2006 August 25 archive at Daniel Spisak on Technology

So I’m in a friends car last week Tuesday evening driving up to Hollywood for that evnings LA Philharmonic show at the Hollywood Bowl. About halfway up the drive I get a call on my cellphone from an area code I dont really recognize, but there are some work related activities going on at the time so I take the call just incase. Turns out its the Executive Director for the Libertarian Party in California. As it happens one of the incumbents for the position of Los Alamitos/Rossmoor Water Sewer District didnt file their papers in time, giving a 3 day window of opportunity where anyone could register with the Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana to run for the position and would end up running uncontested. I ask him to send me an email with more information because I have to admit to being at least curious as to what this is all about. Below are copies of the email correspondance, enjoy:

From: druprecht@ca.lp.org
Subject: Your elected office
Date: August 15, 2006 5:31:38 PM PDT
To: des@t-k.com
Daniel,
I’m so glad you are giving this serious consideration. I personally am running for the water district up here in the San Gabriel Valley. The office is the Rossmore/Los Alamitos area sewer district. Filing is free and very easy. You just go to the Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, at 1300 South Grand Ave., Bldg. C in Santa Ana 92711 - 714-567-7600 fax 714-567-7556. www.ocvote.com

You must do it by 5 PM tomorrow, Wednesday.
As I said, noone else has filed, so it could be a slam-dunk. If someone doesn’t file, they’ll just appoint one of their cronies… and we really don’t want that! If you have any questions, please call my home # 626-355-8529.

Thanks.
Dave
Dave Ruprecht
Executive Director
Libertarian Party of California
877-884-1776

Mind you, I found this all out the day before the deadline, and I attempted to go online and elsewhere to find information about what such a position would entail from a time and responsability standpoint and wasnt able to come up with too much beyond the fact that I would be compensated $190 per day worth of board level meetings I was involved in. But nowhere could I find a mention of time requirements which is rather critical to me due to obvious reasons presented by my classload at UCI and my consulting work and other consumptions of my time (like sleep!) so I wrote the Party back and said:

From: Daniel Spisak
Subject: Re: Your elected office
Date: August 16, 2006 10:46:48 AM PDT
To: druprecht@ca.lp.org
Reply-To: des@t-k.com
Dave,
As much as I would like to be able to help the Libertarian party in its cause I am afraid I simply don’t have the time available to be able to commit to this seat. I tried to lookup at the Registrar of Voters and a few other places what the duties of the seat are and I was able to find a little bit of information but nothing that could give me an idea of how large a commitment I’d be attaching myself to. I must also confess that I am curious how the Party came to see me as a potential for this seat? I am a somewhat colorful person and am involved already as a volunteer for the state Office of Emergency Services which I have just enough time for. Seeing as I am a full-time undergrad student at UC Irvine until the end of 2007 and I am also working for two different consulting firms on the side to help pay for my education I feel I would not have the time available to devote to the seat to be able to make a fair representation of the Libertarian Party. However I am honored that the Party would ask me for its
help.

Daniel Spisak
dspisak@nonmundane.org
http://blog.nonmundane.org/
Cell: 562.331.1603

Which elected this response back. No harm no foul.

From: druprecht@ca.lp.org
Subject: Re: Your elected office
Date: August 16, 2006 11:01:24 AM PDT
To: des@t-k.comDaniel,
Of course, that’s very understandable. We found you because you are a registered Libertarian in one of these few special districts where the incumbent didn’t file by the normal deadline and we have a 3 day window to get a Libertarian file there for what will probably be an un-contested office. And, believe it or not, being a “colorful” Libertarian is not that odd. Anyway, thanks for you time and good luck with your - what sounds like - extremely busy life.

Dave
Dave Ruprecht
Executive Director
Libertarian Party of California
877-884-1776

So that is the story of how I almost ended up being on the November ballot as a Libertarian candidate. I have to admit I did really want to give this a go but I just couldnt jump head first into something involving the city I live in without first understanding what would be required of me or what I would need to do. Perhaps next year I can think about this again with a more serious mind and some preparation.

Recently I was watching Stephen Colbert doing his bit over at The Colbert Report on Comedy Central when I had the opportunity to see him talk about a subject that I happen to find just as important as he did. That topic of course was voter turnout in America. Colbert talked about how in Austrailia people get small fines for not voting come election day. If you ask me its a pretty easy way to help ensure that American’s might be more motivated to get out of the house and vote come the next election.

Of course, Colbert’s spin on what this would creat in America I find especially hilarious, given that I believe I already live in a Dumb-ocracy what with Bush and his cronies getting elected back into power for a second term in a row. One can only hope people have learned their lesson and will give

Before I saw the Colbert clip however there was this hilarious running gag going on between Colbert and Jon Stewart on The Daily Show regarding Stewart having to apologize to Geraldo Rivera and Bill O’Reiley. Stewart of course has no idea what Colbert is talking about which prompts them to roll a clip from O’Reiley’s show on FOX where he and Geraldo basically bad mouth Stewart and Colbert as insignificant chuckle hucksters in a narcissitic attempt to justify their only blowhard like self-worth. It’s totally worth downloading and watching.

Also of humor was what The Daily Show did with their projection backgrounds on the set on the way out to commercial break. Check it out in the picture to the left.