2000
Presidential Recount - Home for the Holidays (... or "How
the Florida Recount Became a Family Happening"). A very humorous
insider's look at the 2000 Florida Recount. By amusing coincidence,
Ron's own mother was one of the three people who served on the Broward
Canvassing Board -- so he just about the only reporter with nearly
unfettered access to everything. And, FYI, the CloseUp Foundation
subsequently excerpted parts of this essay in their recently published
high
school textbook of first-person accounts of American history.
(This article was also excerpted in the book Ordinary
Americans: U.S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People,
published by the Close Up Foundation in 2003, with an intro by acclaimed
filmmaker Ken Burns).
Playing
Soldier for a Week(2001) - "The Department
of Defense calls it the 'Joint Civilian Orientation Conference'
(JCOC) -- but I think of it as more of a military fantasy camp for
civilians. Envision some aging accountant shelling out big bucks
to spend a week shagging fly balls from has-been baseball stars.
Now substitute soldiers for the ball players, weapons for the baseballs
-- throw in some cool explosions and lots of travel -- and you'll
get the idea. For a little over week in April, I and 54 other rather
lucky civilians participated in JCOC-64 ..." Written in April
2001, but it remains both informative and funny in our post 9/11
world.
German
Sex & Politics (2002) - Back from a recent visit to
Europe, Ron gives his very offbeat observations on Germany's national
elections, German sex lives, a drag oompah band, half-naked lesbians,
and more. Did we mention half-naked lesbians (warning: adult humor
... and half-naked lesbians!!).
Storming
La Fiesta (2003)- "There were seven Democratic
Presidential candidates, three thousand delegates, one thousand
additional guests, one thousand Dean supporters bused in to pack
the hall, and dozens of journalists at the Florida Democratic Party
(FDP) State Democratic Convention. The only problem: there wasn't
anything newsworthy going on. That's right. Nada. Nothing. Zippo.
Zilch. It looked important, but it was all for show ..." Thus
begins Ron's savagely funny and alcohol-soaked account of the convo
weekend, much of it spent tagging along with a liberal Kucinich
activist named Storm. The Kucinich state chair actually wrote a
letter complaining that Ron ... well, ummm ... accurately
reported what he saw.
2003
NHL All-Star Game - Something different. Ron -- who is also
a big hockey fan -- takes a stab at being a photojournalist at the
2003 NHL All Star Game. No essays, just some decent pix. Also some
good pix of the music acts: The B-52s, Sheryl Crow, and the Goo
Goo Dolls.
JOIN
THE POLITICS1
FACEBOOK GROUP:
For
those who would like to track Politics1 with a newsreader, we publish
a RSS feed:
