I just got home from a week in New Mexico. My goodness, what a beautiful and fascinating state that is. Anyone ever been to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument? It’s like walking into Oz, or a fantasy comic book, or a sci-fi movie. Mind-blowing. And Taos Pueblo. Like stepping about 1,000 years into the past.
There was so much to do there that I watched literally about 10 minutes of TV the whole time. And in that tiny amount of TV watching, I saw about three different ads for Governor Bill Richardson, who is up for reelection this year. Anyone know why he’s blanketing the airwaves with TV ads at this early date?
So, anything interesting happen here while I was gone? Same old, same old…?
Please share widely!
Did you catch Barack Obama‘s speech at the Take Back America conference? The first part is similar to speeches he’s given before, I think, but the entire thing gives me hope that American oratory will rise again.
bill richardson wants to “run for president” in 08. he has tons of dough. his goal is to win a huge election victory now. hence spend not just to win but to win by a wide margin; use that “mandate” to get more national press; use national press to do the serious 2008 fundraising; use that to vie for VP nod, the real goal.
yes
The SJC announced that it would hear the Benjamin LaGuer case. This is going to be BIG. Ben has been in prison for 23 years for a crime he did not commit. His pro bono lawyer, James C. Rehnquist, filed for a new trial based on the fact that the commonwealth hid an exculpatory fingerprint report for 18 years. A Superior Court judge and the Appeals Court seemed to think that was okay. Now the SJC is going to take another look. It should be fascinating. You can read a lot more about the case at http://www.benlaguer.com. There is a DNA angle to LaGuer’s story that makes it doubly interesting. I’ll be blogging on that as the SJC hearing (which hasn’t been scheduled yet) draws nearer.
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And New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment. Sounds like you had a great trip. Welcome back.
As you probably noticed, this was a tough week in Boston. After the ships landed on top of the Pru, the cops went up to investigate. They found nothing, so Mayor Menino attempted a “diplomatic mission” to speak with the alien leader. He tripped on his way into the ship, and the aliens interpreted as an attack.
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After taking him hostage, they deployed tousands of 3-story-high robot-troopers into the financial district, looting and pillaging and drinking all the Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. With the workers’ source of caffeine gone, Boston commerce ground to a halt, and thousands of desperate pin-striped men and women invaded Cambridge via the Beacon Hill and the Longfellow Bridge. The robots chased after them and attempted to destroy the State House on their way, but when cheers went up from the fleeing populace, the robots, stopped, confused, and resumed their chase.
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Upon entering Cambridge, the coffee-crazed financiers rivaled the robots in sheer destructive power. ripping through any small cafe or restaurant for caffeination. A few enterprising MIT students sought to stem the destruction, creating a machine that could brew coffee from beef. But when they introduced it to the public, they were immediately set upon by the robots and finanial-district workers, as well as a small contingent of vegetarians and an even smaller set of angry cows. The machine was destroyed in the ensuing tumult, and the studentswent into hiding in the tunnels beneath the school.
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Politicians struggled to find a response. The Cambridge City Council passed a resolution comdeminng the aliens, but because the City Manager was busy, nothing happened. BMG readers launched into furious discussions about whether Gabrieli or Patrick would better fight the aliens. The guys from Hubpolitics claimed that the aliens were clearly big-government liberals.
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High-level communications with the alien ship resumed. The alien leader pledged to release Menino and call off the robots if the state government would meet one demand: to surrender Mitt Romney’s hair, which the alien’s hoped to use as a prototype for an impenetrable yet stylish battle helmet. Romney, who was out of state, refused, but after pressure from the national Republican Party, he announced that he had never objected to giving up his hair and would be pleased to show such interplanetary leadership. With Jane Swift as his escort, he rode to the top of the Pru by helicopter, where Ann Romney shaved his head as Jon Keller gave insightful commentary (“She’s cutting off his hair now! Let me tell you about my last haircut…”) With Romney’s headgear removed, Menino was released from his bonds, and the robots returned to the ship. It soon took off in a blaze of light.
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Now that it’s been a few days, things have more or less gotten back to normal. Romney immediately returned to Iowa, Menino is back to grocery shopping in Hyde Park, and the MIT students who build the coffee machine have written an awesome Livejournal post about the whole thing. Teams from Seattle arrived and began to treat the crazed financial workers with intravenous caffeine, restoring calm by the next morning. Chris Gabrieli announced that he would create 100,000 new jobs for the financial workers to rebuild their former workplaces, and Deval Patrick will give them a rousing speech each morning. Christy Mihos will broadcast the reconstruction on his website.
FCG – outstanding analysis of events!
Thanks, Peter. As I read it over, I realize that it’s filled with typos and such, but so it goes. And I feel that I didn’t get into some of the long-term ramifications of certain developments, like the impact on coffee-growing countries of the revolutionary new beef-beverage technology, but whatcha gonna do?