moving...

A subset of derek is moving....the new address will be

blog.crabrising.info and it will be powered by Wordpress.

W00T!

UPDATE: 27 Feb 2012.

My blog is located at blog.subsetofderek.com. ...and yes, it still runs Wordpress

You can't spell disenfranchisement without MI

disenfranchise(v.) - to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; especially : to deprive of the right to vote.

Michigan, you've won! And Florida, you win again!

Democrats of Michigan and of Florida, you have been denied the right to vote by the Democratic party...not the national one but the one of your own state. It was THEIR idea to move the primaries ahead against the wishes of the national party. Whether the state governments were complicit or not, the Democratic Parties of Michigan and Florida effectively disenfranchised every Democrat in those two states.

Smooth move, dorks.

I smell class action...

As far as delegates, I think that a number of delegates equal to the number of delegates that would have been assigned to Michigan and Florida should be picked from the other 48 states and DC to represent Michigan and Florida. So what they aren't from Michigan or Florida. Citizens of those states only have their local party to blame.

Howard Dean, don't succumb to them. I know you are made of sterner stuff.

I don't think...

I don't think that Dororthy Fuldheim has the right word in this instance but it sure is good for a laugh.

an update for summit county

Summit County Results

These are being updated about every 20 minutes.

School levies are taking a beating so far...

Levies in Aurora, Barberton, Nordonia Hills, Stow-Munroe Falls and Tallmadge are failing and Coventry and Manchester are passing.

The Akron Metro RTA issue is passing...for now.

The most more disgusting thing I have seen...

This is the most disgusting coverage of Barack Obama I have seen.



"If your pastor hasn't been to jail, don't trust him...". Knucklehead.

This place needs to get its tax exempt status revoked.

I could say more about him...I will, eventually once I can make it PG.

black superdelegates and the choices they make...

Black superdelegates have a hard choice to make according to the conventional wisdom. Even though I am totally in support of Senator Barack Obama, I understand the ability for the black superdelegates to choose as they see fit. I don't agree with the threats or cattiness that some Clinton supporters have faced especially since civil rights activist and current Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) switched his allegiances from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama. For once, I agree with local rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones:

I'm not trying to be a martyr. I think Senator Clinton is the best candidate. And the beauty of the United States of America is you have the right to have your opinion, and I have the right to my opinion.

Source: MSNBC

blogging at WKYC -- The Primary

I am again with Meet The Bloggers blogging about the election results at WKYC Channel 3, Cleveland -- the people that brought you Hickory Hideout.

Tim White is out with a sore throat so batting relief is the voice of the Browns (no, not Doug Dieken) Jim Donovan (who I just got to meet and is a closet political junkie). We also go to meet Romona Robinson (yes, she is that tall) and Tom Beres. It's kind of cool because I have been a northeast Ohioan my whole life.

first woman president as a sea change...

I disagree with Hillary's assertion that her being the first woman to become president is a sea change. If it were some other woman, perhaps.

Hillary, to me, represents the status quo.

Farrakhan, Obama and anti-semitism...

Barack does NOT have to defend or assuage the Jewish community. I am sorry. This line of questioning is bullshit. Why do black leaders have to field this question? I don't see them

I don't see anyone defending themselves because Senator Byrd supports them, given his former involvement with the KKK.

I don't see anyone defending their marital fidelity when Newt Gingrich supports them.

Obama and Clinton racially..

I do think that race matters somewhat in this race but it isn't the preeminent issue that some media outlets will have you believe. It's kind of the low-hanging fruit of this campaign.

Senator Obama has won states with very few blacks. Senator Obama has won states with lots of blacks. I think Ohio is just kind of backwards and they are buying into the Hillary Kool-Aid...but that's changing.

same answer, different vibe...

Senator Obama gave the same answer of Senator Clinton on NAFTA but he sounded relaxed and mellow...Senator Clinton did not.

NAFTA

Clinton bristles a bit at being asked the question first. Well, she's to the left (where she's sitting) and she's first in alphabetical order so of course she's getting questions first.

Obama makes the connection to fair trade and consumer protections.

...and that is the question...

On health care...

Senator Obama has just mentioned that a universal mandate would play into insurers hands creating automatic demand. I definitely agree. It would be more difficult to hold them accountable.

Welcome back to Cleveland, Tim Russert...

Tim Russert, of Meet the Press and Brian Williams' right hand man in this debate, has a connection to the area. He is an alum of both John Carroll U and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

HILLARY IS NOT BILL....

The thing that bugs me about this election cycle is how people think that just because they shared matrimonial vows that former President Clinton and Senator Clinton are politically one in the same.

I think that they are very different politically and as people. Bill strikes me as a person who very easily vibes with people...Hillary...well, not so much.

focus...

Joel Libava gave me an idea that's been running through my head. Maybe I should focus on a particular area...

Of special interest to me in this debate is race, class , who locally is supporting who and why, education funding and support and aid for the working to middle class (here's a gauge...if the thought of not having a paycheck for a whole month scares you, you are working-to-middle-class).

Liveblogging @ channel 3

From The Melting Pot in Lyndhurst to another melting pot...

...except some of Northeast Ohio's finest and most prolific bloggers are nothing like the fondue I had at my work meeting (which I hustled -- thanks to my understanding boss and coworkers for their support) but less than an hour ago.

I sit here with George Nemeth, Tim Ferris, Joel Libava (The Franchise King), Will and Laura Kessel, Roger Bundy and Gloria Ferris, all writing about the goings-on here tonight at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University.

I will start tonight's blogging by saying I have decided to throw my support behind Barack Obama. While I respect Senator Clinton as a statesperson, I do think that the change in approach Senator Obama represents is necessary for the dire situation our country is in after our current president's tenure.

Charles Barkley for Barack Obama

Charles Wade Barkley...

I recently read his Barack Obama chapter in his book "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man" and I really appreciate the chapter. I think that Charles Barkley is a very straight shooter and the best power forward ever. I think that seeing Barack as president would do wonders for the self-esteem of some of the kids out there with no hope.

I love Barkley's take about judgemental conservatives as "fake Christians". When Wolf asks him if he feels comfortable about his stance, he says, "I don't work for them." Classic.

Race and BHO (Barack H. Obama)

One issue that keeps coming up in this race for the top job in the most racially charged country in the world is race. If Senator Barack Obama left the race now, we know he has already traversed uncharted territory. No black person has ever done this well (Yes, Jesse, this includes you. Come on, man...Hymietown? What in the hell were you thinking? But, hey, you weren't presidential material anyway...) in a race for the presidency. As of this post, Senator Barack Obama, including pledged superdelegates (that's another story entirely) is LEADING Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by 42 delegates (Source: CNN ).

But, there is one refrain that I hear from some black people...

...Barack's not black or Barack's not black enough.

Legendary NBA coach (and former Cavaliers coach) Lenny Wilkens said in his autobiography that he recognized that America will see him as a black man but he knows as well that he is the sum of his black father and Irish Catholic mother and both are inextricable parts of who he is. Barack's boat is similar, being of similar lineage. But, what Barack has that many of us black Americans don't have is a direct and distinct tie to the motherland. Let's not forget his father is African while many African-Americans who claim to have two black parents are more racially diluted than they know -- or care to admit. So whether he's biologically black enough
is moot.

Socially, I believe that many black people put restrictions on who they are and what they can be because they simply think "Oh, black people just don't do that." What if Willie O'Ree (the first black player in the NHL - 50 years this year, as a matter of fact) said hockey isn't for black people? What if Shani Davis said speedskating isn't for Black people? What if Ben Carson said being a surgeon isn't for Black people? What if Mae Jemison said being an astronaut isn't for Black people?

Sen. Obama, like the people previously mentioned, are expanding Black people's expectations of their own abilities. They are showing young kids in general, and young black kids in particular that your only limit to what you can be is your willingness to work and your drive to find who you are. Others' preconceived notions about the limitations about black people (even from black people) don't matter.

This isn't why I am supporting Barack for president but it is part of why I always liked him as a man.

Hillary the Bigot?

...that's how they want you to see her. Do I think that Hillary's lauding the civil rights record of LBJ (no, not LeBron James, Lyndon B. Johnson) was offensive? No. I just happen to think she's incorrect. But, people are quickly painting her as belittling Dr. King.

Senator Clinton doesn't have the power to step on the legacy of Dr. King and I don't think she was trying to. Many true bigots and hateful people couldn't and I don't think Senator Clinton is a hateful person. I respect her a great deal and I support her...but not for president.

These are the things we DON'T need to be focusing on. We need to be more issues oriented. Barack, John, Hillary and Dennis, let's stick to the issues. Forget all of these people who want to see you all duke it out. They don't matter, I don't care who they are.

Favre 1, Arnold 0 F

Ok, it's over.

The Brett Favre hatefest is officially over.

My boys often harass me for my disdain for Brett Favre. I rooted for him when the Pack was in the Super Bowl but I was turned of by his wishy-washiness about retiring.

But, good is good, and Favre is good...very good.

There, I said it.

But they are still going to lose the Super Bowl to the Jags.

The Night the Spark Went Out in Louisiana

"We played a lot tougher teams, mentally tougher. When they got down, they shut it down."
--LSU safety Harry Coleman

When a backup safety says these kinds of things, something's wrong. It's one thing to play hard and fall via a missed field goal or a pass just out of the reach of a receiver's grasp away from victory. This fate befell the Browns. But, over the last 15 games, the Browns went 10-5 and showed considerable heart, even in defeat. Sure, they made mistakes but they showed guts and stayed in the game.

Unlike the Buckeyes.

I have said, get up on a Jim Tressel team, they fold like a poorly constructed house of cards. When you see a team implode like that, you have to look at leadership. College is about building character but folding under pressure runs counter to that end.

Dare I say it....fire. Fire. Jim. Tressel.

Summit County and Mass Transit

I posted this at BFD.

It's about mass transit and Summit County, Ohio.

reaping and sowing

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7 KJV)

I am not a biblical scholar but this statement has been proven true way more than it hasn't. (That God, she's pretty smart, you know.)

I thought of that phrase when I heard about the beating of Kevin McDermott of Shaker Heights a few days ago around E 146th and Onaway, near the Shaker - Cleveland border by multiple assailants. Articles such as this one, took a really sad tone, a tone that said "Oh my God, senseless crime in the suburbs? How could that be? This only happens to them...over there". Listen, our world could be a lot safer and many people, like Mr. McDermott, are casualties of miscreant perpetrators. With any issue, we have to find its' source and its' source is... the very suburbs that were supposedly immune to these types of acts.

Why? How? The American suburb, for many, was used as an escape hatch to flee the poor, the less educated and the different, for some. Some people had growing families and didn't have the room to expand in the city, which happens. But many people, didn't run to the suburbs as much as they ran away from the city. Instead of helping to solve the problems, they ran and left it to those that couldn't to solve the problems. Lack of educational opportunities and lack of hope turn hopeful, imaginative children into guys that walk around looking for some guy to beat up in Shaker Heights.

I am sure critics are thinking "Oh sure, blame society. Why couldn't they be more responsible." I think they should be too but it's pretty hard when you were never taught or if you felt like being negative was a better choice than being positive. It's too late for Mr. McDermott's attackers, they must reap the consequences of their violence once they are apprehended. But, as long as people run from neighborhoods instead of working with and respecting the people in them (it's not just about fixing housing stock, people) better, we will continue to get what we get.

Some first post of the year, eh?