One bullet at a time.
Someone I work with piped up last night with the near legendary “Obamacare made Tricare cancel my son’s coverage!” Yeah, it did. This is someone who retired from the AF and I would expect to know better. I said something along the lines of, “you’re fucking crazy. You are the only one that this happened to…” Nope, he tells me, his not-yet 21 year-old son had his Tricare Prime cancelled because of Obamacare – he got a LETTER in the mail. Two to three minutes after I get online I discovered that the Tricare contract insurance companies (there are three) have been moving this way since…2007! They want to simply move people from Prime to Standard if they are more than 50 miles from a military facility. Or, you can waive the driving requirement and keep your Prime, or get Standard. Of course, I’m told his letter came just after October 1st (when Obamacare started!) so it must be so. The Tricare (and Government fiscal year) also happens to start on October 1st. What? After I send the link to the Tricare site he suddenly recalls that he got this letter like a year ago and completed the waived requirement for himself – just never did it for his covered child. These are the engagements I live for…
One bullet. At. A. Time.
P.S. For those policies that are getting cancelled? The President seriously lied when he messaged over and over about keeping policies. But, the individual insurance market, which is about 15 million people, has a lousy record on continuing policies. All of them are sold on a one-year basis, and only about 17% of those buyers maintain their policy for at least two years. By my math, that means that 83% of policies are generally cancelled by the companies, or the insured, every two years. That’s about 12.5 million folks changing policies over a rolling two-year period. If even half of those are cancelled by the insurers (and it’s probably much higher than half), then we should normally see about 6.25 million cancelled. I think the reported number right now (per the endless Fox News at my work) is about 5.9 million. Seems about right for normal insurance operations.
This piece at Slate.com is brilliant stuff. Brilliant. And so very true – even if my own hand-drawn maps can be utter farces. This is the type of story idea and writing that makes me smile.
Yes, (or should it be “No,”) I don’t want to talk about the Capitals.
If you don’t know about it, because you don’t have kids in school and you can’t even fathom the thought of have kids around who are in school, you can follow your progeny’s progress and grades online these days. PowerSchool is the main supplier to schools and you get a login for your kid and checking up is easy enough. I look at L’s everyday so make sure she’s not missing assignments or doing poorly in certainly classes; consider it more prevention of a slide into oblivion. That’s a short story made long. I do want to pass along that she is getting a 100% in Ultimate Frisbee this quarter.
I haven’t pass this along to X yet, though this might be notification when she reads it, but I plan on doing nothing on Sunday aside from one or more of the following: museums, lunch out, a film, a play, a nap. She can have her choice. I’m willing to make a good run at stuff on Saturday but we haven’t taken a weekend day off for what seems like months.
School is going well this quarter and I’ve finally moved along from making sure everything gets cooked properly within our time lines to figuring out plating and presentation. In my kitchen, presentation is something akin to “here’s your food.” Now that I’m comfortable enough in my thinking that I’m not a totally gimp cook – and I really wasn’t to begin with but reassurances help – I have a little more foresight on how I’ll plate something and get $19.95 out of you for Crepes de leche de dulce; tip not included.
Our final pieces of the garden have arrived and the tomatoes (and peppers?) will be in the ground this week. I look at the vegetable garden this morning and on a scale of 1-10 the progress, so far, is simply dirt. And with that, I give you our President, consider me the reporter / farmer combo…
Even though I sometimes scroll through 2 or 3 pages of ‘comments’ on some stories or op-ed pieces, I rarely look at anything beyond the first few anymore…if that. I guess what I’m getting at is this: what drives a person to make a comment on a story when they see a meter saying that 1,234 people have already commented? Do you like yelling at a wall? Do you think anyone is going to, first of all, find your comment; and, secondly, send or post you a response saying how moved they were by your entry? Or, is it the yelling at the wall that gives people some sort of release? I’m also wondering about my online class this quarter (this being my first ever) that requires me to participate online, in commentary and threads, at least four days per week. I think there’s something like 25 folks in the ‘class’ and we all have a daily assignment to post and then we’re to post those additional four times about someone else’s entry. What are the odds that I, and I’m pretty diligent, am going to read beyond the first or second threat before I post? Zero, those are the betting odds. There’s no way I’m reading all 25 entries on three topics each day and then reading all the threads and finding what might tickle my fancy – not a chance. Of course, online isn’t the best way to learn and I understand this attempt at interaction but there really isn’t going to be any. Yelling at a wall.
Drilling and Obama. This is a parallel to a discussion the Eleven had about insulating a rental house that we might spend 3-5 years occupying but that is for another another another time. My first reaction, mild as it was, was that he was caving in on a campaign pillar and was ready to start drilling off the Atlantic and Alaskan coasts. My second reaction was stronger, and a counterweight, and fell in line with what we’ve seen of Obama for the last 16 months: patience. Let this develop and then determine its success. Third, maybe this is a bit political and I’m fine with that feeling. Taking it backwards now, if this is a political move then it simply has shut the door on the stupid “Drill, baby, drill” motto of Palin. If I never hear that again or see another sign in a yard calling for a fifteen-year fix to a “this summer” problem, then my days will be happier. Here’s a bit of the transcript of the speech:
“So today we're announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration, but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect America's natural resources. Under the leadership of Secretary Salazar, we'll employ new technologies that reduce the impact of oil exploration. We'll protect areas that are vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security. And we'll be guided not by political ideology, but by scientific evidence.
That's why my administration will consider potential areas for development in the mid and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while studying and protecting sensitive areas in the Arctic. That's why we'll continue to support development of leased areas off the North Slope of Alaska, while protecting Alaska's Bristol Bay.”
Of course, exploration, not drilling is the phrase he uses and that also says something about the patience and process involved in what he’s trying to accomplish. That sort of mitigates that first impression of caving, which I’ll get to in a second.
The patience part is just learned, the hard way. Being a liberal – and a Democrat – I often get swallowed up in waiting for the right thing, my priority, to get done. In the arena we’re living in that just isn’t going to happen. Maybe there will be 6-8 major successes in Obama’s first four years and maybe 3 or 4 will perfectly align with my hopes but that’s good enough, isn’t it? If the others are of benefit to the nation as a whole then I can live with it. It takes time. It takes effort. We’ll get there.
Now, about the caving part. If I believe in what I think I believe in, then drilling for oil domestically is neither here nor there on the grand scale. There are two parts to this process and the first is that America needs to use less energy. If this move, away from buying foreign oil (or oil from ‘terrorist’ gub’ments; remember that most of our foreign oil imports come from Canada – almost three times more than any other single country), then this is a great move. If we want to drill here and use our oil product as our primary supply then we have some serious usage to cut back on: and that fits perfectly into my hopes. What is the political challenge or response to not buying oil from our ‘enemies’ any more and using our own oil, even if it’s not enough? Are people going to start yelling for us to buy more oil from OPEC during the next election? The second, and even more damning portion, is the idea of a world environment. Why is it okay for oil and coal to be drilled and mined as long as it isn’t in America? If one were to believe the scientists (and who does? Those crazy malcontents) about global warming then it isn’t any better to drill here or there – drilling is drilling. And with that, I happened to trust this Administration to do a better job of protecting the environment, so I’ve got little problem with this decision. And, before anyone gets up in arms, this isn’t the same position the Republicans had in the last election. Their position was, and is, use more energy and in order to meet that demand drill more here. Drill more there. Drill some from my bones.
What this will be, in the end, is a policy that will allow us explore our options here, drill here if needed, and if that’s done then using it as a frontal attack on our energy consumption. When you look at from the point-of-view that environmental issues are not blocked by borders then it makes perfect sense.
And, to give you and idea of how the long view usually wins out if the strength is there…
As I said above, I don’t always get these things out of my wee head – X dives in, sorts it all out, and gives me the down-and-dirty as she sips on her wine and reads her Lucky magazine. Is that both a compliment and stereotype? Ah, whatever.
I’ve turned in all my paperwork to the Art Institute and now have a few weeks of waiting to see if all works out. Between them settling on my acceptance and getting the GI Bill stuff in order, it’ll take a bit of time; updates when available.
I remember way back in the early summer with the President said he was putting $12 billion toward community colleges. The Eleven looked at each other and did a little high-fiving since we both have CC experience and loved it; as did everyone we know that attended a CC. For some reason community colleges became the weaker option in the drive for secondary education back in the 70s or 80s. All the rankings of top colleges and universities, the money expended by families, and the growing financial input toward public and private universities seemed to confer a death knell on community colleges. From what I’ve seen, loads of community colleges seemed to recover and thrive at some point in the mid-90s. I’m guessing the resurgence was a counter-balance to all the factors above: state universities began to actively tie curricula to the regional CCs, the cost of spending two years at a CC and then transferring to a four-year program made much more sense, and the cache of major universities (especially when you consider the cost) probably waned a bit after the go-go 80s. Not only that, a four-year degree isn’t actually a requirement for what many people would like to do in life, at least not at first. Sarah sorted that out at ASU two years ago and moved back to CC to complete a vet tech degree, go to work, and then move to a four-year program if she chooses. Unfortunately, not a lot of kids (myself included) sort things out that quickly and it turns into wasteful spending, lost years, and some mediocre careers. Paul Krugman has an op-ed in the Times today that presents a lot of hard questions about our education system, its financial situation, and its future. I don’t want to sound too much like an old, cranky man but what the public schools are teaching, even in a well-regarded system like we live in here in Virginia, isn’t very impressive. They send homework out with the kids, stuff that is grades behind where the kids are academically, that gives the appearance of learning but it’s really just box checking for the school. In fact, I think what we are seeing at schools, at least here, is an academic year of holding serve followed by three weeks of drilling the kids for the standardized tests at the end of the year. I’ve ranted enough about education in other entries; I’ll just let it all hang for now.
Between my application process for the Art Institute, and reading Krugman’s piece, I’m again bewildered (surprised? finally remembered?) by just how much of your life you’ll always have to answered for. My life, for all its ups-and-downs, has been charmed; the complaints I may have all fall from the parts of my life over which I had total control but chose to half-step or ignore. The Art Institute, as with all secondary schools, wants your academic transcripts, and since they do quite a bit of trade and community college training they also want your high school transcript. I don’t even remember high school but my grades were good and aside from it being printed on parchment, I have no concerns. My college transcript is another story. Rolling that piece of junk into the light of day is embarrassing. When I was 18, 19, and 20 years old it just didn’t seem too important; I wasn’t interested in the pitched battle to make millions on Wall St. (it was 1983, after all and I was just about to vote for Reagen) so I justified not doing well by thinking that, in the end, I’d somehow sort things out. Hey, I had a girlfriend and someone else was paying for school…no worries. Well, thing did get sorted and turned out well but it was twenty years in the military that steadied things, not me. It was almost a lark that I joined in the first place but I ended up with a career, lots of benefits, and a good life. Now, yesterday, the fact that I’m telling the story of my 2 ½ years of poor college performance, which could easily have been stellar if I had made even an inch of effort, over a quarter-century later is a tough lesson in taking care of your business at every point in your life. Nothing disappears – you DO have permanent record – and you better know that you’ll never walk away and truly start over. While I was driving home from the admissions office and thinking about all of this it wasn’t so much under the guise of being a straight-A student, saving the world, being a saint, or anything along those lines. What it was, and what really grated on me, was that you can’t finish your life as you may choose when you’re 14 or 15 years old, but you can make that future significantly more difficult. If you take on any sense of responsibility and move through your youth as a B student then you’ll be fine; you won’t be explaining away how a B+/A- student in high school ended up with a 1.98 GPA after two years of college. It all seems so obvious, doesn’t it? I’m pretty sure that, as a community, we miss those chances to pass along this symmetry; we figure it will sort itself out in the end. Well, it may, as in my case; or it may not.
I think I need to give Laurel a call.
That was rambling. I’ve got nothing else….
Oh wait, I do. Here’s something brilliant to start your weekend.
I've simply left any number of disturbing rants in my edit box. Here's something that I wholly agree with, even if Andrew Sullivan doesn't. He lives in D.C. so I'm sure he also saw the piles of protesters this weekend. It's not just health care and a logical debate. That being said, at least this opinion settles down a bit of my racist ideas, but not a whole lot. Read if you please.
I think it was yesterday that Andrew Sullivan passed along his view of the Republican base – Wile E. Coyote. The implied second blade is that Obama is the Roadrunner; and nothing – but nothing – has made me smile like this in months. Of course, the newest reason to support this parable was the President’s speech yesterday to open the school year. It was announced and, as if on cue, the completely unhinged smooth brains ran to the hills crying wolf. Dear lord (no deep meaning intended), the President is going to speak to our children! What do we do? How will we survive? Blah blah blah blah. Anyone who fell for that pitched fit should be embarrassed. I read the text ahead of time and then watched the speech later: the nerve of the President to tell kids that they have a responsibility to work hard, stay in school, and make the country stronger. Quick, get me a damp compress! I’m recanting my vote. If you haven’t gone to the link above, the video above is the parable for tonight’s health care speech. (P.S. don’t order stuff from Acme, it doesn’t work.)
Last night was spent in and about the city. L and I headed in to met X at Rosa Mexicano for dinner before heading separate ways - X to a gathering at a friend's house in NW, L and I (the 51) over to the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in the Penn Quarter. Woolly is hosting the Second City Improv for a three-week run of their Barack Stars show. (We had tickets prior to the invite to NW so splitting up, post dinner, seemed the best option.) The show is two hours of great fun; poked at President Obama, the GOP, the public, and anything else they could imagine. Even Laurel was impressed and laughing all night - it's two hours of very good theatre. Much like the Oresteia a few weeks ago, this troupe represents what's really great about live theatre in the six to eight-member mold: everyone can sign, dance, act, and deliver great lines. You'd be hard pressed to have a better time on a Friday night - and, they're letting you take your drinks in during the show! A rarity only seen of late at the Keegan Theatre on Church St. This was my first visit to Woolly Mammoth and it's one of the great theatre spaces that I've seen. There's not a bad seat in the house, the design is gorgeous, the staff top notch, and location easily accessible. The lobby is perfect for the size of the audience and the ticket prices reasonable. They offer $20 standing room only tickets which actually seem like a great idea. There's a bar rail/standing area behind the main floor seating that would be quite comfortable for a two-hour show. We'll definitely be heading back throughout the 2009-2010 season.
Here are a few shots from last night: Laurel over the main lobby and then posing with "Michelle".
We have a herd of kinfolk and friends over tonight. Report at 10.
I'm going to try to draw a parallel and I'd like you to follow along. If you've bowled in a league at any point in your life than it'll make more sense. I guess if you been to college and worried about a GPA it might make sense. Lets say you're bowling average, based on your history, is 166. You'll generally head out to the lanes and rack up a 500 series every week during your league. Early in the season the average will bounce around a bit as you get used to the lanes, the teammates, and the atmosphere. What you found out very quickly is that it's much easier to see your average drop than to climb. The requirements for increasing your average are more stringent - you're actually excelling above-and-beyond the norm. Do you know what it takes to get that average to drop? Sit on the couch, don't give a crap, and just chuck the ball down the lane. I guarantee it'll drop like a rock. And, just to add to your bowling misery, it'll take even more excellence to bring it back to that 166 after you've spent three or four weeks struggling because you're hungover, stupid, and don't care. Once you everything back in order then moving forward requires even more hard work and thundering scores. Not only that, as the weeks pass and pile up on your league scoresheet it becomes even harder to make up time. You're dealing with a load of crap.
Here's the analogy for all the Democrats and liberals out there who are endlessly complaining. Imagine we're in a bowling league - keep that in mind - and think about how much work needs to be done in order to get back to a balanced point. You won't do it tonight and you won't do it next week. If you want to just throw the ball as hard as you can down the middle and hope for the best, fire away, it won't work...it never does. Otherwise, shut up. Do you really think that over the course of 150 days we'll unfuck the issues this country is facing? Do you really think that over a 24-hour news cycle we'll be able to restore the country's strength and dignity? You know what? There's load of stuff that isn't being moved along as quickly as I'd like but at least I have an inkling that it'll happen - and some point beyond 150 days.
What have you done in the last 150 days? I thought so.
Maybe in another month I can read how Andrew Sullivan - and the Democrats - look back and say, for the umpteenth time, "Wow, I didn't see that coming. Seems like he's always a step ahead of us..."
There was a time way back when that Sports Illustrated had some very good writers. Of course, once upon a time Rolling Stone had great writers. At some point in the last three or four months I got a cautionary e-mail from some such organization that alerted me to a number of "bonus points" that were about to expire. There weren't enough points to trade in for anything of real value - movie passes or a Mercedes-Benz - but enough to get three or four magazine subscriptions. Fine. Even though I'd pared down to the New Yorker and one cooking magazine (gift), I decided to at least use the points for something...anything. Free points! My first mistake was in not hitting myself in the head immediately for even thinking that more magazines is a good idea. Secondly, if the mags are on offer for basically nothing then they probably aren't needed. It's sort of like the Mike Greene theory for choosing wine: always buy the second least expensive. His idea was that the cheapest was the cheapest for a reason and the second cheapest was probably just good enough to get by. The one outlier was a second or third cheapest wine on sale by the case (if you are aware of the previous price). At that point, buying the cheapest is just fine. X goes by the theory that all wine purchased should come from the aisle ends (something recommended by Waitrose in England). I think it's basically the same thing. But, back to magazines. I chose the Economist, Sports Illustrated, and Glamour. One of those wasn't for me. My first problem is that no human can read an entire Economist issue - or part of an issue - before the next one darkens the door in seven days time. I have a hard time getting through a New Yorker in one week - the Economist is a behemoth. The follow-up is that Sports Illustrated has become the Blender of sports mags. There's no quality like Frank Deford, there are no well-written pieces - at all - and every page seems to be an exercise in just how sexy the mag can be. I've probably gotten six or eight issues and I'm just wasting away the environment; I've tried, it stinks. I don't have any input on Glamour because I'm not reading it. (Cue the Seinfeld references.)
I'll give you a quick hit on Obama and the photos, if I may. One of the main clauses when applying classification to anything in the government, or military, is that classification is never to be used to prevent embarrassment. The photos - and a number of them are already out there and they are revolting - aren't an issue of national security; they are a matter of embarrassment and shame. Anyone who's been a part of the machine should recognize the problem with applying classification to any of them. Will they provide fodder for our foe? Yes. Do they fall under national security and the shield that classification provides? Nope.
Both David Brooks and Andrew Sullivan are missing the boat on the Administration's plans (and hopes). You can find Sullivan's piece here and it will further link you to the Brooks op-ed in the Times. Both are suffering from the great red herring of the here-and-now. What triggers this realization for me are these two paragraphs from the op-ed:
"Obama aides talk about "game-changers." These include improving health information technology, expanding wellness programs, expanding preventive medicine, changing reimbursement policies so hospitals are penalized for poor outcomes and instituting comparative effectiveness measures.
Nearly everybody believes these are good ideas. The first problem is that most experts, with a notable exception of David Cutler of Harvard, donÃt believe they will produce much in the way of cost savings over the next 10 years. They are expensive to set up and even if they work, it would take a long time for cumulative efficiencies to have much effect. That means that from today until the time President Obama is, say, 60, the U.S. will get no fiscal relief."
I'll call this the "next Monday I stop smoking" plan. Both Sullivan and Brooks believe that having one marshmallow now is better than two marshmallows later. (I know, read this if you must know.) This mentality always put forth the idea that if some program won't happen in the next two years, the next month, or the next week, then it's not worth our effort: and that's the most dangerous of all ideas and it runs rampant through myriad politically-charged issues. If your grand plan doesn't involve where we will be in ten or fifteen years - especially based on our current morass - then you're the problem. The Obama plan is certainly premised on reducing healthcare costs across the board in order to not only fund some of the spending required to support the American economy, but to prevent the spiraling costs from, well, spiraling. The Sullivan commentary even reposts a poorly chosen chunk from Bruce Barlett in order to support something:
"To summarize, we see that taxpayers are on the hook for Social Security and Medicare by these amounts: Social Security, 1.3% of GDP; Medicare part A, 2.8% of GDP; Medicare part B, 2.8% of GDP; and Medicare part D, 1.2% of GDP. This adds up to 8.1% of GDP. Thus federal income taxes for every taxpayer would have to rise by roughly 81% to pay all of the benefits promised by these programs under current law over and above the payroll tax."
I love Sullivan but he's simply circled back on himself by using this example as support for why reducing health costs isn't the solution. If you remove the 1.3% tagged to Social Security, you're left with the larger 6.8% chunk. If those numbers are reduced, and significantly, not only can we avoid increased future outlays but we can start saving now - and by now I mean over the next few years. As usual, the yelling and screaming must have impeded the use of a calculator, something I'll get to in a minute. Where exactly does Sullivan and Brooks think the demand for Medicare dollars come from? I'll wait a second while they think about it. What? Those costs (and percentages) come from...healthcare. Huh? From healthcare needs for those that can't afford it and/or don't have any coverage, or preventive medicine, or good health, or helping those who eat Twinkies everyday. If we don't even consider the future savings - or the resulting spirals that can be avoided we can suddenly go to our calculator powered by silence and get some real numbers. The average GDP (the mysterious GDP from above) from 2006-2008, in 2008 dollars, is about $14 trillion. My handy-dandy calculator tells me that 1% of that number is $140 billion. If we can cut just 2% from the 6.8% of the GDP that accounts for those parts of Medicare then we've can save $280 billion over the course of one year. If we assume that the GDP will grow, maybe slowly for a few years but quickly in the later years, and I can project the current number over six years then I'm sitting at about $1.68 billion in savings by lowering the amount of money spent to unfuck people's health, and the system. That's a big chunk of the TARP, stimulus, and etc. that we've already spent to prop up our addled economy. When you consider future numbers beyond that: possible further percentage cuts, maintaining a lower cost level, and providing better healthcare to everyone, then I'm cool with looking beyond Obama's time. As I've said before, this cat looks and plans way beyond what we imagine: every time. How many times do you need to be fooled?
As for Brooks, who finds savings of $100 million across agencies, or $17 billion in budget cuts to be comical, fuck off. I can look out beyond next Friday and say that if we have sorted out the massive issues we face today by the time Obama is 60, well done. You know, you have to start sometime, right? It's Monday, get onboard.
Why don't you guys just have your one marshmallow and go home.
This interesting little nugget has somehow caught commentators and the public (as if commentators aren’t public) by surprise. During the President’s first complete cabinet meeting he told all his department heads and agency chiefs to cut back spending (or find savings) by a total of $100 million: basically, find some administrative areas they can be more efficient and make them so. Now, I’ll simply point out that there is a massive difference, in monetary value and importance, between the spending programs, budget, and the economic recovery bills so ridiculed as waste by Republicans; and efficiency of an operation or organization. If the military is going to have a budget of x trillion dollars and the big budget cut is going to be the $550 toilet seat then we've got some comedy. But, this $100 million dollars is a matter of streamlining what is required for administration and management for the departments and agencies – nothing more, nothing less. This isn't meant as a move that adds or cuts programs in the big "budgetary" manner – we’re not talking about cutting a fighter aircraft order; we’re talking about saving money on the process that orders the aircraft, see the difference? And it certainly isn’t a pathetic effort or ploy as assessed by Andrew Sullivan or Greg Mankiw. Going back to the $550 toilet seat that everyone hoisted in the air as an embarrassment back whenever that happened: we wanted – we needed – to complain about the $550 in the vein of pure waste, but now we suddenly find it laughable that $100 million in waste can be saved…and someone is willing to do it?
Look, this has been Obama’s character since the campaign. Remember way back when he commented that ensuring that your tires were properly inflated could contribute – along with other programs he sponsored – to increasing mileage and saving energy? Regardless of the fact that it may only increase mileage by 3 -4%, being that we import more than 20% of our oil used for gas/fuel, it’s a nice amount of savings. He’s always been focused on building a process that leads to an end goal and not dicking around with lightning rod tomfoolery. Remember the Clinton and McCain support for the summertime gas tax holiday? He didn’t bite because removing a gas tax for ninety days isn’t any type of fix or leadership, it’s pandering. What he’s building in his administration is the idea that we’ll spend money wisely from the very top down to the smallest agency. If they can spend $100 to do something that an agency has been spending $300 to accomplish then why should we guffaw at them merely because our economy is in the shitter? That’s some really crappy analysis by Sullivan and Mankiw. You know what you could do to make it really funny? You could relate it to a cup of expensive liberal coffee and then it’ll really get a laugh! Hijinks!
How about this one: that funny total of $3 in the average family’s savings over a year would only save you enough money for 10 more rounds of .22 ammunition for your rifle. Man, that is so funny!
Here’s the breakdown: this savings idea is the equivalent, in your household, of buying a plain label brand of NyQuil or plain label pain reliever. It always makes sense; in good times and bad times. We get the same actual ingredients for less money. That is a totally different animal then saying that you can’t afford a $60,000 luxury car and then settling for something in the $55K range. Can I put a percentage savings on the plain label medicine that makes it look funny in relation to a $55,000? I can. If you are saving $4 on medicine but buying a $55,000 car then it’s only a matter of about .007%. That person is such a damn fool.
Here’s a brief interview with the man responsible for designing the “O” Obama logo. Like many of the people that posted comments, I’d like to see some of the other original options – just as historical perspective. Maybe the older folk remember political logos or buttons that were memorable but I don’t have any to ponder from my voting lifetime; certainly nothing so preeminent or pervasive (is that redundant?). I also found it horribly interesting that so many people didn’t see the logo, initially, as an “O”, but merely as a sunrise over the red-and-white stripes which were meant to represent the country as a whole. That’s the sign of some good work, isn’t it? I actually had a hard time not seeing it almost purely as the letter “O” was other bits added for accent.
I’ve sorted out our drive map from Falls Church to Portland, Maine for this week’s journey. Apparently, we’re taking the “man’s” route that will swing us out through Harrisburg, PA and shoot us across a portion of New York state and through Harford, CT before we turn and scream north. We’re planning on driving about halfway on Wednesday night before stopping for a bit of a sleep and finishing up Thursday morning. The trip back will be one long run on Sunday that will hopefully avoid any major traffic as we’ll be bypassing any traffic danger amongst the New Jersey / NYC vortex. We’ve been loaned one of those automatic toll tags so I’ll have my first long trip where I’ll be able to zip through toll booths like a regular. I know it might seem like small potatoes to many in my readership but it’s exactly the kind of thing that provides my mind with more trivial details to ponder as I drive through our little section of America. I’m easily entertained, as you know.
I have some cooking / menu planning to do tonight. Maybe I’ll be the stuffing guy once I get up there and put together a few pans of chestnut and oyster stuffing. Mmmm.
It looks like that’s the number for today; Alaska Senator Ted “No!” Stevens has apparently lost his bid for reelection. This leaves only two undecided Senate races from Election Day: Minnesota and Georgia. Georgia law provides for a rerun if neither candidate earns 50% of the vote and it will take place on December 2nd. The Obama campaign has contributed a portion of its Presidential ground game in Georgia to support the election of Jim Martin. Minnesota began the recount today in a race between Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken: it starts with a 215 vote difference among the 2.9 million votes cast. These two races could provide a filibuster-proof 60-member caucus now that the Democrats have decided not to seriously crackdown on crazy Joe Lieberman. Even though Lieberman certainly wasn’t helpful during the campaign, the fact remains that we have a short memory: the Democratic Party abandoned him and installed a Democratic challenger as their selection for his seat in 2006 (ironically enough, as punishment for his support of the Iraq War and President Bush). Lieberman kicked them in the shins and ran as an independent and secured his seat as an outsider. I don’t much like Lieberman but the caucus needs him and they already welcomed him back, once, back in January 2007. I think they made the right choice in not stripping him of his chairmanship because it would have seemed petty when measured against what Obama is trying to push in Washington. I don’t think Lieberman has any illusion that he’ll spend the rest of his term on double-secret probation.
I’m more interested in the Eric Holder nomination as our new Attorney General than I am the Hillary Clinton move at State. Until the Clinton offer becomes more certain, I’m withholding my thoughts. I like Holder on first look. What is interesting to me is the conservative gnashing of teeth at Holder’s ‘nomination’ because he’s a “Clintonista”. It’s a built-in, knee-jerk reaction from the ‘refuse to scratch the surface’ crowd. Holder was appointed to the D.C. Superior Court by Ronald Reagan, he served as Acting Attorney General of the U.S. under Bush 41 prior to Ashcroft’s confirmation, and then served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and Deputy Attorney General under Clinton. He’s been in private practice since 2001 and now appears to be our next Attorney General. I’m onboard.
As the incoming Administration is being built and vetted I keep looking to the title of a new CD that I’m digging. Why it runs parallel to the happenings in D.C. is because I remember Obama’s reply to an interview question about being elected President as the house of cards is falling around our collective feet – how he probably never thought winning an election would immediately insert him into the middle of an extremely difficult time in history. He smiled and told the interlocutor that it was the hard times that you ask for when you want to prove yourself – a time to be tested and a time to succeed. Isn’t that when you want to be President? Anyway, the title of Atmosphere’s new CD should be our new motto:
When life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold.
A wrap from the Hilltop the afternoon after that beautiful moment just after 11pm when the election was decided, once and for all time.
Tuesday seemed to go on forever, particularly after the 6-10am flood of voters in my precinct. We maxed out at a wait of about 1 hour and 15 minutes during that time and it receded to no line for the remainder of the day. When looking at the absentee / early voter list, which included about 15% of my precinct's voters, we realized that by 10am the deed was done – there was no massive pile of voters left to descent upon us later in the day. I’d say that 99% of the voters were in grand spirits and happy enough to get to the booths in a fairly reasonable amount of time. There were dozens of get out the vote, freedom of vote, and voting rights members outside the polling place and everyone got along swimmingly. The new building manager at my polling center was fabulous – he supplied coffee and water to voters all day long, got us fans and A/C units when it got hot, and welcomed voters with balloons and kind words throughout the long day. The entire day was much more exciting and different from the normal Election Day drag, and that’s always a good thing.
The result? The Eleven was on the couch and watching PBS reporting on the returns and speeches into the late hours. We heard about Ohio coming in as we drove home from the elections office – soon followed by Pennsylvania and then Virginia (!!!) being declared after we made it home. Shortly after 11pm EST, California was called and it was over…finally. Florida came home later with Iowa and Nevada in tow. The scenes in Grant Park as our elected President arrived on the stage were stunning. His speech couldn’t have been better, more generous, more humble, or more welcoming to all of America. I sensed that he felt a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders – it was over. Deep down I think even he was amazed that after two years of campaigning, and four years since he burst on the scene, he was finally standing before 100,000 people as President of the United States. I had tears in my eyes. As the camera panned the crowd we caught glimpses of Jesse Jackson; I could almost feel, seeing his stoic face during the speech, that maybe he felt as if he was watching what he believed was his calling and that it had passed unfulfilled. Maybe some envy. By the end, as the Obama and Biden families took the stage, we had a last glance at Jackson. Regardless of your feelings about Jesse Jackson’s politics, successes and failures, that picture – of Jackson with tears streaming down his face – was the symbolic moment of the night. He laid a lot of the groundwork for Obama’s rise and there he stood, in his city, finally seeing the fulfillment of a dream he’s carried for over forty years.
I disagree with a lot of the pundits when they put forth the idea that it was the economic crises of the last two months that put Obama over the top. The reason I’ve been so passionate about him is simple: he’s a leader. Beyond that, everything else falls away. He inherits a morally bankrupt country: not people, country. We’ve allow ourselves to stand idly on the sideline while our Constitution, civil liberties, and dreams have been crushed by an Administration that is guilty of violating American law, International law, and committing war crimes. The remedy to that misery is the ideal that we are so much better than what we’ve allowed to happen over the last eight years. Christine and I decided – driven by fear of standing by on the sidelines – that we needed to get out and walk the streets to do our part in bringing about that change and leadership. If you've follow Obama at all then you know that as he delves into the morass left behind he’ll inquire, study, assess, and then decide upon a course of action that serves as many as possible. None of us will agree with everything he pushes to the Congress. But what we do know is that we now have a thoughtful, inquisitive, curious, stable, and dedicated leader. Those are characteristics that went extinct over the last eight years. Obama is our next President because people craved leadership that defines us, not leaders that desert us.
I'll let you know up front that you'll be reading and listening to a steady diet of Obama for the next 12 days. It's my blog and it's very important to me - feel free to come back after November 4th, I'm not getting paid by the visitor. This is the difference between the idea of hate and division, and a life of hope and dreams. Let it ring, if you will.
The Eleven ran a full Sunday of endless activity. Both boys had group piano lessons, G. had a birthday party to attend followed by playing at a friend’s house, I was out canvassing, X went shopping, and Wondertwin 2 and family came over for dinner about 5pm. Between us, we managed to get everything cooked and ready in about 45 minutes. It was so busy that around 6:45pm X called out to G. who hadn’t been in the house since about 2pm. She’d forgotten to pick him up at his friend’s place an hour earlier and my calling back to her that there was no one of that name in the house tripped the trigger. She let out a combination scream/laugh as we ran out the door to gather up the missing progeny.
I was able to walk home from my canvass turf yesterday and was coming up the street to the Hilltop when I noticed two young folks standing on my porch waiting for anyone to answer the door (the place was empty at that point). As I got to the bottom of the steps I comically (I thought it was comically) yelled at them to get off my damn porch. They turned and down the stairs with little idea what to do about this person yelling at them. I held up my big envelope of Obama turf canvassing material and they immediately relaxed and took a deep breath. The girl looked and me and said that I probably didn’t need the literature they’d left at the door; nope, I think I’ve got my very own pile right here. Considering that I’d ended up at another volunteer’s house earlier in the day it wasn’t really much of surprise. The size and dedication of the volunteer group allows us to cover every street and neighborhood multiple times while following up on previous contacts and undecided voters. The next three weeks will be centered mostly on the Get out the Vote process that’ll make sure everyone knows where to vote and any other requirements for November 4th. The last thing I want to see is people not voting because the numbers look so good right now and maybe they feel as if every vote in Virginia isn’t so important anymore. I’ve got a few weekends left to knock on the doors of northern Virginia.
I'm off to the Caps game in D.C. this evening while the rest of the crowd wanders to some Kung Fu lessons. I'll try to sneak in the house later tonight and avoid any ninja attacks.
Regardless of your political leanings, I think everyone should go out and canvass for a political campaign. The Eleven spend a beautiful Saturday heading into D.C. to pick up some G’town law students and then driving down to South Fairfax county to canvass for Obama. What the process gives you, and what you’ll realize if you take up the challenge, is a chance to interact and be a part of a process that’s horribly broken and left on the side of the road. We were together for our walk sheet, knocked on doors, and had some great conversations with undecided voters, Obama supporters, and homes with a bit of both McCain and Obama present. We were nervous at the outset as we sorted our goods and got parked to begin: how would we present ourselves? What stories did we have that might convince people to just talk? What would they think of a couple of newly-minted political campaigners? You know what? For the most part, whether they agree or not with your candidate, most are perfectly happy to stand on the porch and talk about what’s important to them – and just as often, what’s important to us. It’s a wholly different view of the process than the yelling and screaming you hear across the rest of the landscape. You know what? There are a lot of people out there that are struggling to decide who they’ll vote for in November. There’re a ton of issues pulling everyone this way and that. There are, hopefully, a few dozen that are happy that someone who cared came knocking on their door on a September Saturday to talk honestly about where we are and where we’re headed. I found that much like every other volunteer activity I’ve added to my life over the last two years, people care that you’re there. Obama has registered over 250,000 new voters in Virginia in 2008. If nothing else, getting everyone to the polls is something no one can argue against.
I headed to the 9:30 Club last night to catch another Old Crow Medicine Show concert. I happened to be first in line and meandered to the best seat in American music: upper level, dead center, with my can on one of the club’s eight or so barstools. I love the Crows but their 2006 show at the 9:30 was very disappointing; both for the sound of the performance and the shitty crowd. Last night was a whole new ballgame – they were on fire and the crowd was so much stronger. They ran about two hours with a 15-minute break and screamed through most of the new CD (out next week, but in my hot, little hands) and a good bit of the back catalog. What they’ve become is a band with enough material to not have to rely on playing everything from every album – they can pick-and-choose what’s to come. In fact, they didn’t play at least six songs that I was expecting to hear yet I didn’t miss any of them. With the exception of a few slow moments, the show was stunning. As I was standing outside before the show, Ketch (singer, writer, harmonica, fiddle player, banjo player, guitar player) was walking to the tour bus with his mother, who was visiting D.C. to see her son and last night’s show. I don’t know if his performance was that much more inspired but he was fantastic. If only I could do any of that stuff. Considering the dip that’d taken after the last outing, last night’s gig put them right back up at the peak of live bands.
Apparently there’s a cat coming to live with us tomorrow morning. I’ll see if I can get to the farmers’ market on a pass before the feline invades my life.
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