Keepin An Eye On Kinky

Sometimes being considered a little nuts provides a lot of cover from criticism. But because I don't consider Kinky Friedman to be all that nuts I want to get his comments recorded here the best I can so at least the next time he spouts off there will be another example of a pattern that shouldn't be ignored. First if you don't know already Kinky is a country singer who once ran for Governor in the State of Texas. He's a flamboyant Texas size character who has a history of making edgy remarks and gets away with it because, well, it's just that ole Kinky at it again. Believe me, if his comments were not of the offensive variety I'd probably be a big fan. He has all those iconoclastic qualities I like to see in a man. After all he's a personal friend of Bob Dylan who I admire to such an extent that just meeting him would pretty much make my life but only if I got to ask him a bunch of questions.
Anyway back to Kinky. On Joe Scarboroughs show on MSNBC he recently talked to Kinky Friedman about Senator Obama. Well it's obvious that Kinky's no fan of Senator Obama which is all right by me. What I object to is the means by which he expressed his objections. Kinky's got a clever way of saying things and this thing went pretty fast and I'm doing this from memory but I'm seeing an unsavory little performance here. He said things like, I don't know enough about Obama, I don't know if he's a JFK or Jimmy Carter or the Anti-Christ? He made a comparative point about being let down by realizing that the OJ Simpson jurors were never going to vote to convict and went on to say he once believed in in Fidel Castro only to be let down. He also used his crips and bloods line in place of Democrats and Republicans but you had to know it in advance and I still don't quite understand his point..
So what do I take from all this? I'm not going to go into his past but there is enough there to think that a reasonable person would steer way clear of new cow pies. But not Kinky, he keeps living dangerously and fortunately moving himself closer to complete irrelevancy. Of course Joe Scarborough just laughed and let Kinky slide.

Senator Obama Has A Good Start

It was one year ago today that I first wrote about Senator Obama. I wrote about how I thought he may become President or the possibility of it anyway. I feel the same way today and much more but as it happens before my eyes, it's hard to believe. I think that had I really known what he was up against I would have given him less of a chance. Lesson learned but by any measure, what he has accomplished is remarkable and I see this as an extraordinary triumph and it thrills me to no end. I often wonder if a year ago Senator Obama could have really seen it coming.
I'm grateful for this little web log to because it gives me the ability to know what I was thinking a year ago which is in itself revealing. I consider it a form of detached perspective which I believe is good for personal growth.
For the first half of my life (maybe a bit optimistic) I didn't keep any written record of how I perceived what occurred. I have some pictures and some college papers and accumulated stuff to remind me of what went on but I'm not so sure I really have a strong sense of how I thought.
I think about this a lot lately because having children demands it. I keep telling myself that if I could only remember how I saw things at that age that maybe I would understand them a little bit better.
Looking back I do remember looking out and away from family fairly early. In fact, at that time I must have been oblivious to what my parents wanted of me because my memory is filled with anything but their wishes. I also remember thinking how wrong they were and how right I was. My opinions were obviously being created in a vacuum because I didn't really consider others opinions very much. This is where I have always found the most entwined roots of idealism. I didn't even consider the role of a consensus. Of course it's importance over time would prove to be even greater than that of being right when it came to matters involving people, groups and projects.
Hard medicine to take when your young but without fully accepting that this is how things really get done your talking ''wind pudding and fried snowballs." (an old New England saying)
Above anything else this is what the next president will need to succeed. This is the rarest of abilities that one can possess. I have a less than one hand count of people I've met in my life that were able to win over people to their side without the heavy use of the carrot-and-stick approach. This only works so far and the deeper inside the building you go the harder it gets.

The Right To Vote

Well, Super Tuesday came and went and my candidate is still in the hunt so I'm happy. Voting was a breeze except for the carefully crafted term limits extension proposition called "Limits on Legislators term in office," here in California. The wording tries everything possible to get you to vote yes. For example, "voting yes limits the time a legislator can serve..." when in actuality it increases the time they can serve to 12 years effective immediately. When 34 legislators are looking to extend their stay you can always count on some trickery. Fortunately voters weren't fooled, although I suspect the margin was closer due to the intended confusion.
It evidently wasn't such smooth sailing for the "decline to state" folks as they are called in California, otherwise known as independents or non-partisans. It seems that many were confused by a complicated procedure that likely led to some unknown number not having their vote counted.
I listened to the explanations from all the bureaucrats in charge and it was clear that they consider this all part of doing business and probably will do nothing to fix the problem. It's not often you get to hear the "steady drone of bureaucracy" that came out of this bunch. They wonder why there is such apathy.
You couldn't help but hear about how many more people voted in this primary compared to the last, although as I see it, only about 24 million people voted out of 22 states. By my calculations the population of the Super Tuesday states is approximately 95 million of which about 68 million are of voting age. So one third turned out to vote. I'd think that this alone would be enough to make voting officials do whatever possible to clear up any confusion about the process.

Latino Vote

I only have a few minutes here but can anyone tell me why, with 38% of the population here in California, that Sen. Obamas campaign has not pointed out that Latino leaders were not exactly enamored with President Bill Clintons policies on immigration during the period of his administration. I remember speaking to a very high level Hispanic member of the Catholic clergy who, in his support for President G.W Bush, explained in great detail how President Clinton's legislation during that time did a lot to hurt immigrants and their families.
This kind of information would seem to counter-balance what is being portrayed as a given that Latino voters will vote for Sen. Clinton.
I can't argue with the Obama campaign strategy though. All you have to do is read this mornings (Sunday) L A Times political section to realize that whether consciously or not you can't help but think their coverage is biased against Sen. Obama. The LA Times editorial board did endorse Senator Obama and Senator McCain in the Opinion section in the same edition but the editorial board operates independently of the news operation. It was more about omission and it was subtle unless like me you look forward to reading about Senator Obama. There's just not much there compared to the other candidates. They did suspiciously place an article about the nuclear industry contributing more to Sen. Obama than all the other candidates. They also excluded something in the condensed columnar "Where the candidates stand," area. On the immigration column Sen. Obama's position on the issuance of drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is missing. Why is this important? Because those who thought they heard it in the last debate or were told by someone who did can't confirm it before the Primary.