Friday, February 29, 2008

Wow it's been a week full of stuff to write about, but it's just been too busy.

First, thanks to Mr. Bezden for taking us off the mailing list. I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on your business practice, but I appreciate your listening to us. Just to run a possible business enhancer by you - what if you actively sought an Opt-Out list? If it's only 10-20% of a neighborhood, I know it's just more work for you, but if you could eliminate 50-60% of people who wouldn't look at your flyer regardless, could that reduce your costs and time and make the remaining addresses more valuable? Just a thought.

Also, the Wife did some research on the littering question. The Supreme Court has protected leafleting as a requirement to protect anonymous political speech, and has explicitly extended that protection to all leaflets, including commercial. They must be "firmly affixed" to the door, and cannot be left where there is a No Soliciting or No Trespassing sign. So I have to compliment the Ron Paul precinct chair on adhering most closely - his leaflet was in a plastic bag secured to my door handle, almost guaranteeing it couldn't fall to the ground. Given Paul's poll numbers, my admission could be the precinct chair's best news of the week. The Surpeme Court has also overturned local laws requiring that leafletters be licensed or require permits to preserve the anonymity, so while some leafleting activity might be against Pflugerville ordinances, those laws would be judged unConstitutional if challenged. I'm not endorsing the laws, just reporting them.

My company laid off six people yesterday, five of which were developers. I'm safe, but it's always an incredibly weird feeling in the office afterwards. Not to minimize what the laid-off endure, but there's a survivor's guilt that infects every conversation.

No working out this week, so I stalled at 14 miles for the month, 53 for the year. Gotta do better in March. It'll be tough to get in too much of a groove as I'm traveling to Dallas for training, and to DC for a wedding, but we'll see how it goes.

Saw a new Hillary ad tonight. It's tough to make an argument that you're not the same-old when you resort to he most pathetic political tactic of all: fearmongering. It's all pictures of kids and threats of middle-of-the-night danger that obviously only one person can prevent. I don't even know that I'd disagree with her point of the benefits of experience, but if she has to depend on this style, that's just pathetic. Before I was voting for Obama - now I'm decidedly against Hillary as well. I didn't vote early so I'll be waiting in amazingly long lines on Tuesday.
posted by Unknown 10:06 PM | 0 comments