Vote The LesserEvil '08

Okay, I hate to jump on the bandwagon here - but did you see Hillary last night at the DNC?  Can somebody say Orange Push-up? 

 

I'm not talking about some new strength-conditioning move, I'm talking about those old-school frozen treats.  That suit is awesome.  It inspired me to take a look at the nutritional info of today's version of the orange push-up and I wondered to myself, "Why so much fake stuff here?"  Can someone come up with a less evil version please?  Here's one recipe, although the rum probably makes it a little more evil.

     - Tom

OK, so we've been slack at updating the blog. We're embarrassed. Seriously, we are. The one thing that leads us astray of blogs is the infrequent updating. And we're a victim of our own angst. That said, we have an excuse, and it lies below. Check out what we've been doing the past month, non-stop... spreading the LesserEvil word and of course, our LesserEvil Snacks. How about all the folks we recruited in NYC and Northern Cal over the past month. Hey, wanna join these newly-minted, loyal followers? Post your info in the comment field below or email us. A Vote the LesserEvil '08 rep will be in touch with you.

This may not be the most unbiased of political farces out there, but hey, they get the "lesser evil." and it's funny.

Not sure if you caught the article or not, but there's a great story in the National Review about the Senate cafeteria and its terribly evil food... and let's not forget the insidious ambiance the writer touched on.  Yep, you read correctly: the Senate has a problem with its cafeteria's food.  You'd think we have greater issues at hand in the cafeteria other than the unpleasant food, like senators taking excessively long lunch breaks or the bill they passed to install liquor dispensers next to the soda machines.  But no, the Senate is having a great debate on their cafeteria food.  How useful of time spent.

The gist of the article is this: the Senate cafeteria is slop.  The House cafeteria is not.  We pay $1.3 million a year in our tax-paying dollars to feed our Senators and their "guests." We pay nothing for the House cafeteria.  The Senate cafeteria now despises the House cafeteria.  Both cafeterias will meet on Friday at 2pm for a showdown.  A dual of two fine establishments of different upbringings.  Personally, I think they should be dueling about who's going to fork over the cash money to pay our gas bills, but I suppose they need to eat too.  (Plus, I commute. booyah.)

So I have a question: what really is the "lesser evil" here?  To privatize our Senators' cafeteria and allocate that $1.3 mil elsewhere (insert your idea here)?  Or to continue to subsidize and feed our cafeteria-ravenous senators?  Come on here, it's a cafeteria!  But like they say... everyone's gotta eat.

KT

*wait, what's that you ask? do we hold a viewpoint here?  well, yes, of course.  stock the entire thing with LesserEvil. obviously.

When contemplating the psychology of snack choices today, I stumbled upon a connection between how we, as Americans, determine both our eating habits and our voting habits.  To clarify, I refer not to different garments worn by nuns when dining and participating in the political process, but rather to the way that we rationalize our own dietary and political choices.*  When choosing our meal, there is often a struggle between the food tastes the best and will provide instant satisfaction, and the food that is healthiest and will be most beneficial to our body in the long run.  For example, while deep-fried bacon might taste better now (they actually make this), a hearty bowl of oatmeal has a slightly smaller chance of wreaking havoc on our cardiovascular system.  By choosing the lesser evil (insert shameless LesserEvil plug here), we can aim to achieve a healthier, higher-quality lifestyle.

You might be wondering at this point, "So... what in the world does this have to do with politics, Josh?"  Well, I'm glad you asked!  It seems that in politics we often have a choice between short-term fixes that are tasty now (insert own example here) and tougher solutions that may be difficult in the immediate future but reap great benefits over time.  My gut reaction is that we need to make responsible choices about what we eat and how we vote, and both require a significant level of informed thought.  Don't get me wrong - dipping deep-fried bacon in ranch every once in a while along with a glass of ice-cold corn syrup and carbonated water can really hit the spot - as long as we keep an eye on where we're headed.

So choose wisely, my friends...

- Josh, West Coast E.S.T. (that's Emergency Snacking Technician, readers)

to all you newbies just now hearing about our blog, we say to you: WELCOME.  welcome to Vote the LesserEvil '08.  we're thrilled to have you here.  so what is "here"?  click on the "about" button to the right ----------->. 
read about the Vote the LesserEvil '08 campaign and who were are.  it's a blog like any other blog, so start from the bottom. read the first post - it's what we're all about it. then read on and enjoy.

and hey, share your thoughts, post some comments, e-mail us with ideas.  most of all, have a laugh.  laugh with us and at us.  at politics and with it.  just laugh.

KT

Have you noticed how the media has upped the ante on using political maps during this year's primaries?  Seriously, every time I turned on CNN it felt like a scene out of "Enemy of the State", only instead of tracking Gene Hackman jumping between moving trains, they were honing in on an unsuspecting voter on Main Street.  And while the primary season is behind us, the Electoral College maps are just heating up.  Interactive maps, maps by state, county, city and even block.  I particularly like the "cartogram" Electoral map - it looks like a someone got locked in the Pez factory, got bored, and decided to try to make a map of the U.S. out of candy. 

Electoral College or Pez Candy?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College
http://www.pez.com/

Seeing that I'm a snack kind-of-guy, I'd like to suggest we build on this Pez idea.  How about a Political Snack Map?  Instead of red and blue states, we have pretzel, pork rind and popcorn states.  Then when the pundits start assessing how each state will vote come November, they can reference our snack map for further analysis.  So I'm taking nominees starting now for each state.  Once I have all 50, I'll publish the map here and alert the folks at Fox, CNN, all of the other networks, newspapers, etc that the map is available for their use...as long as they reference the source ("As you can see here on the Snack Map provided by votethelesserevil.com, Wisconsin and Minnesota may be close in geography, however voters there are light years apart on issues like crunchability, salty vs sweet and the role of dips.")

Seriously, post your state's snack nominee.

TB

Why is it that every single politician sees the need to be photographed in a diner? Do Americans really hang out in diners all day, every day? From the looks of it in the national press and according to the omniscient political campaigns, yes. But come on, are there really that many diners in American? Seriously.

Let's see...

Ah hah! According to Restaurant Associates Inc., there are a plethora (read a lot) of diners in the United States of America. In fact, approximately 2, 322, 235* according to them. That's two million, three hundred and twenty two thousand and two hundred and thirty five, in ALL of the states. Let me state that again: 2,322, 235. That's one per every 129 Americans.  And 34 strips of bacon served per day, per every 1 American.  Not to mention 8 patty melts per every 1 American.  It makes me sick to think about how many hashbrowns are digested every hour in this country (if you know, please, I'm all ears).

You think this is right?  What about when your seven year-old turns on the tube to watch his daily CNBC stock picks and sees a potential leader of the free world munching on peaches topped with cottage cheese?   Probably not good.  How about when your two year-old picks up his morning paper and sees a picture of Obama chowing down on 2lb chicket cutlet sandwich and next to that picture, McCain squirting corn syrup ketchup in his mouth?  Yeah, probably not good.  Probably too much evil.

In fact,

KT
VTLE Campaign Manager
*the number 2, 322, 235 is by no way associated with the Restaurant Associates Inc. in fact, the Restaurant Associates Inc. does not exist. but if they did exist, our guess would be that they would state that the number of diners in America = still 2, 322, 235, give or take a few. still confused? WE MADE IT UP.

Hello world. Wait, "hello world?"  No, no, no... I have it all wrong. Let me start over...  Hello microcosm of the World Wide Web. You small smidgen of a sector of people on a small portal of (I'm guessing) the Internet.  If you are in fact reading this, well then, welcome to our LesserEvil world.  A world of better-for-you snacks and twelve people living real lives, in a real world, with real brains (kinda) and real fingers that can type things, like this here blog: Vote the LesserEvil '08.

What's this all about, this "Vote the LesserEvil" blog?  I'll tell you.  We think the whole election thing these days has taken a life of its own... to the point that it's a laugh.  Funny, that is.  Not "funny funny, hah hah" like we don't like it.  We do.  We vote.  We take pride in voting. We think it's "funny funny, hah hah" like we think it should be laughed at... to lighten it up, if you will.  You have to, right?  It's all over the place.  It dominates our lives.  

Don't believe me?  Turn on the TV.  (Go ahead. Do it now.)  What do you see?  I'll bet it's political.  The election.  The candidates. The stumps.  Some presidential candidate in Plainville, Kansas (sorry, Plainvillians) chowing down on a patty melt in the local Plainville County diner. Come one and admit... we live and breathe the elections, to the point of absurdity.

So let's take this funny election stuff and the prevalence of it... then throw in a name like LesserEvil, and maybe we get a laugh or two or may be even twenty (lucky us, eh?).  We're taking these brains and fingers of ours and writing about it.  Talking about it. Laughing about it.  And while all of us here at LesserEvil have our own personal political views (and they span the whole spectrum, by the way), the point of this blog is not to get political, but to have a little fun looking at the spectacle of the political process.   And hopefully we can induce some our your thoughts and even get you thinking about voting your "LesserEvil."  


Oh yeah, and buy some snacks.  We're not trying to fool anyone here.  We're a snack food company, selling snacks.  That's how we get by.  We live and die by the snack.  But hey, we're real people with real brains and fingers.  We'll bet you are too, so chime in.

KT
VTLE Campaign Manager