"[B]y literally labelling the person as a 'hotspot,' you are priming an affluent, iPad-toting public to think of that person as a commodity."
"If all BBH are doing is turning these people into an aerial and asking them to stand still then they are just treating homeless people the same way the Victorians did when they asked them to hold posters."
Showing posts with label Austin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Austin. Show all posts
Monday, March 12, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
At the Austin Café...
... we're not in Austin. We're halfway home to Madison. Greetings from Springfield, Missouri — one of America's many Springfields — where we won't be much longer. It's time to throw our things back in the car and head straight back into winter.
Please use this post to talk about whatever you want. I'll be reading on the iPad in the car.
Labels:
Austin,
driving,
photography
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Pictures of Austin, Texas.
Bicycle wheel chandelier at the Bouldin Creek Café:

Masculine fashions:

In the Spider House Café:

On Lady Bird Lake, a monument to the homeless...

... and a monument to Stevie Ray Vaughan (who died in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin):

Barton Springs:

Reflection in the Japanese garden:

At the Cherrywood Coffeehouse... outside....

... and inside:
Masculine fashions:
In the Spider House Café:
On Lady Bird Lake, a monument to the homeless...
... and a monument to Stevie Ray Vaughan (who died in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin):
Barton Springs:
Reflection in the Japanese garden:
At the Cherrywood Coffeehouse... outside....
... and inside:
Labels:
Austin,
café,
interior decoration,
ketchup,
monuments,
photography,
sculpture
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Imagine traveling all the way from Madison, Wisconsin to Austin, Texas only to run into an anti-Scott Walker rally.
No, I don't think the Governor is stalking me. He seems to be in town to give a talk to conservatives. We caught up with the tail-end of the protest. We heard that some of them tried to make their way into the Hilton so they could "mic check" Walker. They were stopped by security, but Meade and I were told maybe we could get in — they presumed we'd go in for some "mic checking" — because we looked "casual." Casual? Is that some new slang that means non-protester-y?

"Learn how to LOVE... or get the FUCK OUT." Oh... okay. I'm still working on that love thing you're teaching. Let me try to take a lesson: Fuck you! There. Loving enough?
"Learn how to LOVE... or get the FUCK OUT." Oh... okay. I'm still working on that love thing you're teaching. Let me try to take a lesson: Fuck you! There. Loving enough?
Labels:
Austin,
dirty words,
photography,
protest,
Scott Walker,
signs
Too much -pie: 3 Occupies in 6 days.
Occupy Lincoln, Occupy Denver, and Occupy Austin... experienced in less than a week.
The last couple seconds — which are not part of the protest — show something Meade and I call "an army of Jeremys."
Labels:
Austin,
Colorado,
Nebraska,
Occupy [Your City],
Segway,
Segway Jeremy,
YouTube
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
"In USA Magnited States of America, where you are FREE to TEXT in a THE-A-TER!"
Funny, but bad language....
Labels:
Austin,
cell phones,
dirty words,
etiquette,
movies,
text messaging
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Was it just by chance that the building that small plane crashed into housed the IRS?
In Austin, Texas.
Here's the pilot's suicide note (supposedly):
Here's the pilot's suicide note (supposedly):
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals [sic] represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal [sic] is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.Read on. It's long. And it's about taxes. It ends like this:
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Monday, July 6, 2009
Coffee time!
Don't forget!

More!

Okay!

That's more like it!
More!
Okay!
That's more like it!
The 55 mice used in the University of South Florida study had been bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease....
When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia.
Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
"Sky Saxon, the mop-haired bass player and front man for the psychedelic protopunk band the Seeds..."
"... whose 1965 song 'Pushin’ Too Hard' put a Los Angeles garage-band spin on the bad-boy rocker image personified by the Rolling Stones, died Thursday in Austin, Tex. He was thought to be 71.... Sky Sunlight Saxon was the name he used in later years, the middle name given to him in the 1970s as a member of the Source Family, a spiritual cult whose leader — known as Father Yod or Ya Ho Wha — started what has been described as the quintessential hippie commune... 'Sky has passed over and Ya Ho Wha is waiting for him at the gate,' his wife wrote on Facebook. 'He will soon be home with his Father.'"
ADDED: When protopunk sets up in front of the fireplace in your sedate living room, please be careful. Don't drop your tambourine!
Well, all I want is to just be free, live my life the way I wanna be. All I want is to just have fun, live my life like it's just begun... And maybe you can, but however you live your life — pushin' hard or soft, like it's just begun or like a mature hippie — it will one day be over. The tambourine must, in the end, hit the carpet.
AND: What sitcom is that in the clip? I recognized the actress Kaye Ballard, and using IMDB, deduced that it must be "The Mothers-In-Law." The episode — directed by Desi Arnaz! — was called "How Not to Manage a Rock Group":
ADDED: When protopunk sets up in front of the fireplace in your sedate living room, please be careful. Don't drop your tambourine!
Well, all I want is to just be free, live my life the way I wanna be. All I want is to just have fun, live my life like it's just begun... And maybe you can, but however you live your life — pushin' hard or soft, like it's just begun or like a mature hippie — it will one day be over. The tambourine must, in the end, hit the carpet.
AND: What sitcom is that in the clip? I recognized the actress Kaye Ballard, and using IMDB, deduced that it must be "The Mothers-In-Law." The episode — directed by Desi Arnaz! — was called "How Not to Manage a Rock Group":
While I cannot truthfully say I've seen the entire episode, the 10 minute portion that I have seen is very funny and, of course, has the incredible 1960s band The Seeds in it. They portray The Warts, a band that the kids want to manage. The Seeds' great "Pushin' Too Hard" is performed, and is simply incredible. Singer Sky Saxon is a terrific frontman. The adults try to steer the group into a more traditional sound, offering some silly novelty tunes, and creating some big laughs. It all ends with the adults doing "Some Enchanted Evening," oom Pa Pa style. Extremely corny and very amusing, with the rockers joining in. It must have actually influenced their music, because on the band's underrated 1967 LP "Future," they actually use a tuba in a couple of songs.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas in airports.
Last Christmas, my scheduled flight to Austin -- where both my sons lived -- got canceled, the rescheduled flight got canceled, and it became impossible to book a flight that would get me to Austin in time for Christmas. It was 5 p.m., 2 days before Christmas, when that happened, and I decided I needed to throw my bags in the car and drive the whole way -- 1200 miles. I made a thermos of coffee and, drinking a cup, tried to think how far I could get that night and whether I could be sure to get to Austin by the end of the next day, Christmas Eve. But it was icy in Wisconsin. They were saying don't drive anywhere unless you have to, and I pictured myself struggling over Route 151 around Dubuque, where it seems so lonely at night, even in summer, and kicking myself for having this stupid, grandiose idea of The Heroic Cross-Country Drive to Save Christmas, so I dumped out the thermos, unpacked my bag, and nursed a humble feeling of resignation toward spending Christmas alone for the first time in my life.
I blogged it only tangentially, here, last Christmas Day:
But now it's Christmas 2008 -- 2008, the year with 2 Christmases -- and I'm happily in Madison and not alone -- though I am the only one awake, which makes for good blogging time. And I see that many people are stranded in airports:
Merry Christmas to all, wherever you are, whatever religion or nonreligion you are. Are you reading this blog while stranded in some airport? I acknowledge your disappointment. The time in airports is also part of life, though it's one of those parts we wish away. Perhaps the happiest moment of your life will be spent in an airport. Perhaps the happiest moment of your life will be spent in an airport because you were delayed. On Christmas.
I blogged it only tangentially, here, last Christmas Day:
Merry Christmas.I was "not celebrating Christmas today," because by then, I'd rescheduled Christmas for January 25th, when I did go to Austin.
I hope you have a happy Christmas, if you're celebrating Christmas. Is anyone here not celebrating Christmas today? If so, is it because you never celebrate Christmas or is this year different for some reason? Are you experiencing Christmas woes? For Christmas solace, congregate here.
But now it's Christmas 2008 -- 2008, the year with 2 Christmases -- and I'm happily in Madison and not alone -- though I am the only one awake, which makes for good blogging time. And I see that many people are stranded in airports:
Tom Waltz, his wife, Kristina, and their two daughters played a Christmas Eve game of Crazy Eights in a corner at O'Hare International Airport, trying to forget the past four days of flight delays and cancellations that spoiled their holiday plans.Aw, Samantha, some day you'll think fondly of the time your family was all together and you played Crazy Eights on the carpet in an airport. It's a nontraditional Christmas celebration, but then, so is a Caribbean cruise. And maybe this family doesn't even celebrate Christmas. I guess missing one's cruise pretty much sucks too -- or stinks, as the nice kids say.
The family from Vancouver, Wash., tried to fly out of Portland, Ore., on Saturday, but a blast of snow and ice kept them from getting a flight for two days. On Wednesday evening, they hunkered down for their second night at O'Hare, awaiting a Christmas Day flight to Miami, where they hoped to catch a Caribbean cruise on Saturday.
"It stinks," said 11-year-old Samantha Waltz. "We're playing cards to get our mind off of things."
Merry Christmas to all, wherever you are, whatever religion or nonreligion you are. Are you reading this blog while stranded in some airport? I acknowledge your disappointment. The time in airports is also part of life, though it's one of those parts we wish away. Perhaps the happiest moment of your life will be spent in an airport. Perhaps the happiest moment of your life will be spent in an airport because you were delayed. On Christmas.
Labels:
airports,
Austin,
children,
Christmas,
emotional Althouse,
ice,
playing cards,
ships
Friday, August 8, 2008
When you set out to destroy someone's good name, are you responsible to the other people who happen to have that name?
Matthew C. Ryan is not the most unusual name. It's not unique, but it's also not John Smith — a name so common that when you hear something bad about someone with that name, you don't assume it relates to any particular person with that name. If you hear Matthew C. Ryan, you may very well assume it's the Matthew C. Ryan you know. This is especially so when the name is also tied to a specific place — in this case, the University of Texas in Austin, Texas.
A Google search for Matthew C. Ryan today yields a mere 797 hits, and this is after all the stories telling us one of the names behind the pseudonyms in the lawsuit brought by the Yale law students who had some mean, nasty thing written about them on the AutoAdmit website. Surely, before the release of the name, a Google search would show that it is surprisingly rare worldwide and that there is another Matthew C. Ryan at the the University of Texas. But they sent the name out anyway, and the damage has been done.
Now, is that a tort? The lawprof lawyer who is representing the plaintiffs is enthused about the expansion of tort liability for speech that damages reputation or causes emotional distress, so it will be sad if he can't enjoy the expansive theories of tort law that may come in the form of a lawsuit filed by Matthew C. Ryan. But the pleasure is there for fans of irony and poetic justice. To top it all off, Matthew C. Ryan is a lawprof lawyer. Sweet!
Yes, you could say a lawprof lawyer should have a thick skin and tough it out. Hey, I thought the Yale law students would do better to show the world — and their future clients and employers — that they have thick skins and can tough it out. But they brought a lawsuit. They wanted to show that there are consequences for the things you say that hurt people, consequences that courts should enforce.
Well, then.
Lawsuits. They breed.
A Google search for Matthew C. Ryan today yields a mere 797 hits, and this is after all the stories telling us one of the names behind the pseudonyms in the lawsuit brought by the Yale law students who had some mean, nasty thing written about them on the AutoAdmit website. Surely, before the release of the name, a Google search would show that it is surprisingly rare worldwide and that there is another Matthew C. Ryan at the the University of Texas. But they sent the name out anyway, and the damage has been done.
Now, is that a tort? The lawprof lawyer who is representing the plaintiffs is enthused about the expansion of tort liability for speech that damages reputation or causes emotional distress, so it will be sad if he can't enjoy the expansive theories of tort law that may come in the form of a lawsuit filed by Matthew C. Ryan. But the pleasure is there for fans of irony and poetic justice. To top it all off, Matthew C. Ryan is a lawprof lawyer. Sweet!
Yes, you could say a lawprof lawyer should have a thick skin and tough it out. Hey, I thought the Yale law students would do better to show the world — and their future clients and employers — that they have thick skins and can tough it out. But they brought a lawsuit. They wanted to show that there are consequences for the things you say that hurt people, consequences that courts should enforce.
Well, then.
Lawsuits. They breed.
Labels:
Austin,
AutoAdmit,
free speech,
law,
lawsuits I hope will fail,
Stanford,
the web,
University of Texas,
Yale
Monday, June 23, 2008
George Carlin died.
What a terrible loss. You know I thought he was the best living comedian. We were just talking about that here — last April. I've loved him since the 1970s. There are decades-old routines that spring to mind immediately as the most brilliant comic riffs I've ever heard — the one about all our "stuff" and the comparison between football and baseball (and golf).
"That's the whole meaning of life: trying to find a place for your stuff."
And here's the football/baseball one:
When someone dies, maybe you think about religion and the afterlife. Here's what George Carlin thought of such things:
Now, George Carlin has a special place among comedians because he's got a Supreme Court case about him — FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. You can read the case, and you can watch his 7 Dirty Words routine:
He elaborated on that over the years:
The text of the Supreme Court case includes the FCC's transcript of the version that got played on the radio:
And God bless Justice Brennan, who dissented in Pacifica:
Was Carlin political? Here's what he said back in 2004 when Tim Russert (of all people) asked him "Do you vote?":
"That's the whole meaning of life: trying to find a place for your stuff."
And here's the football/baseball one:
When someone dies, maybe you think about religion and the afterlife. Here's what George Carlin thought of such things:
Now, George Carlin has a special place among comedians because he's got a Supreme Court case about him — FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. You can read the case, and you can watch his 7 Dirty Words routine:
He elaborated on that over the years:
The text of the Supreme Court case includes the FCC's transcript of the version that got played on the radio:
The big one, the word fuck that's the one that hangs them up the most. [']Cause in a lot of cases that's the very act that hangs them up the most. So, it's natural that the word would, uh, have the same effect. It's a great word, fuck, nice word, easy word, cute word, kind of. Easy word to say. One syllable, short u. (laughter) Fuck. (Murmur) You know, it's easy. Starts with a nice soft sound fuh ends with a kuh. Right? (laughter) A little something for everyone. Fuck (laughter) Good word. Kind of a proud word, too. Who are you? I am FUCK. (laughter) FUCK OF THE MOUNTAIN. (laughter) Tune in again next week to FUCK OF THE MOUNTAIN. (laughter) It's an interesting word too, [']cause it's got a double kind of a life - personality - dual, you know, whatever the right phrase is. It leads a double life, the word fuck. First of all, it means, sometimes, most of the time, fuck. What does it mean? It means to make love. Right? We're going to make love, yeh, we're going to fuck, yeh, we're going to fuck, yeh, we're going to make love. (laughter) we're really going to fuck, yeh, we're going to make love. Right? And it also means the beginning of life, it's the act that begins life, so there's the word hanging around with words like love, and life, and yet on the other hand, it's also a word that we really use to hurt each other with, man. It's a heavy. It's one that you have toward the end of the argument. (laughter) Right? (laughter) You finally can't make out. Oh, fuck you man. I said, fuck you. (laughter, murmur) Stupid fuck. (laughter) Fuck you and everybody that looks like you. (laughter) man. It would be nice to change the movies that we already have and substitute the word fuck for the word kill, wherever we could, and some of those movie cliches would change a little bit. Madfuckers still on the loose. Stop me before I fuck again. Fuck the ump, fuck the ump, fuck the ump, fuck the ump, fuck the ump. Easy on the clutch Bill, you'll fuck that engine again.Hey, I love the "[']." Try to do a Carlinesque riff on [']. Not easy, is it?
And God bless Justice Brennan, who dissented in Pacifica:
My Brother STEVENS, in reaching a result apologetically described as narrow, ante, at 750, takes comfort in his observation that "[a] requirement that indecent language be avoided will have its primary effect on the form, rather than the content, of serious communication," ante, at 743 n. 18, and finds solace in his conviction that "[t]here are few, if any, thoughts that cannot be expressed by the use of less offensive language." Ibid. The idea that the content of a message and its potential impact on any who might receive it can be divorced from the words that are the vehicle for its expression is transparently fallacious. A given word may have a unique capacity to capsule an idea, evoke an emotion, or conjure up an image. Indeed, for those of us who place an appropriately high value on our cherished First Amendment rights, the word "censor" is such a word. Mr. Justice Harlan, speaking for the Court, recognized the truism that a speaker's choice of words cannot surgically be separated from the ideas he desires to express when he warned that "we cannot indulge the facile assumption that one can forbid particular words without also running a substantial risk of suppressing ideas in the process." Cohen v. California, 403 U.S., at 26.They don't write them like that anymore. They don't even say "My Brother Stevens" anymore. They couldn't bring themselves to say "My Sister O'Connor," I guess, so they had to stop saying "My Brother Stevens."
Was Carlin political? Here's what he said back in 2004 when Tim Russert (of all people) asked him "Do you vote?":
No, I don't. No. I voted up to McGovern. I feel, actually, a little purer, a little more detached emotionally from it. I really have no stake. If you dropped me from an airplane, I would come down left of center, because I believe more in humans than I do in property. But in terms of the minor machinations and the way they put these things together, I've no interest.He was on Russert's show promoting his book "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" On the longest 1-day solo drive I ever took — from Austin, Texas to Madison, Wisconsin — I listened to Carlin read "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?"
I have a problem with the Ten Commandments. Here it is: Why are there ten? We don't need that many. I think the list of commandments was deliberately and artificially inflated to get it up to ten. It's clearly a padded list...I'm really sorry to see this man go. He worked long and hard so many years, making us laugh, bringing us enlightenment:
When these guys were sittin' around the tent makin' all this up, why did they pick ten? Why ten? Why not nine, or eleven? I'll tell you why. Because ten sounds important. Ten sounds official. They knew if they tried eleven, people wouldn't take them seriously. People would say, "What're you kiddin' me? The Eleven Commandments? Get the fuck outta here!"
Mr. Carlin is constantly scribbling notions down in a notebook or recording them on a small voice recorder, and he spends most of his time typing, organizing and reorganizing his ideas in a library of 2,300 files he keeps on his computer — raw material he may someday forge into actual jokes, monologues or material for his books. And as soon as he has recorded a new HBO routine, he begins cycling in fresh material, so that over the course of two years, his entire routine is replaced, and he's ready to record another.RIP.
"It's like a sock," Mr. Carlin said. "I darn the sock so much that none of the original material is left. It's the same sock — it's my show — but the old material is gone."
"I have no hobbies and I have no leisure activities," Mr. Carlin added. "My greatest joy is working at the computer with my ideas."
Labels:
airplanes,
Austin,
baseball,
comedy,
death,
driving,
football,
free speech,
George Carlin,
Justice Brennan,
Justice Stevens,
McGovern,
music,
radio,
religion,
sex,
sports,
Supreme Court,
Tim Russert,
writing
Monday, May 26, 2008
"What's a good-looking girl like you doing in a corrupt society like this?"
Note passed by Abbie Hoffman, during the Chicago 7 trial, to (female) courtroom artist Andy Austin.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Fraud in Texas? "It looks like there was data entry error. You ended up being coded as BOTH a Hillary Clinton and a Barack Obama delegate."
Yesterday, I blogged about how the Obama campaign sent my son a postcard urging him to vote for Obama at the Texas county convention. He's a delegate representing the people who caucused for Clinton at one of the district caucuses in Austin, Texas. Today, someone whose email address indicates his name is Matthew Berg sent this email to me and my son Chris:
Do you trust the caucus process?
UPDATE: Chris emails:
ANOTHER UPDATE: I have email from an Obama county convention delegate saying he's gotten email from the Clinton campaign. (I recognize the email as something Chris got — an invitation to a conference call tonight with Bill Clinton.)
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Andrew Romano at Newsweek wrote about this post:
ADDED: Romano does some investigating, and I respond to him here.
Hello Chris (and Ann),Yeah, have fun, kids. Play at your little democracy thing. Meanwhile — you, you pesky little blogger-connected county delegate — you won't be seeing any of our mailings anymore. We've stricken your name from our list. And if anyone else shows up and complains about Obama mailings to Clinton delegates, we can fix their double-coding too. Now, go off and don't worry anymore.
I am a volunteer for the Obama campaign in Texas. I saw this post (via Marc Ambinder), and was surprised, because I thought we were only contacting Obama delegates. That's what we've been in my part of TX, anyway.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-texas-obama-campaign-tries-to-win.html
So I checked the voter file (screenshot attached), and it looks like there was data entry error. You ended up being coded as BOTH a Hillary Clinton and a Barack Obama delegate. Apparently both the Texas Democratic Party and the Travis County Party added your data, and it looks like one of them made a mistake. I think the postcards are being sent to anyone coded as an Obama delegate, which (mistakenly) includes you. I deleted the Obama delegate code, so you shouldn't get mistakenly bothered again.
Anyway, have fun at your convention.
Thanks,
Matt
Do you trust the caucus process?
UPDATE: Chris emails:
I just asked some of the other delegates if they've gotten material from the Obama campaign. The only one to respond was a Clinton delegate, who said he's also received fliers from Obama, and is just surprised that he's gotten material from Obama but not from Clinton. Now I don't think it was a mistake. I think they just tried to make it look like one after the fact.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I have email from an Obama county convention delegate saying he's gotten email from the Clinton campaign. (I recognize the email as something Chris got — an invitation to a conference call tonight with Bill Clinton.)
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Andrew Romano at Newsweek wrote about this post:
Apparently, Obama has mailed these postcards to all Texas county delegates, not just his own. This is precisely what the Clintonites did in Iowa. If you'll remember, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer told me at the time that the Iowa Democratic Party had provided the campaign with an incomplete list of delegate affiliations, meaning that "the point of the call is to identify our delegates." But a quick check with the IDP revealed that "80 percent" of the county delegates were, in fact, linked to their chosen candidates on the lists sent to the campaigns--including at least one Obama supporter, Lance Jenkins, who specifically reported receiving the Clinton robocall.That got a response from the Obama campaign:
That means that both Obama and Clinton are, in effect, asking their rival's delegates for support.
Now, don't get me wrong. Both the Clinton call (which included a "press 1 if you support Hillary" option) and the Obama postcard are serving another purpose--roll call and reminder, respectively. What's more, wooing delegates at the county level--or, for that matter, the national level--is part of the game (although both campaigns have forsworn the practice, at least nationally); campaigns are supposed to make sure that the maximum number of supporters show up at each level (county, district, state). And there's almost no chance that such subtle seduction would work to any significant degree. I mean, anyone swayed by a robocall or a postcard--especially the hardcore supporters chosen to serve as delegates--doesn't deserve to vote in the first place.
But these under-the-radar "outreach efforts"--which essentially say, "By the way, vote for me"--are worth remembering. Because if neither Obama nor Clinton clinches the nomination by the end of primary season in June, they'll be forced to spend the summer jockeying for any possible advantage--and this is exactly the sort of passive, grey-area poaching that you can expect to see.
According to Obama spokesman Bill Burton, the post card in question was mistakenly sent to a Clinton delegate--not, as I previously believed, to the entire list of Texas county delegates, regardless of affiliation. "The Texas Democratic Party gave us a list of delegates that indicated him as an Obama delegate--which is why he got the errant post card," he says. "The suggestion that we have a passive strategy of trying to flip Clinton's pledged delegates by sending one postcard to one guy is pretty ludicrous on its face." If that's what happened, I absolutely agree. I'm double-checking with the Texas Democratic Party to confirm that the delegate in question was listed as a Clinton supporter and find out whether others also received the mailing. I'll post another update when I hear back.And here's how Christopher responded to all that:
Andrew Romano,Chris later adds that the other Clinton delegate he wrote to emailed him:
I wanted to respond to your post about the the post card I was sent by the Obama campaign. Bill Burton's explanation is, I think, inaccurate. Here is the list published by the Travis County Democrats online, which clearly indicates that I am a Clinton delegate:
http://www.westaustindemocrats.org/Delegates.aspx?P=235
I am the Hillary Convention Captain in my precinct, so I was actually sent that list a while ago, I believe as soon as it was released to the campaigns, so that I could check my precinct's list for accuracy. There were some spelling errors on that list originally, but my entry was always correct, and I was always listed as a Clinton delegate there.
A volunteer wrote to me and was quoted in the post you linked to, and his explanation was that I was double-coded as both an Obama and a Clinton supporter in the list they used. The Travis County Democrats list had me only as a Clinton supporter, so if I really was double-coded, it seems like it was the Obama campaign that added the extra code, intentional or not.
I actually thought it could have been a mistake, so I e-mailed a couple of the Clinton delegates in my precinct, and asked if they had received materials from Obama. One of those two Clinton delegates said, "I have received mailings form the Obama campaign...Suprised I haven't received anything from the Clinton campaign." The other delegate I wrote to hasn't responded, but she doesn't e-mail as much. In any event, I don't think this was sent to just "one guy."
Thanks for writing about this.
-Christopher Cohen
[She] said that she, too, had received post cards and e-mails. Were all three of us accidentally double-coded or written in as Obama delegates? I personally doubt it.Me too.
ADDED: Romano does some investigating, and I respond to him here.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
In Texas, the Obama campaign tries to win over Clinton's county convention delegates.
On the night of the Texas caucus, I blogged about the chaotic caucus my son Christopher attended. Scroll down to the 12:04 update.


Chris emails:
UPDATE: I get a response from the Obama campaign.
Chris said that people didn't understand the rules. Could they just sign in and leave, or were they supposed to stay? Staying seemed to have to do with being chosen as a delegate for the state convention [actually it was the county convention], and they needed something like 40 delegates for the 300 voters in that precinct. What were they supposed to do if there weren't 40 caucus goers left in the end? The voters themselves had to "kind of take over and figure out what was happening." And this was in Austin with educated, politically involved caucus-goers, but there are 8,000 precincts in the state. Imagine the confusion on that scale. Caucuses are horrible, he said. Anyway, he ended up as one of the delegates for Hillary at theSo he's supposed to go to the county convention and represent the Clinton, right? Or can he switch to Obama? Chris sends these photos of a card that came in yesterday's mail:statecounty convention.
Chris emails:
I just got a flier in the mail from Barack Obama. It's clearly a special flier for delegates. It has my full name, address, and "Support Barack Obama at your County Convention!" There's no point in sending a message like that to anyone who isn't a delegate; the county convention is where the delegates meet, post-caucus. So, they got my name and address from a list of caucus delegates, and the lists of those delegates say who each person has pledged their support for. In fact, Clinton's campaign sent me a link to the lists that are sent to the campaigns, so I know what they look like. [ADDED: This list, which shows which candidate the delegate supports, is on line.] Technically, I could change my vote from Clinton to Obama, but the delegates were selected proportionately to represent the voters. Surely, he isn't suggesting that I do this, since he so firmly believes that delegates, pledged or super, can't go against the will of the people. Or is he?He adds:
I'm not a "pledged" delegate yet. I'm not obligated to stick with Hillary until I sign-in at the convention and write "Clinton" by my name on the sign-in sheet, like voting at the precinct convention (the caucus). But the delegates were chosen at the caucus to proportionately represent both sides, so it would be against the will of the voters if I changed my mind about who I supported and then went to the convention and voted for Obama. Also, you could argue that it was computer-operated and they just plugged in the addresses of all the delegates, but obviously they would know that that would mean sending it to all the Clinton delegates.Interesting. I don't think the Obama campaign is doing something wrong, but this mailing shows that the Obama campaign is fighting to flip Clinton delegates in Texas. Is Clinton doing the same thing and will some delegates slip away? What's really striking is that the effort of going out to a caucus in Texas on primary night doesn't seem to matter as much as it should. And, as Chris said, it's a tad hypocritical for Obama to encourage delegates to change sides, since he is the one who is trying to make a big principle out of binding the superdelegates at the national convention to the will of the voter.
UPDATE: I get a response from the Obama campaign.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Hillary Clinton wants the Democratic Party to check into the irregulaties in the Texas caucuses.
Will there be a postponement? I think Clinton is right to complain about this — because I believe what my own son Chris told me about the Austin caucus he attended. And we need to see that this complaint about Texas implicitly makes a much larger argument that caucuses are suspect — an argument that is extremely important for Clinton, since Obama's lead is largely based on caucus wins. The Clinton campaign is working very hard on many fronts to undermine Obama and even as it seems devious, it may be quite legitimate. There is something wrong with the caucus process, and the association with Jeremiah Wright should trouble us.
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