(ex) Candidate's (ex) Wife

Where Did I Go?

OK, so it's been a month. I'm over at the Dairy Conspiracy full-time now, and I think I can say this site's been fun, been useful, but I really can't maintain both of them. I'll keep this one up (so long as Blogger/Blogspot doesn't start charging), kind of as a "panic room." If the Dairy Conspiracy goes kaput again, come on over here and I'll let you know what's up. Deal?

It's not really goodbye, after all...just a change of address...

Still Stranded In Technical-Difficulty-Ville

I'm trying to transition fully to the Conspiracy, but we're still in tech limbo. I have TWO posts from today, viewable to me and the handful of others with access to the Moveable Type on the server, but they won't load. (Permissions problem.) Hopefully, somebody will load them for me soon, and you folks can all get in the habit of visiting there on a daily basis.

Grumble grumble.

Was I watching the same press conference they were?

Last night, I, like most of you, stared sadly at my television, wondering how we got ourselves into this mess and how, regardless of voter manipulation, tinfoil conspiracies or hanging chad, 50 million people voted for this nitwit in 2000.

I did find comfort in the fact that the other people at the forums I frequent (see DU and P4C, among others) with me -- this press conference was nothing short of a train wreck. Sure, we can be accused of being an echo chamber, but last night I think it was necessary.

This morning, however, I turned on NPR, where they interviewed three different sets of people -- young professionals, older Jewish retirees, and upstate New York Republicans.

There was little harsh criticism of Bush's performance (only disappointment and dissatisfaction, but nothing like we wrote yesterday) -- and much effusive praise. Much of it, regardless of the respondent's party affiliation, was along the lines of, "whether you agreed with the war or not, you have to admit Bush did a good job of presenting a strong case last night."

What?

How could they have possibly sat through the same travesty I did, and yet come away all aglow? Do they suffer from some sort of president dysmorphic disorder, rendering them incapable of seeing the stammering, the evasiveness, the "insticate," the Secretary of State Rummy? (Maybe it was the tie.)

Last night, I didn't know whether to laugh, to cry or to throw up. I think I know now. Hand me a bucket.

Still Busted

I still can't access my other blog. I'm so wanting to transition there fully (and that's why I've been ignoring this site for weeks -- sorry about that), but it looks like it's not in the cards, yet. I miss my Moveable Type. Some short ramblings here, then:

I might write something tomorrow or this weekend about yesterday's MeetUp. (Unsolicited advice for Gary Kohlenberg -- Telling a group of activists how they all shop at WalMart won't help you. Many, many people in that room are boycotting.)

Right now, I'm half-watching The Swan (one-word review: ick) and collecting some information about the Badger State and our elected officials and media outlets for a big ole database.

The last quarterly report for V4C went to the FEC yesterday. We took in something like $42. (Vince withdrew really, really early in the new year -- before he declared it publically, even, he stopped taking contributions.) It'll be interesting to see where Bryan and Gary fell. Sometime in the next three months, we send in termination papers and hope they accept them and let us stop the madness.

I don't have a lot to say about Condipalooza (one-word review: ick).

I don't really have a lot to say about anything right now. But Zak was getting the shakes, or something. (Hey, comments never lie.)

In Case You Were Wondering

We're having technical difficulties over at the Vast Dairy State Conspiracy. We hope to have that figured out soon, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled bloggy goodness.

In the meantime, happy I'm Embarrased By My President Day. Wear brown, to symbolize all of the crap coming from the White House.

Remnants

Today, we got a nastygram from the FEC. Apparently, we were supposed to include something called a 3Z-i with the end-of-year forms. (This is a new form, post McCain-Feingold, and the list of forms I was working with was, I guess, pre McCain-Feingold.)

But here's the kicker -- we needed to list the amount of money we had (almost none), the amount that came from the candidate (none) and do a little math. This is so our opponents would know if the Millionaire's Amendment (the one that says if you're going to spend $350,000 or more of your own money, new fundraising rules kick in for everyone else to play catch-up) would apply.

We declared less than $6,000 in receipts. This is the biggest "duh" ever. You would think (one would) that 3Z-i would only kick in if you have big, big receipts, and there was a question as to whether the Millionaire provisions would apply. (Guess what? They don't.)

It looks like a lot of people missed the boat on this -- I did a quick search. The other two non-incumbents running in CD5 got that same nastygram. (Not that the FEC at all reads this, but if they do -- perhaps you really need to update that "candgui.pdf," instead of putting updates to it in a different, non-intuitively-named file.)

It's Vince's Birthday

It's his 29th. Wish him a happy one. (If anyone still reads this blog, anyway.)