Arg

Despite the fact that we haven't filed our taxes yet (we haven't even got everything ready for the Long Suffering Accountant(tm) yet) I have manfully fit the battle of the FAFSA--that's Free Application for Federal Student Aid, figuring out approximately what tax we will have to pay/have paid, without actually having some of the useful information to hand.

And then I try to file the damned thing. It's all done electronically. Both Sarcasm Girl and I have PINs. Each time I try to use one to sign the application I am either told that the PIN is invalid (it isn't. I've checked.) or that the system can't find the application.

I will fight with this again in the morning. Right now I'm going to stick my tongue in an electrical outlet and see if that improves my outlook.

ETA: Apparently morning helps. (God knows it never helps anything else.) I went back in, found the error (I'd used her PIN when they unhelpfully implied that that's what they wanted; they wanted mine) and fixed it, and now they have the FAFSA, two days ahead of deadline. The angels rejoice.

I am comforted to know that y'all loathe the process as much as I.

Oh, Please. Really.

The fact that Ralph Nader had thrown himself into the Presidential race was a sort of inconsequential annoyance. I don't know that Nader can be blamed for the results of the 2000 and 2004 elections; mostly he just strikes me as the sort of inflexible, holier-than-thou sort who works really well as a gadfly, but completely screws things up if he gets into an office which requires anything other than a blunt approach. But now he's chosen Matt Gonzalez as his running mate, and I've seen Gonzalez up close and personal, and ick.

Personal anecdote: One of Gonzalez's political enemies on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is Tom Ammiano, a dapper former teacher. Ammiano is another story, and hardly perfect. But the two of them played that game of dissing each others' measures, a childish, non-productive game for pols. So: Avocado's school had, through hard work on the part of the teachers, administration, and kids, brought the school's standardized test scores above 800 point, at which point the school, overall, is considered Excellent. This--given that the school population was largely immigrant Latino and Chinese, lower economic strata, with English as a second language, is a huge accomplishment. So Tom Ammiano put a motion before the Board of Supervisors formally commending the school, and a batch of children (among them, Avocado) were sent to formally recieve the commendation. It's a glorified photo op, but the kids and Principal were delighted. Everyone was delighted. Except Matt Gonzalez, who literally sat up on the dias making faces of impatience (apparently because the commendation was recommended by Tom Ammiano). It was gratuitously unpleasant.

This sort of kindergartenish behavior is not what I want from any elected official, let alone someone who is a heartbeat away from the Presidency and all that. The current administration often exhibits that sort of childishness now, and look where it's gotten us. And, at least since we've lived in San Francisco, Gonzalez has so consistently backed the sort of frivolously politically correct measures, whether they make sense or not. So much so that whenever I see a ballot measure backed by Gonzalez my first impulse is to vote agin it.

I'm delighted that Ralph Nader has found a running mate whose values match his, but that running mate doesn't speak very well for Nader's values.