Random Musings
I've been trying to figure out all day what to blog about, but I got nothing. So I'll just subject you to my random thoughts and musings of the day.1. The big story over the weekend is the Obama Sweep in Democratic primaries and caucuses. He now leads Clinton by several states but somehow still lags behind in delegates. The delegate thing is kind of making me crazy. It would be one thing to just calculate the delegates for each state proportionately by the voting percentages, but then you have to figure in super-delegates. What the hell is a super-delegate anyway? Now, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but near as I can figure out these are extra delegates reserved for Washington insiders and elected officials that somehow count more than normal voter delegates and are pledged before the actual primaries. Also super-delegates are not obligated to vote with their constituency. Something about it seems crooked to me. But then if Obama was ahead in the delegate count I'd have no problem with super-delegates. And I freely admit that.
I have to be careful though. I don't want to be categorized as an "Obamamaniac". These people are accused of having a rabid affection for the man the fervor of which could be detrimental to him in the end. There was an Op-Ed piece about it in the NY Times today.
2. The Grammy's happened this weekend, too. Big whoop. This is an awards show I never watch mostly because I don't care about the rapper of the year or the country music album of the year and don't follow popular music much at all, so it's all Greek to me. Who is this Amy Winehouse of which you speak? Oh--but I do know that Obama won a Grammy for spoken word. The man is a brilliant speaker. I watched the Will.i.am "Yes We Can" video today and bawled. Seriously.
Oops. Obamamaniac.
3. The hot topic on all the gay blogs today on the interwebs is the Gays' support of Hillary 2 to 1. The numbers are based on exit polls in California and New York, both states where Clinton won by a comfortable lead, one of which happens to be her home state. Gays were not polled in Illinois where Obama won the primary due probably in no small part to Chicago's sizable gay population. Hillary gave an interview to the Washington Blade (Some of my best friends are gay!) in which she says she talks about gay issues "all the time." She also brings up the unfortunate Donnie McClurkin/Obama connection.
4. It's really freakin' cold here. 11 degrees this morning. With a wind chill of -6.
5. I was invited to the final dress rehearsal of the City Center Encores! reading of the 1970 musical Applause last Thursday. It starred Christine Ebersole, whom you'll recall I LOVED in Gray Gardens. She had the flu which was disappointing. I was there with a dear friend who was involved with the project so I was inclined to root for the success of it. It's not a great show though. For a passionate but unfavorable review of it, check out what the Flaming Curmudgeon has to say. His reviews are often more entertaining than the show he's reviewing. You can also read my extensive commentary in the comments section of his post.
6. With the writers strike Scott and I have run out of good TV to watch, so we started DVRing some cable series which I'm totally getting hooked on: In Treatment on HBO and Breaking Bad on AMC. In Treatment is right up my alley--characters in therapy sessions, very little action but extensive character development, lots of psycho-babble. Breaking Bad on the other hand is a surprise to me. It deals with a seamy drug underworld and has a bit of violence, but I find the very human side of the situation very moving.
3. The hot topic on all the gay blogs today on the interwebs is the Gays' support of Hillary 2 to 1. The numbers are based on exit polls in California and New York, both states where Clinton won by a comfortable lead, one of which happens to be her home state. Gays were not polled in Illinois where Obama won the primary due probably in no small part to Chicago's sizable gay population. Hillary gave an interview to the Washington Blade (Some of my best friends are gay!) in which she says she talks about gay issues "all the time." She also brings up the unfortunate Donnie McClurkin/Obama connection.
4. It's really freakin' cold here. 11 degrees this morning. With a wind chill of -6.
5. I was invited to the final dress rehearsal of the City Center Encores! reading of the 1970 musical Applause last Thursday. It starred Christine Ebersole, whom you'll recall I LOVED in Gray Gardens. She had the flu which was disappointing. I was there with a dear friend who was involved with the project so I was inclined to root for the success of it. It's not a great show though. For a passionate but unfavorable review of it, check out what the Flaming Curmudgeon has to say. His reviews are often more entertaining than the show he's reviewing. You can also read my extensive commentary in the comments section of his post.
6. With the writers strike Scott and I have run out of good TV to watch, so we started DVRing some cable series which I'm totally getting hooked on: In Treatment on HBO and Breaking Bad on AMC. In Treatment is right up my alley--characters in therapy sessions, very little action but extensive character development, lots of psycho-babble. Breaking Bad on the other hand is a surprise to me. It deals with a seamy drug underworld and has a bit of violence, but I find the very human side of the situation very moving.
7. In other TV news, Scott inadvertently sent me a spoiler today on who the Project Runway final four are. I won't spill the beans, but I like (almost) all of the final contestants. They are all certainly worthy of having a spot at Fashion week.
And that is all.
Labels: Blogging, Current Events, Gay Politics, Politics, Pop Culture
posted by Michael @ 8:29 PM
6 Comments:
Wait, you have a boyfriend/partner/significant other? Damnit. That shot down one of my fantasies.
I can't figure out this super delegates either, but I don't think they are all Washington Insiders and Elected Officials. There is a 20 your old out there (somewhere) who is a S-D, and he's never voted before.
Chelsea had brunch with him the other day.
It was my understanding that super delegates were not supposed to pledge their vote before the convention. Of course, my governor (Corzine) pledged last summer, I think. In any case, they are not held to any pledge and can change their vote as they see fit (so I'm not sure why we're counting them. I believe it is their purpose to look out for the good of the party, and hopefully will follow the popular delegate vote and perhaps switch to promote unity. Who knows? It's bloody nerve-wracking though.
FYI-I watched Obama promise a gay veteran (after he thanked him for his service)in Virginia that he would overturn DADT. He said it made no sense to turn someone away who wanted to make the great sacrifices necessary to serve their country because of antiquated and out-dated ideas. He went on to sight other nations with gay participants in their military organizations and said they were very successful. He has also promised to overturn DOMA. I believe Hillary has promised to modify DOMA....whatever that means. I haven't heard her mention DADT.
Judy, Hillary is also on record for overturning DADT. She says she's been involved in the process since the beginning of her senate career. She still maintains that it was a necessary "transitional" step toward allowing gay men and women to serve.
Superdelegates = elected officials in the democratic party(house reps, governors, senators) + DNC members.
As Tad Devine(Gore strategist and democratic party strategist) wrote in the opinion piece of Sunday's NY times, the role of the superdelegates is to put the candidate with the most earned delegates over the top at the convention.
Therefore, if Obama has 1700 delegates and Hillary has 1600, the superdelegates are supposed to throw their weight to the individual with the most earned delegates to make them the party nominee. Now, many have used their privilege as a superdelegate foolishly. For example, many supers in New Jersey endorsed Hillary in April. Who has egg on their face now. Sorry to digress. The point is that now many super delegates will shift over to Obama as he seems to be the candidate with math on his side. Their really is a very slim chance that Hillary can beat him in earned delegates. They can talk all they want about Texas and Ohio, but she would need to crush him (65 to 35) in those contests to make any significant impact. Obama now leads by more than 100 earned delegates. Watch as his boat fills up with superdelegates that want to hitch their wagon to his star. Self professed Obamamaniac, Paul Krugman in Monday's times is just trying to marginalize Obama, clearly it is not working.
I agree about the Grammys, but I did catch Tina Turner's return, and she was incredible! Totally outclassed Beyonce (who wasn't bad).
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