115,300

That was the announced attendance for Saturday night's exhibition game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The (yawn) LA Dodgers returned to their original LA home to host the Evil Empire Bawstawn Red Sucks. Yes, The Yankees have been dethroned as the Evil Empire. These days there is no more arrogant a team and fans than those Fenway-ners.

Due to stadium limitations, left field was a mere 200-feet deep. As a result, there wasn't much need for a left-fielder, with both teams employing a "short-center" softball-type alignment.

The KCAL broadcast began with a snippet of 80-year-old Vin Scully's original intro to the first LA Dodger game in 1958.  The broadcast also featured bizarre camera-angles, including a repeatedly priceless shot of the back of the second base umpire every time a runner was on first. The crowd was decidedly more Dodger than I expected, since the Evil Empire tends to attract it's maniacal fans in droves all across America. But Dodger Blue was out in force, although losing the exhibition in the end.

Forty miles south, the ill-named Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of Disney de Sabado Gigante bested the real southern CA baseball powerhouse in yet another meaningless game. Attendance deep behind the Orange Curtain: 40,468.

Although it sure seemed like an awful lot of empty seats every time I paused on FSN West.

Yup, Still Here

OK, so I haven't died or anything. And I didn't get "bored" by blogdom. I just suppose I haven't been much in the mood to babble about life lately. Yes, my feelings about Palm Springs have taken a sudden spiral downward and I am not sure exactly why. 

I think I may be missing life in a Big City.

This is the first time in my life that I have lived somewhere with a population less than 2M.  DC, StL, KCMO, SD, PHX -- they all were large metropolitan cities with lots of folks and lots of "town". 

And after 22 months, I really miss all the hubbub.

Michigan and Florida

The issue has been bubbling for over a month and as the 2008 Democratic Presidential contest has made its way past various "Super" Tuesdays, suddenly everyone is babbling about what should be done to guarantee that Democratic voters in MI and FL actually count for something.

Should the results stand? Or should there be a re-vote?

Overall, Obama holds a delegate lead of 120-150, depending on who is counting. He also holds roughly a 600,000 lead in actual votes cast. There are roughly 400 "automatic" superdelegates who have yet to weigh in.

Neither candidate can reach the magic 50%+1 to claim victory without the votes of these "party leaders".

Hillary wants to count the votes cast in Michigan and Florida, contrary to party rules agreed to by all. That would net her additional delegates. More importantly, it would raise the popular vote total to nearly match the Obama Vote Total.

Florida voted on January 29 in a primary whose date was set by the Florida Republican Legislature and signed into law by sexually-ambiguous Republican Governor Charlie Crist. As a penalty, the RNC halved the Florida delegate count. The DNC voted to strip Florida of all its convention delegates. The election was still held, with Hillary jetting in on election night to claim her 50%-33% victory.  Of course, given the arcane proportional-representation delegate tally used by the DNC, the delegate breakdown was Hillary 113, Obama 71, a net +42 for Hillary

Michigan voted two weeks earlier, on January 15. The DNC also stripped them of their delegates months before the actual vote.

Obama's big mistake was removing his name from the Michigan ballot. In doing so, he lost a big chunk of "actual votes". That single bone-headed move allowed Hillary to gain 327,000 votes. "Uncommited" came in second with 237,000 votes.  And Obama got ZERO.  True, most of the "uncommitted" voters are likely Obamaniacs, but he still gets no actual votes should the January 15 results stand.  In addition, she gains 80 delegates, while Uncommited gains 55.

So, Hillary nets 25 actual delegates, although she also has a shot at the automatic superdelegates. If Michigan is not counted, the automatic delegates are invalidated.  If Michigan is seated, the automatic superdelegates are in play. At most, Hillary nets 50 total additional MI delegates.

If nothing is done and the DNC Credentials Committe votes to seat both delegation in August, Hillary gains less than 100 actual delegates. More likely, the number would be between 60-70. Seating both groups would also activate the "automatic" superdelegates. And it's unclear how they would vote.

A revote would probably help Obama in that he would gain votes in Michigan.  Having a re-vote in both states would cost $20-30M, a huge waste of funds, although motivated Democrats could probably collect the money in a week.

Obama would gain tremendously by stepping up and directing his delegates to vote to seat both delegations as is. Sure, she would nip at his overall vote total. But his delegate lead would remain in tact. And many of the automatic superdelegates would no doubt be swayed by his leadership.

I still want Hillary to win, but spending $30M to hold two do-overs is just plain dumb. 

Imagine how helpful that money would be to help drive voter turnout in November.

Gee, That Was Easy

OK, so I forgot to pay my Macys bill in February. Well, technically I didn't forget, I was late. Realizing on Feb 21 that my Due Date was Feb 19, I drove to Westfield Palm Desert and made a quick payment at one of the customer service desks.

My statement arrived today and sure enough, there was a whopping $25 Late Fee. Argggh. I figured I would give them a call and see if I could sweet-talk the customer service agent to waive the fee since I was only two days late.

Like most businesses, Macys has an automated voice recognition system on their toll-free customer service number. After answering a few questions, I selected the "billing" option. And then I was startled to hear the option "If you would like to request the removal of a Late Fee, say 'Remove'." I spoke the magic word and five seconds later, the auto-voice advised that the $25 fee had been removed "as a courtesy". Gee, that was easy. I re-checked my account balance, and sure enough, the $25 was removed from my balance.

So a five-minute phone call, made on a whim, saved me a decent chunk of change.  They probably only give you one "courtesy", so I guess I should mail in this month's payment.

KNEWS Radio Goes Local

Palm Springs is the 133rd largest media market in the United States. That puts the Coachella Valley squarely between Saginaw MI and Fayetteville AR. And a full 100 slots below Las Vegas (MM #33). And it can be quite jarring if you move here from one of the "Top Tens" (LA/NY/SF/PHX). You quickly get used to very young television reporters who last about a year before heading on to bigger markets. News anchors come and go in a blink of an eye, often heading off to San Diego (MM #17).

However, radio tends to be not all that different than most larger markets. Rampant concentration in the radio industry has led to most stations broadcasting a standard slate of formats and syndicated fare. Palm Springs has its "Jack", its "Mix", its alt-rocker "M995", and a handful of talk stations. For the most part, the talk stations divvy up the rightwing wacko pontificators. Plus, Err America plugs away at 1340AM.

Today, KNEWS radio blew up its format and began broadcasting eight (8) hours of local call-in programming (in addition to its 2 hours of daily simulcasting of KESQ news). Previously, they were producing a whopping three hours daily, two hours of Gary Stone and one hour of openly gay mentsch Bulldog Bill Feingold. Now each of them have a full three hours to babble about all things local. And to be sure the valley is covered, KNEWS broadcasts on 970AM, 1140AM and 1250AM. 

Gone are two hours of Dr. Laura, a whiny hour of Mark Levine, and a two-hour replay of the previous day's SpaceAlienShow with George Noory. Undoubtedly a few crazed oldsters will be irate for a few months, but it's refreshing to have a local station make an effort to do something new. Their website is still pretty horrid, but its nice to hear local voices on the radio rather than bombastic rightwingers wailing away. 

I started listening to "Unleashed" with Bulldog Bill Feingold about 10 months ago, a couple months after he and his lovable, but somewhat dense, sidekick Kevin Holmes moved from a weekly Saturday one-hour program to a nightly one hour chatfest. The show is a mix of local and national news and politics. During the 2007 election cycle, Bulldog dazzled by showcasing nearly all of the candidates for local office, giving even the most inept one a full hour tomake their case. 

It's not exactly the most professional sounding program, but the Bulldog shares a daily potpourri of trivia and events, highlighting the deaths of the near famous (most of whom his sidekick Kevin is clueless about). Bulldog and Kevin have a great on-air rapport. Over the past few months, the Bulldog has coached his thirty-something sidekick about yiddish, teased Kevin about his lesbian roomies and rural upbringing, mocked Kevin's impromptu drunken striptease performance, and chastised his sidekick for his many Hunters' forays.  

From time to time, they actually take callers -- usually trusty Elizabeth and ornery JD. But for the most part, it has been Bulldog musing about random-ness.

Now that his show has expanded to three hours (7PM-10PM), I suppose my evenings will be full !

Election Geek

OK, yes, I am a political junkie. Twenty-four years ago, I spent the better part of four months volunteering for the ill-fated 1984 John Glenn for President campaign. Seems like a lifetime ago, but I still fondly recall taking the Metro to The Hill and walking proudly into their Command Center at 444 North Capitol. I worked in the financial group, opening envelopes and logging checks for $1000. We had few PCs and just about everything was still done by hand, including ALPHABETIZING the check receipts. Yikes. 

Ten years later, I joined up for the ill-fated reelection campaign of Congresswoman Lynn Schenk. (Detect a trend?) I had just moved to San Diego and was eager to get involved. But it was a pretty sad operation and she ended up losing to Brian Bilbray.

So now the race between Clinton and Obama is nearing a critical test.  There are dozens, if not hundreds of websites and blogs out there chronicling every scintilla of data about the race. It can be a tad overwhelming. But I have found a great blog that chronicles what is most important" the delegate count.

2008 Democratic Convention Watch is covering the battle for delegates better than anything else I have found.  Obscure details abound.  Like the two Maine Superdelegates who didn't even live in Maine!  And the details surrounding the Florida and Michigan controversies. I love it!

And I was startled to see that, yes, Hillary Clinton is still leading in delegates IF you count the votes of Michigan and Florida. That seems to have been totally ignored by the manic media of late. The Obamaniacs seem to have taken a page from the 2000 Florida Republicans in NOT counting the votes. 

It's all potentially quite the mess, especially if Hillary holds her own in 48 hours and battles on to Pennsylvania (April 22) and - egad - to Puerto Rico (June 7). Then again, if she can't win Ohio, it's probably all going to come crashing down on her.

Stay tuned!