SCALING OPTIONS from CrossFit/Brand X forums:

Big Dawgs and Pack:
as rx’d

Puppies:
Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
Rest 3 minutes

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For those of you not interested in battling the pedestrian hordes of midtown Manhattan, remember your two options: hit up Black Box Brooklyn for this WOD or come on in to Manhattan and do the rowing version of this WOD: row 500m/rest 2 min x 4. Also possible to do a KB version of this WOD where you do as many swings as possible for 2 min and rest for 2 min, times 4.

Thank god for the kb option bc I had just chucked my running shoes.happy birthday tripp!

Allison is it possible to make up a workout we've missed today? Thanks

In response to "Block The Vote:"

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/10/021868.php

Thanks for providing some balance, Hari.

Just when I thought I came to this blog for great Crossfit stuff....

Hari,

That is not a response to "Block The Vote". The issues in the your article does not in any way even attempt to address the 7 strong points that would appear to demonstrate organized, wide-spread voter disenfranchisement based on their political views (actual or suspected) that are raised in the first article. This concept of "Point B refuting the original Point A" when A and B have nothing to do with each other save for their striking at different sides of our (unfortunately) binary-based political system is a major problem in this country.

By contrast, concerns that there could be fraudulent fundraising are certainly valid to raise. Nobody really wins when cheaters pollute the system. However even here the article does not offer a proper conclusion other than:

1) Obama's camp does not use AVS while McCain's camp does.
2) Obama's camp claims to check fraud by other means. Unfortunately Powerline does not make mention of Obama's system actually working so I guess it is up to the reader to wonder if that ever happens.

FYI - AVS is no more sophisticated than knowing the customers billing address associated with their card number and expiration date. This is no major hurdle as traffickers in stolen credit cards have that and *way* more information about their victims.

But wait! If one actually reads the entire NYT article beyond the carefully selected *sentence* that Powerline provides, one gains greater insight to the problem:

"But a New York Times analysis of campaign finance records looking for obvious anomalies in donor information quickly found more than a dozen contributors to Mr. Obama using obviously fictitious name. This was a tiny fraction of Mr. Obama’s donor pool, but it appeared from the analysis that Mr. McCain had far fewer apparent fake names among his donors."

So now we know more, including that:
1) The number of (obviously) fraudulent names seems to be "a tiny fraction of Mr. Obama's the donor pool."
2) Cheaters may also be wiggling stolen dollars into the McCain camp.

While neither of these points are surprising, I'm reading more...

"Unlike Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain provides on his Web site a searchable database of all of his donors, including those who fall below the $200 threshold that the Federal Election Commission requires campaigns to itemize in their reports. The political blogger Marc Ambinder recently reported that searches of this database turned up seven contributions from someone named Jesus II of Las Vegas giving a total of $851 to Mr. McCain."

The big shocker on the outset is that Jesus II lives in Vegas. However remember that the Prime Directive of Jesus was to save sinners and so why *not* go to the (fantastic) manufacturing plant? Anyway, let's continue...

"The Obama campaign pointed out that a search of the name 'Anonymous, Anonymous' also turns up pages of contributions to the McCain campaign, including more than two dozen that exceed $200 but for some reason do not appear in F.E.C. records. It should be pointed out that campaigns are permitted to accept donations of up to $50 in cash or anonymously. There are other odd donors that appear in searches of the McCain database but fall below the $200 threshold, including 'The Gun Shop' from Hood River, Oregon., who contributed $100 and 'Adorable Manabat' from Winnetka, Calif., who gave $200."

I am not going to claim that a parent did not name their child "Adorable Manabat", but I am going to say that I would like to meet this McCain contributor 'cause he (or she) sounds cool! These multiple “Anonymous, Anonymous” people seem far less interesting to me. Let's read even further...

"Other news reports have surfaced recently of people discovering credit card charges they had not made to the Obama campaign. And The Washington Post reported this week the tale of Mary T. Biskup of Manchester, Missouri, who received a call recently from the Obama campaign asking if she had donated $174,800 to the campaign. Ms. Biskup said she had not and told the Post it appeared someone had used her name but not her credit card number, because nothing had showed up on her own bills."

So Obama's campaign actually called Ms. Biskup because they believed that her "generous" contribution was fraudulent or at least suspect. One could argue that it was the 6-digit nature of the donation on the spreadsheet that raised the flag or that her case was printed because it was a most egregious example (much like how the classic erroneous multi-million dollar phone bills make the press, but the likely more common multi-thousand dollar phone bill mistake is "dog bites man".) however what is inescapable is that Obama's camp is looking over the books to at least some degree.

So wrapping this up, it appears that we have some new conclusions on full examination of what was provided:

a) Obama's camp does not use AVS but has at least does some fraud checking in place. I will assume we can trust Powerline to earnestly report a follow-up if and when the test contributions they mention are rejected.
b) Using AVS, as McCain does, in no way makes his camp immune to fraudulent contributors. In fact, it also looks like their reporting database needs some cleaning up.
c) McCain's strategists have apparently not made good use of the support of Las Vegas resident, Jesus II. This endorsement could play well among some of the more devout voters.

All of which still has nothing to do with the apparent campaign of disenfranchisement issues raised in the "Block the Vote" piece which, if true, would be a fundamental, directed attack on the central components of our democracy and should be, in my opinion, considered to be a form of treason regardless of the political leanings of the perpetrators or the victims.

Something fun and different this morning at the Box (no, not the running). for a change of pace we had a great "warm-up and flexibility/ movement work" with Gillian. (really that doesn't properly describe it, but I have no idea how to best describe it). It was great - and just what the doctor ordered for my sore upper back after the CFT yesterday (damn presses...). Big thanks to Gillian for sharing her knowledge and for giving us some new things for our arsenal.

Did today's WOD as Rx'd. Usual fun running on Manhattan streets:

12:11

Thanks, Ari for pushing me.

Oh yeah...and 19 pull-ups. I know today is 18, but somehow yesterday I only did 16... D'oh!

Go Obama!

Moon,

Extremely well argued!

Wanted a high-intensity WOD to give a similar stimulus to wind sprints. Modeled off a WOD they did at CF Vancouver, modeled off some Olympic shot-putter or hammer-thrower or something.

5x 95# thrusters
10 box jumps
1min rest
10 rounds

Great hit! Key it to pump out, and I mean PUMP out the thrusters and box jumps as FAST as possible.

Hari,

Twas a slow day this morning - a new CMS system assploded.

anyone actually try the kb version?

4 X 400m w/2m rest.
11:56

Then
5 rounds
10 Diamond Pushups
20 Good Mornings(45lb bar)
20 abmat situps
12:50

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes!!

WOD as Rx'd in 11:30 - the elevation here is still kicking my ass I think. My run times in general are about a minute slower than usual. I'm going climbing tomorrow, so we'll see how I hold up then!

The flying out here is going great. I've also lucked into finding another guy to do the WOD's with, and I will be going to Colorado Springs in another week or two for some Z Health work - I'll let you all know how it goes.

400m rows, 2:00 rest

1:11
1:13
1:16
1:19

My metcon is through the floor these days.

5:56 (1:28, 1:29, 1:29, 1:30)