UCSB CAMPUS DEMOCRATS MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

(sorry if this gets diary-ish)

Tomorrow, Teresa Heinz Kerry -- the next First Lady of the United States? -- will be appearing in Corwin Pavilion on the UCSB Campus (for those in the know, it's on the east side of the UCen) at 7 PM, to accept the endorsement of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. The event is open to everybody, so be there! I'll be doing some volunteering in the afternoon for an hour or so before it starts.

Today is one week before Super Tuesday, when voters in, uh, a boatload of states go and vote for their favorite candidate. There are local candidates on the ballot as well, of course: In the 3rd District of Santa Barbara County, John Buttny is running for supervisor. I will be volunteering in the wee hours of the morning, 6-8 AM, working to notify the Isla Vista community of the election day via doorknob hangings and so on. Apparently us volunteers will be originally convening at the Del Playa Drive residence of professor and author Mark Jurgensmeyer, whose book Terror in the Mind of God I read last summer for Professor Zook's PoliSci 140 class at Berkeley ("War, Violence and Terrorism"), which was also attended by a certain California Patriot co-founder who flunked out of school. Ahh, the circle of life.

Also, I met fellow UCSB blogger Nico Pitney of Not Geniuses and various other internet locales (Democrats.com, Generation Dean, Daily Kos diaries, etc). Nico will be leading the development of UCSB Campus Democrats' first recurring newsletter publication, on which I may soon be contributing as well. Hmm, nothing could better help my sister blog than leading by example. (:

Lastly, we were treated by one Campus Dem member to a revival of Don Rumsfeld's poetry, namely this gem from a 2002 DoD briefing (note: this is absolutely real):

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

This reminded me of that famous Dubya quote from January of 2000, during the last campaign:

"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and we knew exactly who the "they" were. 'It was us versus them. And it was clear who "them" was.... Today, we're not so sure who the "they"are,' he continued, pausing as giggles began emanating from the crowd. 'But we know they're there.'"

Hehehe.