John Edwards Event

7:30 pm East High School- Home of the Scarlets
Pep rally @ Modern HS
Steelworkers, Nylon, Elect-A-Democrat
Hired a signer
The other side has on embarrassment
3 hrs, 36 ways to restore the middle class
Mellencamp

Go John Go "When Love came to town"

more chants

Big room, big PA, big country-rock

Elizabeth comes out in purple pants, very Southern gal

Recovering lawyer, now there's a compelling life story, and a study in poverty

Who can beat every Republican candidate?

Mr. Pizzazz!!!!!

What's up with that tie sticking out below the jacket button?

Long hometown story...where is this going?

A great moral test...of corporate greed

I have never taken a dime from Washington lobbyists

If that worked...hmmm

Transformatial

He really goes on about Mill towns

I would do anything for America, not just my grandparents

Ample time to climb various ladders

Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton: both of them talk like I do

Somebody in Iowa cares about Darfur

A history

No permanent military bases in Iraq

Bhutto "The path to democritization is baptized in Blood"

I'm gonna fight for you

Giuliani @ Fenarro's Bakery 2:30 pm

I fucking hate Giuliani. Shutter down of musical venue, strip clubs and wrecker of the character of NYC with his quality of life bullshit. The advance planners didn't take this gig too seriously it seems, as he spoke for 7 minutes in a crowded bakery with nowhere to stand.

I took the scene in beforehand and thought better of it. Went to a music store 3 blocks away and shredded away on Taylor Guitars for an hour. Time well spent indeed.

Mike Huckabee Event

Indianola, Iowa

Signatures Bar & Cafe

Drove about an hour West of Des Moines.

Packed into the upstairs bar

Coors Light Mirror says "Rock On Iowa"

CSPAN in full gear

Greta Wodele in purple

Darn that one cheap low hanging chandelier and the attractively unfinished walls

Shootin' from the rafters

Gilchrist & The Minutemen endorsements

Is God/ Fears God

cue Media Bash

9 trillion in debt, 9,000earmarks

Broken Borders-less easy to get on an airplane

Tax Code-Fix it with Duct tape and WD40

Intense pockets of poverty- Durmont, AKDelta

Our Kids First pgm.

Mitt says I'm a bum while attacking McCain & Giuliani as well

Communicator in Chief

Budget increate 3.9% annually for AK, national avg. the same

New threshold for the poor

Don't look too far up that tree

Up/Down vertical politics

8,700 requests for commutation/90% refused

Anthony Sircosta-the kid w/ the BB Gun

16 sent for execution/ double sentences for meth

Pro life-undergird basic family principles

The world's eyes will be on Iowa

Huck outspent 20:1

so pick up your neighbors, give'em a baloney sandwich, tell em caucus starts in 30 min.

Extended greet & grab.

So, I'm still not sure what I'm doing with all of this, but it's good practice for my court reporting.

Maybe I'll opine a bit once I get back to snarky ole DC.

Hillary Clinton - Story City, Iowa

Unedited notes from the speech:

Your basic elementary school gym
Couple of hundred packed in
Media squeezed in back, surge for power
Trivia (!?!) OK, serves a purpose
(Hillary is running late)
Unswayed by swag
No need for a launcher, merely a Pavolian response & a light chuck
Finally,
A brown pant-suited could-be president
Great hair, teeth, CEO look, 'cept for that pant-suit
the middle class has been ignored
Hmmm, a New York story:imported
(regarding Bhutto) a personal concern
met with Musharraf & Karzai last year
Suggested a military envoy, Bush :Nah!
blank check has failed
Tripartite
Our democracy has survived, there are no guarantees
into foreclosure-nice segway
fluid movement
VACD
AIDS
spread women's literacy in China via Pakistan. another nice try
SCHIP-TBA 11/08
35 year resume
250 health care plans for Congress
Home grown energy, Univ. Pre-K, NCLB
End the student loan industry scam
note "incredulous" demeanor and brief River City drawl
TBI-Where do I go to get my brain back?
Republicans have been after me for 16 years and I'm still here
300 million a day for our presence in Iraq
Depleted uranium armaments-you're going to have fallout.

OK, I'm not getting paid to do analysis so consider this just reference material. I am interested to compare and contrast these bits of information with what I hear from other candidates.

Tomorrow its Republicans! Huckabee, Giuliani and maybe Romney. Right now, I'm just recovering from margaritas & mexican food. Des Moines is slushy but not painfully cold.

Day One

This won't be as smooth as I had hoped. Brought my aging Mac on a rare roadtrip and the Marriot wants to charge (us) twice for Internet access, so I must use my girlfriends computer. (If you're reading this, you likely know all about THE BLOG and I).

Some snow falling in SE Iowa, we're heading to a Hilary event one hour north in Story. Then back, bypassing Des Moines, East 2 hours to Davenport for an Obama event, which I'm looking forward to IF we make it. It will be much driving for me, but I'm energized and ready to hit tha road.

Welcome to The Vacuum!

Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)

R.I.P

You ever have one of those mornings when the Google takes over your life and you can't log into sites and applications you've used for years? Well, it's happened to me, and I will have to use this opportunity as a Mitzvah so to speak. You can still visit my old Blog which I wrote for almost 4 years, but I can't log into it anymore, so here we are.

Fans of the old blog will recall my experimentation with narrative and vague attempts at journalism and punditry. Since I am headed to Des Moines tonight there should be some furious updating and revelatory material to come. My first meeting with presidential candidates and the raucousness that is The Caucus. Actually I will return before the actual Caucus occurs, but if there is ever a reason to visit Iowa, and you're not a Hawkeye, this is the little window that opens every four years when this is the place to be. 

Already I am hearing a lot of hokum and lamentations of "a blow to democracy" in light of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. It will be interesting once the validity of our presidential candidates comments is taken seriously again. The Xmas vacation is but a brief respite from the endlessly analyzed comments from our would-be Supreme Leaders. By tomorrow, the first wave of mopes will have passed and these 18 moneybags will be back on the stump talking to whoever will listen, and I'll be there....um..reporting, for lack of a better word.

Seriously folks, I'm not doing this for personal ambition. The professional journalists who were forced to become bloggers are only doing it to maintain their presence with their respective news organizations in the context of the new media. I am a musician, a Court Reporter and a writer in that order I'd like to think. If I ever get past the dabbling stage in visual arts I may post that as well. Thanks for checking out THE VACUUM.