Hello. Do you live in Santa Monica? If so, please read. Note: there is potential for you to get delicious, delicious cookies.
Twenty years ago, if you’d told me that I would get a cease and desist letter from a neighborhood group I’d just joined, and that Mike Houston would be the attorney who fought it on my behalf, I would have laughed. A lot.
This is not a slight against Mike. Back in high school he was whip smart, had a razor wit, and was a lover of fine meat products (namely In-N-Out). We fell out of touch after high school, ran into each other a few times, then reconnected on Facebook. I knew that he’d become an attorney, and one who ran (and ran in) some pretty powerful circles. I figured we’d probably get together again over a fine meal at Haven or The Playground or any of the other fine OC gastropubs that I’d recently sampled (and that he’s a regular at, apparently), and that would have been great.
And then I had to be stupid and get involved in local politics.
Tags: santa monica, wilmont
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Hi, Bobby! It’s your old buddy, Adam. Remember me? You called me last November and asked me to vote for you, and I said I wouldn’t because you were promoting that ballot measure that the I’ve-Got-Mine Homeowners association was pushing? Of course you remember me. We’re buds!
Anyway, remember how we were talking about the county ballot initiative to raise the sales tax for transportation, and how I was pretty sure we were going to get federal funding for a Westside subway extension, and you said it wasn’t going to happen in our lifetimes?
The MTA is going to start exploratory drilling in Santa Monica this week.
It’s still got a ways to go, but there will be a subway from Downtown to Santa Monica, and it’ll happen when we’re both alive and will be able to use it. And when it opens, I’ll be happy to pay for your first ride. See you on the train, Bobby!
1) Not a crushing win this time, but a setup for 2012′s landslide. All of those organizers who turned a lot of red counties purple aren’t going away; they’ll be activated for Congressional races in 2010 and for some serious work for Obama’s re-election.
2) Holy crap, I just typed “Obama’s re-election.”
3) The GOP leadership is going to split into three factions lead by Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Romney is going to represent the money, Palin the theocrats, and Jindal’s going to have to play to both in order to get the nomination. It will not be pretty.
4) You can bet your ass I’m going to send money to whoever’s running against Palin in 2010. Now that Mark Begich has lost to Ted Stevens (and, Alaska, WTF?), I think he’s going to make a play. Count on President Obama to make a few trips to Anchorage. [EDIT: Wrong! Welcome, Senator-elect Begich!]
5) Holy crap, I just typed “President Obama.”
6) Every right-wing radio screamer and the on-air staff at Fox News must be thanking their lucky stars right now, ’cause they’ve just gotten four years of guaranteed ratings. The Stupid Hate Vote needs a place to get its propaganda.
7) California gay activists are going to start making serious alliances with churches up and down the state in order to whomp the living crap out of the ballot measure that will overturn Prop 8′s new constitutional bigotry. Obama won by raising a ton of cash and having a volunteer army knock on doors; the bigots outgunned and outspent us on this. And, on a personal note, I totally fucked up by not doing anything other than donate cash and put out a yard sign. I suck. [EDIT: Apparently, the whole thing is still too close to call due to the 4 million absentee and provisional ballots still to be counted. I still suck for not doing more, but we may yet have a bigotry-free state constitution.] [EDIT: Nope, bigots won. For now.]
8) There’s going to be a crop of blue-state babies come late July/early August. Tell me there wasn’t a hell of a lot of Election Night Victory Humping.
9) And, on a local note, all four incumbents were re-elected to the Santa Monica city council, including Bobby Shriver, who actually called me on Sunday night after I told his wife (who’d called earlier) that he didn’t have my vote because of his support for Measure T. I had the odd feeling, when the phone rang ten minutes after I’d spoken with Mrs. Shriver, that there was a candidate on the other end. “Adam!” he said, like he was an old buddy about to give me the business for disagreeing with his taste in music. It was weird, but he was polite and took the hint.
But, to get back to the council race, I think the four incumbents won based on name recognition, which was reinforced by either fame (in the case of Shriver) or the dreaded Glossy Campaign Mailers. Katz, Genser and Bloom had the cash to print and mail the damn things, as did Ted Winterer and Michael Kovac (whom I’ve named the I Have A Website candidate, ’cause that seems to be all he had). It was a pretty hefty gap between Katz (13,646) and Winterer (9,760), but one that probably could have been overcome with more of those mailers, plus calls and door knocks. Susan Hartley, who came in between Winterer and I Have A Website, actually came to our place on Saturday. Granted, she seemed more interested in talking with my mom about the dimanthia than, y’know, asking us for our votes, but she was there. In this whole campaign cycle, I never saw one of the candidates at the farmers market or the Promenade or any place where the local voting public congregates (though they might have gone to the Wednesday, Pico or Main Street markets). If I ever got it into my skull to do something as stupid as run for a city office, I’d be making myself as visible as possible every chance I had. I’d also try and figure out who those 13,646 people were who voted for Katz and start courting their asses. (Though, I will give this to I Have A Website: dude bought Facebook ads that targeted Santa Monicans like me. I’d be curious to see how it paid off for a future run.)
10) HOLY CRAP BARACK OBAMA IS GONNA BE THE PRESIDENT!
Thank you for stealing our No on Prop 8 lawn sign. I will now buy a new one, then make another mocking your assclownery. The more signs you steal, the more money I pony up to defeating this measure. Good job!
Tags: no on prop 8, thieving assclowns
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“Mr. Vice President, I have a subpoena from the House Investigative Committee on…well, Everything. Could you sign here, please?”
UPDATE: Holy crap! It’s Christmas in November!
I’m in a foul mood today from lack of sleep and surplus of soot. It’s just the right attitude to cap off this kidney stone of an election. I don’t know how many robocalls we’ll get today or how much extra campaign junk we’ll find on our doorstep, but I just want it all to end. I want the political consultants to get irritable bowel, I want the candidates to get consciences (and then give all of their money to the poor and go do something useful, like rebuild New Orleans), and I want the Edward Thomas Management Company to go bankrupt and have to sell Casa del Mar and Shutters to the city, who will then turn them into emergency shelters for battered women. Or penguins. Whatever.
I really want to be hopeful that there will be a Democratic majority in Congress, and that it will also have the spine to fire up the investigative committees and start showing just how poorly the Bush Administration has run, well, everything. I’m not holding my breath, though, about the victory or the subpoenas, just ’cause it’s going to be a long slog of counts and recounts and Brooks Brothers riots. It will be an ugly, ugly November (and maybe December).
But at least the phone calls will stop. The campaign junk mail will stop. And, God willing, the penguins will have a place to call home.