kirktastic

I am on the beach down Mexico way. I flew from Austin to Monterrey on Sunday afternoon. I took vivaAerobus which is in a separate terminal on the other side of the airport than the main terminal. It is probably a 7 mile drive from the other terminal since they don’t let people take the short cut over the runways. Since this is all last minute I get the SSSSSS on my boarding card. Something about leaving last minute out of the country appears to make DHS nervous? vivaAerobus uses a boarding process like Southwest does (and most low cost carriers). I paid 60 pesos more when I booked the reservation to be in the VIP line. As in Austin, vivaAerobus has its own terminal in Monterrey (it is cheaper than paying rent on the fully burdened airport and how they save money). So the only bummer on that flight was that we had to wait near the viva terminal to take a bus to the main terminal because the customs and immigration people weren’t working in the viva terminal. After that I took a taxi to my room at the Hampton Inn near the galeria which I got for free with points. I went out with a guy I know for a drink and called it a night.

Monterrey is a very Americanized city. It boasts the highest income per capita of anywhere in Mexico. Every manufacturer you can think of has plants on the outskirts of town. In the city you see lots of familiar names like Wendys, Applebees, Starbucks, McDonalds. Mountains surround most of the city — too warm for snow, but they are pretty nice change for this boy that has living in Texas for so long.

After a coffee and muffin at Starbucks I took a taxi to the airport for the flight to Puerto Escondido. There are no international flights to Puerto. There’s jet service from Mexico City or small Cessna service from Oaxaca City (or you can take a 6 hour bus through the mountains). My plane was delayed in Mexico City for just over an hour which wasn’t fun. With exception of my battery being dead and no plugs to find, it was OK. My flight from Mexico City to Puerto Escondido was on Mexicana’s discount brand Click Mexicana. The jet was smaller, sort of like a Jet Blue plane without the TV. But the service was great with free beer or soft drinks (on the short flight from MTY to MEX on the full blown Mexicana they had a snacks and gave out free headphones for the TV show). Also, Mexicana seems to have a policy of only hiring completely gorgeous women and handsome men for their cabin crew. And these people are nice!

I got to Puerto Esconido’s little airport about 5pm. When you get there, you can take a private taxis for 225 pesos or take a collectivo van (a newer VW van w/AC) for 35 pesos. Since I had carry on bags only I had to wait for the van to fill up with other passengers and we were off. I’m on Playa Zicatela — or at least decided to stay there w/o a reservation — which is a surfing beach with giant waves. I read in the Lonely Planet Guide this is the Mexican Pipeline and they have big Hawaii Pipeline style waves in the spring. They are putting in a brick street surface so the street I’m on is mostly closed and car traffic goes through some sand patches. When it is done, it will be nice.
There are no giant hotels here. There’s a higher endish Best Western (I know, but that brand means something else outside the US) and a Hotel Santa Fe which looked nice when I drove by it. But there’s no big hotels like Puerto Vallarta or Acapulco. I’m staying at a place I read of in Lonely Planet called Hotel Ines. My room is clean and has AC. It isn’t super nice, but it is only 550 pesos a day. That’s about $40 with today’s exchange rate (the dollar has strengthened against the pesos since my last time down here in April so my dollar is going farther). My breakfast here this morning must have cost about $4 and there was so much I couldn’t finish.

I’m off to find a palapa to sit under and watch the waves come in and get some rest and explore. It is fucking hot+humid down here. Might be 80f with 200% humidity. So I’ll need to keep drinking lots of cervezas frias.

Peanut, I am sorry I stepped on your tail. You’ve lived with me for seven years and this is the first time it has happened. Please forgive me. Of course, I know that in about 20 minutes you’ll still be pissed but forget why so we should be good friends again. Your tail doesn’t look broken but you — smartly — won’t let me near it to check. I promise to be more careful when you’re underfoot.
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Well those days of temps in the 80s and mild mornings had to come to an end sometime. Yesterday was a gorgeously warm, sunny day then the winds came last night with colder temps. The weather people were saying it was going to get down to freezing outside of town. Presently it is 49f outside and I’m inside the coffeehouse rather than at a table outside.

The economy continues to suck. The $700 billion of your and my money doesn’t seem to doing much. The current thing going on in DC is whether we should bail out the domestic auto makers. Seems to me we’d just be throwing good money after bad — much like with what we’re doing on Wall Street. Some say letting GM go tits up would impact lots of jobs and really fuck up the economy. As I see the third Smart car of the day in the parking lot outside I wonder if it is worth saving. This is the same company that had a huge market share of the market in the 1970s and allowed Toyota and Honda to enter the market with more fuel efficient cars while GM kept making gas pigs. This is the same company that spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress not have strict fuel efficiency standards. This is the same company that in the spring of THIS YEAR realized that big trucks and SUVs were not the future of automobiles. The “buy American” and “we need an American car company” arguments don’t hold water with me. Most of the Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and other “foreign” nameplates are made by Americans in the United States. Meanwhile a lot of the American cars from GM and Ford (or large parts of them) are made in Mexico and Canada. Volkswagen recently announced plans to spend a billion dollars building a plant in Kentucky. You see the “foreigners” investing more — and creating more jobs with health insurance benefits — but American brands move all their shit outside the US. The successful models the American companies have outside the US aren’t sold here. I remember being in an Opel (GM) and Ford cars in Europe and being surprised by their fit and finish and craftsmanship. The same rental cars I drive in the US seem like they’re going to fall apart.

Sure, there’s probably a market for shitty cars like the Crown Victoria used for cop cars and government vehicles. Perhaps that could be the saving grace: The US government — and state and local guys — commit to spend the tons of money they usually do on cars now. A caveat will be in a few years they have to be more fuel efficient and have hybrid technology. Investors should be happy that there’s a guaranteed revenue stream and the guys can keep their jobs and benefits. There would have to be big changes. The companies are too big. Lots of people would lose their jobs.

But no, what we’ll end up doing is giving them money and they’ll keep on with the only business they know. I wish those “free market” Republicans would be consistent and just these companies fail. What would result is a single US car company made up of just the parts that make sense (please tell me why you have a Chevy and Pontiac car that are identical and competing with each other rather than a single model that can compete with a real competitor like Toyota?). Yes, it will worsen an already sick economy but sometimes it is better to take the patient off of life support rather than have them kept alive in pain indefinitely.

Barack Obama’s Flickr Photostream from Tuesday night at Grant Park. I’m especially moved by the shots of him watching McCain’s speech.

Yay America! I’ve never been so proud to be an American. I’ve never cried hearing a political speech until Obama’s speech at the DNC. Then again last week while stuck in traffic on the way home from work. Then again last night seeing Jesse Jackson crying. Then again when Obama spoke. Then again watching people in the crowd and around the country and world celebrating.

The last few weeks have been stressful for me. I lost a lot of faith in the system in 2000. Although a yawner of a candidate, I couldn’t understand how Kerry could lose in 2004 and I do to this day think that there were shenanigans in Ohio. So this year after the Palin nomination and the terrible fucking redneck racists that she’d draw to her rallies. To hearing of official looking notices that told people in predominantly black neighborhoods that the election was on Wednesday. I live in a very liberal town and everyone has Obama stickers. Race wasn’t an issue here but what about in the rural places? The efforts of the GOP to remove thousands from voter roles across the country. The polls that showed the race was too close to call in Florida and Ohio. The same states that fucked it up in the last two elections. Even though Nate was saying Obama had this one by a landslide, I didn’t believe it. I thought the bullshit race baiting in W.Pennsylvania and Ohio might work (in what Palin called “real” America). I thought if it was close McCain might contest the ballots like we saw in Florida in 2000. All of this was in my head for the past few weeks. I slept poorly. I wasn’t exactly productive at work hitting refresh on websites wondering what McCain and Palin would do next. I was waiting for the October surprise. It was terrible.

So last night Peanut and I sat down to watch the polling I was nervous as hell. CNN was pretty slow with making projections. MSNBC called PA pretty early for Obama and that made McCain’s win hard. Then other states started going for Obama. MSNBC had enough states so that when the polls closed on the West Coast it would be over since it seemed impossible that CA,OR,WA would fall for McCain. When CNN and the other networks called it at 11PM ET the whole world went apeshit. They showed the crowds in different spots going nuts. They showed black people — kids, old people — with tears in their eyes. This was big. Finally America elected a non-white guy to run the country. This was historic.

But I didn’t believe it until I saw McCain concede from the Biltmore in Phoenix. I was happy to see it was the old McCain, the man who ran for president in 2000, and not the new McCain that selected Palin and OK’d all of those terrible ads and did nothing to really dispel the myth that Obama was a terrorist Muslim socialist. It was quite classy. Thank you John McCain. And I did giggle a little when I saw Sarah Palin’s eyes water. She was the one I was most afraid of.

Obama gave an incredible address in front of a huge excited crowd at Grant Park in Chicago. Obama was great and told a nation (and planet) what they wanted to hear: that change is here. Obama is very presidential. I was mesmerized by his words and throughout I thought about the terrible speeches Bush gave over the years. I never felt any confidence in Bush and in the last few years I’d stick to reading the transcripts of his speeches to get past the stammering and torture of the English language. I’m not one of those people that deify Obama. I know he’s not going to do everything he campaigned on. I know he’s not going to be perfect. As the first black president he’s under a lot of pressure to excel where a white guy like McCain wouldn’t have to. Obama is steady though. I don’t see him getting in shouting matches with his staff. I don’t see him treating leaders of other countries like shit. He’s gotten the presidency at a terrible time in the country’s history. We’re at war with two countries. The current president has been a reckless cowboy pretty much pissing off our current allies and enraging foes. The economy is in the crapper. Bush/Cheney’s response to 9/11 was reintroduce torture and spy on its own citizens. Clinton handed Bush a country that was doing well. Bush is handing Obama a steaming pile of poo.

I hope Obama succeeds in every way. In just one day we see to have raised our collective image in the world by electing Obama. As Obama builds his team, we’ll see how he executes. We already know he’s going to do a hell of a lot better job than Bush. I’m pretty sure history will remember Bush as the worst president ever. He can still fuck up a lot before Jan 20. Shudder.

Where Palin Stays on the road…

He spent five and a half years in a PF Changs. Do you know what that does to a man?

I was going to write about the election but that was sort of boring. I was going to talk about how disgusted I am with the “real” Americans that live in Texas that think that Obama is a Muslim. Nationally only 5-10% think he’s a Muslim. Here in the Lone Star State it is closer to 23%. I sometimes forget that Austin is in Texas and Texas is full of ignorant racist fucks. I’l first to laugh along with the LOL Texans jokes because I’m not a Texan. I live here, all of my property is here. It is were I collect my mail. But I am not a Texan. As McCain/Palin ‘08 has taught us, it is associations that matter. And by association I’m just a mouth breathing bigoted redneck. After 15 years it is time to go home.

In the meantime, I’ll just sit here and watch this clip of Peanut’s cousin in Japan…

Watching the McCain campaign crash and burn this week has been a treat.

First, we learn that the RNC paid $150K in clothes for the VP candidate and her family. Although she actually denied it cost so much and lamented the facts are not public. Except of course the press learned of Palin’s wardrobe cost from disclosure forms. So unless the RNC was buying Palin’s clothes at Dress Barn and fraudulently submitted receipts from Neiman Marcus, the we do know the fact Governor. $22K has been spent on makeup services. The makeup person is the highest paid person on the Palin team. What we élites don’t understand is it costs a lot of money to look like a middle class hockey mom. McCain spends a great deal on his makeup as well which I guess is needed so he doesn’t look so old.

Second, we learn in a breathless headline from the Drudge Report that a young McCain supporter was attacked and disfigured in Pittsburgh. When other outlets pick up the story we start to hear more and see pictures. The poor innocent white girl was attacked by a 6′4″ black man after he robbed her at an ATM and saw her car’s McCain sticker. The story goes the assailant was just going to leave with her $60 dollars but decided to “teach her a lesson.” But it was the photo of the girl (released by the College Republicans, not the Pittsburgh PD) that made this seem like total bullshit. For one thing, the only people I know that refer to Obama as Barack are Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin. Most of his supporters call him Obama or Barack Obama. (or Senator Obama, or the chosen one, or “that one”). So in her story of the robber on a first name basis with candidate put a B on her face. Except the B is backwards. Sort of like the B you might write on your face if you were looking through a mirror. Sure, the attacker could be dyslexic. But his 5″ knife left a pretty thick mark on her face which seems more like a fingernail scratch. And her black eye didn’t have the swollen appearance and burst blood vessels you’d expect with a sock in the eye.

But this was enough for McCain’s Pennsylvania team to run with it. She got calls from McCain and Palin personally. They were outraged and used this as part of the “we don’t know Obama” scare narrative (it almost sounded like they were saying Obama did it while he was in Hawaii with his sick grandma). To McCain/Palin this was a great win. The Obama people are turning violent with their socialist agenda.

Except it didn’t happen. She didn’t even take any money out of the ATM that night. She doesn’t know how or why it happened and she may have passed out, but she awoke to find the backwards B on her face and thought “Barack” (funny, I think it starts for batshitinsane). Her story fell apart pretty quickly which tends to happen when it is total bullshit. We’re told now she has a history of mental health problems. She was last seen being taking off to jail and a psychiatric evaluation. So now McCain/Palin are trying to distance themselves from the story and denying that they gave the story to the Pittsburgh media. But the campaign wanted this story to be true for the same reason it loved Joe the Plumber story (which turned out to be bullshit) and the Sarah Palin story (which also is turning out to be bullshit). Rather than hold off and check out the story they jump right in all Maverick style. They need a story to get people to not vote for Obama. Stories of black Obama supports beating up little white girls might still do the trick like it did back in the old days (If true, it probably would work in 2008 America too).

Then again, after it became obvious that Joe the Plumber wasn’t genuine, McCain grabbed on tighter to the story. I just hope they don’t try and make lemonade from this last set of sour lemons.

(photo from the excellent Princess Sparkle Pony)

Third, it seems that the campaign has become totally unglued and people are starting to play the blame game more than a week from the election. Once again, this picture from Princess Sparkle Pony says more than a thousand words. There are a few articles in the press than indicate McCain may be regretting the Palin decision. Today her negatives outweigh her positives in polls. The excited Republicans at the convention and in the days following hadn’t got a chance to meet Sarah Palin. Palin has gone off the reservation a few times in recent days which makes many think she’s thinking of running at the top of the ticket in 2012. If Obama does win big, the GOP has to figure out if it wants to be the party of jesus freaks that pay lip service to big business, or the party of big business that pays lip service to the jesus freaks.

Fourth, there’s a great article in the NY Times Sunday Magazine about the McCain campaign that confirms a lot of suspicions I’ve had. Running a campaign president in the early 21st century is about marketing. It is about messaging. It is about narratives. It really isn’t that much different than marketing any other product. It is about having a strong strategy and strong execution of the strategy. McCain’s campaign has been all tactics and stunts. I do think that if the McCain of 2000 was running, the race would be closer. But as Jon Stewart said the other night, that John McCain has died.

Having said all that the election is not over. It is still way too close in states that both have a strong history of voting shenanigans and rednecks (and the religious right). I’m glad to see that the Obama campaign isn’t letting its foot up off the gas and taking a victory lap quite yet. Obama will win if he can keep up the excitement generated among younger voters who historically can not be counted on to actually show up to vote. Before I pop open my champagne bottle, I want to make sure it is real. There’s still a lot of “all in” hail mary passes McCain can toss.

This morning I wake to learn that Colin Powell has endorsed Obama. It had been rumored for a while and Fox News is already saying the rationale is not because of Powell’s exhaustive reasons given this morning, but because he’s black. What a load of shit. The fact is Obama is the better candidate and the fact that he happens to have more melanin in is skin than McCain didn’t make a difference.

The New York Times this morning has an article on the Sarah Palin show — not her lame-o appearance on SNL last night — out there in the “real America.” The article focusses on the number of men (or dudes) that show up for her rallies. Although right after her name was thrown into the ring for VP, everyone was saying it was McCain’s attempt to attract women to his ticket. Most women (and 100% of the women I know) were offended by such a stunt. The US is long overdue for a woman president but she is not qualified.

Certainly, Palin is the easiest on the eyes VP candidate in the history of this republic. But that doesn’t make her qualified. Men on this planet have a history of thinking with their dicks. To the people at her rallies that seems to be enough.

But the part that makes my brain hurt is the fact that McCain is at the top of the ticket. The redneck that said “They bear us children, they risk their lives to give us birth, so maybe it’s time we let a woman lead us” seems to temporarily have forgotten that as VP, Palin wouldn’t lead anyone. McCain’s ads and his change agent rhetoric we saw in the debate and on Letterman this week also seem to forget that HE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM HE IS TALKING ABOUT! If McCain were at a Palin rally talking about her fresh approach and that other bullshit “qualifications” she has like being in the PTA, a mayor of a town that has fewer people than work in my office, a governor of a state with a smaller population than my mid-sized city. But it will be McCain at the top making all the decisions. Although she spoke of expanding the role of the VP beyond that of Cheney, I think she’ll be the anti-Cheney that aside from a few pet projects does little more than a first lady. Unless something happens to McCain which isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

The racist element of the McCain/Palin rallies is quite unsettling. Recently an Obama supporter likened McCain/Palin’s rallies to that of George Wallace. McCain hated that comparison and said it was preposterous to compare their campaign to calling for segregation. There’s a nice piece in Slate which attempts to answer if McCain and Palin are worthy of being called heirs of the legacy. To me, pretending to ignore the racial slurs at rallies and repudiate them while at the same time making robo-calls (using the same company that made slurs about McCain eight years ago) is not just hypocritical, but McCain needs the racists vote to keep this election from being a blowout. Rather tan campaign on his strengths, he takes us deeper into the mud. Although we all talk about the USA as a great melting pot, the truth is it is a racist country. The questions is will the racists get out the vote campaign that McCain/Palin is waging work. It doesn’t have to work in multicultural paradises like New York or California, but if it gets a few more to the polls in the swing states, we could wake up on Nov 5 to a McCain/Palin victory.

We’re already hearing of GOP schemes to disenfranchise primarily black and first time voters in several states. We’re already hearing of fucked up voting machines changing people’s votes from Obama to McCain.