Caucus

Well, that was interesting. I was one of the people who stayed after signing in — basically, we were all just curious, and had no idea what was going on. Things got started late because the officials stuck their heads outside and realized the crowd assembled was too large for the room they’d set aside, so we waited around while they gathered their paperwork and came outside. (Good thing the cold front came in last night.) Then there was more waiting as they tried to get us all to fill out their little sheet without benefit of a table, until someone went and found some folding tables somewhere.

I was one of the last to sign in. There weren’t enough blanks left for the people in line behind me — I’ve no idea what they did about that — and the lines above me read, “Obama… Obama… Obama…”

Inside, the precinct chair was impatient with us and didn’t take the time to explain what we were doing, so when we started electing people — secretary and chair for the caucus, delegates to the county convention — we were asked to vote before anyone had explained what the responsibilities of the various offices were. Not cool. We waited her out and got someone to explain WTF we were doing, and moved on. The mix of people was fascinating; there were quite a few people who’d clearly never voted for anything in their entire lives… and they were quite adamant about being counted and having the process explained when they didn’t understand something.

I’m now a precinct delegate. There weren’t a lot of people who were going to be available at 2pm on the 29th. Weird.

My car wouldn’t start when I left, and that’s the second day in a row it’s given me shit after months of intermittent minor problems, so we’re now car shopping. Yay.

Elsewhere, it seems the California Supreme Court is divided over the gay marriage arguments they heard today. I honestly don’t get this. How can the issue be seen as anything more complicated than a civil rights question that should be covered by existing legislation? Men and women have equal rights in this country. Interchange ’em as you please in contractual agreements, let the various religions decide whether or not to let those couples have church ceremonies, and let’s move the fuck on to things like the fact that Mr. No Child Left Behind President has just slashed the Reading Is Fundamental budget.

I can haz new prez now? This one’s broken.