By Jeff Smith, on Tue Aug 27, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET  Q: What should you do if you work for a candidate or elected official who doesn’t turn out to be quite who you thought they’d be? I’m not talking about any kind of scandalous behavior but about pols who wind up not being as dedicated to the policies they preach, or candidates who try to present a reformer image but are in fact willing to take money from the “wrong” sorts of people. Should you stay to build up your résumé— and your connections? Or should you try to be true to what you really believe? —D.N., New York City
Great question. The answer depends on why you decided to work for the politican in the first place. If you are an idealist who was inspired by the candidate when you first met him/her and thus decided to apply for a job, then I think you should probably leave, since the work appears to be a disheartening, compromising experience. If, on the other hand, you took the job because you saw it as a good way to get where you want to be, then you should probably stay, so long as the job continues to serve that purpose.
No candidate is as wonderful as his staunchest supporters imagine or as awful as his fiercest opponents allege. Paul Wellstone, the first politician I ever “fell for,” voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 as he faced a tough re-election battle. While I understood the political context, his vote disappointed me. (He later apologized and said he regretted the vote.) Conversely, John Ashcroft, whom I reviled as a U.S. senator and attorney general, ultimately made a very courageous decision, standing up to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card regarding a domestic surveillance decision as he lay on what he thought was his deathbed. I try to keep these examples in mind before falling too hard for—or harshly condemning—any politician.
Q: So, dude, I’m a former high school teacher and I keep getting Facebook friended by girls I taught who have become WAY hot. So here’s the thing: I’m hoping to run for office next year and my question is, is it okay for me to message them to ask for help with my campaign, or will it totally creep them out? —Hot for Student, Somewhere in the Midwest
So, dude, maybe you haven’t been keeping up with the news, but have you heard of this guy named Anthony Weiner? Yeah, because you make him sound classy.
Regarding messaging them: As your FB friends, they will be able to see all of your updates once you announce your campaign, and will be able to decide on their own if they would like to volunteer. But if you’d like to reach out to them to make an individual ask—which is always more effective than a mass update—I’d suggest you do so via a campaign manager or volunteer coordinator. I actually didn’t follow the advice I’m giving—I reached out to many former students personally for campaign help—but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say I wasn’t as creepy as you.
Read the rest of…
Jeff Smith: Do As I Say – A Political Advice Column
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Aug 27, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET What if God inadvertently left a carbon copy of the answers to life’s ultimate questions in the garbage can next to the driveway leading up to the Garden of Eden?
And Eve found them (we have to assume Adam wasn’t very curious and probably wouldn’t have noticed) and after sniffing the fresh carbon several times decided to share the answers with humankind and as a result we all behaved daily like perfect little model human beings?
 Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
I think after a few Biblical Days God would probably get bored and shake up all the pieces and start over again.
In other words, it’s OK if the world doesn’t make sense to you right now and you aren’t sure what you should do with your life or even what you should do at 4:30pm this afternoon.
It helps keep God busy. And entertained. At least that’s what I think.
By Krystal Ball, on Mon Aug 26, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Aug 26, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET It’s one of those Monday mornings that feels like I am about to take a major test I waited until the last minute to study for…
Because I thought I could pull it off…
But realize now I was probably mistaken…
For a class I didn’t want to sign up for but did anyway because I thought it would be good for me…
And two weeks ago had the opportunity to drop but didn’t and now the deadline has passed…
And decide if I gorge myself on a sweet roll and loud Motown music while telling myself “In the scheme of things…..this is not a big deal” that I briefly feel better ….
Until after the second sweet roll I start feeling both guilty, anxious, and now nauseous at the exact same time I realize listening to Lady Marmalade for the third time is two times too many…
And I look over my notes one last time and hope the questions on the test turn out to be the few I know the answer to…
As I realize that this is just another Monday ….like every other Monday. And the way I always feel before a test. And, awww hell, it will be fine…
And even if it’s not fine and I do poorly, it will still be fine…
And turn back on Lady Marmalade and it sounds even better the third time than it did the first time…
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Aug 23, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET I feel sometimes like I don’t post enough pictures of food I am about to eat.
Frankly, I don’t eat many meals that are that interesting or that others would probably want to know about.
But I want to fit in and had a friend of a friend send me a picture of a meal he found on Facebook recently of something someone somewhere was about to eat.
He wasn’t sure of the entire backstory — only that someone was hungry and took a picture—but was able to download it and send to me to share so I could hit my food pic quota this month on Facebook.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Aug 22, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET I am 50 years old now and yes, I will, on occassion, when my wardrode is limited and it is the weekend, throw on plaid shorts and a plaid short-sleeve button down shirt.
I am 50. And it just doesn’t matter that much.
OK. That’s not the truth. It is not my age and limited wardrobe thay is to blame.
I will admit it, a few years ago when I was in Hawaii I saw some young surfer dudes wearing plaid and plaid and it worked for them–even though I knew it wasn’t supposed to.
While in Hawaii I didn’t buy any of those plaid shirts or plaid shorts (I already had some at home), but did buy the surfer dude casual shoes that looked ragged and pre-worn but seemed to help make the plaid on plaid scheme work.
And that is the real reason I have recently tried wearing this plaid ensemble.
I thought with the shoes and the right youthful attitude I could oull it off. But I got a good look at myself in the mirror over the weekend and relaized that instead of looking like a slightly aging former surfer dude I instead looked like a 50 year old guy with bad plaid clothes who went to Hawaii a few years ago and bought some surfer dude shoes because he thought he could wear them with his plaid clothes back home and look like a slightly aging former surfer dude.
And was sorely mistaken and no one has had the heart to tell him.
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Aug 20, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET (That title makes more sense if you hum it to the tune of the line, “You say either, and I say either”)
Within moments of the Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act, it seemed like every solidly red state jumped at the chance to reinstate the kinds of laws that the invalidated section of the act had kept in check. Stringent ID requirements, cutting voting hours, eliminating polling places in predominantly Democrat-leaning neighborhoods, and refusing to let college students continue to vote in their state of residence. (Which, by the way, is unconstitutional – there’s nothing in the residency requirement that says an address doesn’t count if it’s a dorm, frat house, or off-campus house no matter how many empty pizza boxes are in the kitchen.) (Which, by the way, you’d think Tea Partiers would remember since they like to quote the constitution so often . . . but then again, homophobes who use the bible as their justification are good at conveniently forgetting the other things the bible forbids, such as mixing fabrics and getting tattoos, much less death penalty for cursing your parents or pulling out during intercourse . . . but I digress)
The speed with which southern states jumped into voter suppression after the decision prompted many people to use the analogy, ‘the body wasn’t even cold yet.’ It reminded me of the urban legend about savvy New Yorkers finding apartments by combing the obituaries. But I was less offended by the speed than by the overkill. There are a variety of studies of actual voter fraud, but the number of proven cases is between 10 and 15 – that’s from 2000 to 2010, with approximately 600 million votes cast during that time. Meanwhile, there are multiple cases of politically-appointed state election commissioners going to great lengths to ‘cleanse’ the voting rolls, harrassing tens of thousands of people and winding up not finding more than a couple of cases – not of voter fraud or dead people voting, but typos and other clerical errors. Changing voting requirements to prevent the rare case of fraud is like using a nuclear weapon to kill one cockroach in your kitchen. (Mind you, I lived in a few rundown apartments in New York for 5 years and would have considered it, especially the night I was awakened by a noise in the kitchen and saw a foot-long tail coming out of a box of Rice Krispies . . . .but I digress)
Since claims of voter fraud are either incredibly inflated or just plain fraudulent, I decided to fraudulently turn from a suburban Jewish mom into a blues singer to complain about it. (And as a result, I finally learned the word for that phenomenon when you say a somewhat unusual word over and over again, like ‘kidney’ or ‘detrimental,’ and it starts to sound weird and lose its meaning . . . check out the song to find out!)
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Aug 20, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Click here to purchase. You know you want to,
At bookstore now and just passed by section selling all things “50 Shades of Grey.”
I am intrigued but walk in by.
And there are a lot of us in this category that the publisher is missing out on selling to.
I am at an age where I would probably buy and read “25 Shades of Grey.”
And “13 Shades of Grey” would be a no-brainer.
But I just don’t have the energy or curiousity do bother with 50 of anything.
No matter how tantalizing.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Aug 16, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Whenever I use Priceline.com, I am usually fairly satisfied with the outcome.
But lately I’ve started to worry that William Shatner isn’t as intimidating as he used to be.
The Kung Fu punch pose isn’t as daunting as it once was.
I would feel better about using Priceline.com if he had a sidekick.
Like Tonto to the Lone Ranger or Robin to Batman.
Maybe a tanned, rested and ready Mr Spock?
I think the right sidekick could help William Shatner (Captain Kirk) get an extra 10-15% off every deal he negotiates for us.
It’s time.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Aug 15, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET I have been an avid coffee drinker for three decades and when traveling I like to try different coffee shops and coffee brands.
What is my standard for determining if a new kind of coffee I haven’t tried before truly measures up?
Easy. …One simple test.
After the first deep gulp (or second sip) do I start to hear this song play in my head?
If the answer is “Yes,” the coffee brand has made the cut and gets placed alongside Cafe Buestelo, Heine Bros, Cafe Du Monde (which I relied on while studying for the bar exam) and other great coffees I favor.
If “no,” it gets filed alongside Sanka, Nescafe, Maxwell House and a few dozen others coffee brands that have tried but come up short for me personally.
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