John Edwards: It’s hard for Clinton to make a compelling case for the math May 9, 2008

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On NPR’s All Thing’s Considered Friday, John Edward’s stopped short of endorsing Obama but made this point:

Although New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has made a ”compelling case for her candidacy,” it’s hard to now make a “compelling case for the math.”

He went on to add that Obama’s lead in the popular vote and pledged delegate count present a “discouraging reality check” to Clinton’s presidential bid. (view full story here)

 

Clinton aide predicts race will be over by june May 8, 2008

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WASHINGTON (Reuters): Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman said on Thursday he believes the Democrats will have a presidential nominee in June and that if it is not Clinton, she will campaign for rival Barack Obama.
Clinton is given little chance of winning the nomination but so far is rejecting calls by some prominent Democrats to withdraw from the race and cede the field to Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who crushed Clinton in North Carolina on Tuesday and almost defeated her in Indiana.
(read the full article here)

Lean-to skills may soon pay off: May 31st deadline nears for Philadelphia Boyscouts’ eviction May 7, 2008

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The Philadelphia Inquirer has written an article reminding us that May 31 is the deadline for the eviction of the Boy Scout Headquarters that the city of Philadelphia has set, based on a long standing battle.

To quote the Inquirer:

Can the Boy Scouts - specifically, the Philadelphia area’s 69,000-member Cradle of Liberty Council - bar openly homosexual people and atheists from membership?

The U.S. Supreme Court says yes.

Can Philadelphia city officials allow a private organization that discriminates to freely use public, taxpayer-supported property?

The U.S. Supreme Court says no.

Read the full article here: Scout Eviction, and check the news June 1st to see how many tents are pitched overnight here in Philly…

“A win is a win”: PA. Senate tables Bill on gay marriage May 7, 2008

WPHT announced that the state Senate on Tuesday indefinitely tabled a measure that would amend Pennsylvania’s Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. The bill had been scheduled for a floor vote Tuesday evening, but chief sponsor Sen. Michael Brubaker told colleagues that it would be set aside because it faced long odds in the House.

The bill, had it passed the Senate, was slated to be sent to the State Government Committee, which is headed by Rep. Babette Josephs, a Philadelphia Democrat who opposes the measure.

Because of that, the Senate’s Republican leaders had no assurance that the bill would get a vote in the House at least 90 days before the November general election, the constitutional deadline to keep it alive, Brubaker said.

Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, D-Philadelphia, a vocal opponent of the measure, told reporters that Senate Republican leaders used House opposition as an excuse to table the bill. Fumo said a majority of senators would have supported a floor amendment to strip out wording to ban civil unions, which supporters considered crucial.

”A win is a win,” Fumo said. ”It can look ugly, it can look great. But this is definitely a win.” (full article)

Thanks to everyone who went to the rally, voiced their concern, and contacted their elected officials!

Clinton or Obama: Up to Super Delegates to Choose now or later May 6, 2008

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Since March I’ve given up on seeing a clear winner emerge from the primaries. Recently I’ve noticed that they virtually stay tied in everything. Since Ohio, the voters have been split down the middle, but on and on the primary season continues. The democratic party is still split and the months go by.

Uncommitted Superdelegates: 223 out of a total of 796.

There are 5 states and Puerto Rico left to vote. 274 delegates total.

Obama has 1768 total delegates. 1516 pledged. 252 Superdelegates.

Clinton has 1,622 total delegates. 1356 pledged. 266 Superdelegates.

Last night Senator Obama won North Carolina and Senator Clinton won Indiana.

Will the Superdelegates make their choice now? Why wait any longer? They’re running out of reasons and their running out of time. Do they really want to give John McCain three more months of uncontested campaigning? Do they really want threes more months of negative campaigning between the candidates? Do they own stock in CNN or MSNBC? Why wait until the convention to chose a candidate?

Vote now, like the 90% of the rest of the country already has, and like the 100% of the country has already done in their minds. Then the Democratic party will have three months to lick its self-inflicted wounds, and create a strategy for one candidate to announce a running mate at the convention. Then have another three months to run against McCain and the Republican party.

Or wait and vote at the convention and waste three months on negative campaigning and watch John McCain running uncontested. The convention will go by also, with the Democratic party fired up about what? Just finding out that three months before the election they finally have a candidate…no chance to court the other side…there’s only three months before the election.

It’s time…

Here’s a link to all the uncommitted superdelegates…Demconwatch.blogspot.com

Gay airline attendant calms your panicked hostess May 5, 2008

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I was in Chicago for the weekend. Visiting a friend and checking up on my company…I am in fact the famed Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago. Is there a problem…?

The company almost runs itself and I left on a bright beautiful Monday morning happy to know that things were well in hand. Mission accomplished…well now…where had I heard that phrase before and knew it just meant trouble? Things go smoothly in the cab ride to the airport. Smoothly through security. Maybe the terminal change from “K” to “L” explained that odd sensation I felt crawling around the back of my neck. I don’t have a fear of flying so that’s not it, so with my “gripping” mystery novel and ipod I find the aisle seat 17B and get ready for a short 2 hour trip home.

They haven’t even turned off the seat belt sign when someone brushes past me. I look up to see one of the attendants moving towards a woman about three rows up from me across the aisle. She’s already hit the “call” button. I’m about to loose interest when the woman and the attendant both begin a game of charades…just for me:

Woman: Hands make ball shape the size of a baseball then widen to the size of a grapefruit.

Attendant: Hands mimic grapefruit, then point to floor.

Woman: Lifts up her legs and points under her seat. Then looks back towards my direction and points at my feet.

Attendant: Takes 2 steps away from direction I’m sitting in and puts her hand to her throat.

“Click”. Off goes the call light. Charades is over. Now is my time to guess what they were taking about. OK…I look around for help, but no one else has seen what’s just happened. That sounds about right. I tell myself to keep with the rational thinking, as I feel that weird feeling at the back of my neck say ” I told you so”. Maybe someone dropped something and it rolled back here. But why the big step backward and the hand to the throat by the attendant? I looked back to the woman across the aisle. She was sitting cross-legged in her seat. Did I mention she was in a business suit?

Sh*t…we’ve got something loose on AA Flight 2847…something the size of a grapefruit.

I looked over at the guy next to me. He’s fast asleep, head wedged between the window and headrest. I yank my legs up keeping my shoes on. I don’t want whatever it is to make a nest in them. A quick look back confirms that something is going on. All 3 flight attendants are in a huddle. What’s loose on this plane. A mouse? A rat? A spider? I’m not super freaked out by these things, but when you get into the larger citrus sizes I begin to take note. Snakes On A Plane. Well, I didn’t see the movie, but I did see a trailer, and it looked pretty far fetched then, but right now…I’m not so sure.

Another one of the attendants brushes past me. She’s drawn the short straw and is walking point looking down each one of the aisles on the floor trying to be nonchalant. I watch her go all the way up. Nothing. She starts to come back and a woman stops her. There’s a conversation and she shakes her head, looks back at the other attendants, and back down at the woman. More words are exchanged, then she heads towards the back again. I shift my legs and lean over to see if it is under my seat. I keep imagining it crawling up over the top any minute. Sleeping beauty next to me starts to snore. Grapefruit creature will crawl up his legs first and give me a warning.

Man, what if this thing goes crawling up somebody’s leg and they freak out and open the pressure lock door like in one of those James Bond movies and we all get sucked out? I check my seat belt, just in case. My imagination is all over this now. Why do I watch those monster movies? They seemed so outrageous, but grapefruit, my mind keeps repeating.

I try to listen to the ipod and read the mystery but the only mystery I want to solve is WHAT THE F*CK IS CRAWLING AROUND THIS PLANE? I’ve got this playing over and over in my head obsessively when I hear someone lays a hand on my shoulder. I jump…I’m embarrassed.

Gay Attendant: “Would you like something to drink?”

Hostess: “Yes…but I have a question.” I blurt it out before I can stop myself.

Gay Attendant: “What would that be dear?”

Hostess: “I want to know what that woman said she saw running around on the plane. I saw the woman tell the attendant she saw something run on the floor underneath her. And make that a gin and tonic.” I made a hand gesture the size of a grapefruit. “She said to was this size.” I hold the shape for emphasis.

Gay Attendant: He started to smile then. Suddenly he understood. “Hermit crabs,” he said simply. All the while pouring drinks.

Hostess: “That’s it? I saw this woman make a gesture the size of a grapefruit.”

Gay Attendant: “Tell me about it…Anne came back with this story of something loose on the plane and the woman said it was crawling towards the back of the plane, that it was as big as that, nodding to my still outstretched hands. We had no idea what it was.”

Hostess: “So you found them? That’s how you know?”

Gay Attendant: “No,” as he handed me my drink. “Up there at the front of the plane is a kid with his mother. She told us that he brought his pet hermit crabs with him on the plane and they got loose. That’s how we know.”

Hostess: “Huh…I guess they’re not as big as grapefruit either…”

Gay Attendant: “Heaven’s no…that woman that saw something just panicked.”

Like I did, I thought, as the drink cart moved up the aisle. Sure enough, as I watched he pointed to the row where the boy and his mother were seated and I raised my glass in salute, and looked at my feet on the floor again. The plane soon landed and still no screams, still so signs of grapefruit sized or smaller hermit crabs. As I walked off, I saw that the boy and his mother were just sitting there, waiting for the rest of the plane to deboard. How much time do you commit to finding pet hermit crabs? Do they have favorite treats or toys you can use to coax them back into their cage? Part of me felt bad for the kid loosing his pets. Part of me wanted to bring butter and garlic and cook his pets and eat them with my gin.

Traveling is always taxing on my nerves.. It’s not the crashes or inclement weather that makes up my phobias…it’s the people. Whatever situation I try to prepare for…there’s always going to be something I haven’t thought of…and the human factor is going to be the cause it. Guaranteed.

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Extreme eating coast to coast May 1, 2008

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There’s a scale here…literally and figuratively. As I get older and step on the literal one, I find I move more and more towards the center of the figurative one. No more extreme eating. Damn, I hate to admit it, but I’m moving into middle age and middle eating. Too much (or too little for that matter) of anything puts my delicate body out of balance and f*cks your Hostess up royally.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the sport of it all. Why yes…I did say sport didn’t I. Let’s stroll down Lipid Lane, past Aneurysm Avenue to South Philly for the Annual “Wing Bowl” at the Wachovia Center with a crowd of 20,000 or more. Held the day after the Super Bowl, it pits competitive eaters in a chicken wing eating contest. I’ve never attended, but I believe doors open at 5am and the first beer is sold at 5:01am.

Way before that fateful day there are qualification rounds. Feats of digestive prowness included eating:

1) 20 cups of cooked oatmeal.

2) 5 Big Macs

3) 60 ozs creamed spinach with 60 oz. of hot sauce

All before judges while being timed, and probably laughed at.

Check out Wally on a radio show…he tried to eat a 4 lb. burrito in 4 minutes to qualify. Boy, is he going to make some girl happy some day. (Wally’s Burrito Audition)

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Here’s Bill “El Wingador” Simmons. The first contestant to win the Bowl 3 times. Part Elvis…part Mummers…with a little Native American thrown in for good measure.

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But don’t think it’s just a man’s sport…meet Sonya Thomas. A 99 lb woman who won Wing Bowl XII (my God they’ve lived through more than a couple of these?) by eating a record 167 chicken wings. Oh yeah…they gave her a nickname too…”Black Widow”, because she took out the other 20 male competitors.

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I know, I know, I’m having heart palpitations just writing this down. Enough of the East Coast’s extreme eating. Let’s move across the scale and across the country to the West side…looking down from the top of Nob Hill towards Downtown and the Bay. To where you left your heart and its now clogged arteries…San Francisco.

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So we’ve gone way over the deep end on one side and now we’re going to do the same on this side. You might be thinking I’m going to walk you into a vegetarian restaurant. Nope too easy…I could tell you about the time I ate with my vegetarian girlfriend at the Egyptian restaurant. Everything came out on these platters, like pretty colored mush paint on a palette. I watched her tear off some of the bread from the platter and dip it into the paint-mush and eat it. Everything tasted wonderful. This went on for quite a while…so long in fact that we didn’t notice that the one bottle of honey wine that we had ordered had been finished and a second one had come…unbidden by us…but because two guys that both looked like Omar Sharif were watching us and had ordered it….but I’d never tell you that story because I don’t remember it…I drank too much honey wine. All I can say is I don’t have Omar Sharif’s autograph. But I do still like Egyptian food and honey wine.

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No, the place we’re going to is much more than just a vegetarian restaurant, more than a Vegan restaurant. (And let me point out oh so cute little environmentally conscious high school and college girls…fish is a meat…you are eating healthy if you are eating fish. You are not a vegetarian.) This restaurant can only happen in California.

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Welcome to CAFE GRATITUDE

First of all it’s all raw foods. Nothing heated above 120 degrees. That’s West Coast Chef talk for “salad”. Of course it’s not just vegetarian…it is vegan. Every dish is named something like:

“I Am Transfigured“, “I Am Fulfilled“, or the classic (blue plate special) “I am Grateful“. Going back to the middle age thing, I try to work out, my metabolism demands it. My mother is a dietitian so I know my 5 food groups and know how much of each I need to have, and since she is a true Southerner I even know which knife, fork and spoon to eat them all with. The math of the protein content in those dishes and the geography of San Francisco’s hills tells me I’m eating at this restaurant and getting a serious migraine soon afterwards. Remember now…I’m all for the Vegetarian dishes…but something tells me I need to have four legs and a bushy tail to really enjoy this meal.

But if you think about it…I mean really think about it…well, actually meditate on it, it makes sense to eat something like this restaurant fixes and say “Transfigured” and heady things and such. Here’s why…

Don’t tell anyone, but I meditate, OK? Sitting meditation, walking meditation. You know…meditation. The first time I tried mindful eating they didn’t tell me what to eat…well…actually did this little example…a raisin…you hold it in your mouth and really feel it, smell it, taste it. Lots of stuff to take in. So that was the example they gave me, then I was going to this all day thing and they said, bring lunch and we’ll be practicing mindful eating. I’m a creature of habit…my habit being to wait until the last minute to make my lunch. So while everybody else has soup and salad and all this great stuff, I have a peanut butter sandwich. I think I threw in a diet Coke to wash it down…that might have saved my life. Lunch comes. Time to mindfully eat. One bite of bread and peanut butter (no honey…no jelly) and I feel it…really feel it. It starts sticking everywhere. Like caulk on tile in bathroom. It’s like it’s swelling in my mouth. We’re not really supposed to be looking at anyone else, just supposed to be mindfully within our own experience, but I’m there with my mouth sealed shut, wishing I had a garden fresh salad or carrot sticks, or soup, or maybe just a knife or sharp stick to pry my mouth open. One whole diet coke and almost a half a sandwich later I realized that not all foods can be mindfully eaten. I think though, that this restaurant would fall under the mindful category.

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Back to CAFE GRATITUDE. Now since they don’t cook anything, I’m not sure why there would be much down time, but they have that covered if there is some. And while I love green tea, and herbal tea, we’re on vacation and I always find time for cocktail hour on vacation. It reminds me that I’m not at work. I checked…this place sells beer and wine. Place your drink order and during this down time while the chef is non-cooking the meals you can play the “Cafe Gratitude New Age Board Game. First thing you do is pick a spirit name. “Anita Cocktail” Not funny…my girlfriend would say…”Carnivore”…then she’d just stare. OK…and I’d try really hard not to let her see me taking migraine medicine…with the wine. “Peyote” I say and she thinks I’ve named an Indian name and I guess I have, so we begin the game. Or you can discuss the question of the day which is always the same: “How have I honored my fellow beings today?” And I would think to myself, would you honor me by bringing me another glass of wine please? And then the server puts the plates in front of us and says: “You are Transfigured. You are Fulfilled.” And I think, “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to hike all day eating just this.” And hope that I packed a power bar or wedged a peanut butter sandwich somewhere in my backpack.