One That Counts

Finally, DC residents get to vote in an election where their choice actually counts. With Tony Williams' announcement that he will not seek a 3rd term, the DC Mayor's race is wide open for 2006. I want to use this blog to track the Mayor's race and get to know the candidates.

First up: Adrian Fenty. He's in his second term on the DC City Council representing Ward 4. He's a DC native who grew up in Mount Pleasant. His bio includes a good variety of experience interning on the Hill, serving with DC neighbrhood and community organizations, and a strong educational background. (I don't argue that any particular academic background is required, but the fact that he got his JD at Howard again speaks to his ties to DC.)

So what's his spiel for what he would do as Mayor?

• improve DC public schools
• guarantee college education for h.s. graduates and vocational training for those whoe want it
• affordable housing
• improved health care and access to primary care services
• work to combat the District's HIV/AIDS epidemic
• recognize and address poverty in the District

In a speech on Sept 10, he laid out hsi vision for the future of DC, which includes some rather aggressive goals:

It’s a future:

*Where we guarantee our high bond rating on Wall Street and still provide after school programs for our children on our streets.

*Where we deliver balanced budgets that will still provide essential services to those in our city least able to fight for themselves – our children, our seniors, an our poor.

*And where we won’t pass billion dollar bond issues for a baseball stadium and then tell our children we can’t afford to pass one to fix their schools.

But, my vision for a brighter future doesn’t end there. I also see a brighter future:

*Where we have statehood and the full voting representation in Congress we deserve.

*Where our son’s and daughter’s who get shipped off to war to fight for someone else’s democracy, should come home to a full democracy of their own.

What the hell?

Did you all hear about Bill Bennett? Write to the FCC. Demand that the public airwaves are not to be used for spreading this kind of abhorrent, disgusting viewpoint. And this man was the Secretary of Education? Evil has shown its face in the culture wars. Taken from Jake Tapper's article on abcnews.com:

After pondering on his radio program how aborting every black infant in America would affect crime rates, best-selling author and self-styled "Values Czar" Bill Bennett is vehemently denying he is a racist and defending his willingness to speak publicly about race and crime.

On the Wednesday edition of his radio show, "Bill Bennett's Morning in America," syndicated by Salem Radio Network, a caller raised the theory that Social Security is in danger of becoming insolvent because legalized abortion has reduced the number of tax-paying citizens. Bennett said economic arguments should never be employed in discussions of moral issues.

If it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, Bennett said, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.

"That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he added.

Good work, kids!

We raised 650 bucks for Habitat for Humanity's Hurricane Katrina Rebuilding Fund tonight. Excellent! Thanks so much to AS, MCB, MG, EA and MH for recruiting people and helping to organize. And for anyone who's ever looking to host a fundraiser in DC, I can't say enough good things about Staccato Lounge. They're great - very easy to work with and committed to just about every liberal cause.

Attack on the Middle Class

Lou Dobbs had another good segment tonight, about how the economy and particularly the spike in energy costs are affecting Americans where it hurts most: their wallets. He rattled off three ominous-sounding statistics...

1. Late credit card payments reached an all-time high in the 2nd quarter;
2. Late mortgage payments also reached an all-time high in the 2nd quarter; and
3. Consumer confidence is at its lowest point in 15 years.

Add to this the fact that the Treasury Dept is considering raising the minimum required payments for credit cards on top of the soaring energy prices and you've got a sort of "perfect storm" that's crippling the middle class financially.

Lou also interviewed Sen. David Vitter about the LA request for $250 billion in reconstruction appropriations, and he nailed the Senator for his view that it's a-okay to repeal Davis-Bacon. Lou said something to the effect of "You want $250 billion in public funds and you're STILL not going to pay people the prevailing wage?!?"

Gender Politics

Perhaps because that new Geena Davis show premieres tonight, I've been hearing a lot of talking heads on the pros and cons of the idea of a woman President. CNN right now is going over viewer mail on the questions of whether the country is ready for a woman in the highest office, and the responses that Jack Cafferty is reading are fairly typical of CNN viewers - a little sarcastic and mostly liberal. So yes, of course, the CNN pollsshow that America is ready for a woman President.

But, earlier today, I rode in a cab that was playing the Bill O'Reilly show. Ugh. The whole question was really just another excuse for O'Reilly to engage in one of his favorite sports, Hillary-bashing. But the callers he was getting were astounding to me. These were mostly *women* calling in, saying that there should never be a woman President. They were claiming all of these horrible things, that a woman could never be trusted with the decision-making required because women are too emotional, that women couldn't handle the difficult foreign policy and military choices (guess they've missed the identity of 2 of the last 3 secretaries of state), and that women would surround themselves with insufficient advisors who were just there for emotional support and not true policy advice. WHAT?

I was so angry I couldn't keep it in, so at one particularly vile moment when a female caller was saying that women only make emotional decisions, I yelled out from the back seat "Have none of these women ever held jobs? Working women at all levels need to make professional - not emotional - decisions every single day!" The cab driver and I then started talking about it, and he was just listening to the show to hear what the "other side thinks" (AS, could it be the same driver?). He agreed that it was probably just O'Reilly trying to attack Hillary again.

Current scuttlebutt is that Hillary and Condi might both be making a stab at it in 2008, and I woiuldn't be surprised if they are the only ones. Think what you want about either of them (you know I'm on Team Edwards, although I do firmly believe that the first female President in this country will be a Republican cuz that seems to be the only way the voters would accept it), but the reality of a viable female candidate is not that far away. I hope that this awful kind of rhetoric doesn't become the main theme of any female candidate's run.

Perhaps O'Reilly, the ultimate no-spin spinner, said it best when he wrapped up the show. Even after stirring his callers into a frenzy of anti-woman venom, he himself said "I would vote for a woman if she was the strongest candidate. If the best man for a job is a woman, she's got my vote."

My Favorite Vermont Photo

Families

Funny how spending a weekend with your friends' families can make you think a lot about your own. I love my family, but we're a bit of an oddity cuz it really is just the 4 of us as our own family unit. Mom, Dad, big sis, little bro. We have virtually nonexistent relationships with the extended family on either side because there have been a lot of bad things said and done over the years.

Many of my friends have told me they think it's really sad that I don't know my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.... Perhaps it adds to that general air of emotional aloofness that I know I sometimes have, but I'm actually ok with it. I don't really have any interest in getting to know my relatives any better. Both sides have a lot of bad blood between them, and what it boils down to is that both of my parents have been really hurt by their parents and siblings.

Most of this has been ancient family history for much of my lifetime, but unfortunately the old issues are starting to rear their ugly heads again. My mom is having a particularly rough time. Her father is in assisted living and while his health is good, Alzheimer's is taking a toll on his memories. And her mother is now about to move in to a separate assisted living facility because she really can't live on her own anymore. She is also suffering from Alzheimer's and no longer remembers who my mother is, let alone my brother and me. My mom and her 2 sisters just had a horrendous fight this weekend, and her youngest sister spewed all kinds of evil in my mom's direction. She's now ready to just wash her hands of the entire situation - she's been the black sheep since she was a kid and even now, when family should matter most, she's being entirely cut out.

So what do you say as the kid in this situation? It's so hard to watch your parent being hurt by these people who should love them. I don't know these relatives from Adam - in fact, I wouldn't know my aunts if I ran into them on the street - but obviously their words and actions mean a lot to my mother, and all she wants is to be considered and treated like a member of the family. It's heart-breaking. Bad enough that her own mother doesn't remember who she is, but to have her sisters be so mean about it is just unforgivable. I feel a strange sort of reverse-Mama Bear reaction, wanting to go find her sisters and just slap them, hard. Maybe kick them in the shins, too.

I didn't ever intend to include really personal stuff on this blog - but I think this is a situation that other folks my age may be experiencing, watching parents deal with the heartache of caring for their parents. The broken relationships in my family are just an added bonus.

Lake Champlain Islands

I would absolutely go back to Vermont to visit. It's the perfect place for a romantic getaway. If I had someone, in fact, I'd go back 2 weeks from now when they have the Apple Festival. Mmm, cider and pies and hay rides and down comforters and jeans and thick sweaters. It sounds so appealing right now.

In addition to these gorgeous islands, Lake Champlain is home to Champ, America's answer to Nessie. I first learned about Champ back in 2nd or 3rd grade, when my class was pen pals with a class in a small New York town near Lake Champlain. I think our teachers were friends or something. We wrote to them all about the teasel industry, which was a unique part of the history of our little town, and they wrote to us all about Champ the sea monster. They sent us t-shirts and buttons and everything. Well, we didn't see Champ this weekend, but we talked to a guy at the hotel who knows a guy who knows a guy who just saw Champ this summer. He took photos and everything, and the hotel guy had seen them and said they made it look like a giant sea snake. Could be possible....

How beautiful is Vermont?

Very. Very, very, very. This is the sunrise on Saturday morning over Lake Champlain. My friends thought I was crazy for getting up so early. I think it was worth it!

Weekend in Vermont

I'm back and I'm exhausted, but what a great weekend! The BFF's are now officially Mr. & Mrs. L, and a grand time was had by all. Thanks to both C&M for giving us all such a wonderful reason for a big group vacation. I hope they had all of their wedding dreams come true.

There are lots of stories to share, which I'm sure we'll all talk about with the gang when we all meet up again soon. For now, though, I ask you all.... could Vermont be any more beautiful????

For some reason I'm having a heckuva time uploading photos today. But I promise I'll get some amazing Vermont images up soon. Blogger just doesn't seem to want to share them today. Stay tuned...

Oh no

The Industrial Canal in New Orleans isn't holding up. Water is flowing back into the 9th Ward, an area that had just gotten dried out from Katrina. The stories of the evacuation in Houston aren't good, and the bus explosion is just heart-wrenching. And Rita hasn't even made landfall yet. Is it too late to ask for Rita's mercy?

I can't even fathom what it must be like for the people of the Gulf region right now. Those who are evacuating for the second time, who are watching their homes under attack a second time, who are stuck on highways because they've run out of gas... Texas officials appeared to be making better efforts in trying to get people out of the Houston area yesterday, but again it seems that we, our industrialized selves, are not adequately prepared for a natural disaster of this magnitude.

The American people have been truly amazing in the last few weeks, with an incredible outpouring of empathy and support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I hope that is a well that has not yet run dry, for the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita will have a long-term impact the likes of which we have never seen before in this country.

Book Talk

I used to run a book club, and while I still no longer have time to run the group anymore I do miss having good conversations about books. So I'm taking a page from SSE's post on his friends' blog (haha, I spied!) and starting a discussion of books I've recently known...

I'm currently reading The Historian, which was strongly recommended by SSE. I broke down and bought my own hardcover copy, but with my Barnes & Noble member discount it wasn't too expensive. I'm really enjoying it so far, about 110 pages in. It reads very quickly, and the mystery of these historians digging into the history of Dracula is pretty compelling. I like a good supernatural detective story. And as you all know by now, I do enjoy vampires. I've heard it said that this book is this year's Da Vinci Code, which is a mixed recommendation for me. I actually hated the Da Vinci Code (though I liked Angels & Demons), but I'm glad that I did read it so that I was at least informed on the big pop culture phenomenon. I decided to read this book for the same reason, but so far I'm glad that I actually really like it.

I started reading The Historian cuz I needed a break from The Egyptologist. I was really excited about this one and got it from Amazon as soon as it came out in paperback, but I had a really hard time getting into it. There are two different narratives, one written from the Egyptologist himself and one by a detective that is telling the story years later. I liked the detective parts a lot, but I truly detested seeing the page switch to the different font and style of the Egyptologist. Boring and I just had a hard time getting into it. So I set it aside at about page 100. MCB has read the book and she agreed that it wasn't great. She told me how the story ends, which sounds like a big bloated let-down, so now I'm probably not gonna finish it. Too bad, cuz I'm an Egypt freak. If there weren't those pesky modern and ancient language requirements, there was once the strong possibility that I was gonna go into Egyptology myself.

Like SSE, I also have Jared Diamond's Collapse sitting at the ready for when I want a switch to non-fiction and some heavier subject matter.

So what is everybody else reading right now? Any strong recommendations? Anything you've hated? It is getting to be time to update that Amazon wish list before the holidays....

TGIF!

Hooray, I'm going out of town today! The Blue Van will pick me up soon for the trip to VT. I can't believe C&M's wedding is tomorrow! We'll have a great time - 4 of us are flying up today and staying at the same Inn and we'll be meeting up with everybody else tonight at a winery and tomorrow, of course, for the full day of festivities. It's really nice to be getting out of town and spending a whole weekend celebrating with the gang. I hope to get some good pictures of fall in VT lake country, so I'll post a few when I get back.

I am sorry that I'll miss all the excitement in DC this weekend, though, with all the protests and Cindy Sheehan... If anyone does go down to the White House and the Mall for it, please let me know any good stories.

My Summer Love

I had a wild ride this summer and now, alas, it is over. I gave up on real men several months ago and decided instead to spend this summer lusting after a vampire with a soul. Yep, in the last 4 months or so, I obsessively watched the entire 5 seasons of Angel. Thank goodness for Netflix! From one apocalypse to another, from crazy storylines to major character shifts, from great humor to some pretty amazing epic, almost operatic, drama, my journey with Angel (and Spike, and Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Darla, Connor (who was never my favorite), Lindsey, and of course Angelus himself) is now at an end.

I guess it's time to find a new love. Too bad I didn't get the name of that guy at McCormick & Schmick's last night. Guess I better find something new in my Netflix queue in the meantime....

To Beef or Not to Beef?

That is the question I've been pondering. See, I've been picky about whether I eat meat for a long time. I gave up red meat and pork as my New Year's resolution in 1998. I was a full-on vegetarian from 2002-2003, when I first moved to DC. Then I found I could no longer resist the siren song of Buffalo wings (I am an Upstate girl, after all) and went back on poultry and fish sometime in the late summer 2003. A few months later, I was at an IHOP in Richmond and decided to try a piece of bacon. My god, it was heavenly, so I was back on pork.

For the whole time, though, I've resisted eating red meat. My initial decision was a combination of health and moral reasons. I became a true vegetarian for moral reasons, but then self-control (lack thereof) and a need for better nutrition made me switch back. I was a bad vegetarain, eating pretty much only pasta, pizza, and grilled cheese. Now I'm starting to wonder why I don't eat red meat, why I still put up the fuss. It's pretty much just on principle now. But I read somewhere once that you should *never* do anything on principle, that's not reason enough.

Plus, all summer long those hot dogs at RFK have smelled freakin' fantastic. And burgers sound pretty good, too. I'm not so into steak, never was, and I really don't think I'd like that taste all that much after all this time. But a good bowl of chili at a restaurant -- not veggie or turkey, but real chili -- also sounds damn good.

So, reader poll - what should I do? Should I just suck it up and start eating beef again? It's starting to feel like just a matter of time.... not sure when it will happen, but it's feeling like it will sometime soon.

Moving Toward a 'Working Society'

I saw John Edwards speak today at the Center for American Progress. Whenever that man makes his announcement, sign me up! I'm ready to get on the trail as a part of Team Edwards!

His speech was on "Restoring the American Dream - Combating Poverty and Building One America." Reminding us that Katrina's tragedies serve to hold up a mirror to America and show us the constant tragedy of systemic poverty nationwide, Edwards proposed a "New America Initiative" to create a "Working Society."

The Bush Administration champions the wealth society, but that leaves millions of American adults and children behind. The statistics are amazing - 37 million Americans live in poverty. 1 in 5 American children live below the poverty line. Imagine a family of four trying to exist on roughly $50 a day. Even the statistical definition of poverty is a political issue, and the numbers don't even include millions more families that exist right on the edge.

But don't believe the old stereotype that poor people don't work, that it's their fault that they can't rise up in the economy. Over 63% of those families who live in poverty have 1 or more full-time workers in the household. These are people who are working, WORKING, and still can't get by.

And now, Bush has revoked the Davis-Bacon protections, cutting wages for the workers who will be rebuilding the Gulf. Edwards asked if Bush will be putting any salary caps on the leaders of Halliburton and the other crony companies that will be getting those bloated contracts. Not likely.

We should not stand for this. We can't possibly stand for this. Edwards is proposing several initiatives to combat poverty in America - a new New Deal, a Great Society for the 21st Century. He reminds us that "America is not, and never wished to be, a Wealth Society. To be true to our values, our country must build a Working Society." Everyone who is willing to work, willing to contribute to the American economy, must be guaranteed that they will get by.

His ideas include:

• Work Bonds to help families save.
• A New Savings Plan to help families buy and keep a home.
• Housing Vouchers that enable families to move to good school districts.
• Raising the minimum wage
• Creating a College for Everyone plan
• Finishing meaningful welfare reform
• Reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax to benefit middle-class Americans

The main way to pay for this? Repealing the Bush tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy. Keeping the estate tax. Ending many tax breaks for big corporations.

Edwards was great. He sounded like a candidate, and he looked like one too. He's even better-looking in person!

Sunday in Wine Country

Yesterday was a big day, as we girls surprised the Bride to Be, Ms. MB, with an un-bachelorette party. She was very adamantly against the Adams Morgan bar crawl idea, so we refrained from putting her in a lifesaver t-shirt and came up with a plan that was more "us" anyway. After surprising her with a cacaphonous knocking on her bedroom door at 9 am and telling her "you have 45 minutes to get dressed and ready to go!" we drove way, way, way out into Northern VA. What a beautiful day!

We started out at Four and Twenty Blackbirds, this adorable restaurant that we've been driving past all summer on our winery trips. It's out in Flint Hill, VA. We hadn't ever made it there before, but it was definitely worth the wait! We all agreed that it was one of the best brunches we'd ever had. I had this fantastic chicken & apple sausage, vermont cheddar cheese, and sauteed apple slices omelet. Sounds like a strange combo but it was deelish. It came with home fries and a warm cinnamon-apple muffin. The entire menu was amazing, and it changes almost every day cuz they use fresh, locally-grown ingredients. We all talked about how much we'd love to come back to do dinner and stay at a local inn some weekend.

After stuffing ourselves, we rolled out of the place in our happy food comas and went to Rappahannock Cellars, the Bride to Be's favorite winery, for a private tasting and tour. More good times! Their new Viognier Reserve has just been released, and I loved their Noblesse Blanc. I'm definitely into those sweeter white wines, and I can accept that with glee. MB and I have been doing wine tastings together all summer with her Groom to Be, but it was a fun change to have all the girls along this time. We were certainly more giggly than usual!

It was a great time, and now we're all excited for the big wedding up in VT next weekend! So now I have to learn and remember that MB will soon become ML! :-)

Where's Alice?

I see the Bush Administration has a new secret plan for where all of those Gulf Coast refugees can live. To the moon!!!!!

I presume that there are good scientific reasons that I don't understand for us to plan a new moon program, that it's not just testosterone, but it seems in really poor taste to be rolling out a new $104 billion "Apollo on steroids" program right about now.

Underground

So I've been out of it most of this week, which is our busiest time of year at work. I survived both a board meeting and a gala on the same day, for the 3rd year in a row. Why do we do this to ourselves? Are we non-profit types just gluttons for punishment? Who knows.

From what I can tell by the headlines -- this is what I missed this week...any more updates?

• Bush gave a speech and took responsibility for the Administration's failures. But words and actions aren't the same thing. I sorta watched it and thought he looked like a gnome. What was wrong with his neck? My friend The Johnson thought maybe the New Orleans Mayor had tackled him.
• Louisiana's governor said "the buck stops here." She seemed more sincere, but that's just my opinion. I'm curious as to what the long-term political fallout of all of this will be.
• Brownie resigned. Sing it with me: "Nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye!"
• John Roberts had a week of confirmation hearings and said pretty much nothing. Joe Biden did a little grandstanding, it seems, gearing up for his 2008 campaign?
• Dick Cheney's gonna have knee surgery. So will there be a de facto vice president while he's under the anesthesia? Or does that mean Bush will actually be flying solo for a few hours? Terrifying!
• Britney had a baby boy! Our accountant summed it up best - "You mean for the last 9 months she'd been pregnant? I hadn't noticed." Good call - why should we even care?
• But along those same lines, Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney split up. Wow, if you blinked you really missed that one.

Have you heard the one....?

These are blatantly cribbed from a CNN article about Katrina and comedy, which makes some interesting comparisons between the reaction to 9/11 and the past few weeks. More evidence that the media is no longer giving the Bush team a free pass?

Q: What's Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?
A: He doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

"Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, was nominated by President Bush in 2003 and plans to start the job any day now." -- Jon Stewart

"Experts say it could take 80 days to drain all of the flood water out of New Orleans. When President Bush heard this he said, '80 days, that's half a vacation.' " -- Conan O'Brien

"He could have started planning on Saturday when the radar showed that a hurricane was going to hit the city, but Bush thinks that the jury is still out on weather forecasting." -- Bill Maher

"To his credit, President Bush did respond quickly and he did send troops as soon as he found out Louisiana had oil." -- Jay Leno

Accountability

No, that's not the same thing as a Blame Game. Lou Dobbs is running a piece right now about Michael Brown, noting that while Democrats were squawking in the last few weeks about Brownie's lack of experience and incompetence, most of them were just fine with him back when he was confirmed as Asst FEMA Director back in 1999 under a Democractically-run Senate. Lieberman was the head of the Committee then, and Dobbs just showed a bunch of clips of Lieberman hemming and hawing about him over the course of 6 years....

I had a great conversation the other night with one of my mentors, who was himself a long-serving elected Democrat at local and state levels and then was a Clinton-appointee to head a federal agency. Great guy with the kinds of insights that can only come from spending a life in the mix. He and I are on the same page, that while we are both die-hard liberal Democrats, we're getting tired of hearing the party line -- or worse, hearing nothing at all -- from the current Democrats in Congress. The abscense of opposition on everything - from the Iraq war to social policy to Hurricane Katrina response - is maddening. I can't think of a single member of Congress who speaks for me. If they're there, they are not speaking loudly enough.

Which leads me to my current attitude.... if the Democrats in Congress don't star speaking loudly, start representing the now-majority of Americans who feel that thsi country is headed in the wrong direction, then good riddance. Get rid of them all in 2006 - clean house (the perfect phrase for it) and bring in some new people with new ideas...and maybe even a backbone. Incumbency is no guarantee. This is a time for everyone to prove themselves worthy of our votes.

Of course, I live in DC, so none of what I say really matters anyway.....

Approval Ratings

So I looked it up -- here are the approval ratings for the modern Presidents at the end of each of their respective terms:

Bill Clinton - 65%
Ronald Reagan - 64%
John F. Kennedy - 63%
Dwight Eisenhower - 59%
George H. W. Bush - 56%
Gerald Ford - 53%
Lyndon Johnson - 49%
George W. Bush - 39%....and counting....
Jimmy Carter - 34%
Richard Nixon - 24%

Slippery Slope

Wow, 39%, eh? That's a very low number. I'm curious and so will do a little research today on previous Presidents and their lowest approval ratings. I wouldn't be surprised if Bush would be proud of 39% as his purity test score, but I betcha he's freaking out with it as his approval rating...

Side note....Sen. Barack Obama was just on the George Stephanapolous/Snuffleupagus show. He sounds really good -- I have a feeling that man's gonna be around a long time. Another one to keep watching.

Kudos

To my friend TW, who was the first among all I know to rise to the occasion and host a Hurricane Katrina fundraiser. Today his New Orleans-themed backyard bbq, complete with ragtime music, mardi gras beads, a pinata, and a few games of chance, raised $300 for the Red Cross. You're a good man.

Halliburton Rises Again

Just because we shouldn't be surprised does not mean we can't be disgusted.


Main Entry: cro·ny·ism
Pronunciation: -nE-"i-z&m
Function: noun: partiality to cronies especially as evidenced in the appointment of political hangers-on to office without regard to their qualifications

He's Back!

I was extremely excited to see a familiar face on Aaron Brown's Newsnight on CNN last night. I predicted that he would be reappearing soon, talking about what had been his signature issue, and there he was -- my pick for President, Senator John Edwards.

It was inspiring to hear him talk again, to hear his suggestions for a New New Deal as a way to help rebuild the people and places of New Orleans. Of course it's a great idea to create a new WPA-style work program, that would enable the people of New Orleans and the Gulf region to be employed to cealn up the city and put the pieces back together again. Of course we need to work on proving to the evacuees again that *America* believes in their worth, and that they should believe in their worth, no matter what the experiences of the last 2 weeks may have indicated.

True relief isn't just about rebuilding structures, it's about rebuilding people, helping them restore their lives and their physical and emotional health. A huge part of that is in renewing hope for the future, and restoring the dignity of work and self-sufficiency. It's time for a new FDR, strategies on the level of the New Deal or the Great Society, a sweeping new approach to elevate all Americans. If there's one thing Katrina can teach us, it's that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats.

If the election were held tomorrow, John Edwards would have my vote.

Truth in Media

Thank you for this one, SSE.

Penance

Like many other people this week, I have become addicted to Hurricane Katrina news coverage. I watch CNN nearly nonstop at home (except for the Daily Show and the occasional "reality tv" break from reality). I get updates on CNN.com all day, and I'm gobbling up editorials on the NY Times and BBC. I remember my own reaction to 9-11 as being very similar.

Why is that? I'm trying to understand the psychology of it, cuz I know I'm not alone. Thousands, maybe millions, of us are glued to this coverage. My theory is that it has something to do with penance. Feeling survivor guilt for being one of the lucky ones that didn't have to experience this myself, I feel like I *have* to, like I'm obligated, to subject myself to as many of the horrifying images and stories as I can. Like maybe if I can take on just a little bit of the collective pain that is being felt, maybe I can help alleviate someone else's? That seems arrogant when I type it out, but I think it could be a factor. Or that watching this coverage can help fuel both the empathy and the outrage needed to motivate me and countless others to do our part in helping the survivors.

I hope that it's not just voyeurism. I hope that there's a more powerful psychology at work, that it's an instinctive need to *feel* this, to remember this. Who could forget Aaron Broussard breaking down on Meet The Press, telling the story of his friend's mother who died while waiting to be rescued? Or Harvey Jackson, who couldn't hold on to his wife and had to say goodbye, promising to take care of their children and grandchildren? Or that brown dog, stranded in the very top branches of a nearly-submerged tree? Or Wolf Blitzer yelling at the Secretary of Homeland Security? Or the President of the United States telling Diane Sawyer that no one could have imagined a breach of the levees?

Words for Mama Bush

Empathy, Bush-style
Barbara: Poor are better off
Homes and lives destroyed

A compassionate
Conservative in her pearls
Who can't even see

The last thing we need
False sympathy, revealing
Emptiness within

Thank goodness.

Finally, our ironic outrage and our conscience are back from vacation. Jon Stewart and Nicholas Kristof, we missed you.

Perspective

Check out this BBC column about how Katrina may have just saved the US media.

7 Reasons to Read The Seven Daughters of Eve

I just finished this highly enjoyable, educational book by geneticist Bryan Sykes. Reasons why you should read it? Mitoman explains:

1. Feel like a total smarty-pants as you learn about genetics and find that it can actually be interesting dinner party conversation

2. Bow down before the power of the mighty mitochondria and its extremely useful DNA

3. Earn some respect for your maternal line, and learn what your grandmother's grandmother's grandmother gave you, and why if you're a girl you'll totally "outlive" your brother and your father once you have kids

4. Revisit the mystery of the Romanovs and the fate of little Ansastasia

5. Acquire some very useful ammo in the current debate over evolution, intelligent design, and creationism. Those mitochondria again!

6. Ponder the ancient migrations of early humans - just how did people get to Polynesia and the Americas?

7. And, finally, get to know those Seven Daughters, the maternal ancestors of all Europeans

Two Reviews in One

Since I'm gonna give myself an ulcer if I don't think of lighter things for at least a little while today, I have switched the tv from talk to basic cable shows and I shall now share with you stories from Friday. It was a long fun night, which started at about 3:30 since EA and I both managed to leave work early. We felt good about it, cuz we were playing hooky to do a good thing, going to CVS to buy a bunch of "care package" items and then donating them at the First District police station for the Katrina evacuees who will be coming in to live at the Armory next week. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we both felt buoyed by the fact that we were able to do something *real* to help.

With that boost, we set off to start our Friday night fun. Which began with $2.73 Yuenglings at RFD! Good times. I met EA's Boy, who shall be known as Reporter Boy, and I really liked him! Good work, EA! Reporter Boy had to write a story Friday about all of FEMA's failings in the Hurricane Katrina response. I was amazed he wasn't still typing, but he said it would be the first in a series....

We slowly met up with the rest of the gang for the evening, and Reporter Boy was summarily dismissed from Girls' Night, and went to check out the new Thai Chili at Gallery Place. I give it a thumbs up!

• You can't beat the convenience of its location, cuz it's literally right under the escalators to the Gallery Place movie theater. And (if you remember to tell them) you get a 10% discount with your movie ticket. They seem to have some deal setup with Sushi Go Round, next door, so that you can order off the sushi menu as well as their full menu of Thai food.
• I had the tom yum chicken soup, which was just the right kind of spicy and really tasted like it had good, fresh ingredients. Full-size mushrooms and yummy tomatoes. Then I had the green curry chicken, which is my default dish at any Thai place. Also delicious, and I'm encouraged enough to try something different the next time I go. MCB had an all-sushi dinner, AS had chicken satay (mmm, toast!) and pad thai, MG (welcome back from Pakistan and Vietnam!) had red tofu curry and some cucumber rolls, and EA had a seafood dish. Everyone was really happy with their food, and AS and MG had these fantastic-looking, GIANT margaritas that got big thumbs up.
• I was really impressed with the friendly service, both from the host who asked me about what movie we were going to see and expressed his own interest in seeing The Transporter 2, to the server who joined in on my explanation of mitochondrial DNA as evidence of evolution.
• The only thing that seemed like it still needs work is the decor -- the furniture and overall design of the place is what I'd call modern Asian funky, but the walls are covered with giant plasma screen tvs. I'm not sure what it was showing, but we saw concert footage of both Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston. Didn't really seem to fit the personality of the place.

After a quick trip to Haagen Dazs to cool the spicy Thai fire in our mouths (mmmm, my first dulce de leche did not disappoint!), we headed upstairs to see The Constant Gardener. This has been getting really good reviews and it definitely earned them. The subject matter is difficult -- unethical pharmaceutical practices and epidemics of AIDS and TB in impoverished Africa -- but it's treated very respectfully, as is an early rant about the Iraq war that coincides with the main characters' first meeting. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are both great, handling difficult characters who aren't always likeable, and the intrigue of both the core mystery -- what happened to Tessa? -- and the larger picture story of the conditions and medical crisis in Afrida are both compelling and provocative. The cinematography is also gorgeous, as the beauty of the African landscape is juxtaposed against the terribly poor living conditions in the "slums" outside of Nairobi. It's definitely a movie that you walk out of wanting to make a donation, or write to your Congressman, or volunteer - I'm glad that there seem to be more of these thought-provoking, and maybe action-provoking, movies coming out these days. While this story is more of a fiction than Hotel Rwanda, I'd say it's probably not too far from the truth. It's good for us to be reminded.

Here's a thought

Check out The Rude Pundit's suggestion on an exit strategy for Iraq. This is one of the best ideas I've seen all week.

Wow.

I'm kinda at a loss for words. Just when I thought the worst was behind us, that the horrible, shameful situation in New Orelans was starting to improve and that America just might find its mooring again, I woke up today as most did to learn that Rehnquist had died. That may sound like apples and oranges, and really it is, but it just seems unbelievable to me that all of the different nightmare scenarios are coming true at once....

...what seems to be the unwinnable war against the insurgency in Iraq, where we've created a world in which one whole constituency rejects the draft Constitution and where panic is running so high that a thousand people die in a stampede because they thought there was a suicide bomber...

...the total failure of civil infrastructure in New Orleans, which is a terrible tragedy largely because it seems so preventable - people have been predicting the large-scale flooding and destruction of New Orleans for years but politicians have systematically cut funding for civil engineering projects to upgrade the city's abillity to keep the water out. Our nation's real shame is that tens of thousands of our own citizens were left behind - with no food, no water, no sanitation, and no real plan to get them to safety. Were it not for the generosity of Houston, San Antonio, and other communities that are accepting these evacuees with open arms, would they still be stuck in New Orleans now? I can't imagine how people like Bush, Chertoff, Brown, Rumsfeld, and others can even show their faces right now. Our country should be not only embarrassed, but horrified, that we leave our own citizens so unprotected, so uncraed for - and this is in a natural disaster. What are we to expect if there really ever is a terrorist attack? I think we've learned that we have to ensure our own survival, because this government can not be relied on...

...And now, what seems almost like an afterthought, our nightmare of TWO vacancies on the Supreme Court has come true. Bush's failures will not only affect us now, and for the next three years, but for at least another generation. It terrifies me that this man and his administration have this opportunity to reshape the highest Court, that their far-right ideology will now be instituted in the highest levels of American government for another 30 years. Can anyone really imagine a Chief Justice Scalia? or Gonzales? Or Starr?....

Wow. If I were to watch a movie or read a book that had all of these parallel plot lines, I would probably think it was too outlandish and unbelievable. But it's real. It boggles the mind.

Oh, this is a keeper!

SW, I couldn't find the exact picture you were talking about, but nothing beats Bush on air guitar!