the initiative to form this group, and i’m especially pleased that they are there to help protect the families from the idiotic, disgusting westies. BIG TIME KUDOS to the Patriot Riders.

Today’s Iran News Roundup

The buildup for war with Iran is gaining speed. While I am not a supporter of the current leadership in Iran, I don’t think more war is the answer. Look at how Iraq and Afganistan have turned out. These invasions have only added to the terrorist forces and are no doubt largely the fuel that helped flame the cartoon protests.

That said, here is the news as it stands today. India is on board with the West, and the leadership of that country is trying to convince its people this is not a Muslim issue but a security issue. India has a large Muslim population, so image is everything in supporting actions against Iran.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking wider support for his government’s policy on Iran, held a meeting of the full council of ministers on Thursday to convince his colleagues that Iran had violated the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that India just could not afford to have another nuclear nation in its neighbourhood. It was clear from the meeting that there was no change in the government’s position despite protests by the Left parties. The Prime Minister will make a detailed statement on Iran in both Houses of Parliament on Friday.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

According to sources, Dr Singh obtained the support of his ministers who are now prepared to face the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party in Parliament with what a senior minister said was “sufficient ammunition.” The US-India civilian nuclear agreement also came up for discussion, and here Dr Manmohan Singh, on a weaker wicket, sought to assure ministers that the government would not compromise the “sovereignty” of the nation in any manner. As the sources pointed out, there was wider opposition to the nuclear deal than to the government’s stance on Iran, with the BJP as well as senior Indian nuclear scientists opposed to several aspects of the agreement. The government is not clear when exactly it will make a statement on the India-US nuclear agreement in Parliament, with sources pointing out that it had still to be decided whether this would be before or after the visit by US President George. W. Bush.

European countries, who initially led the effort to try and reach a peaceful solution with Iran are changing their tune. France has openly accused Iran of having a nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, the British are busy rubbing elbows with the Germans to make sure they are on the same sheet of music concerning Iran. Britian and Iran are currently engaged in a back and forth over the issue of British troops in Basra, with the Iranians accusing the British of causing unrest on the border and the British accusing the Iranians of trying to draw attention away from the real issue.

The Iranian government is trying to make a last ditch effort to fend off international support for military action by getting its parliament to ratify a UN accord allowing for inspections. I think this is a case of too little too late.

I also think China is the Wild Card in all this. China and Iran are in the process of striking a major oil deal between the two countries. China needs oil for its growing economy in a bad way. They made a similar deal with Venezuela. A destablized Iran would not help this, so even though China agreed to send Iran to the Security Council, they are still calling for negotiations over military intervention.

Russia and Iran are set to meet Monday to discuss an enrichment deal between the two countries. Everything is ridng on the outcome of that meeting. If Iran can keep Russia and China on its side, it will be very hard for the West to get UN support for an invasion. The US claims it will be happy with the deal, but I still am not convinced considering Iran and Israels relationship.

Crossposted at monkey’s blog.

torino: day seven

ah… i totally got off kilter and slacked off this week. oh well. now that the weekend has officially started (w00t!) i have some catching up to do…

first, over the past few days, some of our most promising athletes crashed and burned: bode miller, daron rahlves, johnny weir (talk about a heartbreaker! i love that kid), apollo ohno… none lived up to their potential. our girls, however, did us proud. thank you title ix! our women’s snowboarders have been tearing it up, and they took gold in every event held so far. kudos to hannah teter and gretchen blieler for going 1-2 in the halfpipe. i do have to post a bit of a gripe though, because i think SLC gold medalist kelly clark was totally robbed. she got more air than most of the boys and ended up in 4th. LAME. moving on… seth wescott took gold in the new snowboard cross event, and our men’s curling team (yes, i enjoy curling. it’s like pool on ice) is rolling right along.

tonight in primetime we get our first look at the ice dancing competition. now here’s the thing with ice dancing. it used to be as boring as watching paint dry. seriously. but the new scoring system has transformed it. it’s actually fun to watch now. with that in mind, we’re looking forward to watching tanith belbin and ben agosto. they’re just special, and i don’t mean that in a short bus kind of way. they truly are a joy to watch. the first part of their competition is tonight, and i’ll probably skip it. there’s three routines, and the first one is basically everyone doing the same steps in the same pattern to the same music. boooring. but the free dance should be fun as to watch.

Lite Posting

Well, it seems to be a little lite on the posting around here this week. The Olympics have sucked me and anna in, and mr percy seems to have gone awol (hint hint). But if you are really bored, feel free to stop by monkey’s blog.

Blogwhoring is so much more fun when you have front page privileges on another blog.

donna howard victorious

w00t! and people say texas is a lost cause!

DEMOCRAT donna howard CRUSHED ben bentzin yesterday 57-42 in the hd48 special election. i didn’t blog much about this race, but other bloggers did and i salute them as well as the newest rep from hd48.

WAY TO GO DONNA!

the next special election is katy hubener up here in north texas, for hd106, which covers grand prairie and part of irving. grand prairie is traditionally a gop stronghold, but the part of 106 that covers irving leans slightly democratic. this is a HUGE pickup opportunity for texas dems. i can attest to the fact that there are a ton of hubener signs all over west grand prairie, which freaked me out (in a good way). that area is generally suburban and in 04 it was bush country. early voting began on monday and runs through the 24th. election day is february 28. you can find all the polling locations on katy’s website.

torino: day three

For today’s Olympian of the day, we’re going outside the USA. Tonight’s pairs figure skating final has inspired us to hilight Russia’s Tatyana Totmianina, who is expected to withstand a Chinese barrage tonight and win gold with her partner Max Marinin. Also, since we seem to be on the subject of skaters who can or cannot come back from serious injuries, it’s even more appropriate to introduce everyone to Tatyana. A few years back, the couple had a terrible accident during Skate America 2004. During a lift (which was supposed to look something like this) early in their program, something went wrong. Max dropped Tatyana on her head, literally. It was just about the most horrifying thing we’ve ever seen during a professional competition (if you can stand it, you can watch video of the fall here). She landed on the side of her face and suffered a concussion and memory loss. Just three months later, the pair made their return to competition and won the Russian national title, the European Championship, then the World Championship. Tatyana has an iron will and a ton of determination. Even though she complained about dizziness after her accident, she skated through it and is now on the verge of earning gold (she and Marinin were 4th in Salt Lake). We are big fans of Russian skating in general, and unless Zhang/Zhang are overscored for their performance tonight (and possible history making quad throw), we expect the Totmianina and Marinin to take home the gold.

It’s ladies day at the Olympics: women’s halfpipe (primetime), women’s luge, and women’s ice hockey. There’s also mens and women’s curling, biathlon, and men’s speed skating 500m finals.

The US team picked up a few more medals yesterday. Our boys KICKED ASS in the men’s halfpipe. Shawn White won gold while Danny Kass repeated his SLC02 performance by picking up a silver. w00t! Team USA’s current medal total (minus those awarded today, so I don’t spoil ya) is 5. Team Norway is kicking butt and has already racked up 8 medals. Primetime starts tonight on NBC (who we’ll bag out for their lame coverage at a later date) at 6 CST

torino: day two

Today’s Olympian of the day is snowboarder Danny Kass. Danny is making his second appearance at the Olympics in today’s men’s halfpipe competition. He won a silver at Salt Lake as part of an American sweep. Danny’s been an x-games medalist and US open champion, and today he’ll surely land on the podium in Torino where our boys are favored yet again. Our main competition comes from the flying Finns, who were impressive in 2002 and are even stronger this year.

(warning: do not click these links if you’re avoiding the results before tonight’s broadcast) On tap today we’ve got men’s halfpipe snowboarding, rounds three and four of the men’s luge, normal hill ski jumping finals (watch out for those flying Finns and Pole Adam Malysz), women’s ice hockey, women’s 3000m speed skating, men’s short track speed skating (look for American Apollo Ohno in this event), and men’s downhill alpine skiing (look for Germany’s Hermann Maier and America’s Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves).

Today’s huge Olympic story is the withdrawal of 9 time US champion and ratings-grabber Michelle Kwan. I’ve kinda been saving this rant for the “I told you so” moment, so here goes…