I was just putting on some music to take a nap to, and had a thought I needed to post. Searching through my MP3 collection, I tossed on Dave Brubeck then lay down. I realized that after Brubeck ended, I'd hear my week-old playlist of Jay Farrar songs (good, but probably listened to a good 50 times) so I used the musicmatch jukebox, punched in Dave Brubeck, and asked to hear music like it. It put on Charlie Parker, which was good but I wanted something more mellow... more mellow like what? Maybe mellow like the stuff they play when I'm in the Gap... Jesus, there's nothing farther away from Jazz than wanting your room to sound like the Gap. This is less funny or enlightening than I thought.

Well, hopefully somebody read that last post- more info is available at . Back on the campaign trail for this week, which officially kicked off on Saturday with a rally of sorts. On the one hand, it was nice to see South Central all decked out in balloons, but basically only 40 or 50 people showed up, which was kind of a disappointment, and they came I think for food and T-shirts. Campaign remains full of fools. Today the field director (in what reminded me eerily of parts of the Gore campaign) insisted that out of 276,000 registered voters, 186,000 were "high propensity voters", meaning that they had voted in each of the past 4 elections. This means that 68% of the registered voters showed up for EACH of the past 4 elections. This when only 43% county-wide appeared at the polls in November. Go figure.

As DV has thrown down the challenge on his blog,, to write the basics of why Howard Dean should be the Democratic nominee, I'll do my damndest. First things first- unlike many of the other candidates, he isn't a career politician (though anybody who knows me knows that I don't necessarily think that it's a disqualifier). Prior to assuming the Vermont governorship a decade ago, Dean was a doctor, and in fact continued his practice while serving as lieutenant governor. This gives him a special credibility born of experience when discussing health care, which is certainly one of the most important issues out there, affecting those of us who just graduated and are trying to get health insurance, to our grandparents struggling to pay for medicine or nursing homes. Gov. Dean has put into place in Vermont a program that guarantees health insurance for every child in the state, and also implemented a groundbreaking plan that gives all pregnant women free at-home prenatal visits, which among other things has drastically reduced child abuse in the state. One of his 3 main campaign goals is universal healthcare in the US, which is something desperately needed as we are the only major industrialized democracy without it. The other two goals are balancing the budget- something where he would fare well against Bush, who turned 4 years of Clinton surplusses into a record $200 billion deficit by way of tax cuts and other giveaways to corporations and the wealthy. The final major plank of his platform is environmental conservation, which he is enormously experienced in, having run arguably the greenest state in the country.

Two other points to consider before i head out to my current campaign gig (which is getting somewhat better) The first is pragmatic- Dean has the best shot of any dem currently running to beat Bush. As governor of a rural state, he avoids the problem that many Americans have with national democrats- they're urban, often northeasterners, who seem out of touch with the "heartland". Dean's record, and his sensible position on gun control (control handguns without demonizing law abiding gun owners) has the potential to win over the so-called "NASCAR Dads"- rural, blue-collar fathers who look to be the swing vote in this election. The second point is that Dean is a pretty courageous politician. How many politicians with presidential ambitions can you name who would sign into law a bill giving gay couples civil unions? Not many... I think it's indicative of what kind of person Howard Dean is- somebody who's highly competent, compassionate, and straightfoward about doing what's right, regardless of the consequences.

Notes on this past weekend: If you go camping, remember to bring your tent. Also, do not do anything that we did.

Back in action after a lengthy hiatus. Enjoyed a well-deserved couple weeks at home, and an exceptionally nice week here w/ EK before starting my new off-track gig. Before going into it- allow me to explain off-trackness. As most of the LA schools are so full that they can't fit all their students (ie: mine has 3700 kids and is built for 2200), the track system, wherein 1/3 of students and teachers are off at any given time, allows the schools to operate closer to their designed capacity. What this translates into is a deal where you teach/learn for 4 months, are off for 2, back for 4 more, etc. etc. Anyway, post-Xmas break I'm off until the beginning of March. In order to fill the time (and to make some cash, because as a 1st year teacher my pay isn't divvied up over the full year) I'm working for UTLA, the teachers' union, as a "volunteer recruiter" for a school board campaign in LAUSD. I started this gig on Tuesday with a meeting at the temporary campaign headquarters. It was billed as an "all-day strategy session" and took place in what was the closest I've ever been to a crack den. After finding the correct condemned building, I was met outside by a guy who said he was told to find "a white guy and a Mexican girl" who were coming to the meeting, and ushered up some rickety steps above Hank's Bar, through a warren of tiny, ill-lit hallways to a dim room illuminated only by the sunlight struggling through South Central's smog and the grimy windows. Suffice it to say that, given that the meeting was only an hour long, it was somewhat underwhelming having last done a presidential election in a hotly contested state. Fortunately, although my initial idea that the people I was dealing with were incompetent turned out to be true ("these are people who spent all of December making slipcovers for the office furniture" quoth one Union campaign pro), some other people are layered over them who appear to have some idea...