Archive for May, 2007

I’m sitting here thinking about today’s Chris Mullick article’s (one on his blog and one in the daily) about the early challenge to Doc Hastings from Pasco Democrat, George Fearing and I’m wondering… Does the Herald like to sell newspapers? I say that because in some strange way, I leave this article with a similar dismay as I did during the Richard Wright campaign in 2006. But it wasn’t quite the same since Richard’s local paper coverage was virtually non-existent (especially this early) where the early runner George Fearing suddenly gets press.

Well, I can pretty easily guess the reason the article exists at all. George appeared on “The David Goldstein Show” (710 KIRO Seattle) last Monday and I suppose that was a surprise and good enough reason to start waxing over recent history…

Fearing didn’t report any fundraising activity during the first quarter of the year, his campaign Web site is still under construction and he hasn’t sought publicity, although he was a last-minute addition to a Seattle talk radio show Monday night.

A former Libertarian and a well-known Tri-City attorney, Fearing’s political experience is limited to his sound defeat last November in a bid to unseat state Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-College Place.

A sound defeat indeed but forget about mentioning that Walsh’s seat is held by… Maureen Walsh. Maureen isn’t exactly the poster child for neocon madness, and let us not forget the insanely neocon challenge to Democrat Bill Grant in that same district which turned out badly for challenger Kevin Young. These two legislators from opposing parties have great credentials and my impression is that the general public is pretty happy with Washington’s 16th District Representation. But reading Mullick’s print article I couldn’t fathom the following:

Latta said Fearing won’t put such limits on fundraising this time and that Walsh was unbeatable after the death of her husband last year.

Or much less stomach the following out of context quote:

“It was just one of those things,” she said. “I don’t think anyone could beat Maureen after the loss of her husband. If you had run Abraham Lincoln against her she still would have gotten the sympathy vote. I’m not casting aspersions on her but that race was unwinnable.”

This is leaving out much of the conversation. I spoke with Mimi Latta about Mullick’s article and disappointment is putting it lightly. Mimi gave him a clear disclaimer that this was obviously a tough race to win and in political reality, the deal was sealed with the death of Maureen’s husband, not because. A political reality and not a smarmy judgement on the outcome. Mullick’s article simply doesn’t read that way and a poor example of follow through. Mimi follows through:

The comment about Maureen Walsh was totally out of context. I was adamant that I wasn’t denigrating Maureen’s performance as a legislator. I repeated it twice in different words, but Chris left it off and so slanted the article. I was calling Chris back from a dusty parking lot in 89 degree heat in Moses Lake and replied to his comment that George had done a bad job in the 16 Legislative District race. I said that there were some things that George could have done better, but that it would have been a difficult race for anyone. Then I prefaced my comment about the death of Maureen’s husband essentially sealing the deal in Maureen’s favor by saying that I wasn’t saying anything negative about Maureen or the race she had run. After I said that, I repeated that I wasn’t taking anything away from Maureen Walsh or the way she performs her duties. Chris said “uh huh” when I asked if he understood that.

I think it’s a shame that Chris Mulick took my words out of context and changed the meaning into a statement that might make Maureen feel bad or get angry. I have a close friend whose husband died suddenly and it was a horrible shock that took her several years to really get over. Maureen stood strong for her kids and ran the race and won it. Chris Mulick doesn’t have to make it sound like anyone thinks less of her.

But to the larger point, Mullick’s two entries aren’t shining examples of smart journalism. If the Tri-City Herald would like to encourage folks to vote as they have done in the past through their editorial pages, they should be less inclined to paint candidates as hopeless causes with bitter intentions. It simply isn’t good for Democracy and doesn’t exactly give folks reason to pick up a paper to enjoy with coffee. And candidates like George Fearing, you know… those folks willing to step up to the plate deserve better. And really… what better way to sell papers than to have candidates actually duking it out for votes? I would say that would sell better than painting challengers as unqualified hacks.

As far as Fearings political experience, I guess Mullick needs an interview… But really, I guess Doc’s pre-Congressional experience in toilet paper sales, and his less than stellar post-Toilet paper sales Congressional experience makes him a better candidate. Ok… ok, that wasn’t fair… but hey, I’m just a blogger.

Oh, and by the way, the audio for the David Goldstein Show interview with George Fearing can be found… right… HERE. (beware… lots of commercials)

[Quick Update: It should be noted that Richard Wright garnered 40% of the 4th CD's vote with less than a 3rd of the financial numbers comparedly to other Democratic challengers, and virtually no name recognition, in this district. Remarkable that a newspaper would ignore that when a 1 million dollar campaign waged in the 5th CD with similar numbers.]

Some of you might have noticed my lack of political writing and instead turning my attention to motorcycles, fast cars and random pictures of birds. Heck, you might even be happy about it. My hearty slogging over politics and endless liberal political views have probably worn out your clicks… but never fear, today’s post is about WINE (there will be plenty of time for politics… trust me).

Some time back a friend of mine split for Austria to become, well… I’m not sure what her plan was but she did eventually settle down and marry I guess and is having a good life. And in that time she spent some good days learning about wine and wine making and started writing some pretty good pieces. Then, without a trace… nothing. But sometime later, I was somehow added to another mailing list about wine (and I suspect my friend added me). At first I was a bit pissed and normally, unsolicited emails get deleted without question. But I found my new inbox letters from Jennifer Rosen so entertaining that I actually looked forward to the next one.

Jennifer is more than just a wine nut, she is also an award-winning wine writer, educator and author writing such books as Waiter, There’s a Horse in My Wine, and The Cork Jester’s Guide to Wine, and also writes the weekly wine column for the Rocky Mountain News and articles for magazines around the world. Her official bio states that Jennifer speaks French and Italian, mangles German, Spanish and Arabic, and works off the job perks with belly dance, tightrope and trapeze. I find that intriguing to say the least and honestly, I could stand anybody mangling a spoken language for the sake of hearing another language as long as it isn’t litaliano! Sexy, smart, Jennifer personafies what I like most about the industry… fun. Snoobish poo-poo over wine is great and valuable but I would never want to see the value of wine turn into a pedigree dog show without a sense of humor. Good wine seems to happen by chance at times but as you will read, bad wine can be by design.

We here in Washington’s Wine Country like to think we know a bit about the juice. Our local wines have grown exponentially in selections and local wineries have become part of our much neglected sense of culture. Long gone were my memories of “cheap wine” in enormous glass jugs or grocery bought boxes (it was all about quantity back then baby). Jennifer’s latest newsletter, where I got a “flavor” for the history and current events of Ernest and Julio Gallo, it had never crossed my mind how far we had come. So without anymore of my purposelessness prose let me introduce Jennifer and perhaps one of the most blasphemous entries to subvert the American wine world ever giving hope to the high polutin’ wine culture of Washington State that we may never achieve “ghetto wine” status… ever.

(Posted in it’s entirety with permission from Jennifer Rosen)

The Importance of Being Ernest (And Julio)

The neon-green-and-pink striped socks I’m wearing are all the rage in Paris, London and Rome. But you can’t buy them here, because they’re made by a company called Gallo.

As far as America’s Gallo Wine Company is concerned, this country ain’t big enough for two roosters. Carefully patrolling the US market, they’ve block a range of products including salsa, beer, rice, T-shirts, poker chips and Thoroughbred racehorses from taking the Gallo name in vain.

Gallo makes or imports one out of every four bottles of wine Americans drink. They also export to 90 other countries. Two and a half million bottles roll off their lines every day. Family patriarch Ernest Gallo died this spring at 97, worth about $1.2 billion.

The Gallos were grape farmers since back in the 19th century. When Prohibition put other growers out of business, Ernest’s father thrived; sending grapes back east for private winemaking. But Repeal left him in debt, and, apparently, despair. One morning he went into the kitchen and shot and killed his wife, and then himself. Ernest and his younger brothers Julio, 17, and Joseph, 12, were left to fend for themselves.

The older two borrowed money and started a winery. Spurring each other on, Julio would try to make more wine than Ernest could sell, while Ernest worked to pile up more orders than Julio could fill. “We don’t want most of the business,” Ernest was fond of saying, “We want it all.” To this end he won shelf-space by aggressively under-pricing the competition, even giving wine away to capture new markets.

If he didn’t get his first wish, he aced another goal: to become “The Campbell’s Soup of the wine industry.” Their first big success came in 1957 with Thunderbird, the cheap, fortified wine named after a car. An instant hit in the “misery market,” Thunderbird paved the way for fine beverages such as Ripple, Night Train and Boone’s Farm Apple Wine.

If these are not well known as Gallo brands, it’s to keep them from tarnishing their next mega hit, Hearty Burgundy. King of red jug wines, it was dubbed by the LA Times in the 70’s, “The best wine value in the country today.” Hearty Burgundy and Mountain Chablis were followed by other low-brow successes like Carlo Rossi Wines and Bartles & Jaymes coolers.

Not content being top rooster in the screw cap ghetto, Gallo began its bid for respectability. They began buying up local competitors and better quality foreign wineries as well as launching Gallo of Sonoma, known in the industry as a “super-premium” brand, which basically means a step above, well, Gallo.

Basic laws of branding dictate you must never dilute your image. Rolls-Royce doesn’t dabble in compact cars, and you don’t buy your mink coat from Target. Given Gallo’s firm place in the bargain aisle of America’s brain, Gallo of Sonoma should not have worked.

Except Ernest was not one to leave things to the vagaries of the market place. He preferred hands-on control. By the mid-sixties, Gallo owned glass factories for bottles, aluminum plants for caps and a trucking company for distribution. To be sure, when they strongly suggested their wholesalers drop all non-Gallo brands the Federal Trade Commission stepped in. But suggesting a little Gallo of Sonoma with the usual mega order was not beyond the pale.

Generous political contributions to both parties helped smooth over other speed bumps. In 1978, a California amendment saved the company millions by allowing them to spread inheritance taxes over several years. Later, Congress delayed an increase in Chilean wine imports, while passing increased funding for a program that netted Gallo millions of dollars to promote its wines overseas.

It’s hard to imagine the American wine landscape without Gallo. They contributed enormously to developing vineyard and winemaking technology, as well as funding lesser-known projects, like a research center on the effects of alcohol on the brain. If Robert Mondavi deserves credit for introducing Americans to good wine, Gallo can be thanked for getting us drinking wine at all.

But don’t even think about messing with the name. For 800 years, the “Gallo Nero,” or black rooster, has been the symbol of Italy’s Chianti Classico region. But you won’t see those words on American-bound bottles. A housewife and mother, with a website offering Italian ceramics in traditional patterns, “Gallo Verde,” “Gallo Rosso” and “Gallo Blu,” was charged by Gallo attorneys with trademark infringement and dilution as well as unjust enrichment.

“I understand that Gallo means ‘rooster’ in Italian,” the lawyers explained, “However, Italian is not the official language in the United States.”

Perhaps E & J Gallo’s finest litigation hour was in 1986, when they sued their younger brother Joseph for attempting to use his family name on a line of cheeses. Joseph’s countersuit claimed he’d been deprived of his rightful one-third of the winery, but it was dismissed and the brothers died estranged.

By now Ernest has no doubt discovered you can’t take it with you, which is a shame, because he’d probably really appreciate a pair of these socks. I’ve heard the ground can get kind of toasty where he’s going.

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities is tonight and every Tuesday! Come on down and join your local Liberal “Insurgents” and other like minded folks for a pint, pop, or if you are into the sort of thing, Jeagerbomb! POW!

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities
O’Callahan’s - Shilo Inn
50 Comstock RD, Richland

7pm till?

George (Candidate for WA - 04 Congress) will be doing an interview on “The David Goldstein Show” on 710 KIRO in Seattle tonight. If your not in Seattle you can listen to the live streaming audio. George will be on at 10:07 pm.

Click here to listen to the audio (Cliick the “Listen Live Link… registration required).

Something special from a special occasion.

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities is tonight!

I won’t be there but a bunch of other folks will.

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities

O’Callahan’s - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.  Richand

7pm till?

If your not in the Tri-Cities, there are a now 200 other chapters of Drinking Liberally across the nation.  You can find them all here!

Ya, whatever…

Honestly… it’s that one time of year for me where everything pales in comparison.  Enjoy the pics.

I have always thought that one aspect to reducing greenhouse gas, and energy consumption in general, was to get more people on motorcycles.  But the reality is that it isn’t all that practical.  Most people wouldn’t know what to do being under two wheels. And the thought of all that daily carnage on our roads is pretty scary.  But what about three wheels?

For about 15k, one of these could be yours.  For those of you who live in the more… um… wet locations… I would be interested to see if a mod could be made to give some cover and warmth.  But think about it.  I get close to 50mpg on my bike… and I don’t have to ride a 30k goofball hybrid to work every day.  Sure, carpooling and mass transit are ultimately the best options.  But wouldn’t this be more fun too! 

The paradigm of the car must end…

Ya ya ya…. I know I haven’t been blogging much and this place is beginning to look like a persistant ad for Drinking Liberally.  But I have a life!  No offense, but I needed a break (and perhaps still do).  I worry that my blogging will lead weight gain, poor eyesight and excessive drinking. 

Oh hey, on that note… Drinking Liberally is tonight!  Come on by and save Democracy one pint at a time with me and the rest of the crew. 

Details:

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities

O’Callahan’s - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.  Richand

7pm till?

If your not in the Tri-Cities, there are a now 200 other chapters of Drinking Liberally across the nation.  You can find them all here!

From The Hill,

Four weeks earlier than anticipated, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and husband Brian Rodgers welcomed the arrival of their son, Cole McMorris Rodgers.
He was born on Sunday at 3:14 a.m. at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

“Brian and I are overjoyed,” said McMorris Rodgers in a statement. “Although he arrived early, both the baby and I are doing well and recovering at the hospital. We look forward to soon being able to bring our son home.”
Cole weighed five pounds, nine ounces and is in the neonatal intensive care unit to address minor complications.

We left leaning bloggers can be pretty hard on you republican folk, but not today.  Congratulations!  Those of us who are parents know what a special time this can be.