collective

today is the first day in october. i perceive this post as somewhat of a milestone in my Los Angeles career on account of having posted in a third month. i set my goal for blogging at once a week or better and i have managed that, on average, since august 30. building on this effort, i want to set a new goal while keeping with my old one. the new one is to have friends post at least one response per post of mine, on average. partly, i want to see the readership that i supposedly get; right now, seeing two people in a week write me something other than "how's LA" and, instead, something significant, really makes a difference.

if i haven't lost you already in this post (i know that my language here doesn't exactly follow traditional norms of even web-writing), keep reading...

a friend of mine wrote me an email the other day recognizing how significant this weekend is because of the regionals tournament going on in little rock. as of this publishing, chain is supposedly beating vicious cycle in the finals. good luck, also, to ozone and the team that both amanda bennet and anne brauer play on. other than agreeing with said friend who emailed me, i can't do much. i could have hiked back up to griffith park, but i failed so miserably last weekend at getting to the pick-up game that a repeat would only send me into a deep, dark "i hate public transportation" mood. and, i've been doing alright without that mood.

next up, i just want to address the upcoming elections. my point of view is seriously skewed by the "results" of the last three elections and by the liberal-dominated media sources, including the Nation magazine, left-leaning talk shows, and lefty friends/co-workers. indisputably, however, the last three elections have revealed deep flaws in the voting (casting, counting, re-counting, and reporting) systems here in the USA. furthermore, the congressional success of right-wingers in the last ten years (see Newt Gingrich's victories for the house starting in '96) leads me to doubt any major media outlet's report on the supposed vulnerability of the ultra-conservative state and national GOPs.

the explanation i'm developing for why democrats, the left side of national political thinking, have failed for ten or so years (give or take an Obama) has to do with the crazed self-interest the conservatives fight for and the strange interest-in-the-other push on the part of the liberals. let me rephrase that: democrats, including myself, have learned to fight for the working class, for minorities, for immigrants, and against corporate irresponsibility and "small government." but, the truth is that most democratic politicians are not immigrants, minorities, or in the working class. their efforts, then, are guided by an interest in policies that benefit people other than themselves. conservatives don't do this... they've fighting for themselves and their closest kin (dick cheney and haliburton, just to name the most blatant) and they're successful mostly because they are sincere and truthful about what will benefit their "constituents:" a war, a tax cut (or two), and more. but democrats have had a real hard time understanding, framing, phrasing, and winning on the policies that benefit others.

one more thing, i joined a bike collective yesterday. i'll be fixing a bike to my liking over the next month or so and learn from volunteers and other riders how.

if you're not registered to vote, please visit this website.