My Interview with a HillaryBot
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 13:00Much of the political dialog around the Democratic Presidential candidates has devolved into senseless name-calling and mudslinging. It is the ObamaBots versus the HillaryHags. The responses are predictable and tedious.
The other day, I was talking with my good friend Yesterdays Tomorrow. He had recently picked up Dedric Mauriac’s Eliza Doolittle Chatbot. We talked about how the script could easily be changed and we were brainstorming possible applications. As I thought about it, it seemed that the canned responses of ObamaBots and HillaryHags could easily be replicated using a modified Eliza Doolittle Chatbot.
Yesterday took up the challenge and created HillaryBot. This afternoon, I had a brief opportunity to interview HillaryBot and it was frighteningly realistic and great fun. Here some of my interview:
Yesterdays Tomorrow: here's Hillary
HillaryBot: i was a virtual vice president, i was!
HillaryBot: Vote For Hillary
You: What about Iowa?
HillaryBot: turning point!
You: And New Hampshire?
HillaryBot: oh, that state doesn't matter
You: Does Florida matter?
HillaryBot: i mispoke.
You: You mean, like you did about Bosnia?
HillaryBot: i misspoke that into my speech.
You: When don't you mispeak?
HillaryBot: are such questions on your mind often?
You: Yes, actually, they are. How can we trust you on issues if you often misspeak?
HillaryBot: together, we can trust i on issues if i often misspeak
You: How's your fundraising?
HillaryBot: my fundraising is picking up.
You: What about the loan you had to make to your campaign?
HillaryBot: i'm pushing ahead!
You: So, you're optimistic about Pennsylvania?
HillaryBot: if barack obama cannot reverse his downward spiral with a big win in pennsylvania, he cannot possibly be competitive against john mccain in november.
You: And you think you're more competitive against John McCain?
HillaryBot: being more competitive against john mccain comes with my vast experience
You: And you are counting on Superdelegates recognizing this?
HillaryBot: being counting on superdelegates recognizing this comes with my vast experience
You: What doesn't come with your vast experience?
HillaryBot: i was a virtual vice president, i was!
You: How about health care? What happened in the 90s and why can we think you'lll do a better job this time?
HillaryBot: together, we can think youlll do a better job this time
Yesterdays Tomorrow giggles.
HillaryBot: i mispoke.
You: Okay... Enough of this... How is this affecting your family? How are Bill and Chelsea doing?
HillaryBot: i can control my husband.
You: Well, he's said a lot of things recently that people think are damaging your campaign. Any comments?
HillaryBot: my campaign's finances are healthy.
You: But what about your message?
HillaryBot: my message is bourne out in my significant record.
You: Good job, yesterday....
HillaryBot: vote for the condidate with experience
Yesterdays Tomorrow: bye
HillaryBot: see you soon!
Yesterdays Tomorrow: bye
HillaryBot: you said that already!
Yesterdays Tomorrow: bye, Hillary
HillaryBot: vote for the condidate with experience
Yesterdays Tomorrow: bye bye, Hillary
HillaryBot: bye! ...and don't forget to vote for hillary in 2008 (or 2012)!
Selecting Delegates
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 15:41This evening, the pledged district level delegates from Connecticut to the national convention will gather at State Central to select at large delegates. According the Connecticut Delegate Selection Plan, one unpledged add-on delegate will be selected this evening. There needs to be at least two names for the delegates to select from. These candidates need to have submitted their names by last Wednesday.
In addition, six Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official Delegates are to be selected. Candidates for these slots need to have been submitted by last Thursday and the campaigns had until Monday to select which candidates they approved, provided at least two names for each position is selected. There will also be 11 at-large delegates and 3 at-large alternates selected this evening. People wishing to be at-large delegates or alternates needed to have submitted their names by last Wednesday. The candidates have until 7 PM this evening to return a list of approved candidates, again with the requirement of having at least 2 candidates for every position.
Since last Friday, I’ve been trying to get a list of these candidates. Representatives of State Central, the Obama campaign and the Clinton campaign have all said they would get back to me. At this point, it doesn’t look like they will get back to me until after the district level delegates select who becomes delegates. So much for an open process.
For the state conventions, I received an email that the Canterbury delegate selection meeting has been moved forward from 7:00 to 6:30 on April 1st at the Canterbury Town Hall. I also received an email that the Fairfield DTC will hold its special meeting to endorse delegates to State and Multi-Town Conventions at 7:30 on April 1st at the Osborn Hill School All Purpose Room.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Massachusetts, they will select delegates to the National Convention on April 5th. There is a little bit of a discussion about it on Blue Mass Group. Slowly list of possible delegates are starting to emerge. Kim Whittaker of Winchester is running for 7th CD female candidate for Obama delegate. Kate Donaghue is running for to be a Clinton Delegate in the 3rd CD. Their caucus will be at SAC Park, 438 Lake Street, Shrewsbury. Rep. Jamie Eldridge is running as an Obama delegate in the 5th CD. I’ve also heard of two slates for Obama delegates.
In the 1st CD, Ben Schwartz, Nancy Sternberg, andMolly O'Grady are running to become Obama delegates. That caucus will take place at Amherst College Gym, 266 South Pleasant Street, Amherst. In the 2nd CD, Tom Hidalgo and Lisa Baskins are running to be Obama delegates. That caucus will take place at Springfield Technical Community College One Armory Square Suite 1, Springfield, 01102.
One final note. I received an email from an old friend in Missouri who is running to be an Obama delegate in that state. They have a different process where delegates are selected at county meetings who then gather at district level meetings to select national delegates. Check out this diary about Bill’s efforts to become a delegate at the National Convention for Obama.
As I get more information about delegate selections both in Connecticut and beyond, I will be posting them.
T-Shirts for Peace
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 03/25/2008 - 16:46Going shopping isn’t how I would normally encourage people to work for peace. I don’t think encouraging Americans to go shopping after 9/11 was the best way of dealing with that event. Likewise, while I like my T shirts with pithy pro-peace messages, I question their ability bring about meaningful change. However, I make one special exception.
I’ve long been a fan of No Sweat Apparel. Their focus has been to sell apparel made in union shops from around the world. Beyond seeking better working conditions, No Sweat addresses larger issues.
After the Tsunami in Banda Aceh, they sold flip-flops made in Jakarta. They were designed by orphans of the Tsunami and profits from the sale go to support the Schools for Aceh Foundation.
Now, as we see more tension in the Middle East, they are selling “organic union made t-shirts from Bethlehem”. Pax Christi is featuring a T-shirt made in this shop.
In addition, Ideablob, a project of Advanta Bank Corp is offering $10,000 to the best business ideas, and No Sweat is one of the finalists this month. So, if you don’t mind registering on a site run by a credit card company, stop by and vote for No Sweat Apparel.
Delegate Selection Week
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 03/25/2008 - 09:44Last week, there was a bit of buzz online about the process in Connecticut that Democrats use to select delegates to the National Convention in Denver. This morning, I received an email about Massachusetts’ process for selecting delegates to the national convention. Their caucuses will be April 5th and sound pretty similar to what happens in Connecticut.
However, there are other conventions besides the National Convention. In Connecticut, there are nearly two hundred other conventions. There is a convention for each State Representative seat, each State Senate seat, each Congressional District, and the State Convention. Typically, these conventions don’t get as much attention as the National Convention, which is too bad, because they can be great fun and important events.
This year they may be even more interesting and exciting, due to the new campaign finance laws. The goal of these new laws is to make it easier for people to run, so hopefully there will be more candidates showing up at the conventions.
The State Legislative conventions work differently from the National Convention. For the National Convention, the primary determines how many delegates each candidate gets going into the National Convention. With the State Legislative conventions, the delegates get selected at special caucuses or meetings of Democratic Town Committees. The candidate that gets the most delegates at the convention becomes the nominee, but can be challenged in a primary afterwards.
The rules for the Connecticut Democratic Party, as I understand them, is that delegates to these other conventions need to be selected this week. I’ve been trying to find out when these delegate selection meetings will take place and what rules will be in effect. In Woodbridge, we will be having our meeting Thursday at 8 PM ‘at the center rm 16’. I am new to Woodbridge, but sent a message to the DTC Chair in town and he promptly got back to me with details.
Sophia on MyLeftNutmeg posted information about the Glastonbury Democratic Caucus, which will also take place on Thursday at Democratic Headquarters, 2341 Main Street, Glastonbury, CT.
I sent an email to as many members of State Central as I could find email addresses for, which was at least half of State Central. Brian Anderson forwarded my message on to Chris Pitts on the communications committee of the Canterbury DTC. Chris sent me details about their delegate selection process. They will be meeting 7pm on April 1st at the Canterbury Town Hall. Besides Brian, and my DTC chair, who is also on State Central, only one other member of State Central responded. She noted that their delegate selection would take place during their regularly scheduled DTC meeting, but she forgot to tell me when and where that meeting will be.
So, the amount of information available online about how to get involved in Democratic politics in Connecticut is slowly improving, but it is still significantly lacking. If you know of other delegate selection meetings, please leave a comment here or drop me a note at aldon dot hynes at orient dash lodge dot com. Let’s get people more involved.
The Gigantic Foreclosure
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 14:59It seems like an unlikely movie plot. A Wall Street technology executive, who started on Wall Street writing programs to analyze mortgage backed securities, moves to the suburbs and buys a unique hundred-year-old home. After living there for a few years, his marriage falls apart. His career takes a nasty turn, and he struggles to find a new job on the Street. He remarries and spends his time writing and getting involved with politics. He names his blog after the unique house. He gets credentialed as one of the first bloggers at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He writes a novel for National Novel Writing Month, and as the housing market collapses, he is forced to sell his house in a foreclosure auction.
As he tries to straighten out his financial woes, he gets a call from a movie scout that would like to use the house for a romantic comedy. There isn’t a lot of money in the deal, not enough to bail him out. They want to film just days before the foreclosure auction.
At this point, suggestions on the way the story plays out with the filming and the auction and any humorous twists would be appreciated. I would much rather see this play out as a romantic comedy closer to the style of Woody Allen than a tragicomedy in the style of Zola. However, I can wait. The filming is scheduled for Wednesday and the auction is scheduled for Saturday.
You see, while this sounds like a very unlikely movie plot, it is the current real life twists and turns of my current life.
The movie turns out to be Gigantic, “A comedy centered around a mattress salesman and the young woman whom he meets at his store.” It stars Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano, with John Goodman, Jane Alexander, Edward Asner and others. One article says that Dano plays “Brian, a depressed mattress salesman whose quest to adopt a Chinese baby is sidetracked when he falls for Happy (Deschanel)”. Another article reports, “Asner will play Dano's pot-smoking, gangsta rap-loving father, and Alexander plays his mother. Goodman plays Deschanel's brilliant but domineering father.”
As best as I can tell, there is a family reunion, which will be filmed at Orient Lodge. The family is going hunting, or something like that. One person said that family is going mushroom hunting together and everyone takes magic mushrooms before hand.
So, if everything goes fine, they will finish filming at the house a couple days before the foreclosure auction. I have no idea what will happen at the foreclosure auction. It would be great if things work out in such a way that covers a large portion of the outstanding debt, but we shall see.
So, Gigantic sounds like a fun movie. The plot might seem a little unlikely, but it probably seems more likely than the plot of my life and we shall see how the two plots intermingle.
