I saw Arianna Huffington speak today, in Campbell Hall on the UCSB campus.

It was very, very refreshing to hear her speak without her being cut off by either Matthews, Maher or Donahue.

I was underwhelmed by the relatively small number of UCSB students in attendance, maybe a few dozen out of an audience of 800.

She had a lot of great things to say (corporate criminals, SUV's, lobbyists, etc), though frankly she didn't say much of things that I didn't already know. However, these presentations are nice because they enable you to systematize whatever thoughts you already had about an issue.

Also, she's a lot taller than I thought she would be.

Her ex-husband, the once-closeted senatorial candidate Michael Huffington, was there with their two kids. He stood up and took a bow, and everyone applauded politely. A half-hour later, in the context of her anti-SUV campaign, Arianna brought up the fact that Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told her that she's going to introduce some legislation to close some SUV mileage loopholes. If you remember, Feinstein was the one who beat Huffington in 94. Of course, Huffington is a Texas oil man, so I don't know how comfortable he was in the room.

Anyway, good work Arianna!

Check out her two websites:
Arianna Online, and
The Detroit Project, her campaign for more fuel-efficient automobiles, famous for the SUV-terror ads you may have seen. Those adds were co-produced by Huffington and Laurie (hehe) David, wife of writer/actor/comedian Larry David, of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld fame.