Bowling Observation.

So my new Jersey City buddies had been craving a bowling outing for a few months. Suggestions of where to go was thrown out. I was gonna offer the Union bowling alley walking distance from where I live but it was too rundown without that desirable rundown charm. Other places were thrown around but it seemed like a forgotten topic until last week. That's when we finally arranged to get together to go bowling.

Now, I like bowling. I don't do it too much mainly because it's not a great activity to do by yourself and I'm never good at getting people together. Now, I'm not that good at bowling but I'm not pathetic at it. If I had to guess my average, It would fall in the 117-119 range. My highest score ever was 198 and I do my best to make sure I bowl at least 100 or failing that not to be in last place. It's getting hard to go bowling these days. Many places continue to close, especially in the Seattle area. However, Some new ones crop up with that modern "spirit" to entice people to come into a place they think is uncool. However, I have some gripes about what they consider an improvement in the bowling experience. It's the same ideas that seems to plague other public gathering spaces. The idea that you need to add loud music, video screens covering all wall space and of course, "gourmet" food.

Consider, Chelsea Piers. When I lived in NYC back in the late 80s it was an underused cargo ship port. A bit of creative urban renewal came into effect in the 90s that created what is now the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex. It includes studios where all the New York set Law and Orders were shot. It also features ice rinks, health clubs, dance studios and an impressive bowling alley called the 300. It's very attractive place with a mostly unused night club hovering over all the action, An impressive selection of video games, and video screens all over the place. And therein lies the problem.

You see the bowling alley at Chelsea Piers is dark with light mostly illuminated by the video screens all over the place. Some of the screens behind the alleys were useful in posting the score and screening little computer animations related to the actions on the lanes. Nothing new, That's been around since the late 80s. Most bowling alleys are dark but have well lit lanes. Chelsea Piers on the other has dark alleys with day glow stripes on the pins and lanes. Not enough to make for good bowling strategy. Then there are the TV screens at the far end of the lane where the pins are located. The whole wall was splattered with either images of the NCAA tournament or videos of today's music that may or may not have been put there by customers on s jukebox I didn't see.

Either way it was a very distracting thing to contend with. It was so loud, You COULDN'T hear the pins drop. Not that it was an excuse for my sub par scores of 117, 119, and (gasp) 87! But I hate going to places where I'm NOT there to hear music and be bombarded with music that I can't even stand. Ugh. Though they did make me aware of a great new Cake song "Sick of You". Nice to see a band in their 40s do a great song.

Another thing about the place that bummed me out a little was the cost of things. Okay, I get it, A bowling alley is like a movie theater and a sports ballpark in that the real money is made on concessions, so I expect that the food and beer is gonna be a bit expensive. However there is this new meme that says that one must make the food an "experience" instead of just something to eat even in places where you're there to do something else.

Looking up the menu, I was looking for something I wanted that was snack but filling. I spotted a menu item for three kinds of chips for $8.50. I got three tiny soup cups with potato chips, french fires, or Pomme Frites if you're pretentious and the latest trend in fried foods, sweet potato chips. Yeah, I was still hungry after the three seconds it took for me to eat it. And if you're gonna charge an arm and a leg for beer and bombard us with loud auto-tune infused music can you at least have s good selection of beer? Sam Adams is good, But as the only alternative to Coors products makes it a let down. Oh well.

Still, I had fun, the bowling balls were great and the shoes were newish but it doesn't make for a proper bowling experience to not be able to see the lanes and the pins properly. I don't need the visual distractions of bad music and sporting events I have no interest in.

Consider The Humble Milkcrate....

Ah, College, or at least art school. They were some of the best years of my life that's for sure. It was my time away from my parents in one of the greatest cities in the world, New York. It was the late 80s (pity, that) and the city still had its edge. IT was very expensive but reachable if you were clever or lucky.

Now, During my four years at SVA I lived in the dorms. Truthfully it was at the YMCA in Sloane House. We had two and a half floors to ourselves. The rest of the floors were occupied by tourists, old people and other schools.

Now we all had our own rooms but they were tiny. We also shared a studio with a fellow student. The rooms because of its size were sparsely furnished with a mustard yellow wardrobe, a metal cot-like bed with the same mustard yellow headboard. The rooms definitely didn't leave room enough to practice any decent interior design skills. So you had to work around the limitations. And one of the best pieces of equipment to setting up your room to a more livable space was the milk crate.
















Not just any milk crate mind you but the kind of milk crates that were common place in the 80s. They were made of polyethylene plastic and measured 13"W x 19"L x 11"H. The ones that measured 13"W x 13"L x 11"H were good but nothing beat the bigger one. They were used primarily to carry jugs of milk but were so versatile they came to have so many other uses.














It was the perfect size to carry vinyl records. And when you stacked them one on top of the other, Eureka! Instant shelving space gets created. Of course you can stack the milk cartons in any fashion to hole other items of interest. They were steady enough to stack vertically three high and horizontally at least 6 crates high. You can lay them flat and store things in them and slide under your bed, out of sight for quick access.















They were good to sit on when you ran out of chairs. They made for ideal ottomans when you didn't. Heck, You can use one milk crate vertically for a chair and the other one horizontally for an ottoman. You can place a wooden plank on top of four strategically place milk crates and voila! You're no longer a bum sleeping on a mattress on the floor! Heck you can practically furnish a whole room with milk crates!















If you were fortunate, You might be able to color coordinate the crates to make the room attractive. When you moved it was easy to move your things around because they were already "packed" in its own box. Easily stacked in a car and van to take on to your next destination.

So, Where does one get milk crates? Well, You can buy them in some of the cheap department stores, But beware, They are more likely to be flimsy knock offs of the real thing. And the real thing? Where do you find these wonderful crates?

Wherever you can.















You see, For many years even before milk crates were plastic, It was a found object. Sometimes discarded, Sometimes stolen, Sometimes given. But the hunt was always the pleasure. I lived in New York City so they were sometimes easy to find. They were in dumpsters, Outside of closed stores, Sometimes in the middle of the street and maybe in a subway station. If I saw one unbroken and it was relatively clean, It was mine!


















Early on it took awhile to get them. I got one quickly but it took forever to get the second one. I dreamed of hitting the mother lode and I finally did! Well into my second year when I moved into a bigger room, I was able to get a dozen. It's where I put most of my clothes, my comic book collection and of course the remainder of my vinyl albums I had. I used it to hold my sketchbooks and lent it to a friend who used it to dry his animation cels one weekend.

Possessing milk crates was not without risk. It was against the law for regular folk to possess them. Even if you just found them. The missing crates were costing the companies money and they tried to find ways to get them back. They always talked about law enforcement in getting them back but it didn't amount to much more than bluster.

Anyway, I kept many of my crates for many years though I got rid of them as I bought real furniture over the years. However, I still get a slight twinge of excitement if I come across a discarded perfectly usable crate. I'm still a hunter of found objects, particularly furniture that you won't find in a store. The hunt and the finds still excite me.

It's My Nature To Be A Skeptic.

I'm intrigued by John Fetterman. You might know who he is, He's the mayor of the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Braddock is distressed town located near Pittsburgh that like many rust belt towns, has seen better days and is dying a slow death and needing a revival.







John Fetterman thinks he has a way of improving Braddock's fortunes and is doing whatever he can to do so. He's part Robert Moses, Part Father Flannagan and Part Donald Trump. He's an impressive physical specimen, Standing 6 foot 8, He looks like the Hulked-Out version of Anton LaVey, The founder of the Church of Satan.











He uses his appearance to attract attention to the plight of his town, Trying to generate investment in a town where property can be bought really cheap, Arts Festivals are hyped, and beauty can be found if you know where to look.

He brings his gospel to the mass media with appearances on The Colbert Report, articles in the New York Times and an pretty moving Levis commercial which states "There's Work To Be Done", a mantra he's trying to adopt for the town of Braddock.

Fetterman is big on bringing green technology to the town. He's set up community gardens in vacant lots around town, He set up several youth centers in town using some of his family's foundation money.

So I'm rooting for the guy, Actually I'm rooting for what he stands for and hope he succeeds, But being a skeptic I don't allow myself to buy into what he is hook, line and sinker. There must be something about what he's doing that's not kosher, something that might might work as intended. I need something that tells both sides of the story.

Thankfully, The New York Times did a profile on John Fetterman that had some critics of his work. The problem is his critics are poor examples to counter his approach to solving the problems with the town of Braddock.

First up is the town's city council. They felt that he would take a back door approach in getting things done. He used his family's foundation to build youth centers. The council thought it would be nice if John would say he had some money and asked the council how to spend it. Well, Let's just say that both sides of the political aisle would like to tell the city council to stick it. Unless, Fetterman wants to do something harmful, It shouldn't matter what does with his money.

The second person profiled critical of Fetterman is a woman who moved to Braddock in 2008 after reading about Fetterman and his plans for the town of Braddock. She paid 125,000 dollars for a "colossal" bank building. she didn't know what she was going to do with it but she said it didn't matter. She figured the vibe of Braddock would move her. But the building sprang a leak that overwhelmed her. However, It seems trivial in light of the fact she dropped six figures buying a building she had no idea what she was going to do with and she did it on her own and was overwhelmed with the responsibility. Poor planning and impulse thinking isn't Fetterman's fault. She still got a sweet deal and she will be able to sell it on a profit if she waits a little time.

And there is this couple from Alaska who moved to Braddock after scouting it out beforehand. They thought they had a good deal when they bought a $5,000 dollar fixer upper. It had been declared uninhabitable so they had to spend nearly 60 grand before they fixed up a place to be livable. The house they live in is one of the more crime ridden streets of the town. Still, I don't feel bad for them. They understood through the friends they knew that it takes a lot of money and effort to fix up their cheap place and in my opinion got off easy with it being less than 60 grand. Even in a bad town, That's a great deal in this century.

Then there was this self described "straight-edge vegan punk rocker" and occasional model. He's 25 years old. And he pooled resources with six other people to create an inexpensive "live-work" space where they can play music, write and build bikes. It cost them only 6 thousand dollars. Sure it was run down but it was a perfect place to pursue your muse without worrying about high rent or messing up the place. Then this person states his goal is to build himself a life that meets his needs most effectively and somehow that involves him qualifying for food stamps. Not exactly building up on the opportunity giving back in return for cheap housing.

There was one person whose criticism of John Fetterman resonated with me. A man in his early 30s who had grown up in the town and saw it go from being a dying town into a dead town. He struggles to get enough employment to get by and he isn't benefiting from the improvements of the town. The Farmers Market in town was to expensive and the jobs created weren't in his skill level. He thinks John Fetternman is doing a good job particularly wit the kids but feels resigned in his own fate.

I'm hoping that Braddock'a success story is enduring and becomes a blueprint for other struggling Rust Belt cities large and small that have struggled after the captains of industry abandoned them after draining the towns of all its resources. It will do more to build up our strength than our current method of trying to appease the elitists (with tax cuts and bail outs) who have done nothing to build back America's strength.

I'm Starting To Come Out Of It....

The other day I was in court in Eatontown, New Jersey to straighten out some legal problems I was blindsided by when I got pulled over by the police on January 15th.

It all started because I was bored and a little depressed. It was Saturday night and I was in the mood for karaoke. There are no places close to me in Union that does it on Saturday. One of my favorite KJs does it Saturdays but I had to go down to Monmouth County at a place I hadn't been to yet. It was cold that night and still we were dealing with the poor cleanup of the recent snow storms of the previous weeks.

Still, I was committed, I needed to go out I wanted to sing some of the more obscure songs that my man Vince has on his playlist. I used to go to Vince's shows at the Mad Hatter's in Long Branch when I lived down by the shore AND when I had Tuesday nights off. Since I moved up to Union and found a good show in Jersey City I hadn't gone down there much. Besides, the last time I went down to Monmouth I got pulled over by the police for having a tail light out, Another time I had a flat tire when I paid a visit.

Vince hosts different places in the Monmouth county area. One I had not been to was the Sheraton in the town of Eatontown. I trudged through its parking lot to find myself in a rather nice hotel bar that had only one problem.

Kids.

Now I like kids, I can relate to them, But when I'm drinking beer, I want no kids to be near me, ESPECIALLY when I''m doing karaoke. Interestingly, There is a policy (The bar's I assume) against swearing when singing. That's not a problem with me because there is so few songs I sing with any swearing and I'm not one to embellish songs such as "Total Eclipse Of the Heart" with "witty" F words. I enjoyed myself with the set up there, Sang pretty good but when I finished my second beer I thought it would be a good idea to leave, I made my point in trying to make things happen but other than Vince, I didn't know anyone and the rest of the group wasn't my type. Plus, I wanted to make sure I was totally okay to drive.

Well.....It didn't matter, I was driving along on rt. 35 in Eatontown when sure enough I get pulled over. Why? Well, The policeman asked me if I knew.

Well, I wasn't speeding, Everyone else on the road was passing me, I wasn't drunk, legally or otherwise, As far as I knew I had no lights out so I had no clue, Besides let the officer TELL me why I were pulled over.

Oh, He told me, He said a traffic light set-up had taken a picture of my car and took note of my license plate which revealed that my car AND driver license had been suspended for not having my insurance paid up. Well, Since I was able to produce everything necessary to show an officer when you get pulled over, it was erroneous.

Still, He would not allow me to drive home. I was stuck, I had to call someone to pick me up. So here I was, A day after turning 44 calling my DAD to pick me up At one o'clock in the morning. Shades of high school, If I had been a troublemaker in high school.

Well, It was fun trying to explain to my Dad what went on without seeming like I was a lying piece of shit. Since it was really cold and I didn't want to burden my Dad into driving me to my place and head all the way back to his at this time of the morning, I opted to just go back to my parents place and crash for the night.

The next day My Dad (curiously enough) was able to drive MY car back to my place while I was a passenger with my Mom driving me to my place. Anyway, My parents didn't stick around. So, Now I wasn't able to drive until I got myself straightened out with the Motor Vehicle Bureau. That meant I had to take off from work to do so, since Monday was MLK Day and I had to wait until Tuesday to resolve my issues.


Oh, By the way, It turns out that the Motor Vehicle Bureau sent me a notice that yes indeed they had suspended my license. The problem is it was without cause. I have this bad habit of not opening my mail immediately and since my registrations wasn't due til February there was no desperate need to open it right away.

Okay, That Tuesday I called in sick, It was the day it was sleeting heavy on top of the foot and a half snow already on the ground... and I had to walk....to the Motor Vehicle Bureau of Springfield. It was a long walk, About two miles in slushy, wet snow compounded by the occasional splash back from passing cars and trucks.

It took an hour,and I was soaked from the waist down. But I finally arrived at the Springfield Motor Vehicle Bureau. Too bad they don't do re-instated licenses there.

Crap! Now what? Well, She gave me a list of places that did it. The closest was in Newark. That was quite far away and the weather was getting worse. I trudged through snow, slush and water through streets that got less cleared as I moved along. I had the address but no map so I had to do a little guessing in pursuing the best route. I lost one umbrella , Found another and lost the second one, I was now soaked from head to toe.

I made a few detours but after nearly three hours I finally got to the Newark Motor Vehicle Bureau. I had to take a number, They said it would take four hours before my turn would come up. Well, I was cold, wet and it would take two hours to get back home. I was staying, hoping she was high balling the amount of time it would take to have my turn. I did not want to take another day off from work or worse, Call a co-worker to drive me to work. I was going to see this through.

So, I stood around aimlessly for about a half hour, Got lucky and found a discarded New York Times to keep me occupied while I was slowly getting dry. It took 3 hours and 45 minutes but I finally had my number called and was able, in less than two minutes to get myself in "good standing" in regards to getting my licenses restored. No money necessary because I had my insurance proof.

Still, It was another two hours or so in the cold, thankfully the water ceased to fall from the sky but the air grew colder threatening to turn the water into ice as the sun went down. Oh, Did I mention that I really didn't know the best way to get home and I was in NEWARK?

I tried to walk in what I thought was the right direction but soon detoured myself out of fear and stupidity. I ended up tracing back most of the route I took to get to the DMV. It was arduous but I took a shortcut I knew and after a stop for the best coffee I had in years (Only because of how wiped out I was) I got home, Took off my wet clothes, put on my 'jamas and breathed a sigh of relief. I was able to legally drive, avoided having to pay lots of money to do so. I only had to contend with the tickets I received. My court date was for the 27th of January. I wasn't sure what would entail but Monmouth County is infamous for giving tickets for lesser offenses than they say they pulled you over for, So it looks like I was gonna be out some money regardless.

Hoo boy.

So I had to take the day off of work to appear in court. No problem. However,

On the 27th of January I woke up and saw that a foot of snow covered everything in sight. I woke up quite early, I am an insomniac these days. I went about the task of shoveling the snow, Even though it was still snowing. It only takes a half hour to do the essential shoveling,(By hand, I ain't no pussy) but my street had not been plowed and the snow was more than a foot deep for the whole length of the street.

My court appointment said I needed to be there by 9AM. It was 730 AM and I was panicking. There was no way I can drive through the snow (I have A Huydai Elantra) and I wasn't into the idea of driving an hour on the Parkweay to get to Eatontown.

So I looked at my ticket to see what number I needed to call and was horrified to read on the back of the ticket that I needed to call them at least 8 days in advance to let them know if I intend to plead "Not Guilty".

What is it in my psyche that makes me overlook vital information when I try to read official notices????!!!??? Anyway I tried to call thinking since it;'s local government that they weren't in the 21st century yet. No answer, No transfer of my call.

crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap!

I looked up the web address, Put in my ticket number and was relieved to find that it was postponed for two weeks. Whew! Well, That left me to shovel up the snow but now I had to take ANOTHER day off form work. And this was vacation time.

Anyway, This time I made sure to call and plead "Not Guilty" on the phone 10 days before my court room appearance. Another sleepless night preceded the day I had to appear in court. I drove down to Eatontown and entered a 70s era building within two blocks of where I got pulled over. I walked in having no clue where I need to go and what I need to do. This is the first time in my life I ever had to appear in court for ANYTHING.

With no receptionist I had to figure out for myself what I needed to do. I saw the courtroom assuming that was where I need to go. A few people were there and I figured I'd hang out with them. Was 9AM the actual time I would be called? (Give or Take a few minutes) Or was it just a start time for us to be there?

It turns out that I needed to go upstairs, Wait in line to see the prosecutor before I would meet up with the judge. I get to the Prosecutor, And he told me that I would only have to worry about the lesser charge, Oookay,But I was trying to get it all knocked off since I did nothing wrong. I got the proof from the DMV. So after more waiting and a second exchange with the prosecutor, It was straightened out but I still needed to talk to the judge downstairs in the court room.

Things were in full swing in the court room, I caught a glimpse of our justice system at work. The judge was amiable in his approach to the defendants. He gave everyone a chance to speak and when he gave his verdict, He gave a short speech about the judicial process, Explaining how things work in concise terms. It bugged two people behind me because they felt it took too much time out of the day. The funny thing is that both of them were in a heap of trouble and didn't have their situation resolved that day. One couldn't pay 60 dollars (Really?) and the guy needed a lawyer to continue.

Most of the situations involved traffic citations, a few involved victims. Some had lawyers present. Some had their parents there. It was amusing hearing about this girl who was told she wasn't allowed at Johnny Rockets because she created a scene of obscenity that got out of hand. Less funny was a guy who was told he had to stay away from the mother of his child unless he treated her with respect. He actually told the judge the didn't understand what it meant.

I was really getting into the scene, I kinda wanted it to continue but it was my turn to face the judge and it took all of five seconds to say that I was fully cleared. I was stunned because I thought at least I needed to show more documentation. Did I need to pay court fees? Are you sure I don't have to pay fines? Any points on my license? Increased insurance rates? I dunno it seem too quick to resolve itself to me, They looked at me incredulously, But man I've been punished so much recently for overlooking minor things.

But then again, I had to suffer the embarrassment of calling my Dad to pick me up and drive my car back to my place, I had to wait two days without driving before I was able to go to the DMV, I walked 6 plus miles in sleety snow while getting splashed by passing cars and waiting 4 hours in soaked clothes, I had to use TWO vacation days to straighten out my situation.

All because I neglected to open my mail to see that my license was revoked. I could have resolved it quicker.

Any why did I get my license suspended in the first place? I guess it was because I had switched insurance companies. And the gecko was seeking revenge.

2010: A Year To Remember?

Ahhhh, the end of the year. 2010. Wass it a good year? In some ways. I meant a group of people who I like to hang out with on a regular basis. I found fun to be had in Jersey City. I go to the city a lot when it suited me. I enjoyed my 25th high school reunion. Work wasn't as much fun but late in the year I had a favorable schedule. However, the summer was brutal. My heat was too hot for my liking in my current place. Didn't achieve much in the female companionship department. Some other things didn't pan out either.

So, No real triumphs or tragedies of note in the year. So what made 2010 stand out for me? It was the year I got old...

You see I have a theory about aging. We all go through the process in various ways and at various speeds. However I have a theory that each of us at times age quickly in spurts and then maintain our appearance for a longer period of time. 2010 was the year I went through this spurt.

It's happened before in my life. In 1994, I gained weight even though I ate about the same amount (less even) and exercised. About 2002, I noticed my hair was thinning a little and that I was getting a little more gray than usual. 2010 on the other hand age hit me in many more ways. I gained a little weight this year but more importantly I had lost my ability to lose any weight in ways that worked for me in the past. My hair had gained a lot more gray this year but even more disturbing there was no getting around the fact that my hair was thinning a lot on top in a weird spot that would have to be described as bald.

Sigh. How am I gonna get the ladies now? Balding, graying, thick and add to that I'm probably gonna need bifocals the next time I get a new prescription. I always need to remove my glasses to read closeup.

Oh me, Oh my. In 1994, I could no longer pass myself as a kid. In 2002, I reached the point where I can no longer be at a physical peak and in 2010 I could no longer pass myself off as an up and comer, officially in middle age.

Ten Years Ago....

....a day that will live on in infamy. That was the day the Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) made its worst decision in my lifetime. They voted in Bush v Gore to stop the recount of Florida's election to determine who would be president of the United State starting in January 2001. Unfortunately they decided it was George W Bush. And we have been paying the price since.

I feel that way because I felt the basic foundation of my country's principles get violated blatantly by individuals who use their personal feelings and agenda to overturn the will of the people.

Ahhh, I remember late 2000. I had just moved back to Seattle after living in the suburb town of Federal Way. I was trying to get my life together (again) with a new job and a new place in the city. I was still reeling from the results of the 2000 Subway World Series and had no clue who was going to win the 2000 presidential election. It seems that after 8 years of Bill Clinton was president, It seems the American people were fatigued by peace and prosperity and they wanted a change. So who to vote for? The vice president of the current regime, Or the son of the former one term president? It seems it wasn't much as a choice so it was no surprise that many voters chose a third option in Ralph Nader.

Now Ralph Nader gets a lot of the blame for how the results of the 2000 election ended up, Certainly the rational to vote for him because "there wasn't any difference between Gore and Bush" was short sighted but Al Gore ran a weak enough campaign by running away from the Clinton legacy. He got tagged as being an exaggeration king and somehow the American people were offended when he sighed over something stupid George Bush said during the debate. So most of the blame for those who voted for Nader goes on Gore.

On election day I'm watching the results and it wasn't looking good for Gore, Yeah, he got the usual Democrat states but there wasn't a conclusive pattern that seemed to favor a victory to Gore. I went to sleep with the feeling that "Oh well, Bush is our next president". I wasn't too concerned about that weirdly enough, Maybe I just looked at Bush being a stop gap to the next liberal president that will finally move the US forward from where we left off in 1980 in the 2004 election.

But something weird happened. The results of the 2000 election wasn't settled yet. Several states hadn't officially declared a winner but only one state, Florida with its 25 electoral votes mattered, Because it was the only state in which the declared winner would be ensured the presidency. Unknown to me on the night of the election, Gore HAD been declared the winner at one point. But a Bush operative (a family member no less) cried foul over the announcement. Although it was suspicious how he would know that the rest of the count would work in his boss's favor, Still he was correct in calling out the media for declaring a winner with the vote being that close.

How close? In a state with a population of well over 10 million the first machine count gave Bush a vote margin of less than a thousand. That's a margin of less than 0.009 percent!!! According to Florida state law that meant a automatic recount would go in effect. It did and it closed the gap Bush and Gore even further to about 500 votes.

So now the state of Florida had to determine what the next step would be, In most states it would automatically go to a hand recount. It usually isn't a problem because when it usually occurs it involves the recount of at most, tens of thousands of votes in local elections with consistent voting machines. In Florida a hand recount would involve about ten million ballots with various voting set ups in place, Mostly involving punch out ballots that gets counted by a machine. Taking the same ballots and counting it by hand presented interesting dilemmas.

First and foremost was the dilemma of what the voter's intent was when they were punching out the card. Some people made mistakes in the punch out and they hand wrote who they really wanted to vote for, Some of the cards weren't punched out completely and others had a ballot in which part of another "chad" was removed enough to make the fully poked out candidate invalid. Also there were badly designed "Butterfly" ballot books that seem reveal that a lot of the citizens in a heavily Jewish district voted for well known anti-Semite Pat Buchannan.

There were charges that many military folks absentee ballots were mistakenly not counted for being filed late and other charges that late military absentee votes were purposely mailed late (and counted) after the stalemate occurred. Neither of the accusations turned up much fruit.

The battle lines were being drawn at this point with each side accusing the other of tampering with the results of the election. Al Gore made a calculated error in only wanting a recount of heavily Democratic areas while the Bush campaign was demanding that Al Gore concede as quickly as possible so that a Bush inauguration can be set up in time by mid January.

Needless to say it was getting ugly. Protesters from both sides were out on the streets, Republican operatives were banging on the windows and the doors of the recount offices to intimidate the counter volunteers, The Democratic team followed tractor trailers filled with the voting ballots paranoid that they may be hijacked.











The hand recounts were going very slowly, Partly by all the lawsuits flying around with Al Gore suing to keep the voting count going and the Bush campaign in starting to realize that an accurate state wide hand recount was not going to be in their favor, suing to stop the hand count completely and to certify the results based on the previous machine count tally.

Several irregularities in the voting seemed to have favored Bush. The so-called "butterfly ballot," A purge of some 50,000 alleged felons from the Florida voting rolls in which The majority of these were not felons and should have been eligible to vote.]. Additionally, there were many more 'overvotes' than usual, especially in the Jacksonville area, where some 27,000 ballots showed two or more choices for President. Unlike the imfamous 'butterfly ballot,' the Duval County ballot spread choices for President over two pages with instructions to 'vote on every page' on the bottom of each page.















The post election crisis would go on for over a month, The election was becoming a running joke, tensions beginning to mount to the point where there was a possibility we might have a temporary president in the form of the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert if the count wasn't finished by January 20th.

However, the Bush campaign had an inside man on the job. There was a Bush working for Fox News who berated the media for declaring Gore the winner too early, There was candidate Bush's brother Jeb, Who as governor of Florida did whatever he could using his power to ensure his brother George wins the needed electoral votes of Florida. Then there was the proto-Palin, Katherine Harris who somehow was able to be both Secretary of State of Florida AND Bush campaign chairperson. As secretary of Florida she was able to declare Her candidate Bush the winner of the Florida vote. Very convenient. If a Democratic candidate tried this there would be huge uproar. But the only uproar over Katherine Harris was how much makeup she wore and how aggressive her "cougar" act was in her dealings with men.












It finally came to the SCOTUS to come to a decision, Even that would go back and forth between the grieving parties and slowed the hand recount to the point where an arbitrary deadline date would be reached and the vote could be stopped at that point. The final deadline date was ten years ago today, December 12, 2000. The 5-4 vote went as would be expected, Going by an ideological split with the conservatives voting to stop the hand vote count to give the victory to Bush and the "liberal" wing of the court voting to keep the vote count going to its proper conclusion.

It was an outrage! How dare the conservatives stop democracy like that? Florida set up a flawed voting system that wouldn't have drawn attention if the vote wasn't so close. It needed to be fixed and the hand recount of the WHOLE state (Sorry Al Gore) was the best way to do it. Scalia cited the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment as the reason for the vote to be stopped. This was utterly ridiculous because many people were denied their right to have their vote counted because of his BUSH V GORE decision. He also overlooked the 11th amendment that conservatives say they favor so much in regards to state rights. The SCOTUS overturned the Florida Supreme Court in dealing with the recount thus violating their state rights. Plus there were reports of Sandra Day O'Conner voting in the majority merely because she was thinking of retiring and didn't want a Democrat to vote for her successor. Talk about judicial activism bias!

Still, I was in the "Let the baby have his bottle!" state of mind. I thought having Bush in the White House would be preferable in a disputed election than Al Gore because Gore would have been raked over the coals viciously by the Republicans and the conservative media. I thought, How bad could it be? We survived the stolen election of 1824 in which yet another scion of a one term president John Quincy Adams had an election stolen in his favor and he too was a one termer. So Bush will be a one termer too. He won't be able to govern with a mandate, Can't screw too much but certainly the regime would change again in 2004. How bad could it be?

How bad indeed, First A bunch of his campaign contributors go joyriding in a nuclear submarine that KILLS Japanese kids. He orders a plane to do a little spying in China and when it gets captured he caves in to the Chinese and lets them have the plane! His Vice President has a VERY closed door meeting with an "Energy Task Force" that deregulates the oil industry so much that years later we get the worst oil spill in our country's history. He gives aid to the Taliban because they "wiped" out poppy fields AFTER the Taliban destroyed some Buddhist statues. And then came September 11th, 2001, In which Bush failed to prevent the worst terrorist attack in WORLD history (He was too busy trying to revive the Star Wars program), Which was horrible of course, But perversely it somehow made Bush out to be a hero. He kept us "safe" throughout the rest of his administration. I dunno that's like praising OJ Simpson for NOT being a murderer if you don't include that ONE bad night.

So because of this need to revere Bush after 9-11, He was able to push his flawed economic policies that took a record surplus and instantly made perennial record deficits with nothing to show for it for the American people. He was able to start a bogus war with Iraq based on a personal vendetta against the leader Saddam Hussain ("He tried to kill my daddy")that has killed 4000+ Americans and who knows how many Iraqis. the economy was weak throughout his administration as jobs were hemorrhaging to other countries. It took a hurricane and his terrible leadership throughout the aftermath that finally had the American people to realize what an awful president he was.

So yeah, Justice Scalia, I haven't gotten over it. It was your twisting of the very Constitutional principles you SAY you stand for that gave us what will go down as one of the worst presidencies of all time. And it didn't need to happen. Even though the SCOTUS stopped the vote, An independent group did under the rules in place of the state of Florida. The results? Al Gore won in any scenario that involved the full hand recount of the state ballots. Ironically one of the scenarios in which Al Gore lost was the one that he tried to sue for, The recount of votes in selective counties. And THAT was the headline in a series of articles buried in the pages of newspapers November of 2001. It was too close to 9-11 to point out to the American people that the wrong man was sitting in the White House.

Would a Gore presidency have been better? Of course it would have BUT there would have been so much contentiousness about the 2000 election against Gore by the right wing that even IF 9-11 would have happened under Gore, The American people would not back him up.

The economy would certainly have been better under Gore, The surplus would be intact but smaller and the American people would be told to turn against him because he was not as good a Clinton. Certainly there would be no war against Irag even if 9-11 would have occurred under Gore. However, Even if these scenarios would have played out as I predicted I would have to speculate it would still ensure that Gore would have lost a re-election campaign in 2004. What Republican would have beaten him in 2004? Why,George W Bush of course! And the idea that Bush would be serving his second term right NOW would be a nightmare I'm glad is not occurring today.

30 Years Ago Tomorrow...

...I woke up on December 9th, 1980, Delivered the Daily Record to my customers,(late for many of them, I hated waking up earlier than 7:30)had breakfast, Waited for the school bus that took me to my 8th grade school Upper Elementary School, It was when I got off the bus I was confronted by at least three teasing school mates who were singing in a mocking tone the latest song from John Lennon "(Just Like) Starting Over"


That was when I found out John Lennon had been shot and died. I didn't believe them of course since I hadn't heard the news yet. Which was strange because when I was 13 I always listened to the radio (WABC 770 in pre-right wing days) before I went to sleep, and watched TV after delivering the papers (Which didn't have the news yet) in the morning before I went to school. Oddly I did neither So I didn't find out until the cruel taunts of my school mates informed me.


Needless to say, The rest of the school day was shitty to say the least. We didn't have the internet in those days and I wasn't able to get access to any TV to find out the truth. when I got home, I ran to the TV and yes indeed the horrible news was true. My mom told me that she found out the night before but didn't feel the need to wake me. I held that against her some time after that.

You see I was a huge Beatles fan. In 1980, It wasn't really cool to be a Beatles fan believe it or not. Black and white concert Ts were big at the time and the top groups featured on the chests of my fellow 8th graders were Van Halen, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin. Cool groups of the time, Not a band that broke up ten years before.

So yeah, I wore what was an anachronistic "concert T" that featured images of the Beatles circa 1969 well past their concert playing days. 1980 was a bad year for me. My sister had died earlier in the year and I sought solace in Beatles music and comic books. Paul McCartney released a solo album I thought was good and John Lennon released an album for the first time in 5 years that was even better. So of course there was talk about the Beatles maybe getting back together again. The rift between Paul and John seemed to be healing and a new decade would be a good time to consider the possibility.

But of course that dream got shattered when John Lennon got shot.