I Write Letters

Today, the Adler e-mail form got several form letters from individuals outraged that Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leaders recently. Personally, I don't know enough about the subject to have an opinion one way or another, but it always amazes me what the Right will get all in a huff about, especially given the very real problems Americans face today.

So I found out where the form letters were coming from and used the form myself. Of course, I might have gone off the script a bit:

April 23, 2008

[recipient address was inserted here]


Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

Former Democrat President Jimmy Carter met with the terrorist organization Hamas last week despite requests from the Bush administration not to interfere in Middle East peace negotiations.

Whoopie-friggin'-doo. I couldn't care less where Jimmy Carter went and who Jimmy Carter talked to. Hopefully it will get peace talks moving froward, but if not, then all he did was waste some frequent flyer miles. And seriously, with approval numbers like Bush has, who really cares what the Bush Administration wants private citizens to do.

But in case you were wondering where all of today's spam e-mail on Jimmy Carter came from, it's here:
http://www.capwiz.com/gopusa/issues/alert/?alertid=11286276&PROCESS=Take+Action

There was one good line in the whole form letter system:

"Americans are outraged!"

They are outraged that they're paying $3.50 or more for a gallon of gas while Exxon-Mobile is making record profits. They are outraged that millions of Americans can't afford health care. They are outraged that we've lost 4,000 lives and wasted half a trillion dollars on an unnecessary war in Iraq.

The people who are bitching about Jimmy Carter need to get a little perspective if that's what sets them off. And I hope you maintain yours as well if you haven't already lost it.

Sincerely,

Jim Griffin

This is what happens when you diss the caucus states

If you're not a political super-junkie, you might not realize that when Iowa held its caucuses on January 3, that was only the first step in a four step process. The delegates selected on that day were for the county caucuses that happened yesterday. The county caucuses do the exact same thing that they did at the precinct caucuses, with the possibility of people shifting their votes to other candidates. The delegates selected at the county conventions then go on to the district and state conventions, where the actual delegates are selected.

In years past, the county conventions really didn't mean much, since the candidate had pretty much been decided by the time they roll around. In fact, the county convention is usually the step in the process where the presumptive nominee gains all of the Iowa delegates. But this year is anything but ordinary, and a funny thing happened today in Iowa - Barack Obama picked up 9 delegates over Hillary.

From the AP:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up at least seven delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention.

Half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday and Obama got most, if not all, of them.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with more than 86 percent of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared to 32 percent for Clinton. About 16 percent of the delegates picked at Saturday's conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he's dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January.

Democratic Party projections said the results mean Obama increased by seven the number of delegates he collects from the state, getting a total of 23 compared to 14 for Clinton and seven for Edwards, with one to be decided.

I guess saying that a state doesn't count isn't a winning strategy for picking up delegates when every single one matters. Go figure!

Also, a note to the AP - let's not let the Clinton campaign edit your articles anymore, m'kay?

Twelve automatic delegates bring the state's total to 57. Obama has been endorsed by four of those and Clinton three, with the remainder uncommitted.

No matter how many times Mark Penn & Co say it, they are not "automatic delegates," they are "superdelegates," and undemocratic.

The Griffin Plan for Municipal Consolidation

I think that Governor Corzine is on the right track when it comes to using the stick to force small municipalities to consolidate. It makes little sense to have 3 towns of 4,000 people, each with it's own tax collectors and police department and mayor, when you can have one town of 12,000 with a single system of taxes, police coverage and local politicians - a much more cost efficient system. The State's budget problems are not at the State level - it's getting really hard to find anything else to cut in State services given that it's only about 1/6 of the entire budget. The problems lie in the gross inefficiencies brought about by home rule. Given that, I think we need a fair, balanced system for deciding which towns get to stay and which ones have to merge.

Five simple rules:

1. No towns with less than 10,000 people. If you don't get merged because of one of the other rules of this system, you're going to have to either join a bigger town or find a neighbor in the same boat to merge with.
2. Every county is limited to 15 municipalities. Therefore we will have at most 315 municipalities after the merge.
3. Every town must have a unique name. All of those Washingtons and Franklins - this one's meant for you. This is more of a means to ending the confusion when telling someone to meet you in Washington and then having to specify a county.
4. Neighboring towns sharing a core place in their names must combine. North Brunswick, South Brunswick, East Brunswick and New Brunswick - congratulations, you are now the City of Brunswick! Same goes for all of the Seasides, Cape Mays, and Oranges.
5. Adios, Bogota. Originally, I thought of this to prevent Steve Lonegan from being a Mayor anymore. Now it's just punishment for having elected him Mayor in the first place.

Eventually I'll get around to applying these rules and seeing how many towns we actually would have afterwards.

And while we're at it, let's merge the school districts into 21 county districts.