to feel or not to feel... sorry for me

reasons to feel sorry for me:

1) i'm in sacramento
2) my cell phone won't charge
3) i took a _huge_ pay cut this week
4) i traveled to four offices, in four cities, in two days to ask people i work with to take a pay cut
5) those people were mean to me

reasons to not feel sorry for me:

1) i'm in sacramento for the california democratic convention!
2) my cell phone is off
3) i now have a 4-day work week
4) i have been in four cities in the past two days
5) i got to see some asshole get kicked off a train today and it was _awesome_!

see, there's always a bright side

~k

gavin's gonna run

yay! i have a new campaign project! gavin newsom announced this morning that he's running for governor. and it's not that i really doubted he was going to run, but now that it's official, i can feel things heating up. and it's because i really like gavin newsom.

yes, he's had some growing pains (he had an affair with his campaign manager's wife (oops)) and he's made mistakes, but he's got a great energy policy, he's committed to health care reform (universal health care laws passed in san francisco), he's got innovative ideas for education reform, and he fights for marriage equality (and may deserve some credit for things progressing as they have these past few years). plus, he's a normal guy (with really great hair), he had a fairly normally difficult life as a kid of divorced parents. he paid for college for student loans, and started out in a typical new-grad medicore job.

all that talk about him being a rich kid isn't entirely true. his family may've had connections to the getty family, which did add some benefit, but it's not like the getty's passed around sacks of cash to their less fortunate friends. the getty family later invested in all of gavin's businesses, but let's give the mayor _some_ credit for having the good sense to make the right connections and the good fortune to possess a pretty solid business savvy. i mean, one of his ventures is 'plump jack' and that winery pumps out one helluva cab.

and on top of all that, he's got his heart in the right place, has a good vision for returning california to her rightful place as the greatest, most golden, and most innovative state in the world, and i share that vision. and that passion. everything else will come together because of the greater 'us'.

i think he'll be good for california because, though he's no obama, he has the ability to respark that fire those of us new to politics found burning inside of us. we want better and we're willing to fight for it. and from what i can tell, we're on the winning side as we turn the next page in this unlikely story of america.

gavin's my guy, this one's my fight, and i hope to see you at my fundraiser next tuesday night at Boulevard 3 in hollywood, http://www.actblue.com/page/ypgrassrootsla428?refcode=jackellenherbashlaine

or in sacramento this weekend...

~k

bizzy bizzy

i really hate it when i'm too busy to blog. it makes me feel like there's a backlog of bullshit in my brain's way...

~k

or...

i could go to dc, get a bitchin bit of experience at the federal level, and come back to help fix california.

(this is one of those uncertainty waves)

but maybe one of the best things about me is that i'm not same old politics. and maybe that's the thing i'm mostly likely to learn in dc. and then i'd be no help to my city or my state, at least not if we're planning to go forward...

see how good i am at talking myself out of even really fancying the thought?

~k

knowing what to do

i've gone through waves of certainty and then uncertainty in my quest to figure out where i belong for my next chapter. la or dc?

la is home. i love it here. and it's no secret that i like my life just as it is.

but when someone from the white house office of presidential personnel contacted me last week to find out if i'm still interested in working for the administration, i paused. i freaked out a little bit (i mean, that's fucking amazing!!!!!!!), and when i got past my ego's tribute to itself, i asked myself and all my friends (and i'd love your thoughts as well) what it is i'm supposed to do.

on the one hand, it doesn't mean anything that someone contacted me to find out if i'm still interested. maybe the white house is reaching out to everyone with a change.gov file. but it makes me stop and think about what's next for me.

and i think i've got to stay put. i've got a great life here, amazing friends, a great political team, i'm getting involved in another tough but right campaign, and i really feel like i have more to offer los angeles and california, than i do the country. at least for now...

~k

gavin for gov

i can't help it. gavin newsom makes it impossible not to support him for governor of california.

i heard him for the second time tonight (and i loved how when he saw me he said, "oh no, not again" because of the impression i left last time we met - hehe!), and i love his passion, innovative strategic thinking, and his anger with the status quo (i mean, the guy went off on detroit, and mirrored my own furious sentiments). and even though he has invited some drama and controversy into his life, at times, he is getting things done politically (e.g. universal health care in san francisco).

he is smart, progressive, has a good sense of humor, seems open to the idea that we make mistakes and learn from them, and he has an aggressive plan for getting things done in a state that needs some real leadership. and i like him for the job, and i'm pretty sure i'd like to help him get things done.

what i don't like is wilshire boulevard. will someone please fix a fucking pothole already?

~k

bat shits in foreign policy

tonight i went to the central library (which totally wow'd me, by the way. i mean, i'd never been in the library except as a shortcut to the bar at the standard. who knew it was so neato in there?) for a lecture on "how common sense can rescue american foreign policy". the speaker was this old articulate dude, smart as a whip, and had us eating out of the palm of his hand with his knowledge of history, foreign policy, and common sense.

except for one of us. we'll call him "crazy matrix dude".

so, the awesome old dude was talking about he believes iran will be america's greatest ally in the middle east within five years (fascinating, right?). to support his theory, he talked about iran's strong middle class, and about how they reacted to our 9/11 by mourning for and with us, while the rest of the middle east cheered in the streets.

and then crazy matrix dude yelled out of turn that 9/11 was an inside job. and he wouldn't let it go. and the library staff had to call security. awesome that people actually believe that crap and feel confident enough to bring it up in public, with an expert, in a room full of intellectuals.

and in addition to being bat shit crazy, he looked like the son of the unabomber. needless to say, we steered way clear of crazy matrix dude by bailing on the chance to meet old awesome dude...

~k