The New York Mets, or, Yet Another Way In Which Mr. Trend Was Ahead of the Curve

The Cleveland Indians are and always will be my first baseball team. That said, living in New York turned me into a pretty strong Mets fan, for better and for worse (though being a lifelong Indians fan has made me relatively immune to what Mets fans think is severe suffering). With the Metropolitans as my second team, I quickly invested a decent amount of emotion and energy into them, and ever since the firing of Willie Randolph, I've insisted the Mets need a purging, not so much because I was a major Randolph partisan, but rather because of the fact that Minaya handled it about as terribly as one could. Ever since then, I've never missed a chance when with friends to call for Minaya's firing and the removal of Jerry Manuel (not out of ill will, but out of a desire for a completely fresh start).

Thus, I'm glad to see the major national media finally starting to get on board with what fans have known for a long time: that the Mets need to ditch Minaya, Manuel, and all related personnel, and begin a major rennovation (new ownership would be nice, too, though that's less likely).

"This is HARD! I am in a pickle!"

So, after a year and a half in New York City, I am heading back to Albuquerque in a couple of weeks in an effort to get my dissertation finished on time. There will be things about New York I'll miss, and things I absolutely won't; likewise, there are things I look forward to again in New Mexico, and some things I dread.

However, my move has stuck me with quite a devilish problem. My current haunt is having a mayoral election this year, in which I have the chance to try to bring down a would-be king. Since I will only be gone temporarily (roughly a year), and as a New York taxpayer for 2009, I could vote absentee.

However, Albuquerque is having a mayoral election this October, where I have the chance to vote against the contemptible Martin Chavez as he seeks a fourth (guh!) term. The number of times I cursed Chavez and his policies, his rhetoric, his lies, and his self-serving actions (including posting firetrucks in front of his house during a wildfire, "just in case," while others on his street were fighting off the fire with garden hoses) in my first round in New Mexico are numerous; to be involved in Chavez's final downfall would be so sweet. I'll be there early enough that I could vote at the beginning of October in an effort to eliminate Marty from the chance of even a run-off, and even if he made it to the second round, it would be one more chance to get rid of Mayor Marty.

You, dear reader, can see my problem here: two elections, two absolutely contemptible men who absolutely need to be removed from office, and I can only vote in one of the two elections. Decisions, decisions.....

Bush's Incompetence on Film

By chance this week, I watched When the Levees Broke in my Hurricane Katrina in Historical Perspective class and then No End in Sight at home. These two films are great documents to show the historical incompetence of the Bush administration. Plenty of people have talked about both films so I won't go into much detail here. But I think watching them back to back is extremely powerful.

When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee's documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is possibly the best documentary I have ever seen. That's a strong statement I know. But that film has unbelievable power. It's actually not that great for discussion I think, or at least it wasn't with me leading it, because it is just too overwhelming. After each of the 4 episodes, one just feels completely devastated. Michael Eric Dyson, in his book about Katrina, Come Hell or High Water, explores Kanye West's assertion that George Bush doesn't care about black people. Essentially, Dyson says, that regardless of Bush's actual feelings toward African-Americans, he doesn't care about them as a political group. That disinterest dominated hurricane relief efforts. As we all know, relief was slow and inadequate and hundreds if not thousands of people died as a direct result. In the aftermath, Bush was conducting fundraisers and talking about Iraq, Cheney was hanging out on his ranch in Wyoming, and Condi was shopping. None of them cared. Today, Hurricane Katrina relief funds are running out with most of the city not yet rebuilt and much not even cleaned up. Nothing more is coming either. Disgusting.

Watching No End in Sight only reinforced When the Levees Broke. Again viewing the aftermath of the Iraq invasion and the multiple ways the Bush administration sabotaged their own war through ideology, contempt for the Iraqis, inexperience, incompetence, disinterest, malfeasance, and idiocy. While I still believe that it is a very hard case to make that this administration is the worst in American history, it sure is awfully close and I pray the worst in my lifetime. Because I don't want to live through something worse.

I was thinking about Fahrenheit 9/11 after watching these films. The problem with that movie is the conspiracy theory aspect to it. Why focus on conspiracy theories when this administration has done so many horrible things that are easily documented and clear to the public? Accusing it of conspiracies almost serves its interest because it draws attention from their actual evil.