Ramblin' with Roger

Alan Hevesi had a walk in the park in his run for re-election as State Comptroller until the Driving Mrs. Hevesi scandal, which has led to Spitzer withdrawing his support. Suddenly, and I mean in the last three days, signs for Callaghan, the Republican opponent, have popped up everywhere, and Hevesi’s numbers are way down.

Here’s a paragraph I swiped from the October 12 Metroland about the Green Party candidate for Attorney General:
[Rachel] Treichler had petitioned weeks earlier to be included in the League of Women Voters’ proposed three attorney-general debates. In a letter, she argued her qualifications: ballot access, financial compliance with New York State Board of Elections, voter interest and serious media coverage. The league, in turn, commissioned a Zogby poll in which Treichler polled 17 percent of the vote among independent voters. It was decided that she was a viable candidate.
So, if you’re not a Democrat or Republican, you have to be proven debate-worthy, including showing up in the polls. It’s not enough to go through the machinations of getting on the ballot; if your candidacy isn’t already strong enough, you won’t be invited to the debates. The story continues:
At the last minute, however, Treichler learned that she wasn’t going to be included in any of the debates. [Democraticic candidate Andrew] Cuomo wasn’t interested, she says, in debating a third-party candidate, and his camp put the pressure on to not include her.

It’s polling that will allow me to vote for a third-party candidate against Hillary Clinton and whoever her Republican opponent is this year It was polling that allowed me to vote for Ralph Nader for President in 2000, knowing that Al Gore would still win the state In fact, I could easily vote for third-party candidates for every position; Spitzer is cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party. New York is one of those peculiar states that actually allows that sort of thing.

I certainly would not be in favor of a ban on polling, but it has WAY too much influence on voter activity, including voter apathy, when a candidate is so far behind and a citizen says, “Why bother?”
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WTEN-TV clips for the races in the local Congressional District in the Albany area.
In the 21st, the Democratic incumbent is a lock for re-election.
In the 22nd, incumbent Republican Sweeney, who, BTW, was one of those folks who ran down to Florida to get Bush 43 selected President, is in a suddenly competitive race with Gillabrand, who Bill Clinton came to town to endorse this week.
In the 23rd, Republican incumbent McHugh’s position on Iraq on the link above is particularly entertaining.

President Bush on Iraq: It’s Never Been “Stay The Course”. Goodness, why did I think otherwise?

A ten minute version of the DVD “Bought and Sold– Electronic Voting in New York” is now posted on YouTube.
The EBay link for purchase of the full version of “Bought and Sold”

CNN: Should e-voting machines be outlawed?

FOX News (of all people) Exposes Princeton / Diebold Vote-Reversal Story

The Princeton report of computer virus susceptibility of the DieboldAccuVote machine .

RFK Jr on Hardball on November Elections

You DO realize the real reason I write these, don’t you? Because, while they are fresh in my mind NOW, they’ll be a point when I’ll say to the wife, “Wife, when did Lydia…?” and she won’t know, either.

The next day, I took a bus home. It was a dark and stormy night. The bus drivers had been on strike for some months – I thought it was Greyhound, though research suggests they weren’t striking at the time. In any case, they had replacement drivers. We got out of Binghamton OK, but then the driver got off on Exit 13 of I-88, rather than Exit 15, which involved tooling around Oneonta until a group of passengers, including myself, directed him to the station, and importantly, back to the highway. There was further confusion at the college at Cobleskill when the driver took us to places on campus we had never seen before.

Greg did his Top 10 Sports Moments last month. I thought to do the same. Of course, there are moments I loved at the time but have faded into memory, including many of the exciting NCAA men’s basketball finals.

I was flicking through the channels last month and came onto women’s volleyball. The game is to 30, win by two, and in the second game of the match Siena (a college near Albany) beat Binghamton (my hometown) 40-38. It was exciting, but the memory will fade.

The rules Greg laid out is that I have had to actually witness it, not seen it on ESPN Sportscenter later.

10. I know how Greg hates Brett Favre, but even he must admit that the game Favre played on December 22, 2003, right after his father died was magnificent.

9. Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run on September 8, 1998. Yeah, the steroid controversy taints this record. But I still think that the home run race between McGwire and Sammy Sosa that season energized the fans in the way they hadn’t been since the 1994 strike. In fact, this was Labor Day weekend, and I saw three Cardinals games in a row on FOX, who were looking to capture the historic moment. I loved all of it, Sosa running in from right field, McGwire’s graciousness to the family of Roger Maris.

8. Magic Johnson plays center during the NBA Finals. The rookie point guard replaces an injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the middle, scores 42 points, and creates a legend.

7. “Villanova beats Georgetown 66-64 to win the 1985 NCAA Basketball Championship … on April Fools’ Day.” It seems like most of the finals were thrilling games during that period. I was watching the game with mixed emotions. On one hand, I liked Georgetown coach John Thompson. On the other hand, ‘Nova was SUCH an underdog. This is on Greg’s list (item 3), so you can read his description.

6. I was never a big Reggie Jackson fan, but I was rooting for the Yankees against the Dodgers in the 1977 World Series. The Yankees had made it to the Series the year before, but were swept by the Big Red Machine. Before that, they hadn’t been in the World Series since 1964 and hadn’t won since 1962. When Reggie hit a homer in Game 6 on the first pitch, I nodded approvingly. When he hit a second home run, also on the first pitch, I was very happy. But when he hit a third home run, again on the first pitch, I involuntarily jumped out of my seat.

4. Sarah Hughes winning Olympic gold in figure skating in 2002. Mostly, it was because I didn’t think she had a chance after finishing fourth in the short program. In the stupid ordinal scoring system they had until fairly recently, if any of the top three leaders (Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya, and I think Sasha Cohen) won the free skate, they would have won the medal. But Hughes skated flawlessly, Michelle Kwan (my wife’s favorite skater) slipped to third, and the upset was complete.

3. The January 3, 1993 NFL playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers. I must admit that I didn’t see the first half; I was grocery shopping with my then-wife, who slipped on the black ice on the way home. We turned on the game in time for the second half kickoff, and almost turned off the TV when Buffalo’s Frank Reich threw the interception early in the third quarter to make it 35-3, Houston. But we’re talking about the only team in the NFL that actually plays in New York State, so I stuck with it and was richly rewarded with an unprecedented Bills win. Sometimes, when I’m watching a sporting event and am getting excited by the events, I stand up. I stood up a LOT in that game.

2. For a few years in the 1990s, Central Park in Schenectady, NY, was home to a recognized tennis tournament. In 1991, Michael Stich won Wimbledon singles championship. He then went to Schenectady, and won. The next year, Michael Stich returned to defend his title in Schenectady, but lost in the second round to a tournament wild card named Andrei Olhovskiy, in straight sets, no less. I was in the stands, and I was as shocked as anyone. This ranks so high because it’s the only one I saw in person.

I’m saving my #1 for tomorrow.

Gordon started with a song that, for whatever reason, didn’t grab me, but much of the rest was quite enjoyable, even though he stole my Clash song. For some reason I was particulatrly fond of how
Der Komissar by After the Fire worked with Cheap Trick’s Dream Police. And Slip Away was an inspired choice, which never would have occurred to me.

Curiously, I didn’t much like the first cut on the contribution by Lefty either, which surprised me, because it often means that I won’t like what follows, but this is not the case. Fiona Apple’s Criminal was on my briefly considered list for my own mix. I loved the flow from Condi, Condi (Steve Earle) to another song about her and her ilk, Sweet Neo Con (The Rolling Stones), to a Rolling Stones cover, Street Fighting Man (Rod Stewart). The Hey Joe/Down by the River pairing was going to be on my disc; I may STILL do a requested “murder ballads” disc for someone, and they most assuredly would be included. Heroes and Villains by the Beach Boys – an inspired choice for the finale. The only other song I didn’t enjoy was the RATM, which after the fifth or sixth curse in a row, I had to just hit fast forward. Oh, and Lydia described the White Stripes cut as noise; I wouldn’t csll it that.

Tosy puts together a much more theatrical mix, with mostly unfamiliar (to me) pieces. I must say, the second listen was better than the first, and the third better than the second. It requires a bit of active listening. I did like The Vampires/Mack the Knife/Strange Fruit grouping, which were the only familiar tunes besides Miss Otis Regrets and the songs from West Side Story. Worth another listen.

I didn’t find a list of Eddie’s songs for this exchange, but I should note the Chieftains/Mick Jagger version of Long Black Veil was on my list. I do find descriptions of the previous mix or two, but I do like them all, even though they’re all mostly a slice of Americana, as he’s described them. BTW, Eddie, both the Del McCoury Band and Emmylou Harris played here in October. Unfortunately, I saw neither, but I’ve provided reviews. Ms. Harris was sold out, and we couldn’t get a sitter to see your man Del.