modern optics

+ heather wilson (R-NM) this is the last one i'll post. this ad is just a clip from a live debate that wilson did with patricia madrid, her democratic challenger and new mexico's current attorney general (an office which is elected statewide). madrid is currently running a good 3-5 points ahead of wilson, who has held the seat, which encompasses the albequerque metropolitan area, for several terms. madrid totally flubs an easy question on taxes, and it could be fatal. i feel so terrible for the woman. i've been watching it over and over again... she completely blanks when asked for some proof that she won't raise taxes. she totally collapses. maybe she had a bad moment, maybe she's an idiot. the correct answer to the question, of course, is: "elections are all about faith and trust. obviously, as someone who has not sat in congress before, i do not have a record to defend. the voters of this district will have to take my word on this issue - that i will not vote to raise taxes - and i do not say that lightly. your record, however, is clear. you are a sycophantic twit who votes in lockstep with a moron who has plunged this nation into the most ill-advised conflict since hitler's invasion of stalingrad. we're stuck with his ass in the white house for two more years, but we can kick yours to the curb next tuesday. fuck you." of course, that's easy for me to say: i'm not running for congress.

i did win my election to the board of governors, however. 223-190. turnout was up about 300% from the last senate byelection, when i won with only 72 votes. this might have been my last campaign at SFU.

+ i finished delillo's libra. it's got an incredible intensity and pace for a novel the ending of which inspires and defines the entire text, and which every reader is completely and intimately aware, i.e. the kennedy assasination. it might be delillo's most focused and coherently structured novels, aside from the body artist, which is entirely different in intent.

now i'm finishing the power game, which is all about the reagan white house and power structures in washington d.c. with a focus on their evolution to 1988. i'm also working through alice munro's something i've been meaning to tell you.

+ as far as SFU in general, i feel that we're reaching the end game. it's not even a question of momentum any more - it's largely (and deliciously) out of my hands. now i can start working productively for my student society again without my motives and credibility being impinged. if anyone has the right to conflate their ego with the health of the society as a whole, which i think is a bad idea regardless, it's me and MY friends, not some two-bit hack who just waltzed this spring and still doesn't get it. we've paid our goddamn dues, thank you.