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November 30, 2006

House of Blues?

It's too much, you're too late, too much, you're too late

In today's Post there's an article about House of Blues planning to open in DC. Naturally, Seth Hurwitz is not too happy about this. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this yet.

My initial inclination is there would be 2 venues of the same size going against each other, perhaps with HoB being slightly larger. But the 9:30 Club is not just any club - it is beloved by both its clientèle and its artists. There are a number of bands who would rather do several nights at the 9:30 than one night at a larger hall. I don't necessarily believe that a new House of Blues will directly steal acts from the 9:30. But HoB could take acts away from IMP, Hurwitz's promotion arm. IMP presently books a large number of acts in Constitution Hall and the Patriot Center. A large enough House of Blues will be in direct competition for those kinds of acts, and there are a lot of them.

My personal feeling is that DC needs a real dedicated mid to large size concert venue. Constitution Hall, while pretty and acoustically inviting, is loathed by touring bands for it's tiny stage, pedestrian sized doors that prevents sets from being rolled in, and complete lack of backstage beyond the pipe & drape setup. The Patriot Center, while being hope to the fantastic GMU Patriots (the only college basketball team I have any interest in), is too far out from the city. Furthermore, I personally object to the traffic and lack of parking each concert generates. But I suppose that's a personal pet peeve.

The other question is, would a large HoB in the District be Union? Most houses in the city are, with the 9:30 Club being a notable exception.

I'm not sure how this would play out. Certainly if 9:30 loses some acts, they will pick up bands that might've otherwise played the Black Cat. Then the Black Cat would grab bands that would've played Rock N' Roll Hotel or Warehouse. And then those halls suffer. But I'm not convinced that the 9:30 would lose anything at all. But the DAR better start making some alternate plans for Constitution Hall if this complex goes through.

Posted by MikeSager at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 29, 2006

Undervotes & Recounts

Faraway, so close...

Looks like we're not quite done with 06 after all. There's still FL-13 where the ghost of Katherine Harris's career is haunting the congressional race. For those of you who are not aware, in Sarasota County - a Dem stronghold - there is 15% undervote on the Congressional race, where the rest of the races average 2.5%. Furthermore, like most of the country, this district voted on DRE machines (aka electronic machines, even though that's a bit of a misnomer since optical scan machines are electronic as well).

I'm not quite sure what happened in FL. One thing they should be doing is examining the image captures in the machines - many of the DREs take a screenshot of the ballot when the voter casts it. But if there was something interfering with the capture of the congressional race data, it likely won't show on the ballot. Nonetheless - worth a look.

The most important thing to remember here is that 15% undervote is an absolute abnormality. 15% of the people did not ignore one of the top tier races in an election year like 06. 3% is the edge of abnormality in down ticket races. Anything higher than that and you've got a problem. In the AG race last year, there were only 55 precincts in the entire state of Virginia which used optical scan & had an undervote on the Attorney Generals race above 5%. The number was far lower for DRE, and this is on a down ticket race in an off year election.

So what happened in FL-13? I don't know. My initial inclination is that the ballot needs to be scrutinized closely. But questions also need to be asked about the calibration of the machines. I would like to take the opportunity to once again remind people of Occam's Razor here - I would consider it very unlikely that malicious code was inserted into all machines in one county affecting only one race. If there was a hacking attempt, it wouldn't have been on this race - the Governor's race would've been a far juicier target. So please leave the tin foil for vegetable storage and mind-beam-repulsing wallpaper. It would be interesting to see if anyone attempts to use Florida's Sunshine Laws to attempt to get the source code of the DRE machines. I'm not a lawyer, however, so I don't know how that would apply, or whether there's really a case to be made.

The one place this election could be lost is the same place the AG race was lost in 05 - in court.

While we're talking about recounts, I wanted to hit on the VA Senate race for a moment. Several friends of mine asked why there was no recount even though the vote was within the margin. Simple reason - A DRE is going to give the same result each time. You're not hunting for abnormalities like you would in an Undervote situation - the count is going to be the count. Furthermore, 8000 votes is not a margin that can be made up during a recount. Hell, 300 isn't a margin that can be made up during a recount. One high level person on the Deeds recount last year said to me, "We're close enough to recount, but not close enough to win a recount" - and that was with a 363 vote difference.

For more on the FL-13 situation, checkout Today's Post.

Posted by MikeSager at 11:00 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

November 28, 2006

Musical Memory, Dreams, Readership

Different points in life often seem to have certain music associated with it. I'll always associate Pinback's first album and Autolux's "Future Perfect" with 2004, Kerry, and leaving Florida. In the same vein I'll associate The Postal Service's "Give Up" and Bloc Party's "Banquet" with 2005, Kaine campaign, and a couple of girls who shall remain nameless.

I suppose I'm subconsciously auditioning this year's albums of memory, and it's looking like The Decemberist's "Crane Wife" and Pretty Girls Make Grave's "Elan Vital". Any song that you can load on your iPod that will instantly evoke a memory is a good song. Unless it's Yakety Sax. That's not a good song.

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I'm generally not a vivid dreamer - I almost never remember what I dream about when I wake up. And yet recently it seems like I've had a couple of interesting ones that I can recall parts of. Notably getting dental work done in an after-hours underground dentist's office. It was darkly lit, and looked almost more like a laundromat - and yet there I was, having my teeth worked on. Now I do need to get to a dentist - ever since the beer bottle I was drinking from at the 9:30 Club got elbowed accidentally by the guy next to me I've had a nice little chip that, while mostly not noticeable, is driving me crazy. I must schedule myself a dentist visit.

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So my readership seems to have increased pretty dramatically in recent months. I credit my recent writings on Campaign Finance, E-Voting, and addiction to Flickr. Many of you are finding me through the various aggregators - Jewish Blogging, Lefty Blogs, Facebook, and LJ. I just want to take a moment to say thanks for checking me out, and I'm going to do what I can to keep you interested. I want to keep up regularly like I was in the time leading up to the election, but I may not always be on top of it. Just keep your eyes open, your RSS subscribed, and hopefully you'll have a good read.

Posted by MikeSager at 2:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 27, 2006

Thanksgiving Report

Anytime, baby let's go. Everyday should be a holiday.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite secular holiday. There's very little pretense - it's just people getting together to eat a lot of food. Kind of like Passover but without the underlying message or Gefilte Fish.

I kicked off the weekend in style on Wednesday night going to my friend Praveen's birthday shindig out at Lucky Bar. It was just a good ol' fashioned hang-out with plenty of beer, and a number of people who I hadn't seen in a while.

Thursday was just the family meal, which was held by my sister's in-laws. It's always awesome when your family is close enough to in-laws that even when the sister in question isn't present you still spend time together. We refer to them as "mechtonin" - Hebrew for in-laws, but to us it more represents family who is not technically related, but family nonetheless.

On Friday we did a second round of turkey at my folk's place - my mother decided she wanted to have leftovers around so she cooked a turkey for the occasion. After that I met up with my good friend Andrea - she and I have been very close for years now, which is amazing since both of us have had tendencies to fall out of touch with people. She was the only friend who dropped in on me when I was on tour back in '02 (in Rockford IL of all places...).

Saturday it was Lebanese Taverna with Amy, Doug, & Katie. The shwarma was good, the service...ehh...it was probably quite authentic. After a nice big dinner, we headed to Murphy's in Old Town - which is always quite the fun time. Especially when you sing along with Charlie on the MTA. Though I do imagine that the bartenders at these establishments get tired of hearing the same songs every single night. Like touring with a band.

Sunday it was dinner with my folks once again, and then tea. I grabbed a beer with my friends John & Ellen on my way home. I was quite excited to discover that Galaxy Hut now carries Fulller's London Pride on tap. Also on Sunday I did a bit of a photo safari, and took the shot above at the Americana Motel off Route 1. The old Motel has fascinated me every time I've driven by it, and so I decided it was about time I take some pictures.

I did discover one common theme this weekend - the people who I saw were all people who I wanted to see. Often times on holiday weekends, you find yourself near where you grew up seeing the same people who never left - they're going to the same townie bar, hanging out with the same people, and are working the same dead-end job.

Some of the people I saw this weekend I've known for years, others I've known for months. But everyone was someone worth seeing. I really like my circle of friends that has coalesced in the last year - a good group of people who are fun, funny, and are trying to do something with their lives. For good friends is all anyone can ever really ask. I have good friends, and for that - I am thankful.

Posted by MikeSager at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 22, 2006

Charitable Deeds

Every year I try to donate some money to worthy causes. It's generally not a lot - I certainly wish that I could afford to be more generous. But I feel it's very important to give back something, even if it's just a little bit.

Last year I gave to the Southern Poverty Law Center and Save Darfur. I'm beginning to think about where I want to donate this year. Right now I'm leaning towards donating to the MLK Memorial, PFLAG, and the Anti-Defamation League. Any other suggestions before I whip out the ol' credit card? Comments from the Peanut Gallery are greatly appreciated.

Posted by MikeSager at 10:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 19, 2006

Like Operating a Transportation Device Which Would Be Completely Superfluous to a Fish

It's not the same, it won't ever be the same...

Two of my very good friends - Wayne and Lizanna - came up to visit DC this weekend. I missed them on Friday night, as I was seeing the fantastic Cirque Du Soleil which is playing in the parking lot formerly known as the Convention Center. So on Saturday I met up with them at the Clarendon Grill for the Gonzo's Nose 10th Anniversary show. I have spent multiple new years and other evenings with the Nose, back during my days as a lighting tech. Wayne and I would often tag-team these shows at very clubs around, and when I wasn't running the console I would occasionally be guitar/backline tech. I wasn't quite anticipating that Wayne would behind the board when I walked in, and yet there he was. A few minutes into the gig I offered to "drive" - it'd been at least 2 years since I'd lit a show.

A quick once-over of the board (a Chauvet DMX-40A) and I was off to the races. Certainly it wasn't the pro consoles I was used to jockeying back in the day, but they all do the same thing. The rig didn't have much programmed in it - so I gave myself a crash course during the set break and managed to program 3 banks worth of scenes. I've always had a bit of a tendency to over-program shows - you can ask my buddy Scott who'd back me up on gigs down in Florida (One Gargamel! show featured an average of 20 cues PER SONG in a 12 - 14 song set, with two particular songs featuring over 50 cues a piece).

I finally started to find my groove after some initial shaky-ness. The last gig I lit was a Honda Booth at the Orlando Auto Show in 2004. The last concert I lit was probably Gargamel!, but it may have been G-Unit. It's been a long time now, and I honestly don't remember.

As I continued to get back some of my old chops (the half-second pre beat anticipation), Wayne kept brining me beer as a thank you for running the board while he went to dance with Lizanna. This contributed to a bit of a beer haze that caused some of my photos from later in the evening to be a little shakier, but I compensating by taking over 100 pictures over the course of the evening.

At the end of the evening I traded cards with the house guy. It felt good to be back behind a lighting desk. This is definitely going to inspire me to hit up the 9:30 Club for some weekend work - it's a lot more fun when you're not relying on it to pay your rent. It's also more fun when you don't have to load anything out.

After the show we headed off to Bob & Edith's for some well-deserved omellettes.

More Photos from the Night on Flickr

Posted by MikeSager at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 17, 2006

Frakkin' Toaster

I am a sensitive artist, I am a sensitive artist...

In the last month or so, something very weird has happened - at least to me. All of a sudden, Battlestar Galactica is the COOLEST show on television. It's like a memo went out to all the intelligentsia and hipsters explaining that you are hereby required to watch this fantastically well-written, well-acted, and intelligent show.

BSG first came onto my radar a couple months ago when a few of my friends threw a season premier party. I didn't actually go to said party, but I was curious as to why a group of my friends would rather watch a sci-fi television show on a Friday night than go out. I was confused...nay...concerned. Then I tivoed it.

Whoa.

Since I've jumped into the middle of the third season, I already have a fairly decent idea of what's going on. But I needed more - so last night I picked up the first season at large electronics retailer across the street. It also includes the original miniseries, which functions as the series exposition.

BSG has definitely inherited the Buffy mantle of well written TV with characters you care about. Furthermore, the show is shot to deliberately exploit (but in a good way) our emotions by visually recalling significant events from our history. It's the President being sworn in like LBJ, a child in the foreground of an attack recalling Daisy, and the wall on Galactica pasted with cards & pictures that recall all those walls around the World Trade Center.

So now that we've established that the show is good, the question still begs - how the hell did everyone hear about this? Word-of-mouth seems to be responsible - just good old friends telling friends. And that is a sign of good quality programming. Thank the G-ds of Kobol that the show is on Sci-Fi and not NBC where it would be canceled for being too intelligent.

Network execs...like a frakkin' toaster

Posted by MikeSager at 12:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 16, 2006

Console Wars, New iPods and Podcasts

Should I grin and stay hopeful, when you're here with your eyes half-closed?
But that tired routine gets old...

Tomorrow we see the Sony PS3 hit the market, with Nintendo's Wii debuting on Sunday. With these two releases, we shall once again see these gaming giants battle for consumer supremacy... Or maybe we'll see a huge amount of hype lead to one very big dud.

The dud will be the PS3.

I must say first that I love my PS2. It was the only system I purchase from the last product cycle (with the N64 being the system prior to that). I love the controller, I love the game selection, I love the look. I was very excited about the prospect of the PS3 - the huge leap forward in technology, the distributed processing, the hard drive. Then I saw the price tag.

I'm sorry, but I am NOT paying $600 for a gaming system, even if it comes with a Blu-Ray DVD Player. It's a GAMING SYSTEM!!! The concept of the system is for it to replace many of the electronics currently sitting under your TV. But I already own a DVD Player and a stereo. There is no incentive for me to buy an overstuffed gaming system when there are others on the market.

The Xbox doesn't currently interest me, but that may change if GTA4 comes out and the PS3 hasn't dropped in price.

Then there's the Wii. At first, I was incrediably skeptical about the Wii - why is Nintendo not trying to make up some of the ground it lost? And this controller?

And then the beauty of the simplicity struck me - the Wii is purely a gaming machine. Sure it can connect to the internet, but that seems more like a "Well we have this ethernet port...may as well let people check their mail". The system's goal is interactive video entertainment - and it's not trying to do anything more than that.

But I was still skeptical about the controller. I'm very much a small controller in hand kind of guy, and my initial reaction was this controller looked like a cross between the Duck Hunt gun and that NES Running Pad that preceded DDR by 12 years. But after viewing the videos at Wii.com and conversations with several friends, I'm sold.

The ending determination? I will be acquiring a Wii at some point in the near future.

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So I recently got a new iPod as a combo Chankuah and Birthday Present (Thanks Parental Units!). Previously, I was using a third generation iPod (row of buttons right under screen). But I ran into a problem - I was using the firewire sync cable, and it broke down overtime. It would work fine for charging the iPod, but there seemed to be a break in one of the wires so syncing would depend on how the cable was positioned. I went into the Apple Store and asked if there was a solution for this, and the clerk told me (incorrectly) that the USB cable wouldn't work to sync with my model.

So a decision had to be made - I'd had my iPod for almost 3 years, and there were a lot of new ones on the market. My wonderful parents made the decision very easy. My mother observed how I use my iPod more than just about anything else I own, and when she heard me trying to sync my iPod while were on the phone she asked about the trouble - and I explained what was going on. Which brought the offer of "Well, that sounds like a great Chanukah and Birthday present!" Who am I to argue?

So we made our way over to Best Buy a week later, and we purchased one of the latest models - 30 Gigs. My trademark indecisiveness came out during the colour selection process. I finally settled on Black, only because the clerk mistakenly grabbed an open box for the white and I considered that a bad omen.

Once I got back to my apartment, I loaded up the new iPod and began the music transfer process. At this point, it dawned on me that:
1. Syncing is no longer a painful process
2. This iPod supports video.

Leading me to...

PODCASTS!!

Yes ladies and gentleman, I have finally joined 2004/2005. I am listening to Podcasts. And I am even enjoying Video podcasts! I love this whole fresh content concept. I recommend The Show with Ze Frank and Rocketboom. Plus there's all the various audio podcasts that are well worth listening to such as This American Life, The Onion Radio News, and Barack Obama's podcast.

Now that I've spoken of the infrastructure, I'm going to begin piecing together thoughts for my next music issue.

Posted by MikeSager at 2:30 PM

November 14, 2006

Some Thoughts from the Post, Post Party rePort, A Return to "Normalcy"

If everything had come true, there'd be nothing left to do...

In the Outlook section of Sunday's Post, there were side-by-side columns from Joe Trippi and Ed Rogers about each parties 2008 prospects. I read the Rogers piece mostly read him declare George Allen's Presidential ambitions dead & buried, but then I caught this blurb.

"We know what winning Democrats look like: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Carter is the last Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote, in 1976, and Clinton is the only Democrat to win election twice since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner looked most like Carter and Clinton. But he dropped out -- to sighs of relief from Republicans everywhere."

Normally I wouldn't put any stock in anything Ed Rogers says, but I think he hit the nail on the head with this one.

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I had shindig this weekend, celebrating the end of Cycle 2006. The party can best be described as Sager's Worlds Colliding. At final tally - I had 1 bureaucrat, 2 lawyers, 2 finance directors, 3 field staffers, 1 representative of the Japanese government, 2 English teachers, 1 bartender, 3 non-profit staffers, a sprinkling of private sector people, 1 sibling, and Jeff.

Now I find myself with a fair bit of leftover Cupcakes & Wine. I must figure out a way to dispose of these, in a fun and tasty fashion.

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Warren Harding campaigned with the slogan "A Return to Normalcy". It did not take long for "Normalcy" to join the lexicon the same way other fake words such as "Embiggens", "Truthiness", "Cromulent", or "Honesty" joined. And now that the election season is over, I find myself returning to normalcy. There's only one more non-quarterly filing left (the Post-General), I don't have to be constantly carrying a Blackberry to be at the ready in case a campaign has trouble with software, and the long evenings are mostly done - at least for a while. My eating habits have started to return to healthy, I've started to work out a bit again, and I can sleep. This probably means that I'll be blogging a bit less frequently - but I can once again expand into other areas - music, citylife, travel, etc. But don't worry, I'll still find time to write long-winded diatribes about the state of domestic affairs.

Posted by MikeSager at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2006

Final Thoughts for Cycle 2006

Now that the curtain has fallen on cycle 2006 and we find ourselves looking at governing for the next two years, it is important to remember several things. First, while this was definitely a victory for the Democrats (and not just a loss for the Republicans as Delay/Limbaugh/Krauthammer/Will/etc. have all claimed), we must not lose sight of how this is a divided country. As a party we've demonstrated willingness to embrace a range of the ideological spectrum - from conservatives like Ben Nelson to socialists like Bernie Sanders.

Some campaigns were very well run and fell short. Other campaigns were piss-poorly run and yet still managed to eek out a victory because the opposition was even worse. It is foolish to mistake an incompetent win for genius or validation, just like it is foolish to mistake a defeat in a tight race as a mandate.

We must govern for all the country, and once and for all establish us as America's Party. This does not mean that we should compromise our core principles, nor should we be concerned with trying to keep every single person happy. It is ok to offend extremists on both sides of the ideological spectrum - we must stand up to both the ultra-right and the ultra-left. It's time that we return to Bill Clinton-style governance - lower taxes for the middle & working class, work to improve health care accessibility, expand free trade, ensure the rights for ALL Americans regardless of race/creed/orientation, and return our country to a time of prosperity not just accrued wealth.

We have been handed the chance to reshape the world around us for the better. Will we take this opportunity to try to extract some petty revenge like a Tom Delay or a Newt Gingrich? Or will we use this opportunity to rediscover our principles as Democrats - the ones that drove Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, or Bill Clinton's Bridge to the 21st Century?

Let's not blow it.

Posted by MikeSager at 4:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 9, 2006

Lucy and the Football 2

About time.

Posted by MikeSager at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 8, 2006

Good Days...

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star light begins, it's all a mystery

Sometimes, things just work.

I vividly remember the day after the '04 general - getting drunk, sleeping in, walking into a nearly empty field office. Talking with my friends Isaac & Tony. Distraught. Feeling empty.

Today? Peaceful. Quiet. Restful. I've had a hard time wiping a grin off my face all day long. I spoke with my friends Erika, Tanya, & Isaac (I talked to Tony last night).

Yesterday I was absolutely exhausted at the end. I had been working regularly during the day, and doing prep work at night during the lead up. It was at the point where I brought my laptop to a party on Saturday night and spent more time working than partying. I got two hours of sleep or so before heading into the war room yesterday - and I started feeling tired at about 10 am or so. Not a good sign. I drank close to 10 cups of coffee through the day, two red bulls, and at least one shot of Jack Daniels just to keep in the game.

We tracked, we recorded, we dispatched, and we waited. Initially I had planned to head to the Webb victory party in Tysons, but when I got home to drop of my computer I simply did not have the energy. I walked down to one of the bars near my apartment, drank a Guinness, and watched the returns. Every few minutes I'd get on the phone with my friends on different races - only two good friend of mine were on a losing race, and they were working together. I headed home around 11:30, and went to bed.

Right before I went to bed, however, I talked on the phone with one friend who is quite familiar with Virginia. We looked at the which precincts were outstanding & we looked at the numbers. At this point we both realized that Webb had won. Mark my words on this one. Could there be a recount? Absolutely. If there is, will I be involved? I'd say there's a 75% certainty I will be in some capacity.

I woke up this morning to Webb being ahead as I expected, Tester being declared the victor, and Rumsfeld resigning. Now that's a good way to start a new day!

Then there's the friend of mine who beat her numbers in a very close, very key Senate race. Her numbers pushed her candidate over the top.

What a nice day. And for tomorrow? Well let's just say I can't wait to gloat to one of my Republican class-mates.

Posted by MikeSager at 4:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Victory...

...and now, back to sleep.

Posted by MikeSager at 8:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 6, 2006

Six and a Half to Open...

When you've finally thrown up your hand, Poured your heart out, yet nothing stands
It seems our efforts are wasted, But yet it hasn't been in vain

I'm surprisingly calm considering how close we are to Day 0. Circumstances have let me fall back into my "usual" war room role for this election - it's always nice to come home. I briefly thought this evening that I might be driving down to VA Beach to work out of there, but I was asked to stay in DC much to the chagrin of some of my friends down there.

I've been trying to distract myself. I worked out I e-mailed a few friends. Took a long shower. And yet I know that I'll be lucky to get 3 hours of sleep tonight. I think I got 2 hours of sleep before Kerry, though I did end up taking a short nap on the floor of my office.

Admittedly this election feels a lot less real in some respects, even though I've been more involved nationwide than I had been in any previous role. Through the course of my job I was speaking very regularly to senior-level staff on every major campaign nationwide. And yet I hadn't done any phonebanking or GOTV since the primary in June, and no canvassing since Kaine last year. There's a certain level of guilt that I did very little of the basic level of politicking, even though the work I have been doing for the last year and a half has certainly had a much larger impact. You can take the campaigner out of the field, but you can't take the field out of the campaigner.

Two years of solid efforts are culminating with events tomorrow. We must win - the future of our country depends upon it.

Go. Fight. Win.

Posted by MikeSager at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

24 Hours of Republican Desperation

"Instead of throwing up your hands, why don't you tell me what you're trying to tell me..."

We're 24 hours away from polls opening, and the Republicans are doing everything they can to make sure as few people as possible show up to vote. Harassing robocalls in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. The NRCC recognizes the only way they can try to win is by breaking the law and harassing voters. First - haven't the Republicans learned that fucking with phones is a great way to go to jail - ESPECIALLY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE??!!?? Second - are they so morally bankrupt that they have to resort to felonious tactics in a desperate effort to maintain their slim grasp of power.

There are suppression efforts here in Virginia as well. We've already had reports of longtime Arlington voters being called and told if they attempt to vote in Virginia this year they will be arrested. Friday night I had a personally surreal moment. I was checking out at Best Buy having picked up a birthday present for a friend of mine, when the cashier asked me if I was excited for the elections on Thursday. This was exceptionally bizarre because I wasn't wearing ANY campaign paraphernalia - just my regular uniform of a t-shirt, jeans, and a smile. The clerk had no reason to know he was talking to a politico. I immediately corrected him, and tried to find out if someone had told him that. He wasn't sure so I let it go at that point. I did however, make a quick call to our party's counsel to make sure he was aware.

So, in short, if anyone is aware of any incidents in Virginia that they have not yet reported - I have a direct line to those who need to know. Contact me - mike [ at ] mikesager.net. Voting is a sacred right - and no Republican criminal is going to deny us that right.

Go. Fight. Win.

Posted by MikeSager at 8:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 3, 2006

Anonymous Thoughts from House Races Sent to Me Via IM

So glad you could stay forever...

Last night during break from class, I was talking with a friend of mine who's a Republican (everyone has to have someone they can bet with on elections). He's pretty pessimistic (YES!) but I said that I was "Cautiously Optimistic". He responded, "You're always cautiously optimistic! When are you going to be optimistic?" My response? "After the results are in." In that vein I decided to ask some of my friends on campaigns for thoughts/musings/whatever from the trail. The following are their responses. The names have been changed to protect the overworked and underdrunk.

Carpetblogger: How does it feel?
Staffer1: really fuckin good
Staffer1: really exciting
Staffer1: justneed to execute
Staffer1: also i need to get the police
Staffer1: to stop giving me overnight parking tickets
Staffer1: while i am working

Staffer2: the polls close at 6 and ill be drunk by 730

Staffer3 gave me collected wisdom from the whole campaign rather than just recent thoughts:
Staffer3: In reference to a staffer who had resigned a few months before: "I can't believe she gave you her parking ticket to take care of when she quit." "I can't believe she actually thinks I paid it."

He/She also provided:
Staffer3: 3:30 AM the night before an event sign blitz, five guys sharing a two-bed hotel room: "Hey...wait, where's Tom? Wake up guys, where's Tom?"
Staffer3: "What?"
Staffer3: "Tom's gone, he's not in bed. I don't know where he went. Do you know where Tom went?"
Staffer3: "Dude, who the fuck is Tom?"
Staffer3: "He started this afternoon." "And you already lost him?"
Staffer3: "Well I don't know where he went!" "Damnit...do you want me to get up and go look for him?"
Staffer3: "...No, nevermind, I'm too tired."

Staffer4: I'm stationed in Beaver County
Staffer4: every time I say "Beaver County" my assistant dissolves into giggles
Staffer4: say for one of your campaigner friends
Staffer4: it's just coming up Beavers everywhere
Staffer4: that sounds so wrong
Staffer4: and yet
Staffer4: SO RIGHT! :)

Staffer4 would like you to know that she is totally not a dude.

Posted by MikeSager at 4:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ameding the Virginia Constitution

We're marching from the shipyards, We're marching from the hospitals, We'll take it to the town hall, We'll take it to the capitol

The are three Constitutional amendments on the ballot this year. Two of them are utterly inconsequential, but worth supporting. One of them is a disgusting piece of hatred that is proposed to be inserted, ironically, into the Bill of Rights. We'll start with the two...milquetoast...amendments. Can a ballot initiative really be milquetoast?

The second item on the ballot proposes striking language from the Virginia Constitution prohibiting the incorporation of places of worship. My initial feeling was "Why would a Church need to incorporate?" But then it was pointed out that federal courts have ruled that this statute is unconstitutional - so it's essentially semantics. I'm going to vote Yes.

The third item on the ballot is whether to allow localities the ability to create partial exemptions from property taxes for the purposes of redevelopment. Basically, can a county give a property tax cut? While there may be some valid concerns about over-stimulation of growth, ultimately I feel that anything that returns some local control to the individual localities is a good idea. I'm voting Yes.

Then there's Marshall Newmann. The "Marriage" Amendment. My sister's Father-in-law, a staunch Conservative and major Bush donor, referred to this amendment as "The Hate and Bias Amendment". He felt so strongly about it that he was on a panel at GMU along with various clergy and community leaders encouraging people to vote No.

Here's the thing. Do I support gay marriage? Absolutely - I think this is a Civil Rights issue, and discrimination in any way shape or form is disgusting, unnecessary, and unpatriotic. As a country founded of the principles of freedom, how can we even think that denying a group of people a basic right is the right thing to do?

That said, even if you oppose gay marriage, you should oppose this amendment. Why? Because this potentially can limit any contract within the state of Virginia between individuals. This could potentially be used to overturn domestic violence statutes for unmarried couples.

And then there's the economic factor. If it becomes illegal for a contract to provide benefits that would be automatically provided by marriage (such as sharing of property or, more importantly, healthcare benefits) then how is Virginia going to be able to compete economically with other states that allow these items? Everyday, more and more companies are recognizing that it is bad business to discriminate. And if they want to attract the best and the brightest, they must be able to provide benefits to any couple, regardless of orientation or status. We slit our own throats by passing this amendment.

There is a level of irony that this amendment is being proposed for Article I of the Virginia Constitution, also known as the Virginia Bill of Rights. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad. I am voting NO, and so should you.

Posted by MikeSager at 12:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 2, 2006

Music and Computers

All your dreams are made. Now you're chained to the mirror with your razor blade

First of all, for those of you catching the link to my site from the various Dem/Liberal/Political blogs – I talk about stuff besides politics. I don’t consider myself a political blogger even though I work in politics. The freedom of not being a political blogger means that if I want to post a cool picture I took, I am free to do so. Observe:

See? Those are the fountains outside the IMF. And no, I’m not making any kind of statement by showing IMF fountains.

Since the last 24 hours of the news cycle has been about a stupid joke gone awry, I’m going to take this time to talk about 2 things I love – music and computers.

On a whim the other week, I decided to load Ubuntu Linux onto a partition on my laptop. After carefully backing up all my data, I used Ubuntu’s partition tool to slice off about 15 gigs or so of my harddrive. A few driver loads later (and learning su, sudo, etc…) and I was in mostly good shape. Except I couldn’t seem to get the damned wireless to work. It seems that Acer has a special hardware switch for the wireless card – and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get specific information about it from the their tech support staff. At one point they said they’d only do support for the OEM-load to which I responded that I’d be happy to write about my experience here. That quickly got a response of a technical sheet that I may be able to use to investigate why I can’t get the thing to flip on, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I am not able to look awesomely l33t when surfing at coffeehouses.

Musically, it’s been an interesting week. On Saturday night I went and saw The Wrens with my friend Tanya and her friend Ben. Talk about an awesome live act – these guys were incredibly energetic and humorous during their show. And the execution was phenomenal.

Earlier that day I purchased the Decemberists new album The Crane Wife. It wasn’t until the next morning that I really started listening to it however. Had this album already sunk in at that point, I would’ve been scouring Craigslist for tickets to their show that night at the 9:30 Club. Instead, the album reached nominal saturation and listening yesterday. And it is INCREDIBLE!!!! There is nary a miss on the record – just songs I like, and songs I REALLY like. The first two tracks – Crane Wife 3 and The Island – hook you in right away, with The Island being both epic and yet immediate. When the War Came has an infectious rhythm that when combined with reverberated vocals which create a song that is haunting at times. But the highlight of the album, for me, is the second to last track – Sons and Daughters. Earlier this week I quoted this song in a post about electoral optimism. Some have said that this song has an anti-war element to it, which may be true. But for me, this song is about looking forward and thinking that perhaps tomorrow will be a better day. It also has the coolest harmony round in any song I’ve ever heard. Period. And I’ve heard a LOT of songs.

Now what would a post about music and technology be without talking about musical technology? Recently, Apple released iTunes 7 to critical acclaim and system crap-outage. Release 7.0 was TERRIBLE – full of bugs, problems, etc. 7.0.1 fixed some issues, but songs would still skip and hang – unacceptable for a CD player let alone a MP3 player on a pretty decent system. So I rolled back to the final release of iTunes 6. Well, tonight I reupped to iTunes 7.0.2 – and it seems like, knock on wood, they actually corrected the issues that plagued the last two releases. There’s still the occasional bit of distortion in playback – but it’s far better than when it would skip and act like a bad Aiwa CD Player.

Posted by MikeSager at 12:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 1, 2006

The Quotes at the Top of Posts

This is a listing of the quotes at the top of some of my more recent pieces. I will attempt to keep this up to date.

12-15-06 ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Wasted State of Mind
11-30-06 Hum - The Scientists
11-29-06 U2 - Stay, Faraway (So Close)
11-27-06 The Dandy Warhols - Everyday Should Be a Holiday
11-19-06 & 11-16-06 God Lives Underwater - Positivity
11-17-06 King Missle - Sensitive Artist
11-14-06 Autolux - Blanket
11-08-06 The Flaming Lips - Fight Test
11-06-06 Pretty Girls Make Graves - This Is Our Emergency
11-06-06 We Are Scientists - What's The Word
11-03-06 Queens of the Stone Age - Someone's In the Wolf
11-03-06 Pretty Girls Make Graves - Parade
11-02-06 Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory
11-01-06 Bad Religion - 21st Century Digital Boy
10-31-06 Radiohead - Electioneering
10-30-06 The Decemberists - Sons & Daughters

Posted by MikeSager at 12:00 PM

Following Up on Electronic Voting

'Cause I'm a 21st century digital boy, I don't know how to live but I have a lot of toys...

I am not going to get into the Diebold situation - yes their President is a scumbag, but they're just one of several e-voting manufacturers. Furthermore, multiple precincts here in Virginia use the Diebold Accuvote. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, won last year by a staggering margin in what many of us thought was going to be a very tight election. The Attorneys General race was much much tighter - 323 votes, and the problems that we found weren't with the electronic machines but rather with the optical scan not reading the down ticket part of the ballot correctly! Furthermore, when we finally got it to court - the 3-judge panel would allow us to recount the machine tapes, not the ballots themselves. This resulted in a shift of maybe 1 vote - because why would the numbers be any different if the same tabulations were used?

Yankee Fog, in his comment on my previous entry, points out that it's not a conspiracy but a cavalier attitude. He is completely correct - the Republicans have demonstrated their willingness to push right up against the line between ethically grey and completely illegal. Only once in a while do they actually crossed over - the New Hampshire phone jamming. I don't buy for one moment that the voting machines are rigged out of the box. Frankly, they're not complex enough to be. I'm not saying the software can't be hacked - but why bother when there are much faster, easier, and cleaner ways to suppress the vote? And besides, to quote Scott Adams of Dilbert fame on who would be likely to hack said machines: "It probably means that the choice of the next American president will be taken out of the hands of deep-pocket, autofellating, corporate shitbags and put it into the hands of some teenager in Finland. How is that not an improvement?"

I'm not going to talk about 2004 except to say that we lost - I know, I was there.

Now, while we're talking about electronic voting - I feel that we must address TX-22, Tom Delay's former seat. Courts ruled they couldn't put a replacement on the ballot. So the NRCC has dropping gobs of cash into the district, trying to support write-in candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. Yes, you read that name correctly - Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. What's even more entertaining than a person with a 12 character last name that includes a hyphen being a write-in candidate is the method for writing-in. When a voter selects write-in, it takes them to a screen that displays the letters of the alphabet which they then must use a jogwheel to highlight, and then press enter for each individual letter! I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of write-in votes in TX-22 for "SEK" before people throw their hands in the air and give up.

Now there's a fantastic bit of absurdist comedy available on Shelley's website - her campaign ad that may as well say "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball". You have to wonder why the NRCC is wasting their money.

Posted by MikeSager at 10:00 AM | Comments (2)