apple juice

[12:43] AJC: guess what I had for lunch
[12:43] jgd: Chipotle?
[12:43] AJC: free Chipotle
[12:43] jgd: you bastard!

That pretty much sums it up.

Last night on NPR I heard the CEO of the DLC being interviewed. They’re ready to crown John Kerry as the nominee. After one caucus and one primary. From two of the smallest, most undiverse states in the nation.

He threw in some hypocrisy about how a month ago some people were ready to say the race was over and Dean would be the nominee. And that people are choosing experience over “anger”.

What a bunch of crap. So now that “the people” have spoken? I don’t think you can call Iowa and New Hampshire “the people” of America (no offense to my Iowa and NH friends, but seriously.)

And why is it that they are using the same spin (“he’s so angry!”) from the republicans against one of their own candidates?

It’s insanity… other quotes from this supposed leader of the DLC. “I just can’t understand why Joe Lieberman hasn’t caught on..” “Wesley Clark’s support is just starting to build…” and other assorted crap. It’s pretty obvious who the party insiders would like to see do well.

So even though I will be voting for whoever they nominate… do you want politics as usual? Special interests and inside politicians? Or someone who can say, “Just because this is how you’ve always done it, doesn’t mean it is right.”

Around 3pm a co-worker waltzed into my office and said in a low voice, “Chipotle is giving away free burritos tonight, 5-6:30.”

My stomach became instantly happy.

@ 4:59PM I logged off, packed up and headed out the door. Chipotle’s new location is about halfway between work and home, so about 3 minutes later I arrived at the front door of Chipotle. Sure enough, they were giving away free burritos to train their employees in. (And it’s also a brilliant marketing move, as I watched car after car drive past, look at the line that now went out the door and into the parking lot, and vow to themselves to come back later)

The employees were off-the-hook cheer, almost creepily cheery. But that’s okay, there were free burritos to be had.

While in line, I had a good conversation with two early college students about the candidate, imploring them to do some more research.

When I got to the line I ordered my now customary, barbacoa with black beans, some hot, some corn salsa, and guacamole. Actually I’m usually 50/50 on the guac because it’s an absurd $1.25 extra, but tonight it was free. And it was good.

Wrapping technique was fair… I had my first PBM (partial burrito meltdown) in about a year and a half. But it was partly my fault as well. Kind of like the pitcher with a suspect defense behind him. The pitcher has the make a good pitch, and the defense has to back him up.

Anyways, it was excellent, they’re doing the free burrito thing tomorrow as well, and as such, I will be there.

Everyone will find this interesting, it’s a list of top donors to the individual candidates and to the republican and democratic parties. Buying of the President 2004 Career Patron Lists (pdf file)

The whole site, Buying of the President 2004 is very interesting and worth a look!

For example, throughout Bush’s gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, Enron has given $602,625 dollars through Sept 30, 2003

See? Ken Lay doesn’t have to worry!

From this year’s state of the union address:

“Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations

. . .

Had we failed to act the dictator’s weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day.”

From an interview with David Kay himself.

Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, “That is correct.”

“I don’t think they existed,” Kay said. “What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last (1991) Gulf War, and I don’t think there was a large-scale production program in the ’90s,” he said.

So who’s right?

I need to take a quick moment to apologize to Steve Ballmer (I’m being serious here). I was wrong. When I saw you acting all crazy and skipping around the stage in the movie I posted a few days ago, I had a quick laugh at your expense.

But as I was reading a post from Dave Winer at Scripting News, I did a double take and realized I was being hypocritical. The Famous Dean Rant

Some have compared the Dean speech to a similar rant by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that made the rounds of the Net.

It quickly hit me… Just as Ballmer was fired up about his company, so was Dean fired up by all of his supporters. I guess cause it was Microsoft I had a hard time seeing through that… just as casual observers who hear the soundbite or see the clip of Dean might think, this guy is crazy!

But what it really shows, if you think about it, is that Dean has a true passion for what he believes in. Something that I believe about myself is that when I have a true passion for something, I would give anything for it. That’s what Steve Ballmer was doing. And that’s what Dean was doing.

I would any day of the week take the president who is passionate in what he belives over the president who will say anything and do anything his advisors tell him to do.

The Phony Dean ‘Meltdown’

If anything, this affair is a kind of test. Dean seems too tough a customer to back out after such a setback. And the fact remains that he essentially still holds exactly the same constituency he did before. If his supporters keep their eye on the ball, if Dean refuses to be distracted or rattled, and if the media somehow manage to restrain their headlong rush into tabloid-land, this country may yet have a meaningful conversation on what really matters.