Kari Chisholm: POWNED and Sealed

Jeff Merkley's web guru, Kari Chisholm of Mandate Media just had his ample kiester handed back to him. As Merkley contiunes to flounder in the polls, his campaign is responding the only way the DC establishment knows how; go on the attack. Cue the scary music and out of context quotes. Talk about how "angry" your opponent is. And then take your negative attack online. But it seems that BlueOregon's chief cook and salad spinner went a bridge to far on the internet super highway. Seems he lifted the code from the actual Novick for Senate site and took the credit for himself. I'm not saying that he stole anything. He's just lazy (and uncreative).

By all accounts, Chisholm learned well from his mentors, the Clintons. It takes a burned village to save a campaign.

The Novick staffer who created the authentic website took issue with Kari's hand in the internet cookie jar. He published an open letter to BlueOregon's Kari Chisholm on the Daily Kos.

"On the recent attack website you launched for Jeff Merkley, novickinsultsdemocrats.com, you used a substantial amount of work that I, and others, created for the Novick campaign and claimed credit for it as your own... "

[Update: Kari responds (sort of) with a denial, an updated attribution and a counter attack.]

-kari. p.s. I'm pretty sure that's the state seal in the header of the real Novick site. You might consider removing it, per state law.

[Updated updated. Kari's attempted cheap shot went "poof."]

Merkley, the choice of "humans"

For a brief moment in time, it appeared that the Team Merkley scored the most valuable endorsement of all (that is, until the Lefties win out and "aliens" get the right to vote).

I've noted before that Mr. Kamberg's keyboard seems to lack the letters S - T - F and U. And now it appears, sometimes E.

Blue0 chief cook and salad spinner swooped in for the late night assist. But did Kari "Full Disclosure" Chisholm forget something in his attempt to bolster his client's cred?

Please give until it hurts...

LOTR: Return of the Ring

So that neighbor with a friend who bought a metal detector on the spur of the moment gave me a call this morning informing me she had dropped off said gadget on our back porch. I was a goin' prospectin' so I saddled up and skidaddled. I was soon man handling the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV. It had a switch, two dials and a meter. I tossed two pit, a nickel, a dime and a penny on the ground, flipped the switch, played with the dials, waved the wand and watched the meter... beep... beep-beep... beep.

I first employed the blind chicken strategy. Could be here! Beep... scratch. Could be there! Beep... dig... sigh. Then I did the unthinkable. I sought out the instructions. Gawd bless the interwebs. I found the manual online and learned that I wasn't supposed to be searching for a Beep... I needed to be listening for a Bzzzzt.

Here a bzzzt... there a bzzzt... But nowhere a sustained bzzzzt until...

I had come to peace with misplacing my partner's piece of eight... I didn't feel great, but I made my lemonade... and it was sweet. Still, I'm delighted to again be the Lord of my Ring. And it came with a nice tale... a trilogy as it turned out. I love my neighbors. I love my neighborhood.

In first grade, Mrs. Goodrich used to play the sing along piano for all classes assembled. I am reminded of...

Love is something if you give it away
You end up having more

It's just like a magic penny
Hold it tight & you won't have any
Lend it, spend it & you'll have so many
They'll roll all over the floor.

Magic Penny
(Malvina Reynolds)

Endorsements

President: Barack Obama
OR-Sen: Steve Novick
OR-01: Mark Wyleczko
OR-03: Joe Walsh
OR-05: Steve Marks
Secretary of State: Vicki Walker
Attorney General: John Kroger
Portland Mayor: Sam Adams
Portland City Commissioner 1: Charles Lewis
Portland City Commissioner 2: Nick Fish
Portland City Commissioner 4: Randy Leonard
OR-Senate-21: Diane Rosenbaum
OR-House-42: Teddy Keizer

A tale of two rings

Check out my endorsements! [click here]

A funny thing happened on the way to the weekend. It was just a week ago today when I planted my wedding ring somewhere in the back yard. In something reminiscent of Poltergeist, it appears that our humble abode sits atop some vortex which delights in swallowing up baubles.

I was out sweeping the front porch (and I never sweep the front porch), as a neighbor passed by... walking her little girls down the block. She stopped to talk and gestured toward our lawn sign garden when all of a sudden, fling went her wedding ring into a weed ridden, leaf filled flower bed.

She and I were on our knees tout de suite pawing through the dandelions and tulips. My neighbor's concern heightened when we didn't immediately strike gold. I told her of my recent jewelry mishap and told her to continue on with the girls and I would continue the treasure hunt. Before long, I found her diamonds in our rough.

When I reunited wedding band with bride the look of relief was priceless. She had already contacted a friend who herself had lost her ring shortly before giving birth. Before night fall, she had a metal detector procured and all lived happy ever after.

I love happy endings.

Blum and Gloom XXXXI

[Week 40 / Week 41 / Week 42]

Heidi's Victory Garden

Just as Iraq has been occupied for five years, I myself have been occupied... preoccupied.

It has been an extended period of personal loss.

Standing as a visible metaphor is our garden. Once diversely vibrant and full of life which sustained; corn, squash, carrots, tomatoes... the works.

The yard is still full of life, of the type that chokes other life off; weeds, crabgrass and blackberry vines.

It's a jungle out there.

Last year I began a clean-slate campaign to eradicate this unwelcome wilderness. I got as far as laying waste to the entire lawn. I hit a snag trying to remove the last of the hops. They've been in the ground a good four years or so. I never knew they were bamboo's evil twin, spreading like wildfire underground. Try as I might, I just couldn't get the mother plant out before the long, dark and wet Winter set in.

An out of town friend stopped by yesterday for a little TGIF, a country girl as it happens to be. I showed her the pitiful site which is our outback. She couldn't help but pull up a weed here and there, root and all. I shamed myself into action this morning. I would conquer this mother of all hops today. My implement, a trenching shovel. But no matter how deep I dug, she clung tight to the earth. This thing had a tap root reaching half way to the 2008 Summer Olympics. I decided to cut my losses and cut the mother out of the hole I was beginning to dig. One by one I played moyel on the roots with a limb trimmer. Eventually, I came to IT... a tap root so thick, I considered getting a chainsaw. Wedging the tool between my legs like some sort of Thighmaster, I finally separated the shrub from the soil.

I... Am... Mighty!

Today, I broke ground on a Victory Garden. And I hearby name her "Heidi." As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!

But this victory did not come without loss. Somewhere amidst the struggle, I lost my wedding band. Somehow, I'm at Zen with it. Some time in the past, I'd be having a cow, but now... I know what's important. My ring is a symbol of what's most important. Absent the token, what's most important still is present. My Partner and I have already talked about replacing this, the reminder of what is truly irreplaceable.

I am reminded of a scene from Harold and Maude. The infatuated lover bestows upon the object of his affection a token of his esteem, a ring he made at the fair bearing the words "HAROLD LOVES MAUDE." Full of gratitude, she tosses it into the water saying, "So I'll always know where it is."

My Partner is also my college sweetheart, and as for his golden gift, I'll give finding it the old college try. It's really not lost however, nor even misplaced. For now, it's a treasure in Heidi's Victory Garden.


[Update: One week later...]