The Dirty Northwest

May 20th was a big day: Yamaguchi nabbed a perfect score and won Dancing With the Stars!

Also, Barack Obama won the Oregon primary giving him the win in pledged delegates. And my buddy Kate will be the D’s SoS candidate for OR, making me even more famous based upon the votes I delivered by my appearance.  [Seriously, though -- I had old high school friends contacting me with "go kate!" messages because they saw my mug for 1.5 seconds on a commercial. Yay Democracy!]

But anyway: Huzzah for retired skaters who can dance!

Take note: “Mexican donkey jailed for ornery behavior“. That is all.

I won’t let it go to my head but I’m in the new Kate Brown commercial.

I like Kate for her track record on Civil Rights, her leadership in the party, and the fact that she won her first election by 7 votes — she knows first-hand that every vote counts.

In addition to running elections, the SoS also oversees corporate auditing and there’s no substitute for knowing someone’s personal character when it comes to that thankless and important task.

But the coolest part about her is that she puts me as an extra in her commercial…

With election season in high gear, it’s often too tempting to resist for some churches to obey the law and not participate in campaigns. This is, of course, illegal with respect to their tax-exempt status.
Should you come across this sort of activity, info to bookmark below…

Filing a Complaint with the IRS:

A referral of an exempt organization may be made by submitting Form 13909, Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral) Form, downloadable from IRS.gov.

Form 13909 and any supporting documentation may be submitted in a variety of ways.  They can be sent via:
• Mail to IRS EO Classification, Mail Code 4910DAL, 1100 Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75242-1198,
• Fax to 214-413-5415, or
• Email to eoclass@irs.gov.
Submission of Form 13909 is voluntary.

This tickles my subversive side: a clash of First Amendment practitioners. That’s what makes America cool.

I’m in San Francisco today for business, as is the Olympic flame (though I argue my business is more important than its).

It seems the local news here has been picked up “wide” but for those not following along at home the route of the torch was changed at the last minute due to dangerous free-speechers who are protesting the government of China — hosts to the Olympic Games — for their many human rights violations.

In a strangely ironic development, the local government of San Francisco apparently switched the route to confuse protesters — whisking it away in a van to an alternate route — leaving Olympic fans (which I am not) in a lurch; flameless:

“I am very upset,” said Rosie Salis, 51, who came in from Foster City to see the relay. “There were lots of people here with their kids. They had to wait for four or five hours, and it’s very disappointing.”

I say “a strangely ironic development” because doesn’t a last minute change to a propaganda ceremony in order to confound protesters sound like, gosh, I dunno — something the Chinese government would do?

Having the torch in town was already a logistical PITA with the original closed route, but the low-speed chase of the runners by news helicopters and the ongoing O.J.-ification on all TV channels mixed with pissed of parade goers have led to a surreal day in an otherwise chill, progressive West Coast city.

As ORLawgirl told me: I can’t wait for this [the Democratic primary] to just be over — Clinton vs Obama is like watching your parents fight.

I had been wondering why Huckabee was staying in the GOP primary race until the McCain story broke.

“Ah hah! He was waiting for this!” I though, figuring that some Huckabee surge would be the real story-behind-the-story.

But given McCain’s media connections, I’m now thinking that this story broke at the perfect time for him — not too early, not too late — like it was negotiated. Consider:

- He hasn’t yet locked up the nomination, but will. If this story breaks earlier — before Romney and others had dropped out — he risks being crushed. As it is, if he “survives” this enough to when the last few delegates needed to be the candidate anyway, he’s effectively “beaten it” in the eyes of pop culture.

- It’s not October. If this story breaks later in the cycle — maybe late October as people ready for the pollls — he’s toast. But with so many months till November, this will be a ye olde non-issue in the minds of the press and electorate (or so hey hopes).

If it happened any earlier, he’d risk losing the nomination. Any later and he loses the big horse race. Tre convient.

I’ve been geeking on the McCain story for the last 24 hours and the follow up has been the icing on the cake.

Hrmph. I don’t believe the leaders of the military-industrial complex are capable of behaving like babies.