Tek-mology

There is something to be said for the typewriter when you lose an hour and a half of passionate, past-your-bedtime writing because of a browser error and a failure to repeatedly save. FUCK!!!!

Beerfest

Every trip back to the Puget Sound is like an easter egg hunt, only with beer. 2007 revealed the following hoppy gems behind salal bushes and driftwood (in taste rank):

Manny's Pale Ale
Full Sail LTD #1
Bridgeport IPA
Maritime Pacific IPA
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Big Sky Crystal Ale
Toby's Parrot Red Ale
New Belgium Fat Tire
Pyramid Snow Cap Ale
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Maritime Pacific Jolly Roger
Cutter's Amber Ale
Mac and Jack's African Amber
Alaskan Amber
Mac and Jack's IPA
Skagit River Scullers IPA
Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball

Back in Quabbin Qountry,
BTB

3Q WORLD TOUR: The Mitt-igator

Is Mitt Romney the Teflon candidate of 2008? For his sake, he had better be. Romney has been all under the news lately. Last week his official announcement on Tuesday (prepared remarks here) was overshadowed by the Valentine's Day snowstorm that shut down the East Coast. He was cut short on an early Bush endorsement. Worst of all have been the growing number of recent disclosures that Mitt has been changing a lot of his opinions with the convenient timing of the 2008 election cycle's beginning. The more I read about him, the more I become completely baffled by his candidacy. On the one hand, I will freely admit that he has a certain je ne aise quoi about him, and I don't think I am the only one who believes that. Plus he likes to use charts, and who doesn't love charts?!! Even though the news hasn't been the greatest, and not a lot of people had heard of the guy six months ago, it seems like the more people hear, the more they want to know.

But will they like what they hear? Mitt, it seems, is more than willing to try his darnedest to make that answer "yes". But is his darnedest too darned much? First it was his abortion flop, based on his 1994 statement an abortion, "I believe society should allow individuals to do whatever they choose," that he is currently running away from as quickly as possible. Then came his statement to the Log Cabin Republicans on gay rights: "We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern." Uh oh. That may have worked well in Provincetown, but it ain't working in Allentown. Queue up 2006, and he is pushing a ballot to ban gay marriage in Mass. Last of all his been his NRA flap. The Boston Globe revealed yesterday that Romney joined the NRA in August of 2006. I imagine he said something a long the lines of: "You know, I have always been a strong supporter of gun rights, but my planned neighborhood in Belmont, a dry town you know, didn't allow gun owners until very recently." Actually, I think his official response was through a spokesman and basically said, "we care about the future of gun freedom and not the past." The Republicans would show themselves, and not for the first time, to be extremely hypocritical if they elected a flip-flop artist from Massachusetts to represent them. At this point, we know Sam Brownback won't allow it. Then again, as Mitt himself said, "I was not always a Ronald Reagan conservative. Neither was Ronald Reagan, by the way. But like him, I learned with experience."

In other news, Republican candidate Ron Paul is sponsoring a hemp bill along with 9 Democratic co-sponsors including Dem candidate Dennis Kucinich. Oh, and don't get me started about how more and more columnists are talking about the potential demise of face-to-face campaigning. I think one of these days I am going to write a 15,000 word rant about it. Long Live the Granite State!

Still in the Tac,
BTB

3Q WORLD TOUR

Greetings from the first stop on the Quabbin Qountry Queries World Tour '07: the Mandolin Cafe in Tacoma, Washington. It is cloudy and 50 degrees outside with intermittent periods of rain, enough to keep the windows on display with a constant splattering of drops, but not enough to really discourage any outdoor activity. It is the kind of weather in which I walk to the grocery store to gaze in wonder at the soul-pleasing display of inimitable NW micros while my shopping basket overflows with Tim's Cascade Jalapeno chips, Tillamook Cheddar and, were it June, a pound or two of Copper River Salmon. It is the kind of weather that I know, that eases the sting of a 12-mile run and soothes a pitcher-induced hangover.

Special Valentine's Edition - The Power of Love (not by Huey Lewis)

We are having a Valentine's snow day up here in Quabbin Qountry, and with it plenty of time to do the lazy sit-around-the-house things that work days don't allow, and weekends discourage with their travels and hangovers. All morning I have delighted in watching the birds compete for the freshly-tossed seed on my front porch with a diagonally blowing sleet falling behind them. Yet the warm, woodstoven confines of my apartment have allowed me to anxiously await the days I can go outside in running shorts again.

I was also able to bask in the pleasures of multimedia with half of the second season of Kids in the Hall and a few movies on the premium channels. All this media overload was taxing on a simple man like myself, and only worked to reiterate the allure of power and money to both women and men, as evidenced in the great number of Presidential aspirants this time around. The idea of White House sex being the best possible sex is intriguing, and quite possibly truthful. Why else would it run in the Adams, Roosevelt and Bush families? Why else would Hillary be running, and both Doles gave it a shot? Why was Al Gore so horny? They heard the whispers, the rumours, the creaking and the thuds like nothing they had ever heard before. It leaves the rest of us schmucks sitting at home, wondering what might be, wondering if women will ever figure it out that if a guy is into money then he is almost certainly into M.O.B.

But here in Quabbin Qountry, we have acres of virgin snow in the woods, ripe for the taking. I'm putting on tights, a sweatshirt, my new Holyoke Athletic Staff pullover, a hat and gloves and getting it on. Three cheers for February, and that unmistakable squishy sound that only comes when shoes and snow meet in the crevasse of a footprint.

While I'm at it - a Valentine's Day Playlist.

Ask - The Smiths
So. Central Rain - R.E.M. (video)
Jackie Wilson Said - Van Morrison
I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You - Lyle Lovett
Night Moves - Bob Seger
Beautiful Girls - Van Halen
Patience - Guns N Roses
Hard Candy - Counting Crows
The Heat of the Moment - Asia
Knockin' Da Boots - H-Town
This Must Be the Place - Talking Heads
Song for the Dumped - Ben Folds Five

In the words of Cabbagehead: "A guy has an English accent and you're all wet. You're a lake. But a guy's got a little green on his shoulders and you puke. That's sexual discrimination!"

Festivale,
BTB

Minced Words

Not sure if you caught it two weeks ago, but Prez. Bush was interviewed by NPR's Juan Williams, his first after the State of the Union address. At one point during the talk, Williams brought up the issue of Bush and the "Democrat" congress, and not strongly enough according to some. As The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg noted last summer, Bush's frequent misuse of the noun "Democrat" in place of the adjective "Democratic" as an intentional slur to refuse the association of donkeys and democracy is obnoxious, overly partisan, and even McCarthy-esque. Here is the exchange:

MR. WILLIAMS: By the way, in the speech, you spoke about the Democrats. You said, you congratulated the Democrat majority. And I notice your prepared text said Democratic majority. I surely think that you know that for the Democrats, they think when you say Democrat, it's like fingernails on the blackboard. They don't like it. They like you to say Democratic.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah. Well, that was an oversight then. I mean, I'm not trying to needle. Look, I went into the hall saying we can work together and I was very sincere about it. I didn't even know I did it.

You didn't know you did it, huh? See Hertzberg's article for a notation of other misuses, and further see that the White House issued an edited transcript of the speech where "Democrat" is embedded in place of the original "Democratic." If Bush's flub was unintentional, why go to the trouble of changing the history books? I guess because Bush's words are Bush's words, and I don't think he has written a speech since Andover, and even then he probably winged it. To add insult to injury, Bush feigned dumb again 4 days later at the Dems' Colonial Williamsburg retreat when he opened with this line:

"Now, look, my diction isn't all that good," the president said. "I have been accused of occasionally mangling the English language. And so I appreciate you inviting the head of the Republic Party."

Laugh it up, diction boy. I wouldn't mind hearing intentional slights from the likes of political hacks of Tom DeLay's stature, but I expect more knowledge, respect and gravitas from my President. On a lighter note, Bush called Juan Williams by name, "Juan", a full nine times during the sixteen-question interview. If you are keeping score, that is a .563 average. Big time score for the Spanglo-Texan!

The other big news on the campaign trail was Obama's official campaign kickoff at the Olde Statehouse in Springfield, Illinois, the Land of Lincoln. He spoke of a range of topics from his Christian faith and the death penalty to the presumptuousness of a Presidential announcement and Abe Lincoln's glorious leadership, all under the umbrella of Springfield the crossroads. The Springfield of farmers and friends, the Springfield of bold statements, but most importantly the Springfield that is far, far away from Washington. His speech was to demonstrate Obama the Hopeful, Obama the Outsider, Obama the Future. Also, he has taken to say "I love you" a lot. That might not be such a bad thing, if it catches on, and it certainly won't hurt him with the ladies.

Speaking of the ladies, Giuliani's third wife went off recently about how hunky her man is. Judy G. went to bat for Rudy (Judy & Rudy??) in the NY Post:

"I've always liked strong, macho men, and Rudy — I'm not saying this because he's my husband — is one of the smartest people on the planet. What people don't know is that Rudy's a very, very romantic guy. We love watching 'Sleepless in Seattle.' Can you imagine my big testosterone-factor husband doing that?" Describing Rudy, a former federal prosecutor, as "the Energizer Bunny with no rechargeable batteries," Judi said, "One of the most remarkable things about my husband, who sleeps three or four hours a night, is his energy level and stamina."

As Borat might say, "Wa-Wa-Wee-Wa! He has a-stamina, it is nice!!!!"

Mitt the Mormon's better half, meanwhile, got into the wife game with a little pushback of her own. "The biggest difference between Mitt Romney and the other [GOP] candidates," she said, is that Mitt has "only had one wife." Ouch!! Take that, conservative voters, and props to Mitt the man. Romney, of course, will be announcing his candidacy tomorrow in his dad's old state of Michigan, at the Henry Ford Museum much to the ire of Jewish groups everywhere. More to come!

Getting away from politics, I have been lamenting my recent departure from Quabbinish run postings. I can directly attribute this to a rise in training with the Purple Knights and two weekends in a row dominated by late nights and lazy Sundays. Will I regret my failure to go for a moonlit walk in the snow, or stomping an uncharted path through my back woods? Perhaps. But motivation is the wiliest of devils. Wilier even than spirits.

Achel Blond,

BTB

Mixed Bag

We are going to do a little McLaughlin Group tonight here at 3Q HQ.

Item! Governor Rick Perry declares HPV vaccine for all! In a surprise move last week, the Texas Republican mandated that 11- and 12-year-old schoolgirls statewide receive the newly finalized vaccine against human papilloma virus, brought to you by the nice folks at Merck Pharmaceuticals. Obviously, a lot of people were screaming mad about this because of the intrusive nature, the fact that Merck gave Perry money during the campaign (a measly 6$k), the cost (some $360 for three shots) and most notably the moral implications. It is fairly easy to raise hell over a virus that can be readily labeled as a benign consequence of promiscuous sex, but to any opponents out there who think that I say "Bah Humbug!" Any time we have a chance to eradicate a virus I say let's do it. Would the religious right think twice about mandatory AIDS vaccines under the premise that if everyone only had one partner their entire life AIDS would go away? Doubtful. Why give HPV such an unfair shake. In the words of Gov. Perry, "If I err, I will err on the side of protecting life." Now there is some pro-life sentiment that I can agree with!

Item! PAC donations now directed toward the jukebox! At this year's Democratic winter meetings, many of the Presidential aspirants debuted possible stump speech theme songs (and part 2). Hilarity ensued. Here is the lineup in case you are too lazy to peep the links:

Wesley Clark: "Waiting On The World To Change" - John Mayer
Hillary Clinton: "Right Here, Right Now" - Jesus Jones
Chris Dodd: "Get Ready" - The Temptations
John Edwards: "This Is Our Country" - John Mellencamp
Dennis Kucinich: "America the Beautiful" - standard
Joe Biden: "Centerfield" - John Fogerty
Bill Richardson: "Lean on Me" - Club Nouveau
Tom Vilsack: "Reach Out I'll Be There" - The Four Tops

Well, I am glad to report that these are merely first drafts. Can you imagine being motivated by John Mayer? The Temptations? Jesus Jones? Jesus Jones! I mean, if you are going to do John Fogerty, give me something like Run through the Jungle or Midnight Special.
Well, you wake up in the mornin, you hear the work bell ring,
And they march you to the table to see the same old thing.
Ain't no food upon the table, and no pork up in the pan.
But you better not complain, boy, you get in trouble with the man
At any rate, they are bound to be better than whatever the GOP trots out. Unless it ends up being Jesus Jones. Then it will be worse.

Item! Biden Redux. Just wanted to drop a link to my birthday-mate Pat Boo-kan-on's take on BidenGate. Pattycake essentially shares my views on the incident:

• "Joe is saying that if Hillary, at 100 percent name recognition and with all the support she and Bill have been able to corral, can't break 30 percent or 40 percent in Democratic polls today, she is a likely sure loser in 2008. Is there a political analyst in America who has not wondered about the same thing? And what of Hillary's new stand on Iraq?"
  
• "If Joe Biden, whose views of his colleagues' acumen on foreign policy are now and forever on record, will undertake that assignment, he could make his presidential run not only interesting, but a service to his party and his country."

• Finally, it seems that John Edwards might be getting into some trouble over his hired bloggers. Obviously, he didn't look far enough away from North Carolina. Let me throw it out there right now, I'm Quabbin for Hire. I can even put up with too much Mellencamp, but first a caveat: I would incessantly stump for the use of I Need a Lover or Cherry Bomb. In the meantime, 17 has turned 25 here in Quabbin Qountry and I'm surprised that I'm still blogging. Time to sign off once again from the Moan.

YSB,
BTB

Next up: Bush called out, money talks, and more!

Rumblin', Bumblin', Stumblin

Democrats, please direct your attention to the starting gate. It is there that you will find the latest controversy to hit the race - Cleangate. Senator Joe Biden officially declared himself a candidate yesterday, and quickly overshadowed even himself by putting one foot forward, and the other directly in his mouf. In a now famous article in the New York Observer, Biden took issue with some of his primary competitors, most notably on their Iraq policies.

Referring to Clinton, Obama and Edwards Biden said the following: "Let me put it this way, you didn’t hear any one of them get in this debate at all until they announced for President." Bold. To be honest, though, it is not entirely without truth. Clinton's rhetoric underwent a recent and dramatic ramp-up with timing that only a friend would call coincidental. Edwards has been speaking out against the war for the past year or two, but again it has seemed to be in tune with his own candidacy post-2005. Obama, however, has his 2002 speech to his credit as well as his perhaps critical timing for not being around for the authorization vote.

Fitting, it was with Obama that Biden really did his damage. The Delaware senator referred to Barack the candidate as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." A squall erupted shortly thereafter, mostly from the blogoshpere - which is now tumultuously known to bring the ionic fury on a regular basis. There was a cacaphonic shout of the old Eminem line, "ah, wait, no way, youre kidding, he didnt just say what I think he did, did he?" Obama came out nice at first noting that he "didn’t take it personally and I don’t think he intended to offend. But the way he constructed the statement was probably a little unfortunate.” But a few hours later the handlers got to him and he came back with a much harsher retort when he said, “I didn’t take Senator Biden’s comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate. African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Mosely-Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate.”

Al Sharpton was predictably pissed, and Jesse Jackson even mocked the fact that he outdrew Biden in '88 by extreme margins. And Biden retaliated with a full-scale apology assault, as any Senator worth his weight in votes would do. But the real issue was whether this was merely a linguistic lapse or, more distressingly, another macaca moment. Biden is well-known as long-winded, and on first appearance it seems that he just said a few too many words at a time when he was a little too hopped up to make a politically clear statement, given his singeing of his other colleagues. But who can really say? In spite of the reaction from Jackson and Sharpton, Obama really is the first African-American candidate with a chance. I don't care how PC you are, to quote Ron Burgundy, "It's a fact" that no one has had a chance until Barack. Did his use of the combination of "clean", "bright", and "articulate" to emphasize the difference between Obama and his candidatorial predecessors fall flat on it's face? Yes. Was it totally inaccurate? Probably. But was it malicious or just a mistake? Only Joe's conscience knows. I have a feeling it was the former, rather than the latter.

The thing is, Biden never had a shot to have Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton in his corner. In some respects he really shouldn't give a shit about what they have to say. They were going to turn on him at one point or another until/unless he got the nomination. But then again, it is not the first flub he has made. There was the 7-11 comment last year, and he also once said that he could run well in the South because "Delaware was one of our slave states." The first one was clearly insensitive; the second one, hilarious. Insensitive because it is reinforcing a negative cultural stereotype. Hilarious because it was a slight against the Republican South, and nothing else. What it ultimately comes down to is that Biden can't keep hold of his tongue, and rightly so. Will he be elected President come 2008? No. Did anyone ever think that he would? Besides himself and his biggest suck-up friends, No. I just hope that this latest comment won't detract from the positive impact he can have on the debate this upcoming year, because I think Biden will have good things to say, and may even force a response from his rivals. A response that will nevertheless eventually be attributed to the political boneyard, most recently represented in Delaware lore by Pete DuPont. Soon enough Wilmington will be singing Pierre, roll over, I just hope it won't be until late February at the very least.

Racer 5 big bottle,
BTB