Counter culture

I don't know why this is so amusing to me, but it really is. The baristas at this well-known coffee shop in the DC-area are the quintessential hipsters. I've been studying at Murky Coffee (http://www.murkycoffee.com/) in Arlington, VA every day for my bar review class pretty much, and I'm amused by the antics of these guys, who I've been living through vicariously. They play funky music from TLC to the coffee shop archetypical "alternative" acoustic stuff. They just got into a circle behind the counter to take a shot -- of espresso! Haha. Again, I don't know why I'm so amused, but just another random stream of consciousness post.

We're all friends, right?

I can say definitively (well pretty close) that I will be supporting John Edwards for President for the Presidential Election of 2008. Well, 99.9% anyhow, barring anything that he says or do that will turn me off from him.

I went to George Washington University today to help out with the "photo op" rally, as it's called in the business. Basically, you want to make it look good for the candidate when he rolls up to attend a talk or a debate, making him look loved. I've attended such events before, but this was the first time it was all progressives. Well, mostly progressives anyhow. Other than the usual pro-life ralliers (who as usual had their disturbing pictures of fetuses blown up to huge sizes), we all were progressives and fairly similarly minded. I thought it would be nice and casual between the Hilary and Edwards folks (Obama's supporters were curiously absent.)

It mostly was nice and cordial, except for one unpleasant man who declined to identify himself, though he wore a Media badge for the event. (www.sojo.net). He had a nasty disposition about himself and continued to badger the Edwards supporters with questions of how we could support a man that voted for the war. When asked he would support, he mumbled Dennis Kucinich, which was nice of him, but he was still asinine in his questioning mode. C'mon, yes there's a First Amendment, and I'm almost as bad as Blackmun was in being an absolutist, but there's decency, which is a separate issue that is just expected.

It was nice to shake Edwards hand as well as his wife Elizabeth's. Hilary came by as well as Obama later, but they did not visit the crowd at all, rushing in to get makeup-ed and set for the discussion.

I was not lucky enough to get inside, but watched it across the street in the food court of the Marvin Center, the student union at GW. The funniest (and perhaps saddest for me) moment was when a crowd of Hilary supporters walked by with food, drinks and their rally signs to a private room to watch her talk and party a bit. Sigh, the big budget campaigns...

More later on why I support Edwards. (just for you, Joe.)