Remember how, when I made my endorsements for the 2005 elections, I advised skipping over City Council At Large #3 because neither incumbent Shelley Sekula Somethingorother nor challenger James Partsch-Galvan was worth a vote? Well, Galvan's recent "endorsement" of Sue Lovell in the At Large #2 runoff illustrates better than I could ever explain why he didn't even merit a protest vote. Here's the full text of his email, via Carl Whitmarsh's list, with all the naughty words replaced by dog breed names to maintain my PG rating:
No wonder the City of Houston is all poodled up! No wonder The Houston Astros did not even win one World Series Game!
Houston is the most Corrupt City in the USA! The Houston Chronicle Editorial Board is made up of nothing but White Old Corrupt Men with a few Nasty Jack Russell Terriers & a couple of House Norbottenspets who will go along!
This new makeup of Houston City Council is the most Corrupt Set of Political Pyrenean Mastiffs that Houston has ever had! Houston is not only the most Corrupt City in the USA, but also the most Racist City in the USA! Schnauzer the Houston Chronicle! Vizsla Mayor Bill White! Xoloitzcuintli Jay Aiyer!
Please galvanize and vote for Sue Lovell! Yorkipoo Jay Aiyer! I also encourage everyone to help clean up Houston and go around and remove all Jay Aiyer Political Signs! I have already removed some myself and burned them!
Lovell, to her credit, swiftly disavowed Galvan's words:
We did not ask for this endorsement from Mr. Galvan nor will we accept it. The tone and language are vile and offensive and certainly not in keeping with our campaign which has brought together a broad cross segment of Houstonians to work for our city. We find Mr. Galvan's words despicable and hateful. Our campaign is not going to be highjacked and used as vehicle for this type of contemptible message. Mr. Galvan should apologize to everyone who received this loathsome e-mail.
So what was the purpose of printing the letter to hurt or discredit Sue Lovell? I received the same email and promptly deleted it without reading it as I am quite familiar with Mr. Galvan's antics. But here is a question for you why was Bob Lanier the same person who is endorsing Jay Aiyer sending recorded messages to District C candidates to vote for Hittner? There were two very good Democracts running. Is Jay a Republican disguised as a Democrat?
Posted by: Manuel on November 22, 2005 7:35 AMI knew that anyone who made that many puns with his name had to be bad news.
Posted by: John on November 22, 2005 7:49 AMHow is this discrediting Sue Lovell? I'm pointing out what an idiot Galvan is, and as you can see, I printed Sue's full response. What's wrong with that?
It's funny that you accuse me of attempting to discredit Sue Lovell, then immediately afterwards try to discredit Jay Aiyer. Now why would you do that?
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on November 22, 2005 8:06 AMBecause he's getting galvanized for the revolution!
Posted by: Karl-T on November 22, 2005 4:32 PM"Because he's getting galvanized for the revolution!"
Some definitions of "galvanize" from Merriam-Webster On-Line:
a) to stimulate or excite as if by an electric shock
b) to immerse in molten zinc to produce a coating of zinc-iron alloy
This is enough to make the Tin Man from Oz shutter!
I love what you did with the dog breeds in lieu of quoting curses. Love it.
Posted by: Prove Our Democracy with Paper Ballots on November 23, 2005 9:02 PMI hadn't heard of this definition of "galvanize" before:
b) to immerse in molten zinc to produce a coating of zinc-iron alloy
"Galvanize" derives from the name Luigi Galvani, who discovered that electricity caused a dead frog's leg muscles to contract; hence the first definition.
I'd always understood that to "galvanize" steel meant to electroplate it with zinc (in order to prevent rust; thus, there'd be no point in galvanizing tin). I guess at some point, the immersion method became more popular, but the name from the original electroplating technique stuck.
Posted by: Mathwiz on November 25, 2005 12:40 PM