Gimpysoft

Yup, Hillary is in fact playing hardball. Not a surprise, but still disappointing. Not only does Clinton want the Florida and Michigan primary results to be counted, it sounds like she and her people are starting to say that the results should be counted as they stand.

Hey, I’m all for every vote counting. Really I am. Hillary says:

1.7 million Floridians turned out to vote. They clearly believed their votes would count. And I think there has to be a way to make them count.

And I agree. My problem is that so many others who were quite explicitly told that their votes would not count may have, very sensibly, decided to stay home. What about their votes? I think that if we want to seat the Florida delegation, and we should want to seat the Florida delegation, we really need to have another primary or caucus. Doubly so for Michigan, where millions who wanted to vote for Obama didn’t even have the opportunity to do so. What about their votes?

Finally, Hillary just needs to admit that if they hold another election in Michigan, one that is not, you know, a banana republic style one-candidate ballot, she is still going to be behind Obama in both the popular vote and in the pledged delegate count. Her only chance to win the nomination will still remain convincing superdelegates to go against the clear will of the voters.

Hillary, can you please, please stop being so, I don’t know, Clintonesque?

Brett. I know you have your press conference scheduled this morning. It is not too late. Just step up to the podium and say that you’ve had a few days to think about it, and you just can’t hang it up yet. Come on, one more season. Hell, pre-announce your retirement. Imagine the motivation of the rest of the team knowing that this is your last shot.

Come on, just one more year. One more year.

And more election fun. Now apparently Florida and Michigan want their damn votes counted. I mean, we all knew the Clintons weren’t going to go down without a knock-down drag-out fight, didn’t we?

On the plus side, there is talk of having a re-vote in those two states, which would be nice seeing as Obama wasn’t even on the damn ballot in Michigan. Also, if they re-vote in Florida, I’ll totally be there to fuck it all up. (I think that fuck*ng up elections is what I’m looking forward to most about moving to Florida.)

No Tony, it’s not that I don’t care about the election, but priorities are priorities. As for McCain taking the nomination officially? Yawn. The only news is that it is now official that the Republican Party will be running on the War Forever platform in the fall.

As for the Democrats, Pennsylvania’s primary isn’t until April 22? Are you fucking kidding me? You’re telling me that we have to put up with almost two more months of Hillary and Obama tearing each other down while McCain just sits back and takes the occasional potshot at both?

And please, Hillary. Don’t even start talking like you’re the front runner now. You’re still in a deep hole, and the couplefew delegates you picked up last night haven’t saved your campaign yet. While I’m giving advice, can I also suggest that you perhaps stop running ads that play into John McCain’s hands? Do you really think that voters cowering in fear of The Terror are going to vote for you over McCain? Or I don’t know, maybe they will. I have a very bad feeling about how hawkish a Hillary presidency could be. She voted for the Iraq war, firstly. (And yes, go back through my archives and you’ll find I supported it at the time too. I’ve never claimed not to be an idiot though, and I’m not running for President.)

But more than that, it just seems like a Hillary foreign policy is just going to be more of the same. Obama says that he would meet with the leaders of foreign countries that we have disagreements with and she uses it against him. Ugh.

Texas and Ohio, I’m very disappointed in you. You had a chance to put Hillary out of her misery, and you failed. The groundhog saw its shadow, so I guess we have six more weeks of campaign ahead of us. Thanks a bunch, Texohio.

Oh yeah, also: Hillary can not win against McCain.

I’m still kind of sitting here hoping that it all turns out to be a rumor that got out of hand, but as of right now it looks like Brett Favre is retiring. (Hey, there still isn’t a story on Packers.com!) That’s too bad, after last season I was really hoping for one more year, and I know I’m not alone in that. I’m sure any day now Gerg is going to pull out that email I sent a few seasons ago saying that it was time for him to hang it up. I told him at the time that I’d deny it if he ever told anybody, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s flip-flopped on Favre these last few years.

At 32 years old I’m just barely old enough to remember a time when Brett Favre was not quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. We have a young and talented team, and I think it’s too bad that Brett won’t join them to get one more ring, but I think that even without him the Packers will be contenders this season.

Thanks for 17 great years, Brett. It’s not going to be the same without you.

Well, really I’ve been free to tell for a few weeks now, and many of you already know. Looks like Bex, Harry, Gimpysoft and I are moving to sunny Boca Raton, FL. I’ll be leaving the local telecom and going to work for Multiply, a social networking site. You can find me on there here, so feel free to sign on up and add me as a friend to keep track of my goings on down in Florida.

I’m no stranger to moving. I never spent more than six years in any one place before I graduated high school, and attended college in both Houston and Fayetteville, AR. However, at this point I’ve lived in Kansas City longer than anywhere I’ve previously lived, and feel a stronger connection to this town than anywhere else. I’m going to miss this town, and I’m going to miss all the people we’ve met. I’m sure we’ll make it back often.

Bex is not quite as used to moving as I, and she is having good days and bad days with respect to the move. (I think the days when she is looking forward to the move coincide with the days where the temperature is below 32&deg.) All in all though, we think it’s a good move for us and we’re both looking forward to it.

I have two weeks left at the telecom, and I’ll be spending nights and weekends until then finishing up my work on Fort Awesome. I think that Fort Awesome will go on the market around the time that we move, which should be March 20 or so. Anybody looking to buy a starter house? Anybody looking for part-time work helping me build out a bathroom? I pay in Boulevard and Waldo Pizza.

I haven’t had time to say much to say about The Wire this season. I gorged myself on the first seven episodes early in the season, then had an agonizingly long wait for episode eight. I watched eight and nine On Demand, and now found out today that the series finale won’t be put up On Demand, presumably to avoid spoilers. Arrrgh! Two weeks to wait?

In the meantime, I’ll be catching up on my The Wire reading. I was reading Wire blog Heaven and Here during season 4, but kind of avoided it this season. At least I can go back through it and catch up on their season 5 posts while I’m waiting for the finale.

I also recently found Marc Singer’s blog, where he’s doing an excellent deconstruction of the season so far. One more way to get my fix and kill the time between now and Sunday, March 9.

Sadly, after March 9 I don’t think there will be any way I can continue to justify my subscription to HBO. I’ll be back for David Simon’s Iraq War mini-series Generation Kill, but there’s not a lot else I feel like I need to keep the subscription for.

Dear Senator Jordan and members of the committee considering SB 595,

I am one of your constituents, and SB 595 recently came to my attention. SB 595 is a bill to ban the labeling of dairy products with respect to use of rGBH and rBST. I oppose this bill for several reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, I believe this is a straightforward freedom of speech issue. Dairy farmers should have the right to make factual claims about their products.

Secondly, bills like this smack of a blatant handout to large agribusiness. I realize we are in Kansas and agriculture is our largest industry, but so often agriculture policy is defended with appeals to the “family farmer”. SB 595 does nothing but work against the interests of small farmers. In order to compete with large agribusiness, small farmers must do what they can to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. SB 595 simply removes one way (via restriction of their constitutionally protected right to free speech) they can differentiate themselves.

I believe in free speech, and I believe in free markets. If a bill was proposed to require labeling of dairy products with respect to use of artificial hormones, I would oppose it as well. However, I fail to see how consumers in the state of Kansas will be helped by this bill. I believe that in order for markets to function properly, consumers access to information regarding the products they buy should not be restricted.

Please oppose SB 595.

Ryan Olson
Shawnee, KS 66216

I don’t buy in completely to the notion that genetically modified foods are de facto bad. However, when agribusiness has to resort to laws attempting to muzzle small farmers who want to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by using more natural farming practices, it makes my blood boil. If you agree, now would be the time to get in touch with your state senator and the members of the Agriculture committee currently considering this bill.

Full text of the bill [pdf]

Members of the Senate Agriculture committee:

R - Mark Taddiken – Chair taddiken@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7371
R - Roger C Pine - Vice Chair pine@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7372
D - Marci Francisco - Ranking Minority francisco@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7364
R - Stephen R Morris – Member morris@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-2419
D - Janis K Lee – Member lee@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7366
R - Terry Bruce – Member bruce@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7300
R - Tim Huelskamp – Member huelskamp@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7359
R - Derek Schmidt – Member schmidt@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7374
R - Ralph Ostmeyer – Member ostmeyer@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7399

You can find your state senator here.

We’re off to Green Bay shortly. I’ll be trying to post plenty of pictures to Flickr, and this slideshow should stay up to date. You can see all the photos here.

Bex just called to let me know that she has officially lined up replacements for her at work next Sunday and Monday. Therefore, she will be joining me on my road trip to Green Bay for the NFC Championship Game on Sunday. I’ll be posting photos here during the trip, and during the game depending on data coverage in the stadium.

As of right now, the forecast is high of 8°, low of -2° overnight. (The game is at 5:30PM). Only 10% chance of precipitation, but we’ll keep our eyes on that as the week progresses.

Damn, this is going to be good.