November 2008 Archive
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November 30, 2008
Tab Dump
Well, I didn't manage to finish off NaBloPoMo very well. Oh well. Here's a few things clogging up my browser tabs at the moment:- Ten Myths Conservatives Believe about Progressives. And how to rebut them at the dinner table.
- Climate change impacts are happening faster than the models predict. We are in deep doo-doo. Tim O'Reilly writes about why he loves Twitter. I especially appreciated:
I don't know who first used the term "ambient intimacy" but it's a great description of what begins to happen on Twitter. I know not just what people are thinking about or reading, but enough about what they are doing that our relationship deepens, just like real-world friendships. People who follow me on Twitter learn that I'm making jam or pies, or gardening or riding my bike or feeding the horses, things that I'd never (or rarely, since I'm doing it here) share on my blog. I know a lot more about many of my professional contacts that makes them more into friends. And in the case of my family, who keep their updates private and visible only to a limited group of real friends, we can keep in touch in small ways that mean a lot. I get special moments of my wife or daughters' day that we might not have shared otherwise. It's truly lovely.
Now - three and half weeks until Christmas and I've done almost no shopping or prep at all. We are definitely having a tree for the boy's first Christmas, though. So, you know, send him presents. ;-)
<=> | in: Democrats / Federal Politics / General Musings / Journaling / Parenting
November 25, 2008
Woozy
Hmm. What with trying to get ready for houseguests and Turkey Day, trying to work, kid-care (he doesn't start getting help from professionals -heh - until next month), and realizing Christmas is in a month and I haven't done any shopping, I'm a bit worn out and losing steam on NoBloPoMo. Was feeling pretty lightheaded and off Sunday (and into Monday), until TheGuy reminded me that we'd skipped a meal on Saturday. And did I mention my giant baby is exclusively breastfed? Literally sucking the life force right out of me, like some sort of Dementor. Awww.. I called my kid a Dementor. Bad Mama!A gorgeous sweet friendly Dementor, who laughs at rolling soccer balls and squirty bath toys, but still.
November 22, 2008
Obama's Economic Plan
The economy is really freaking me out these days, so I'm trying not to think about it too much. I was pleased to see, however, that Obama is talking about infrastructure investment (among other things) to help. Here's Robert Reich's overview of Obama's economic plan and here's this week's radio address from Obama:We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels; fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.
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November 21, 2008
This and That
Speaking of the expanding Twitter-verse, BearingPoint has compiled a list of government-related twitter feeds. I started following a few of these after skimming the list.Study says happy people don't watch as much tv as unhappy people. Hard to say which direction the causality goes, though.
Aaaaand a cute kid picture for the day:
<=> | in: Entertainment / Parenting / Weblogs & Citizen Writing
November 20, 2008
Email and Technology
I have hundreds and hundreds of messages in my personal email inbox. This after I've sort of quietly declared email bankruptcy a couple of times in the last few years, unsubscribed from almost everything, and started over. This depresses me. In the GTD model, this is just way too many open loops and potential commitments that are unresolved. Bad, bad, bad for my psyche.Not unrelated, my Blackberry had to be reset to its virgin state and now I have to get that all configured again. What a pain.
And of course, these here websites are still broken, broken, broken. Basically, I'm doing rather poorly on the technology front these days.
<=> | in: Journaling
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November 19, 2008
Cheap and Easy Tech Rant Blogging
My Blackberry, within just a few days of when I returned to work, has decided to crap out. From what I can gather reading BB forums, this will require, at least, a re-install of the OS. Unfortunately, my BB is no longer talking to the "Desktop Manager" software that would allow me to do such a re-install. I've spent way too much time today futzing with it. Technology bites. I'm going to take it to a Verizon store and say "replace it." Of course, of all the times for this to happen, the week and weekend before Thanksgiving is not a time when I have a lot of time to be fussing with a telecommunications company bureaucracy and craptastic software. Booooo.<=> | in: Technology
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November 18, 2008
Cheap and Easy Kid Blogging
Too tired to actually blog, so I'll get a NaBloPoMo entry done through cheap and easy kid blogging, er, bragging, er, blogging. Look! A cute kid! In winter pjs! Hurrah!
November 17, 2008
Opportunity Cost
As George W. Bush's administration continues its quest to prove that Republican and rightwing governing philosophies can indeed bankrupt the richest nation on earth (yes they can!) Atrios and TPM point out one of the many opportunity costs and suggests we take healthcare costs off the books of these companies we're bailing out:if we're throwing around billions and trillions of dollars we might as well get something good. Instead of writing a big check to the auto companies or loaning them money we could, you know, enroll all their employees in the new national health insurance system.And before some wingnut starts screeching about "socialism" (without any understanding of the term), tell that to the trillion taxpayer dollars your hero George Bush just gave to his cronies on Wall Street, mm'kay?
<=> | in: Economics / Federal Politics
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November 16, 2008
Journally Again
Once again too tired and wrung out to properly blog. Some journally bits:I have a very stiff and sore neck that if it doesn't get better overnight will probably cause me to wake up and be immobile - it's that kind of near-spasmy nerve pinch kind of ouchie. No fun.
Our neighbor kindly raked up the leaves on our little patch of grass in front of the house today while his dog supervised (so cute). I promised him cookies the next time I make some. I've been promising TheGuy some oatmeal-cranberry-cherry cookies for weeks - Penzey's has a recipe we want to try - need to carve out a window to whip them up and drop some by the neighbors' as well.
Busy weekend, as all of our weekends are lately - mostly with household management stuff and keeping the kid supplied with all the things he needs to be supplied with. We finally retired the borrowed co-sleeper for TheLittleGuy (which had long since become a laundry basket storage place) and put the borrowed crib together. One of these days he might sleep in it - at least for a nap. Among other supplies we got him today were some soft blocks to play with. He laughed out loud when I was showing them to him, which is a new trick he's learning. He'll laugh when we deliberately try to make him laugh, but spontaneous laughter at something he observes is still quite rare (this was only the 2nd or 3rd time).
Two technology things that are bugging me lately: 1) My MacBook has the problem with the clickpad that is apparently known at Apple HQ (sometimes unresponsive) and its Wifi craps out randomly now and then and 2) Firefox 3 sometimes becomes completely unresponsive to any URLs being typed into the URL oval at the top of the browser; it also randomly stops loading CSS for some pages now and then. Both are irritating. Otherwise I like both the MacBook and Firefox a great deal.
I had a very strange dream the other night about attending a grade school friend's wedding and a bunch of us all of a sudden realizing we were in a musical performing a song we had not rehearsed and trying to figure out some bobbing up and down choreography on the fly. Seriously. I am clearly not getting enough sleep.
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November 15, 2008
Cabinet Rumors
There are rumors swirling around the Beltway that Obama is considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. I live a mile outside the Beltway, so the only reason I know this is because of what I read on the Intarwebbies. That is to say: I'm in no way privvy to Beltway rumors. Alas.Anyway, just as I thought she would not run for President (and was wrong), I'll be very surprised if she's seriously considering this. It just goes to show why no one hires me for my political strategy acumen. I haven't gone digging around very much, but the best discussion I've found so far is the comment thread at FiveThirtyEight.com. Some seriously Machiavellian stuff people come up with. I'm impressed. My favorite that would not have occurred to me:
1) Biden chose to accept the VP nod for ONE TERM ONLY. He will NOT run again in 2012.It's not my favorite because I want it to happen, it just amuses me how obsessive people can get about Hillary Clinton.
2) Clinton agreed to back off her delegate fight on condition that Obama PROMISED TO REPLACE BIDEN in 2012 with HER.
3) She wins the VP slot in 2012 - and steps into the Presidency in 2016.
Booga booga!
<=> | in: Federal Politics / Foreign Policy
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November 14, 2008
Plum Tuckered
Exhausting day, and once again I got nothing for this here bloggy-thing.Journal-y, instead, then. I got lost on the way to work this morning. Argh. While I'm transitioning back, I've been driving in rather than taking the Metro, and took a wrong turn (or missed a turn, or something) in the drizzly rain this morning. Rrrrrrr. I rarely drive downtown-that's my excuse. I was very worried that I was going to run into road closures while trying to find my way to the office due to the G20 meeting this weekend, but fortunately I did not. Still, it made me later than I'd wanted to be. Grump.
TheLittleGuy is working on his skillset every day with incremental improvements in one dimension or another happening all the time. He has rolled over (back to front and front to back) a couple of times, but stopped doing that to grow a second tooth and nom nom a little bit of banana. He's also ever more skilled with his paws and is fast approaching the grab-everything-and-toss-it-on-the-floor stage. I worry a little bit that the kid will speak first in LOLcat-ese, because I talk to him like that sometimes: "You haz a toof!" Hehe.
Thanksgiving is the week after next, people!. We have neither the time nor energy to brine and prep the bird this year, so we sent up the bat signal to one of our fine local catering establishments (aka Whole Paycheck) and will get the bird and a few sides from them. Yumm.
My constant low-grade backache starting with surgery-recovery-atrophy followed by lack of exercise and lugging my giant baby around is now being exacerbated by that old familiar work stress settling into its usual knots in my shoulders. Oh. Joy.
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November 13, 2008
Genius Playlists
TheGuy and I finally upgraded our primary iTunes box so that we can do Genius playlists now. And what a treat that is! We have more than 14,000 songs (legal!) in our library, but somehow end up constantly rotating through the same 10-15 albums or so. The Genius playlist is a great way to find old music we forgot we owned in the dusty, cobwebby recesses of our hard drive. I remember a decade ago (or more) when there were prototype applications out there of these types of albums and one could spend hours and hours inputting your likes and preferences and then seeing what was recommended. Pandora (which I've never found the time to play with) and now this playlist technology are much nicer.On a related note, while we almost always have music playing in the house, I rarely have time to consciously listen. As a result, I have only the vaguest impressions of the new Ray Lamontagne and Randall Bramblett albums (good, and pretty good but too much electric guitar, respectively).
Also related: technology like this only makes me buy more music (notwithstanding that I don't listen to as much as I'd like). I'm hardly the first to note that the record companies really really screwed up in not understanding this dynamic.
<=> | in: Music / Technology
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November 12, 2008
On Breastfeeding
We are just about to start TheLittleGuy on solids (food other than breastmilk) and in fact today I gave him a couple of small pieces of banana on a whim. I thought I'd jot down a few of my impressions of breastfeeding as yet another story/voice out there in the Google-verse for women who are curious about it. I learned a lot by reading other women's stories, after all. (I kept a pregnancy journal password-protected, but may edit and move some of that public at some point as well, for the same reasons.)First, some caveats: I tend to ascribe to AskMoxie's motto of by any means necessary. She often uses it in the context of sleep issues with children, but here I mean that how anyone feeds their infant is, obviously, up to them. While I personally tend to resonate most to the La Leche League point of view regarding breastfeeding, I recognize it's not for everyone and formula is not poison. (I was a formula-fed baby myself and was absurdly healthy as a kid and don't think I'm particularly dumber than my peers.) So, do whatever works for you and your family.
That said, I think the science is pretty clear that, all things being equal, breastmilk is a superior food for infants. Before I was pregnant I had heard many horrible things about the big formula companies dissing breastfeeding in an effort to get mothers to buy formula. I've found the complete opposite, however. I somehow ended up on the "mom" list for the formula companies and they send me samples now and then and quite a bit of literature and, from what I read, are scrupulous about always pointing out that breastmilk is preferred. There are plenty of criticisms to be made of the Big Food conglomerates, of course, but this isn't one I've seen evidence for. Similarly, I've heard people complain about LLL 'lactivist nazis' and I've been to a few LLL meetings and that's not been my experience there at all, either. Like many parenting issues, this is clearly a religious issue for some, but I haven't run into any particular nastiness either way.
Another caveat: TheLittleGuy and I have been really fortunate and found breastfeeding incredibly easy. He's almost 5 months old and we have had basically no issues so far (I emphasize so far as I know this could change at any moment). We had a little bit of an issue with foremilk/hindmilk imbalance early on that block feeding easily cured. No mastitis, no thrush, only the occasional slightly plugged duct (that nursing and warm baths cure) and, as mentioned before, he is growing like crazy - off the charts - so clearly something about breastmilk agrees with him. I point out all that to acknowledge that we've had it easy and this undoubtedly colors my views about the topic. As I'm transitioning back to work and he's transitioning to childcare, things may change (I'll be pumping at work (Moooooo!) as we want him to stay on breastmilk as long as possible - ideally until he's at least a year old) - so this rosy picture may not remain for us, but so far, it's been good and I wanted to jot some notes down now before it all changes again. I haven't had any supply problems either, so far. When he was about 4 weeks old I started pumping for 10 minutes every morning and freezing whatever I got to have as a back-up supply. I now have a freezer full of breastmilk downstairs, and I joke that the child will be having breastmilk pancakes when he's 12.
Before TLG was born, the advice I was given was to try breastfeeding for a day, then 2 days, then 2 weeks, then 6 weeks, then 3 months - that at each stage it gets easier and not to get too discouraged too quickly. While we didn't have much trouble, that was my attitude - to just get through the next timeframe and see how things were at the end of it. So I'd pass the same advice along. At around 4 weeks we tried a bottle with TLG and he took it fine - another way in which we have been lucky. When he was about 3 months old he started being willing to take breastmilk straight from the fridge, without the need for warming. So now if we're going to be out for any length of time, I just pack a bottle in a little chillpack and away we go.
I've no objection to breastfeeding in public and think anyone who complains about it has some serious issues. But, after I had some minor healing complications from the c-section my midwives told me to nurse TLG laying down. We're still most comfortable nursing that way. Add that to the fact that TLG is huge (and still can't sit up by himself) and we find nursing while out and about to be a bit of a logistical challenge. I've done it, but since he needs practice with the bottle to get ready for when he's in daycare, we just tend to use excursions as an excuse for him to use a bottle.
As for pumping, that's gone fine, too. Did I mention: MOOOOOoooo! Whenever he takes a bottle, I just pump the amount he took from a bottle and freeze it, so that proper signals about what supply he needs are sent. I get varying amounts during my 10 minute sessions in the morning, but invariably it's between 3 and 7 ounces - usually 4 or 5. Enough for a bottle to take with us on an excursion if needed, otherwise I freeze it. I have a little system where there are always 2 bottles worth of milk in the fridge, a dozen or so bottles worth in the freezer upstairs, and then rest of the stash in the freezer downstairs. We try to use frozen milk in a FIFO (first in, first out) fashion and haven't actually had to use that much of it yet. Once he starts daycare, I expect to be dipping into that stash.
The obvious side effect for me of exclusively breastfeeding a kid who's decided he's in a huge hurry to get big (did I mention he's off the charts and looks about 18 months old?) is rampant hunger and constant low-grade tiredness. If I didn't eat constantly, I'm sure I'd lose a lot of weight, but I'm also sure I'd feel like crap and it wouldn't be good for my milk supply or quality. So I'm drinking pint glass after pint glass of water all day long and trying to focus on protein and high-quality food. I've also got a little vitamin supplement regimen going. I never took a pre-natal while pregnant (they made me ill) and instead concocted my own combination of vitamins to take. I've done the same thing post-partum, and each day I take: multivitamin, C, folic acid, iron, calcium, B-complex, and a fish oil supplement for DHA. I also take a probiotic daily to try to fend off thrush - so far it's working. *knock wood* If I start to feel even the slightest bit stabby or sore, I take an extra probiotic that day.
I had mentioned La Leche League. I've been to a few local meetings. I had read enough that I didn't really learn anything at these meetings - except to reinforce that experiences vary widely - but it was nice for the support. I won't be able to go much now that I'm transitioning back to full-time work, but I'm on the mailing list, at least. Speaking of support: while worry about breastfeeding was never a source of anxiety for me during the pregnancy (there were plenty of things I was anxious about, but breastfeeding wasn't one of them), one of the things that helped me was a network of friends far and near who were encouraging about it and could offer tips. To anyone thinking about breastfeeding, find women who've done it who can help you. I even brought a lactation consultant in during TLG's 2nd week because I was worried (needlessly it turns out) about his latch. Good LCs are invaluable - if you're local and want the name of the one I used, let me know.
Finally, apart from the nutritional, health, and logistical aspects of breastfeeding, there is the emotional one. I don't find it a transcendent experience, as I've read some people describe it. But I do enjoy the quiet time it gives me with him and the fact that he finds it so satisfying, not to mention the fact that he's clearly thriving on it. He's not a kid who nurses for excessively long periods of time - he's always been pretty efficient about it - but it is not merely nutrition to him, as nursing can often settle him down and be comforting if he's distressed or overtired.
We are beginning the process of introducing other foods-just tiny bits of banana so far and maybe we'll try some sweet potato soon-but his main source of nutrition for awhile will be breastmilk - assuming we succeed with me pumping at work. I don't have any set schedule in mind for weaning. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding at least until the child is 2, although I wouldn't be surprised if TLG decides he's done before then.
So that's one person's experience - at least a few highlights anyway. I'm sure I'll think of more things to say about it, but if anyone has questions or wants tips or advice, just drop me a note. The best resources I've found whenever I've had a question, in addition to my buddies, are KellyMom and La Leche League International.
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November 11, 2008
Twitter and its Ilk
The first few months I used Twitter I found it an amusing diversion, but could really take it or leave it. Lately though, I am finding it much more compelling. A few things account for this - first, as always with such things, there is more of a critical mass. While some of my actual buddies don't update often enough (ahem), other entities and 'big names' that I follow provide interesting content pretty consistently. I pipe my Twitter feed over to Facebook (I really can't abide Facebook's interface - find it very confusing) so this provides an easy way for me to do 'status updates' in FB without having to be on FB. Thus, I get feedback/comments and have conversations both at Twitter and at Facebook.I am sometimes curious why people I don't know follow my Twitter feed - but hey, sometimes I go to their feed and decided to follow it in return. Anyway, a few weeks back a friend of mine who is not into blogging and all of the social-networking stuff it has spawned sent me this NYT magazine article about the "brave new world of digital intimacy." I read it, expecting to be irritated and annoyed as I am often am at such articles - usually the authors are severely lacking in the clue department. But this one wasn't bad, and in fact, the description of the appeal of something like Twitter (which on the surface appears to chronicle trivialities such as "I just had lunch"), really resonated with me. It's about presence and awareness:
"This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update - each individual bit of social information - is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends' and family members' lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting."I haven't had time to look at the following links closely yet, but various Twitter-related tools can be found here and here. O'Reilly Radar has also just put out a short report (for a fee) on Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution.
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November 10, 2008
Journally
Exhausting day today. First day (half-day) back at the coal mines since TLG was born. I'll be slowly easing back into things, which flexibility I'm grateful for, but it's still a drag.So I got nothing on the bloggy front today.
Zzzzzzzzz.
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November 9, 2008
Book Promotion in the 21st Century
A little while ago, while perusing some parenting forum/mailing list or another, I came across a link to author Sarah Pekkanen's site promoting her first novel which will be released in 2010. Her book apparently fits within the Jennifer Weiner style of chick-lit. I enjoyed the first Jennifer Weiner I read - I think it was Good in Bed - but found the second one very similar to the first, although still entertaining enough. That's not a criticism, really - she found a formula that works and I'm easily bored. In any event, Weiner's stuff is a good beach read. Suffice it to say that I liked it all well enough that I decided to sign up for Pekkanen's mailing list. Here's where the brilliant book promotion tactics of the 21st-century show up. Once a month, Pekkanen picks someone signed up for her list and sends them chocolate. And other things. In her first monthly newsletter, she wrote:I'm putting together a bag of yummies, including this fantastic new tea I discovered called "Ineeka Green Limon." It's more of a Zen experience than an actual cup of tea. Plus, you can pick any book of your choice by Jodi Picoult, Lisa Tucker, or Jennifer Weiner and I'll add it to the bag. If you've read them all, you're a reader after my own heart - email me and we'll select another author together. I'm tucking in a few surprises, too, things that I really like and that bring me comfort and happiness. (Think of me as your poor woman's Oprah. There will be no new cars in the gift bag.)So, I'm totally staying subscribed. Heh. I was a bit alarmed when I read that she was married to lawyer Glenn Reynolds, but context suggests that it's not that Glenn Reynolds. Phew!
Related: Jennifer Weiner's site (including a blog, of course.)
And yes, like TheGuy, I'm trying to do NaBloPoMo. I'm just bummed that my comments aren't working, because it's much easier to blog when getting random feedback-pellets from my beloved readers. Ohhh well.
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November 8, 2008
A Few Parenting Observations
Parenting stuff - delete from feedreader if not interested. You've been warned. :-)I don't want to turn this into a 'mom blog' (whatever that means) but I will write about parenting stuff and about the kid now and then. I'll try to put a warning like the one on this post for those who are skimming in a feedreader just so that if you're not interested in the parenting stuff you can skip it.
So, just a couple of observations I'd been meaning to jot down. Backdrop: our kid is 4.5 months old now.
I have always tried to avoid telling small children, especially girls, "Oh, you're so cute" or to otherwise emphasize their looks. My thinking is that it places an over-emphasis on appearance and is not something the child has any control over anyway. The challenge, of course, is that for very young children, they don't do much, and so there's not a whole lot else to comment on! We put TheLittleGuy in his sunglasses and a boyish outfit and take him out and we get all kinds of comments about how cute he is. Which is nice - anyone who says anything nice about my kid is immediately on my good side. But, I still try to avoid commenting on how babies look and instead try to focus on what they're doing. Since I now have a better sense of what are appropriate developmental milestones, I can say things like "Look at how she holds up her head" or whatever. (Our guy was comparatively slow with that - he has a huge, heavy head.) Along similar lines, a few years back there were some studies that suggested that kids/people who were told they were smart all the time were more likely to give up on something if it didn't immediately come easy to them. Accordingly, even though we know TheLittleGuy is a genius (and gorgeous to boot), we're not going to tell him that. Instead, we say things like "Good job practicing [x]!" or whatever.
I still feel like an honorary member of the child-free tribe even though we have TheLittleGuy. That's for a longer post, sometime. But I thought I would share some information to help dispel one of those mysteries about parents. There's a lot of cutesy jokes about how parents of babies/small children are obsessed with poo. And in a way, it's true. I can have lengthy discussions with TheGuy about TLG's input and output. But that's just it - it's not that the parents have a brain transplant and all of a sudden find baby poo intrinsically fascinating. It's that for many weeks and even months BabyOutput is one of only a very few pieces of actual data you get about how your kid is doing. And it does provide more information than you might think. So that's my PSA for non-parents. It's not about the poo itself, it's about the information it conveys.
On another note, I know some parents get very offended when non-parents compare the non-parents' pets to the parents' children. We, as a rule, do not. I suppose if it were done to be insulting, we might, but not so far. My cats are still smarter and more capable than TLG right now. That will change, of course, but it hasn't yet. My attitude is: Small mammals are small mammals.
And one more observation than I'll stop for the night. When I was late in the pregnancy and kept muttering to anyone who asked how I was doing: "I want this kid out" people would say "Oh, but once he's out and making noise you'll want him back in!" That is definitely not true for me. I wasn't sleeping well while pregnant so it's not like nighttime infant care is a big change. And there is no way I would go back to being pregnant. It suuuuucked. It is much better having him out and about. By far.
With that, here is the gorgeous genius kid picture of the day (well, of a few days ago) with the Halloween bear that his Maine grandparents sent to him:
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November 7, 2008
Colorful Kid Pic
Too tired at the end of a long week of kid-wrangling to blog any of the many things I'd like to blog about. Instead, a cute kid picture wearing a dirty hippy tie-dye the day before the election:
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November 6, 2008
Change and the President-Elect
I am seriously impressed with Change.gov. But then again, I remember back in the day when seeing a URL out in the wild was noteworthy and exciting. Now the President-elect is using the web publicly as a tool for his transition. Oh, it makes my geeky little heart proud.I liked 12 Frogs' commentary on change:
Listening to Obama’s speech last night was inspiring. Yes, it made me cry. I was still thinking about his speech this morning when I realized: I’m the first person in my family to go to college. I’m a happily and legally married lesbian. Yesterday I voted for Barack Obama, and he’s going to be the first black man to be President of the United States. And I’m not even forty yet. Change happens.Some pretty cool pictures of Obama over at The Big Picture (an excellent photo blog thingie not always about politics). My favorite is #20 with #s 11 and 27 close seconds.
Yes we can.
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November 5, 2008
Still Stunned
I am still stunned that after nearly electing George W. Bush twice, this country has elected Barack Obama. Happy about it, but stunned. There is loads of commentary around the web - much more eloquent than anything I could come up with at the moment. (One selfish thought I had was that at least we don't have to move - another 4 years of a crazy Republicans in the executive branch and I don't think I could have stayed in town.)Steve Benen asks the question I always wonder about - what would it take to get those who like to proclaim that the U.S. is a 'center-right' country to think otherwise. What kind of evidence would be sufficient? How would we know if the country shifted away from being 'center-right' (whatever-the-f-that-means, anyway)?
Would a Democratic Congress do it?And John Scalzi provides a useful reality check, lest anyone expect truly great progress under Obama.
How about a Democratic President with a Democratic Congress?
How about a Democratic President, Democratic Congress, and a Democratic majority among the nation's governors?
How about a Democratic president, Senate, House, governors, and polling data showing Americans support universal healthcare, are pro-choice, oppose the war in Iraq, and support the Democratic agenda on everything from the environment to the minimum wage to international diplomacy?
Your next president is going to disappoint you. Barack Obama does not fart cinnamon-scented rainbows. He is not trailed by angels and unicorns. Reality does not reshape itself to his wishes. Dude’s a human being, and a politician, and he’s going to have to work with other human beings who are also politicians. Per point 2, some things you want him to do he won’t be able to do, and some of the things you want him to do he won’t want to do, so they won’t get done. He will make mistakes. He will make errors. He will be caught flat-footed from time to time. He will be challenged by antagonists, foreign and domestic, who will have an interest in seeing him faceplant. He will piss most people off. His approval rating will drop below 50%. He is going to disappoint you. Get used to the idea.Simply halting the various insanities of Bush-Cheney will be very welcome. After that, I'd put energy, infrastructure, and fixing our horrible health care system as areas where I'd like to see some real effort. Obama was a Constitutional law professor, and notwithstanding his FISA stance, I have some hope that he knows and understands the value and importance of civil liberties and human rights.
Here's the text of Obama's acceptance speech. I thought it was very good.
This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
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November 4, 2008
Fired Up! Ready to Go!
Barack Obama was in Manassas, Virginia last night. (Making Light notes the historical symmetry of that.) We didn't go, but there are reports that about 90,000 people showed up. Here's a clip of the end of his speech there:<=> | in: Democrats / Federal Politics / Weblogs & Citizen Writing
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November 3, 2008
Middle Class
Earlier in the campaign, John McCain "joked" that people making under 5 million/year should be considered "middle class."Needless to say, we here at Medley Enterprises have a different definition of middle class. Like most everyone else during this time of economic turmoil, I've been thinking again about ways to simplify and save. We've had some of the enforced on us already while I've been on leave with TheLittleGuy. But I've also been thinking about being part of America's middle class and what that actually means. McCain's suggestion is utterly absurd and just shows how out of teach Mr. Cheated-With-then-Married-a-Beer-Heiress is. For me, "middle class" means being able to afford some redundancy in the little things.
I lived very poor while in graduate school. I bought the cheapest shampoos, for example, and when the bottle was empty used to run water through it to get one or two more shampoos out of what was left on the sides of the bottle. Today, I don't have to do that (although I sometimes still do out of habit.) Today, in fact, I buy 2 (or sometimes 3!) bottles of my shampoo and conditioner at a time - and not the cheapest ones, either. Similarly, we have extra toilet paper stashed around the house, 2 or 3 bottles of Motrin, a couple of extra tubes of toothpaste, extra garbage bags, and, can you believe it, a extra stash of soap bars tucked away in the master bath. Toiletries aren't the only area where not living on a pittance anymore allows me some redundancy - we try to keep the cars gassed up to at least half a tank at all times, when I find an article of clothing I really like I've been known to buy 3 or 4 in different colors at once, we get 6 weeks of canned cat food at a time, and we keep a stash of batteries and lightbulbs rather than replacing them in a just-in-time fashion.
So, yes, my definition of middle class is a far, far cry from John McCain's. To me, it's about being able to purchase an extra bottle of shampoo without worrying about how it affects that week's budget. Doesn't mean we'll be able to retire comfortably (especially after the world's latest experiment with free markets and minimal regulation) or afford TLG's college bills, but at least on a week-to-week basis we don't have to stress about sundries.
*knock wood*
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November 2, 2008
Two Endorsements of Obama
John Scalzi explicitly endorses Obama. A snippet:Bush is the standard bearer for the GOP because the GOP wanted him. He was (in what will likely soon be more than one sense of term) the ultimate president for the modern GOP: a genial figurehead for the general population to have its figurative beer with while the “smart guys,” rather less attractive (no one wants to have a beer with Karl Rove), do their thing in the background. Bush was what the GOP wanted him to be and did everything they wanted him to do. Its problem is not that Bush wrecked the GOP brand, but that through him the modern GOP became what it was always going to be, in the end.Tim O'Reilly's endorsement is also noteworthy and goes into more depth on several issues (connected transparent government, the financial crisis, climate change, and net neutrality). A snippet:
[...] It’s appalling that the GOP base holds up Palin as the sort of person it wants as president of the country, and it points to the sort of intellectual and moral vacuousness that party has that the rest of us simply can’t afford anymore. McCain’s decision to pick her as his running mate is something politics wonks will discuss for decades, one of those credibility-destroying moments that in retrospect simply defies belief.
[W]e need a president who can harness the best and brightest our country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening, studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.
[...] Perhaps the most alarming aspect of what has happened in those years is the way that fear has been used to claim extraordinary power for the Presidency. Those of you who know my background know that my degree is in Greek and Latin Classics. So it's perhaps forgivable that historical parallels with ancient Rome are quick to come to my mind. The claims of the Bush administration to be above the law, its claims that the threat of terrorism demand the suspension of civil liberties, are eerily reminiscent of the events that led to the end of the Roman Republic. Faced with an invasion by pirates (the terrorists of 68 BC), Pompey the Great was given extraordinary powers. Within a decade, Rome was a dictatorship, led by the one Senator who had supported Pompey's exaggerated claims, Julius Caesar.
Of course, we are a long way from that point, but the drift of our country towards authoritarianism is alarming. John McCain has been trying to paint Obama as the candidate of big government. Yet it is the Right, not the Left, that is bringing us the biggest, most powerful, most centralized, and most intrusive government that America has ever seen.
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November 1, 2008
Pre-Election Quick Post
Somehow in and amongst all of the infant care and sleep-deprivation, I never managed to blog the things I wanted to during my leave. So it goes. But I did want to jot down a few quick notes before the election next week, just to get them out of my head. In no particular order:- There was never any chance that Hillary Clinton was going to try to screw up the Democratic convention. Similarly, the people who thought that McCain's pick of Palin would appeal to disaffected Hillary supporters demonstrated how little they think of women. I wasn't a Clinton supporter, but after observing the way she and her candidacy were treated, I have much less confidence in the Democratic party when it comes to women's issues. Of course, watching Democrats compare Howard Dean to Osama bin Laden during the last cycle was a good way to have a lot less patience for the whining this cycle about Clinton's hardball tactics.
- Barack Obama is a superior candidate and will make a decent President, but he's not demonstrated to me that he's any kind of great progressive. I expect to be disappointed a great deal during the next 4 years if he wins. That's far better than the alternative, however.
- It really puzzles me when people refer to the last few election cycles and claim that the Republican party is a party of ideas. Umm, no. They are the party of anti-ideas, if anything - all about tearing down and destroying ideas and institutions that others have worked on. Really, the notion that ranting about taxes and Social Security, working to suppress the vote, and shouting "small government" all the while dog whispering to closet racists and religious wackos is about ideas completely devalues the term. Of course, Republicans are also good at screwing with language, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
- Four years ago when Obama gave his speech at the DNC, and people started salivating about the possibility of him running for President. I just shook my head. I told TheGuy: If this country elects Barack Obama after nearly electing George W. Bush twice, than we are truly a schizophrenic nation. I still think that.
- Speaking of the stolen elections in 2000 and 2004, it's going to be weird to hear the phrases "the President" and "Mr. President" and not feel queasy - again, assuming Obama wins by a large enough margin that it can't be stolen. I tried not to write those phrases very often when referring to the Occupant, and for several years I think I managed to not ever refer to Dubya as the President.
- Recovering from the Bush Administration's malfeasance - a disastrous eight years by virtually any metric - is going to take a long time. My kid, and his kids (if he has any), will still be paying for what Dubya and Cheney and all those who enabled them have done. I've already apologized to TLG several times for this - even though I never voted for them. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who votes for McCain-Palin is now doing harm to my child and his future. I was ticked off at those who enable the rightwing wackos before, but when it comes to TLG, MamaBear's claws really come out. Grrrrrr.
- Obama would not be able to accomplish what he's done without Howard Dean's 2004 campaign and subsequent work at the DNC. I don't think Dean is given nearly enough credit, generally (although given that Obama is keeping Dean on at the DNC, at least for now, there's some hint that he's aware even if others aren't). There was an article I read recently about the Obama campaign in which the only reference to Dean was to say that they used Meet-Up. Bzzt. Fail. There was a lot more innovation to the Dean campaign than Meet-Up, and Obama (good for him) is capitalizing on it. Digby's got a short piece about this, but there's a lot more to be said. Not that Dean's the type to go out and demand credit. Paul Begala and the rest of those annoying Democrats who sneered at the 50-state strategy can kiss mah grits!
- Virginia's going blue baby. If Virginia goes for Obama, TheGuy and I will take our share of the credit thankyewverymuch. We are after all part of the population boom that's moved here to "communist" northern Virginia in the last decade. The only place I've seen McCain lawn signs around here was in a pretty hoity-toity part of Alexandria. Elitist swine. (Haha.)
-
David Sedaris on undecided voters:
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
I mean, really, what’s to be confused about? - Oh.. there was more.. but this is enough for now, I guess...
<=> | in: Democrats / Federal Politics
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Posted by: Monika Morse on March 24, 2009