Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., greets Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., back to camera, as fellow hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. turns away before President Bush’s the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, Monday Jan. 28, 2008, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
I wish I could tell you that the only reason the same book has been stagnating in the sidebar is that I simply haven’t bothered to update it, but the real reason is that I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle tonight. Yes, it’s January 24th, the fourth week of 52 Books in 52 Weeks, and I have read exactly one book. It doesn’t take a mathematician to conclude that I’ve got to pick up the pace. I swear I’m not that slow of a reader (I’m actually a fairly quick reader), I’ve just been distracted. Some of it was productive (lawyer stuff) and some of it was decidedly not (Rock of Love 2).
I could also use the excuse that it’s a 600-page book with rather small print. But that would sound totally lame, so I won’t say that.
A review will be forthcoming. I’m incapable of writing one right now, since I quite literally just put the book down and I need a little time to think about it. It’s one of those books that you have to let marinate in your brain for a little while before you can say anything worthwhile about it. At the moment, it’s a head scratcher.
I haven’t decided for sure what’s up next. Maybe Heat. Maybe not.
Okay, so the various permutations of caucuses and primaries across the country are confusing. Clinton won New Hampshire last night, according to the percentage of the vote. But according to CNN’s breakdown of New Hampshire delegates, Obama has 12 to Clinton’s 11. Since it’s the delegates that count, doesn’t that mean Obama won New Hampshire? I was watching the news coverage all evening and I didn’t hear anyone mention that (not saying it didn’t happen, I just didn’t hear it). CNN was the only network I saw that even displayed the number of delegates that each candidate in both parties has amassed so far.
To be clear, this isn’t a post complaining about Clinton unfairly being declared the winner or anything like that. I’m just trying to sort things out. The way we elect people in this country is kind of strange.
As for what happened last night, at first I was pretty disappointed when it became clear that Clinton was going to win New Hampshire. I don’t dislike her, in fact I think she would probably be a good president. (It’d be nice to see the I.Q. points in the Oval Office go up significantly.) But on the issues, she doesn’t represent me. I don’t necessarily trust her to make it her number one priority to look out for the interests of the American people. But this whole notion of a couple or a few states effectively choosing the nominee is patently unfair. I especially hate how the media coverage drives the outcome. Edwards came in second in Iowa, then he was practically ignored going into New Hampshire. The media decided that anything but first place for Edwards would count him out of the race entirely (see Greenwald’s Update III), so they just didn’t bother to give him any coverage. That’s so messed up.
So while I’m still hoping for an Edwards or Obama win (and I realize the chances of it being Edwards are slim), I’m glad the primary season isn’t over after just two states. Because that’s messed up too.
Oh, and for the trifecta of things that are messed up, it’s also messed up that if you’re a woman running for president, you just can’t win (figuratively speaking). If you’re not emotional, the media’s conventional wisdom goes, the voters will be turned off by your cold personality. If your voice barely cracks and there’s a glint of a tear in your eye, again according to the media’s conventional wisdom, the voters might think you aren’t tough enough for the job of Commander in Chief. So as a woman, it was satisfying to see Clinton blow all of those talking heads’ expectations.
Okay, this made me LOL.
Referring to his new status as the Democratic front-runner, he said: “This feels good. It’s just like I imagined it when I was talking to my Kindergarten teacher.”
Nice.
Well, it’s finally here — the first day of primary voting (or caucusing, whatever). I wasn’t 100% sure at first, but now I am (not that casting a vote in West Virginia’s May primary will have any effect). I want John Edwards to be our next president. I’ll save my cynicism about the likelihood of this happening for another day.
The reason? Via Amanda (and originally blogged here):
I’ve been mostly supporting John Edwards since the beginning of primary season, for reasons to which I’ve alluded before, which boil down to “his priorities are similar to mine.” He’s the only candidate directly confronting the fundamentally broken nature of political news coverage in the US; he’s the only candidate directly engaging the problem of economic inequality at any length; he’s the only candidate I’ve seen directly address the ongoing catastrophe in New Orleans; and his repudiation of his early support for the war on Iraq leads me to believe he’s interested in a less interventional foreign policy than any of the other candidates (except Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich). He made many of these points while running for VP, of course, so I was inclined to like him when the primaries began. He’s not afraid to be a liberal, and he’s not willing to parrot Republicans’ rhetoric to bash Democrats, both of which are habits that drive me nuts about the other leading Dems. He’s charismatic and smart and a good campaigner–it’s really not easy for a bleeding-heart liberal to win a Senate seat in North Carolina, as I know from watching the state close-up for nearly twenty years.
But yesterday I had pointed out another reason why I support him: The entrenched power elites are really scared of him.
That about sums it up.
I’m doing it. I’m determined. My first book is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I’m cheating right off the bat, since I actually started the book in 2007. I’m about 100 pages in. It’s a 600 page book, though, so it’s just a small head start.
At the suggestion of Jim, I created a bookshelf at Shelfari. They have a neat little widget so you can put your bookshelf on your blog, but it’s not compatible with WordPress, so I’ve created my own thing over there in the sidebar. I’ll display what I’m currently reading, plus there are links to what’s up next and to books I want to buy. I know I can read for free courtesy of the public library, but I have to admit that books are one thing that I’m materialistic about. I like having the book. I like the book to be mine. I like filling my shelves with books. I like that I currently need to buy yet another bookshelf to accommodate my books (and HK’s). Yes, it makes moving a pain in the ass, but I don’t care.
I would love it if other people would participate. (I’m talking to you, lurkers!) And keep those recommendations coming!
I don’t have time for much commentary on this right now (it’s the holidays, dontcha know), but I wanted to post it. From today’s Charleston Daily Mail:
The second felony stemmed from the hate-filled letter police say McCoy left on the door of his upstairs neighbor in an apartment building on Market Street in Spencer. McCoy was living in an apartment with his mother at the time, police said.
“It was threatening, very threatening,” Spencer Police Chief Gary Williams said. “It put the victim at great fear … When they brought this letter over here, we were just astounded by the content. We jumped on it immediately.”
A person familiar with McCoy matched his handwriting with that on the letter sent to his neighbor, Williams said.
The investigation into the letter included interviews and statements from family members, Cole said. These statements eventually led to McCoy’s arrest for the cat mutilation, police said.
Spencer police consulted with the state Attorney General’s office on filing the hate crime charge, Williams said. The chief said he believed McCoy’s was only the second successful prosecution of a hate crime in state history.
The guy pled guilty to the hate crime charge. I’m curious what “consulted with the state Attorney General’s office” means exactly.
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