Akkam’s Razor

As stated, it appears Hillary is the winner (as declared by FOX - unsure whether that is the national network or local channel).

Sadly, all that talk of Pennsylvania’s primary finally meaning something really means that Indiana’s primary will finally mean something. It appears that Hillary’s win will likely result in a net-gain of a dozen or so delegates, still putting her behind Obama in total delegates.

The electoral math essentially remains unchanged. As Eli at Firedoglake mentions, Hillary is still 144 delegates behind (requiring 63% of the 566 remaining delegates to seize the nomination), and that her financial situation is precarious.

Some learnings from the chicken entrails exit polls:

Wow. Just wow.

That debate last night.

Wow.

As of right now, there are over 12,000 comments lambasting the debate and moderators at ABCNEWS.

First, to get this out of the way, Hillary clearly ‘won’ (please note that I am an Obama supporter) the Philadelphia Democratic debate which took place at the National Constitution Center last night (Wednesday, 4/17/2008) .

Having spent Sunday with ‘typical white people’, I had to listen to more McCain-man-love, minority-hatin’, and general whiny cry-baby white-people victimhood.   Note that I’m not from Pennsultucky, I’m from the city proper, the so-called liberal oasis.

I’m getting increasingly aggravated by fools who only pay attention to identity and dog whistle politics, who then vote against their own economic self-interests. I initially was concerned with saving them, but I’ve given up. They don’t want to be saved - they want to wallow in their own ignorance, vote on the basis of who has the best bowling score or has gone hunting, and then cry and bitch when they suffer the bad consequences of the voting decisions. Cry when the unions are weakened, when social security evaporates, or when Medicaid and Medicare benefits are cut. I’m sure you can blame the gays, liberals, or immigrants, but for god’s sake, don’t take any personal responsibility.

I try to think of it in terms that the best policy outcomes result in better conditions for everyone, and as such should cost less tax money. But these divisive know-nothings would rather stick to their own pitiful knowledge and stubbornly insist that they are the only ones who know the truth, and if you try to present them alternate explanations, well, you’re just being a snobby elitist who looks down on them. Whatever. I’m done trying to save you from your ignorance. You deserve Hillary and/or John McCain.

No matter the future, odds are things will be fine for me, and for others like me - realists who want to understand our problems and tackle them, not ideologues or reactionaries who want to believe that faith-based intervention will solve all ills.

I’m done trying to save the ignorant from their ignorance.  I’m done warning about the stove, the fire, the hot pot, and the boiling water. Go ahead frogs, keep going, jump in the hot tub, all is well.  You guys know everything.   We’ll see how it ‘pans’ out for you - there will be less and less sympathy for you as time goes by, as you will be more and more responsible for your own bad outcomes.

Update:  Along the lines of the up-is-down nature of these campaigns, where things that might be negative-actually-turn -out-positive,  these people who are offended at being called bitter were never going to vote for Obama (or Hillary) for that matter anyway.  But, as Conservative columnist Michael Smerconish wrote on Sunday in the Inquirer, the suburbs are turning blue not because conservatives are not conservative enough, but because they are too conservative, at the cost of pragmatic action to what truly ills this country.   With the majority of America tired of the far-right, hearing their shrill cries of victimhood will actually reinforce the feeling that they have chosen the wrong way, and that it’s time to start talking about dollars and cents.

I spent yesterday afternoon at a party at a lower Northeast Philadelphia bar for 75th birthday-slash-St. Patrick’s Day. Assembled were various members of my wife’s side of the family.

Once again, I was horrified. As soon as they got comfortable with the homogeneity of the audience, the black, jew, and pollack jokes started flying. I guess the finer moments in the history of the Lucky Irish are lost on them, particularly their legacy as the most persecuted white nationality (Is that correct? Prove me wrong.)

Received two interesting and presumably unrelated Comcast mailings today.

The first was my bill (I pay $60 per year for an unlisted number? WTF!), which included a revised “Agreement for Residential Services” (PDF here from Comcast). More on that in a minute.

Next was an awesome letter telling me that I’m such an awesome customer that my bill will be increasing an awesome $20 at the end of my promotion period, but no worries, like the hero in a Michael Bay movie, I will be receiving a totally awesome $10 credit on my bill (which is really a $10 surcharge). Brilliant. Also included were three coupons for three on-demand movie rentals valued at $4.99 each (sadly, not including Wrestlemania or Hot Tub Housewives 37). If this is how Comcast plans on staving off the exodus towards FIOS, they are in for a world of hurt.

The struggling Philadelphia Inquirer, helmed by Neo-Press Lord Brian Tierney is offsetting declining advertising revenue with threats of ‘outsourcing’ and layoffs as well as a price increase of $0.25. a short front page paragraph explains the price changes. Will this be enough to stave the paper’s ongoing decline, despite two instances of flying pigs?

In other news, the Inky’s idea of fair-and-balanced is a front page which gives the media-anointed likely Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain two thirds of the photo space related to the story. Senators Clinton and Obama meanwhile must share the balance, with 1/6 of the space for each. I suppose this innoculates them from cries of liberal media.

Take a gander at this post I wrote back in 2005 on the origin of mumming…

This post was prompted by Tom Ferrick’s whining and Mark Bowden’s attempt at outrageousness.  I’m not going to bother parsing their statements (Ferrick’s on Casinos aren’t bad for Philadelphia’s waterfront followed by the usual journalists’ waaaaahumbulance cries that he gets hatemail, and Bowden’s Waterboarding isn’t torture and it’s A-OK with him if it works) in current and recent columns.

Brian Tierney, in a Philly Mag interview called Press Lords 2.0 laid out his vision for Philly.com, one where it became a MySpace with User Generated Content (UCG) including those wacky Mentos-and-Coke videos, along with online content created by those in his employ in the analog properties (ie. the papers). 

Come 12/17, my life is going to get considerably more noisy.

It is on this date that the FAA will change flight plans allowing departing aircraft from Philadelphia International by flying west over residential Delaware County as opposed to flight plans that take flights north or south over the Delaware River and largely industrial areas.

The FAA is stating that this aerial land grab (remember, the county may own the majority of the land the airport sits on, but does not own the skies) is necessary to avert gridlock on the tarmac.

Daily News Sports writer Bill Conlin responds to a reader's email. Read the whole thing - this was Conlin's signature email response at CrashBurnAlley : 

Know what, pal? Bash this. . .Tell your bloggers, my career against theirs. . . […] The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler’s time on earth–I’m sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were calledbloggers were called “Pamphleteers.” They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO. Shakespeare accidentally summed up the genre best with these words from a MacBeth soliloquy: “. . .a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. . .”

Philly.com has the city races with expanded coverage here.  Full un-official Delaware County results can be found here.

Enough already. 

The headline on the Delaware County Times and weaselly caption is bad enough, but it's my observation when voting that have inspired my frustration.  Philadelphia voted for change.  But by all apearances, Delco, Montco, Chester County, and Bucks County all voted for the status quo.  I'm left with no possible alternative hypothesis other than the Democrats don't care about Delaware County (or suburban Philadelphia) politics.

The Delaware County Times delivers no value as far as local political reporting, save the occasional 1-inch column.  The "Sound-Off" section sounds like a cross between internet forum and local bar circa 1:55 AM.  And you can always count on a trio of Gil Spencer's Opinion Local Columns heaping negative criticism on Democratic challengers or lauding compliments of GOP incumbents landing in your mailbox.  The Inquirer and the local TV-news networks only cover Delco for crime and scandal.  We are horribly under-served.  Perhaps we like it that way.

As election day drew nearer, my wife, as she does, collected the various print endorsements.  I'd say we received GOP mailings on a 5:1 ratio as compared to the Democrats for the County level council seats.  I saw no TV ads, no radio ads, and no door-to-door visits by any of the candidates.  No robo-calls, no visits from local leaders, nothing. I understand that there's no money for these things, and that the GOP is entrenched and backed by an all-powerful machine.

The DelcoDems are horribly positioned.  The only reason Joe Sestak was able to win his House Seat in Congress was due to his backing by the party establishment, with little discernable thanks to be given to the county leadership.  Except for the occasional rant against George Bush and the Iraq War (a brave stance, now that overwhelming majorities oppose both) you hear nothing from them.

No attempts to build an infrastructure. NO GOTV (get-out-the-vote) effort.  No effective information gatherer or disseminating device.  No go-to-person for sound-bites or commentary. Nothing.  

(And yes, I do understand that they get no national or state level [party] financial support.  That just means they need to be more creative). 

Visiting my fire house, I see Township Manager Jack Ryan handing out ballots.  No Democrats to be seen.  I go in, sign the book, and vote.  I know nothing about any of the Judicial Races (thanks liberal media and DelcoDems), and I take special note the DA Michael Green, Delaware County Township Commissioner Jack Hennessey, and the entire Southeast Delaware County School District;s up-for-election seats were run entirely unopposed. 

You mean there were no suitable candidates amongst the county's residents?  Or that we didn't look?

One party rule has been devastating both locally in the City of Philadelphia and nationally in Washington, DC.  Elected officials, when no longer threatened with re-election, become increasingly complacent, indifferent to constituent concerns, beholden to campaign contribution and single-issue ideologies, and not-infrequently corrupted, either morally, ethically, or criminally.

So why is it?  Why isn't there any serious attempt to fix things, to bring some sort of balance?  Daddy Democrat pointed out that the GOP ran (since what, 1980) county council voted unanimously 2012 times since 2003.  That's a fascinating number, isn't it.  Were they all in agreement about what was best for the county and their constituents?  I wonder.

So I'm left with a singular conclusion to all of this.  Up until recently, the Republicans had a significant advantage to the Democrats in voter-registrations. Despite this, on the National and State level, those voters consistently have delivered Democratic candidates while maintaining the status quo locally.  I suspect that the national and state Democratic Parties realize this, and do not wish to spend additional money to benefit local politics. 

To be fair, we're not exactly clamoring for change, are we?  If the citizenry won't do it themselves, perhaps they don't want it.  And that can't possibly be true, can it? Think we can do better?  Email me.