i've got the politico bug, bad. whilst vising the uber political family i was dragged along to the john edwards town hall for his post-presidential announcement talk to the people of nevada - in reno no less. in the 2008 election nevada will be the second primary race so suddenly all eyes are on my favored state. and apparently reno is considerably more politically active than its much larger sister las vegas so the big heads are heading northbound to whip up an anti-republican (though in nevada it seems not quite pro-democrats just yet, but they're almost there...) frenzy for the upcoming (didn't we just have one?) election. corraled into volunteering for my sister (local party bigwig) i helped out with some basic stuff here and there, mostly crowd control, in the most non-bouncer-esque way imaginable, mostly just answering questions and entertaining people waiting in line. i was worried that i'd be too politico-jaded for anyone's good, but i actually had a bit of fun, though i did get a bit snappy with an edwards staffer after the event - he was a bit too 'oh, you're an environmentalist/faggot/black/mexican/other typicial lefty group, who else are you gonna support?' for my taste.

mr. edwards did pretty well despite a contradiction or two and the usual political talking without saying much.

the whole thing was more fun than an innappropriate blow job from an intern and made me want to get involved with some campaign. I reckon if i were to work for a local campaign it wouldn't be so terrible, but I think i'd prefer to work for something a bit larger. Problem there is that i might not be able to vote for the person i'm working for. Does that make me a hypocrite? i think that might be the best way for me to resolve my hating of the left without going off the deep end with the greens (who's policies i mostly agree with, but who's politics are annoyingly whiney and obnoxious).

wes had come up for a few days for some boarding and boozing, both of which were provided enmasse, but a price had to be paid - attendence and support of the kladney family's political leanings. wes is the more vocal version of my own political beliefs, maybe a bit more hardcore than i was back in the day, but we're pretty parallel on the ideas of a libertarian left. however wes tends to have a holier-than-thou mentality that although i'm sure i used to feel/think, but i don't think it ever was vocalized (aside through the mostly innoccus media of the bumpersticker).

played in a 30$ poker tournament. played pretty badly, but did okay for not having played real poker in years. got called out on the river after going all in. lame. whatever. nothing like hitting up a downtown reno casino at 9:30am for poker, really though, it is more for the people watching than the poker, maybe that is why i lose most of the time.