I believe this photo highlights all the reasons why I am a candidate for Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs.
I met with David Cohen and two other Saipan Bloggers on Friday night. He wanted to talk to us about island life and the Federalization of the Marianas. Jeff Schorr arranged the meeting with me. I asked Marites Castillo and Bree Reynolds to come along.
Regardless of how the Governor, the Attorney General, and Harry Blalock feel about David Cohen, I catch a good vibe from talking to him. I found out that he once volunteered (worked?) with the League of Conservation Voters (I worked for LCV in 2004 and 2005) and that he was a Democrat in his younger days.
Not only has David flipped from being a Dem to a Sith, but he has also changed his views of Federalization. He was once against it, but now is for it. In particular, he is concerned with human trafficking and the sex slave industry.
He claims that the Marianas government does not recognize these issues and have done very little to put an end to them. Is that true? I don't know. But I think he is basically saying that if we can't do it, he's going to make sure that somebody does it for us.
Personally, I feel that the Federal Takeover is less a result of George Miller getting 2/3 of his PAC money from Labor Unions and Allan Stayman hating the Marianas, and more a result of our leaders' inability to take the initiative.
But that's just one person's opinion. I am only the voice for the people of the Marianas that live in my apartment.
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I had a great time at Saturday's Las Vegas Night put on by the local Rotary Club.
I was a little disappointed at first because there was no craps table (false advertising!), but I eventually found a seat at Harry Blalock's blackjack table and stayed there most of the night.
I was a little annoyed at the Rotary Club rule making committee. The dealer had to hit on 16 and stay on 17, which is standard, but anytime a player and dealer had a draw (i.e. both draw a 20), the advantage went to the dealer.Yeah, I know, it is a charity event and all the money went to "the children," but still...that's un-American!
As it turned out, Harry Blalock is one of the worst blackjack dealers the world has ever seen. I drank all night (yeah, I know, I broke my no drinking thing), bought three rounds of drinks for the table, made several trips to buy food at the snack bar, paid for my $40 in raffle tickets, and went home with a surplus $100 in my pocket.
Harry was so bad that on one hand he dealt all six of the players at his table a blackjack.
Good job, Harry! I look forward to playing at your table next year!It was fun rubbing elbows with all the people on Saipan that are more important and that make more money than me...but it was even better running into some of my friends:
...that's me with my island-born American-Filipina buddy, Kathy, and my Randolph-born 1/4 Filipina-American buddy, Diana.
...and that's EJ with Bev, everyone's favorite Filipina-American dental assistant (hygienist?).Greg Moretti was there, too. This picture is the next photo in the Blackmail Series:
Herb Soll was there, too:
I love Herb Soll!How about one more Harry Blalock anecdote:
There was one particular door prize that Harry really wanted to win, the liter bottle of 18 year Chivas. It was one of the more valuable door prizes, so it was raffled off towards the end of the night.
Since it was the end of the night, a lot of people had already left. At least six times they pulled a number, announced it, gave the winner a few minutes to claim their prize, and then pulled another number. On the sixth or seventh try they called my number.
I went up, accepted my prize and came back to the table to take this picture:
Harry was pissed...but became considerably more happy when I gave him the bottle of whiskey: