A picture is worth a thousand words. Regards to http://www.deadspin.com/ for the picture.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Gram's home town
Grandma K is from the village of Zawoja. Zawoja is in a valley at the base of one of Poland's highest mountains, Babia Gora (translated Old Wives' Mountain). Babia Gora, at just over 5,600 feet above sea level, is actually part of the Beskidy Mountains of the Outer Western Carpathians. It also happens to be right on the border with Slovakia, since the border follows the divide.
At the time Gram was in Poland, it wasn't really Poland at all, but Galicia. At that time, Poland had been divided among Germany, Russia, and Austria. Galicia, like Czechoslavakia, hungary, and a number of other places, was officially a part of the Austrian Empire. Due to its unfortunate location, much of Poland has been passed back and forth among eastern European powers for ages. 
As you can see, this part of Poland is surprisingly reminiscent of the 'Daks (although probably more like the White Mountains of NH) where she eventually made her American home. She'd have probably felt more at home there than, say, Illinois.
Monday, February 11, 2008
What's a caucus?
For those of you who never get to play the caucus game, here's how it worked in Washington.
On Saturday, February 9, we traveled to a local elementary school and found the library, where the Republican caucus was being held. The Democrats were in the cafeteria. The rule in Washington is that you can participate only in your own party's caucus, unless you are an independent like me. Then you get to take your pick. I could have gone to the Democratic side and cast a vote in the straw poll against Hillary, but K is a registered Republican, so I went with her.
We were all placed at tables by precinct. Our precinct officer was a guy down the street whom we know from neighborhood association meetings. We were good friends with everyone else at the table; in fact, we took two of them to the caucus with us. I thought it weird that there were only seven people from our entire precinct, an area that covers a heavily-populated square mile. Five were actual Republicans, and there were two of us independents. Meeting at our location were approximately ten precincts.
My fellow independent and I were allowed to participate in the straw poll and provide platform input, but we could not vote to elect delegates. There was nothing scientific or fancy about the straw poll. Everybody got a two-square-inch piece of yellow paper. You wrote the name of your choice on it and turned it in the the guy running the show. I won't tell you whom I voted for, but I can tell you that the vote count in our precinct was Romney 7, Everybody Else 0. I will leave it to you to figure out how I voted. :-)
Now you may be thinking, "Hey, hadn't Romney declared that he was withdrawing by then?" If you are thinking that (or even if you are not), the answer is "yes"! However, this was wide open. I could have voted for Barry Obama if I had wanted to (I didn't want to). In our location AND in our entire county, Ron Paul actually finished first. The Huckster was second, Romney, the non-candidate, was third (4.7% off the lead), and McCain was fourth. Nobody else was above 0.5%. In the state as a whole, McCain won. The papers were quick to mention that the Huckster was a very close second, but they ignored the fact that Ron Paul was a just-as-close third.
The platform stuff was just a data-gathering survey thing, not very exciting.
Last step: our precinct had to nominate and vote on four delegates and four alternates for the county convention in April. The precinct officer could not be a delegate; he had other roles at the county convention already. Only Republicans could participate, so we actually had five people choosing eight people. You needn't be present to win. Our precinct delegates included K, two other people at our table, and the precinct officer's son. Our four alternates were one of our close neighbors, the precinct officer's daughter-in-law and 18-year-old grandson, and our son, R, who is away at college in another state. Okay, so we were nepotistic. Don't blame me! I couldn't nominate or vote! Blame the thousand or so who did not come and participate!
So that's the nonsense of a party caucus. If your state ever has one, go! It's a real kick! I'll have more from the county convention in April.
On Saturday, February 9, we traveled to a local elementary school and found the library, where the Republican caucus was being held. The Democrats were in the cafeteria. The rule in Washington is that you can participate only in your own party's caucus, unless you are an independent like me. Then you get to take your pick. I could have gone to the Democratic side and cast a vote in the straw poll against Hillary, but K is a registered Republican, so I went with her.
We were all placed at tables by precinct. Our precinct officer was a guy down the street whom we know from neighborhood association meetings. We were good friends with everyone else at the table; in fact, we took two of them to the caucus with us. I thought it weird that there were only seven people from our entire precinct, an area that covers a heavily-populated square mile. Five were actual Republicans, and there were two of us independents. Meeting at our location were approximately ten precincts.
My fellow independent and I were allowed to participate in the straw poll and provide platform input, but we could not vote to elect delegates. There was nothing scientific or fancy about the straw poll. Everybody got a two-square-inch piece of yellow paper. You wrote the name of your choice on it and turned it in the the guy running the show. I won't tell you whom I voted for, but I can tell you that the vote count in our precinct was Romney 7, Everybody Else 0. I will leave it to you to figure out how I voted. :-)
Now you may be thinking, "Hey, hadn't Romney declared that he was withdrawing by then?" If you are thinking that (or even if you are not), the answer is "yes"! However, this was wide open. I could have voted for Barry Obama if I had wanted to (I didn't want to). In our location AND in our entire county, Ron Paul actually finished first. The Huckster was second, Romney, the non-candidate, was third (4.7% off the lead), and McCain was fourth. Nobody else was above 0.5%. In the state as a whole, McCain won. The papers were quick to mention that the Huckster was a very close second, but they ignored the fact that Ron Paul was a just-as-close third.
The platform stuff was just a data-gathering survey thing, not very exciting.
Last step: our precinct had to nominate and vote on four delegates and four alternates for the county convention in April. The precinct officer could not be a delegate; he had other roles at the county convention already. Only Republicans could participate, so we actually had five people choosing eight people. You needn't be present to win. Our precinct delegates included K, two other people at our table, and the precinct officer's son. Our four alternates were one of our close neighbors, the precinct officer's daughter-in-law and 18-year-old grandson, and our son, R, who is away at college in another state. Okay, so we were nepotistic. Don't blame me! I couldn't nominate or vote! Blame the thousand or so who did not come and participate!
So that's the nonsense of a party caucus. If your state ever has one, go! It's a real kick! I'll have more from the county convention in April.
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