Good Morning Bill Halter (and Primary Day)

By Glenn 



Good morning. I was tempted to make this post all about New York and all about me: driving around Brooklyn trying to find parking, what I yelled out the car window to Ground Zero and which schizophrenic homeless man who took my innocence. However, I think we need to avoid the tendency to self-indulgence and talk about the bigger things happening in the world around us. Most important for today is the primary election run-off in Arkansas between Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter and US Senator Blanche Lincoln. My younger brother Taylor is working on the campaign for Bill Halter and I feel similarly towards Blanche Lincoln as I do Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui. Therefore I am hoping to see an upset and another incumbent US Senator defeated. Maybe afterward she can release a video saying "why she did it" with the "it" being a far-right voting record and at least an initial opposition to everything in the Democratic agenda.

[Last primary day went VERY WELL so let's hope this one has similarly positive results.]


Today's Weather
Today in South Dakota, also holding elections today, it will be a high of 69 degrees with a chance of thunderstorms. Will those storms keep farmers from voting? Time will tell. In Nevada, where lunatic teabaggers are running against each other for the chance to take on Mormon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the high will be 105 degrees (and sunny). Will this unbearable heat give pause to those who already think the government is manipulating the weather to pass energy legislation? Time will tell. Finally in Hot Springs, Arkansas there will be a high of 91 degrees and a 30% chance of isolated t-storms. Will those isolated t-storms, initiated and controlled by Blanche Lincoln's Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, dampen turnout in this high-performing Halter area? TIME WILL TELL. The point here is that the weather can ruin our lives in more ways than we normally think.


The Biggest State Having a Primary Today

I miss California. Besides my sister and nephew, there was also a homeless, schizophrenic quality to the politics there. Jerry Brown is the oldest person to ever run for Governor and today he will certainly win the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side, Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay and Vector Knives, will almost certainly win the Republican nomination. She is not as old as Jerry Brown, but allegedly has never voted before very recently, possibly ever. She spent $70 million dollars of her own money to win today and will have to spend at least 5 times that to beat Jerry Brown in November. California will also have several propositions on the ballot. Their initiative process has made the state ungovernable but you have to appreciate a system where anyone with a lot of money can trick voters into approving something that will only hurt themselves.


Today's Prediction/Hopes
I predict and hope and pray to the gods that Bill Halter will win the primary in Arkansas. In California I hope the public finance initiative passes and it will. I also hope the one funded by the power company DOESN'T pass but I know it will. In Iowa I hope former governor running to be new governor Terry Brandstad loses his primary to right wing lunatic Bob Vander Plaats, whose platform includes opposition to same sex marriage, wind energy and two of Newton's three laws. The last time we had a series of state primaries across the nation, the more progressive Democrats won and so did strict constructionalist Rand Paul. Let's hope history repeats itself today.