Where things can get pretty igry ...Rick's Cafe Americain

From: Soxblog@aol.com [mailto:Soxblog@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 10:07 AM
To: rick@rickblaine.com
Subject: Just so you know

you have my sympathy.  Obviously I’m delighted that my guy won, but I recognize this for the political equivalent of the ball going through Buckner’s legs.  The exit polls played us all quite cruelly.

Your party needs reasonable types like you right now more than ever.  When you have more traffic than Kos, it will be a good thing for the union.

From: Bill [mailto:marketa@charter.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 6:26 AM
To: admin@rickblaine.com
Subject: WHAT DO YOU THINK NOW FUCKWAD?

Let me guess, “ I (STILL) don’t get it.”
FUCK YOU

I arrived on Saturday night. I rented a compact car (Dodge Neon, anyone?) because I didn’t want to spend too much money - and because (car rental tip) airport rentals NEVER have compacts. It is an almost certain free upgrade - and if it isn’t, you probably aren’t going to have to pay any more for the midsize than you would have at the time you made your reservation. How Jewish of me. Anyway, as per the plan, they didn’t have any compact cars at the Tampa Airport Dollar Rent-A-Car. And so I ended up driving a Dodge Grand Caravan. This too, was a sign, as it was clear that whatever I asked for, I would get the exact opposite. For the record, the Caravan handles rather well.

On Sunday, I had to drive to St. Petersburg for the final Lawyer’s for Kerry meeting. I finally got my precinct assignment, though I knew it would be a low-priority precinct. They had assigned the precincts in order of importance, and had simply forgotten to assign a precinct to me. (Can the jokes before they start; they didn’t know me well enough for it to have been on purpose.) This meeting marked the fourth time in which I heard the same lecture on Florida election law. I’ll be honest, people: everything I needed to know about Florida election law I learned in the thirty-minute online lesson I took three weeks ago. As a non-Florida resident I WASN’T EVEN ALLOWED TO BE AN ON-SITE POLL WATCHER. I knew I was going to have to stand on the far side of the 50-foot electioneering barrier, so any excess Florida law knowledge will only become useful if I end up on Jeopardy after they have run out of interesting. In addition to the tedium of hearing everything for the fourth time, I had to suffer through a room of lawyers asking questions about issues either spectacularly narrow or mindbendingly obvious that I finally had to shout over the crowd to stop asking questions until the lecture was over—so I could leave before they asked them.

On Monday, Zinester and I went canvassing for Kerry in St. Petersburg. It was a lovely neighborhood. Private homes and manicured lawns. We were given 40 addresses in the neighborhood that were known Democrats and were supposed to have been scrubbed of known Bush supporters. We were asked to encourage early voting, but to push people to vote. The former proved impossible and the latter was all too easy. If you hadn’t already made a commitment to early vote, the reports of interminable lines were a huge turnoff. On the other hand, every single person we spoke to—aged 22 to 95—had already voted or was gung ho to get out and vote on Wednesday. They were almost to a person enthusiastic about Kerry’s chances and really, really hated President Bush.

But there were signs here also. The 95-year-old was crabby when she got to the door. She said that she was “very busy” (what does a 95-year-old do?) and, when she found out who we were, abruptly said that she fully intended to vote but she “wasn’t voting for Kerry.” Also, four ‘Kerry houses’ had Bush lawn signs (we didn’t knock; I assume that they voted anyway).

On Election Day, I got to the polls at 6:45. The line was around the corner. I wasn’t allowed in, but I introduced myself to the folks from the Sherriff’s office and set up a chair just outside the 50 foot line. With my “Florida Voting Rights Attorney” hat and Kerry/Edwards pin, I was conspicuous but not intrusive. As I suspected, I quickly realized that I wouldn’t have to do much anyway. The lines for precincts 341 and 357 were almost entirely white, and any challenge-shenanigans were expected to occur in minority precincts. Not only were there no shenanigans, the operation was seamless. In the morning, the sherriffs were sending people to me if they didn’t know their precinct so I could call the Supervisor of Elections and get it for them (the Pinellas county office was remarkably efficient) and I probably helped over 20 people get to the correct precinct. When the clerk found out that I was a Kerry volunteer, she asked the sherriffs to stop, but they were apologetic when they told me they had to stop. It was no big deal - the clerk had the same phone numbers that I did, and would call the same person - and since the morning rush was over I didn’t even really provide a material time advantage. I saved a bunch of people a lot of time in the morning, though. So I guess I still feel good about the work I did.

Random Observations

(1) I thought that the precincts I saw would be very evenly split based on people’s reactions when they saw my Kerry pin. I had no idea how right I was.

(2) The best political shirt I saw all year was on a first time voter. I’ve owned a camera phone for four days, so I forgot to save the picture, but her t-shirt said “BARELY LEGAL ... but old enough to vote”. She looked 15; thinking about having sex with her is prosecutable in 24 states.

(3) There was a bright yellow minivan parked in the best spot in the lot with the phrase “Banana Bread for the Troops” stenciled on the doors. The website bananabreadforthetroops.com was stenciled on the rear window, but there doesn’t appear to be a website there. You can, however, get their banana bread recipe here.

(4) A young kid, probably around 22, asked me to find his precinct. When I called the Supervisor of Elections, they told him that his registration was inactive. It was probably because he moves around a lot, and they got no response from him when they tried to contact him at his old address. His reaction? “This is bullshit. I’m not a felon. The only felony charge was knocked down to a misdemeanor.” He wanted to vote for Kerry.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to curl up into a ball and cry.

1. Our air, water and food will become increasingly contaminated, with devastating health consequences in the coming decades.

2. The income gap will continue to widen, jobs will continue to be outsourced, and class conflict will become more pronounced.

3. The conflict in Iraq will increase in intensity as the Arab world begins to rally around the Iraqi insurgents.  More Americans will die in Iraq than died in 9/11.

4. As Bush & Co. continue to funnel resources into “taking the fight to the enemy”, our domestic security will get even worse, leaving us exposed to another terrorist attack.

5. Bush & Co. will threaten military action against a third country, probably Syria, possibly Iran.  This will further galvanize the Arab world against the U.S.

6. There will be an attempt to detonate a nuclear device in either Israel or the United States.

7. The Democrats in Congress will be even bigger pussies than they were after 9/11 and George W. Bush will appoint at least 2 ultra-conservative judges to the Supreme Court.  Separation of Church and State and Separation of Powers will no longer function as they once did in our democracy.

8. The internet will become the primary source for news—an increasing amount of TV coverage will be coverage of what the “internets” are saying—and this will result in an electorate even more polarized and misinformed than they are now.

9. We will lose England’s support in the Coalition of the Willing.

10. No matter what happens, George W. Bush will not admit , take the blame for, or attempt to correct mistakes.

An informal lawn sign review had the territory I was covering - a middle-class white neighborhood - mostly Kerry, but with strong pockets of Bush support. And two people told me that they had their Kerry signs stolen. We did see BC04 signs in the front lawn of three Kerry households we were supposed to approach (so the list wasn’t perfect), and one crotchety 95 year-old woman told us that she didn’t need a ride to the polls and that she was “not going to vote for Kerry.” I stole her cane and we left.

After finishing our list, Zinester and I went to Siam Garden for lunch. The softshell crab in garlic and black pepper sauce was very good. And the restaurant was pro-Kerry to boot. An elderly couple sitting in the first booth thanked us for the work we were doing. Another pair of Kerry volunteers was eating in the back. The owner of the restaurant asked if we had been to the rally in Tampa last night (we hadn’t) and told us that she was too busy greeting Trick-or-Treaters. There is a lot of love for Kerry in these parts - much more than I expected. Bush has his fans also, and plenty of them, but Kerry has a lot of public support in Pinellas County.

Fingers crossed for a celebration tomorrow.

Go Kerry!

I have a meeting with the lawyers responsible for the Pinellas/Hillsborough County volunteers at 1PM today. That is good news/bad news.  I am supposed to be meeting Zinester’s family this afternoon and I don’t know how long this meeting is going to drag on.

On the upside, I should get my precinct assignment today. I’ve been looking forward to learning where I am going to spend Tuesday. From 6:30AM until the last person leaves the polls, probably at around 7:30PM. Ugh.

Anyway, the Kerry volunteers are out in force, so everyone should get to vote this year. The chips will fall wherever they fall, but I’ll know that I did my part for justice and voting rights.

Go Kerry!

“We want people to think ‘terrorism’ for the last four days,” said a Bush-Cheney campaign official. “And anything that raises the issue in people’s minds is good for us.”

A senior GOP strategist added, “anything that makes people nervous about their personal safety helps Bush."

Real nice.