The (Almost) Daily Comments and Musings from Dave

Well, I guess this was predictible: the Democrats are now complaining about the Taco Bell "election," which is actually a very clever advertising campaign for their stores and products. It's "unfair," and they seen some kind of convoluted conspiracy afoot because Arnold owns some stock in in one of their suppliers. See the whole stupid story here.

Earth to California Democrats: lighten up. Taco Bell does NOT control the election outcome. This is a fun promotion, it isn't the real thing. Or, have you lost all sense of reality? Talk about unhinged..............

In case you missed it, the Taco Bell voting booth is located here.

The life cycle of a news story.

TACO BELL UPDATE: I just noticed the Taco Bell voting booth lists Arnold as a "Beef Crunchy Taco" while Gray-Out Davis is listed as a "Chicken Soft Taco." Is that a not-so-subtle jab at Davis and his pencil-neck image?

I think I'm seeing the lay of the land as far as the Arnold campaign:
1. Don't even mention the opposition, much less attack them.
2. Don't get all wrapped up in details--he himself said "the people don't care about figures," and I think he is right.
3. Stay away from props: Cruz merely looked silly the other day with that big stupid chart.
4. Smile a lot, have a ready joke or quip, look relaxed (which you can't say for any of the other stiffs in this race).
5. Stay in control of the press conferences (he did very well on Wednesday).

Barring something from left field, or something stupid, I think Arnold will be the next Governor of California.

Now that Davis and Arnold have both spoken, all the pundits, bloggers, political wonks, you name it, have weighed in with their reviews. As I read them, I couldn't help thinking if these were movie reviews, Davis' film would already be headed for video, while Arnold's would be headed to an extended road show. The comments were that striking. Davis is road-kill at this point.

FUN STUFF: Here's the newest design in voting booths!

UPDATE: Fresh off his 'rousing' speech, now the Pay-Per-View Governor wants to have YOU over for cocktails. 10:40 AM

Yeah, I watched it. It was vintage Gray Davis, uninteresting, uninspired, and in full "blame everyone else but me" mode. Given in front of a rent-a-mob, in the form of union hacks, who actually had to be cued as to when to cheer or boo, the whole thing came off as somewhere between lame and forced.

The centerpiece was the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" canard. If Davis and his henchmen think this will swing voters, they are in for a rude shock come October 7th.

Here's the latest from Caracas!

I'm off to the races !

The signature gathering for the recall petition was largely Internet-driven to about the two-thirds point. Presently, it is the Internet, and more specifically the bloggers, who have the most current news and insights available. If you see it on the evening TV news or read it in the paper, that's old news, anywhere from 4 to 15 hours or more in the past. This may well be the first political election/vote deriving a great deal of energy from the 'Web.

Virtually every mention of Gray Davis, whether in print, TV or on the 'Web routinely prefixes his name with "California's Unpopular Governor" (or similar). Davis could rightly claim media bias, and the prefixes only serve to keep reminding people of the situation. That's a pretty weak position to start from.

So far, this recall is like some dwarf star, sucking in all heat and light. Al Gore gives a speeh on the day when it was All-Arnold, All The Time, and no one cares. The Nine Dwarfs are now on page 21C with the classified ads. Davis shows up for a bill-signing and people only talk about how big the margin of recall will be. Even the mainstream Media seems to think this is a done deal as far as the actual recall itself. Amazing!

UPDATE: Uh-oh, I shouldn't have mentioned the Nine Dwarfs. Feeling neglected, they now chime in on the recall (only way they can get some coverage, I suppose),

All the major Democratic candidates, as well as all the minor ones except John Edwards and Bob Graham, attended a union-sponsored forum in Philadelphia yesterday, where, Reuters reports, every one of them "blasted California's recall campaign," saying the Golden State is, in the "news" service's words, "being swept by the same right-wing tactics used against Democrats in Florida and Texas and during the impeachment of former President Clinton."

Ooooh! Strong Stuff! Read the rest of the story here. Next thing we know, the recall will be blamed for global warming.

FURTHER UPDATES: Now GOD may become involved with the recall.

EVEN MORE UPDATES: The John F Kerry Presidential campaign is now DOOMED !!!!!!

Especially for those of you outside California, you've been seeing words like "circus," "chaos," "confusion," and let me be the first to tell you: this is nothing more than Talking Points from Gray Davis and his henchmen, and aided and abeted by Big Media.

When one takes a sober view of the chronology of events, actually things have been proceeding in an orderly manner for the most part: a recall movement, based on 1913 state laws was launched, the recall gathered enough signatures and was certified for the ballot, a window of time was alloted for candidate applications, and all such applications will be certified or not this Wednesday by the Secretary of State. Meanwhile, the individual counties are getting set-up for the election, various final dates have been set for voter registration, absentee ballots, etc, with the election scheduled for 7 October. I find it very hard to see any "chaos" or "confusion" in any of this.

The only "chaos" were the lawsuits, launched by Entrenched Special Interests, in an attempt to get the courts to do a New Jersey-like end run around the voters. Those were all denied, and are now forgotten.

National Media has consistently refused to print or broadcast the real story of what is happening here: it is a populist revolt against the political status quo in this state, and it is broad-based. There is no such thing as any kind of Right Wing Conspiracy, especially when you consider that over a third of the people signing the recall petitions are registered Democrats. And, the final ballot will reflect every major and minor party in this state.

This is something outside of the control of the professional politicians, and their allies in Big Labor and Vested Interests. The people, for once are running the show, and the powers that be don't like that one bit. My take is this is the best thing to happen around this place in a very long, long time.

Ah, yes, the peasants are storming the castle, armed not only with pitch forks, but with the Mother of All Recalls.

I went back to the page discussing the new On30 C-16 model and spent time reading everything. First, I note the heavy emphasis on the sound features. In fact, that's pushed ahead of any discusson or description of the details. Personally, sound was/is something I've never found to be that big a deal. It's OK, but after awhile, I find it grating.

I'm more interested in the physical model, its details, construction and drive train. As I said the other day, the domes on this sample are in need of some attention. I'd also like to know more of the specific details for this model, as the itemized list doesn't really go into any depth.

My early take on this is that it will most likely lend itself to kit-bashing and super-detailing, and yes, we have lots of C-16 parts available. I'd vote for them doing two models, a stripper, less all sound stuff, and painted versions with sound for people who might want that.

I note they say there are three C-16s in existence. I know about the 268 and 278, what's/where's the third one??

UPDATE: Well, it just doesn't get any better than this. I think we are seeing the start of a political revolution here in California. This state has been so caught up with the special-interest influences, that it was bound to unravel at some point in time, and apparently we've reached that point. So, we bid fond farewell to our Pay-Per-View Governor and strike out in a new direction.

Upate: Oooh, more lawsuits here in California regards the recall! Whatta' Surprise! Should be an interesting week.

I took a look at the pilot model photo for the On30 C-16 2-8-0, which is supposed to be here later in the year. At a quick glance, the domes and stack are terribly out of wack, and the air compressors are spaced too far apart. Since this is a sample, perhaps some of this will be fixed prior to production. We'll have proper parts available in any event.

Well, Ah-Nuld says next Wednesday for the big announcement one way or 'tother, and I notice the Democratic "Front" is starting to crumble, with some making noises like they might break ranks and run. I thought this would happen, as our Dear Leader Gray doesn't have the sway over the troops he thought he had. Big problem for everyone now is if they wait on Ah-Nuld, that gives them a window of ony three days to get the paperwork filed.

Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall in some of the meetings now being held? I sure would!

It seems everyone these days is setting up a "Web Log," commonly called a "blog." I've seen all kinds of blogs, anywhere from pure politics, to what recipies a lady is currently working on. Some of the commentary goes on for paragraphs at a time, others seem to limit themselves to a few lines, others post throughout the day.http://www.montereyhistoric.com/

I've given some thought to setting up a separate page from the the others I have, simply to give a place for some comments and musings as I see fit. Some of it will have to do with the business, other comments might be very far afield from model railroading.

We'll give this a try for a while. If you wish to respond to something, feel free to send an email. HOWEVER, please indicate whether or not we can publish your comments. And, in any event, I'll only publish a first name, to keep it clean and simple.