Do the Yak

Lots of Monday-morning quarterbacking on the Scott Brown victory and what it means. Drew Westen in the Huffington Post nailed it down the best, I think: if we view Brown's victory as a referendum on Obama's performance on the economy and the health care mess, it's saying that Obama has disappointed voters by: Not creating enough jobs (even though the recession was not in the least bit his fault) Bailing out the banks and other big businesses with taxpayer money Screwing up health care reform by not selling its advantages to Joe Sixpack and allowing the GOP to portray it as expensive and risky, and by allowing too much Kumbaya bipartisanship and foot-dragging transparency rather than just ramming the thing home with the mandate and large Congressional majorities he enjoyed. On point #1, the argument was that the stimulus wasn't enough, even though it seemed massive sat the time. There is no way to say with certainty that if we spend X dollars, it will create Y job...

What. The. FUCK?! Some obscure GOP state senator wins a special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat?? Jesus Christ. All I can do is curse and moan. Plenty of blame to go around, apparently. My top choices: Coakley and her aides did not take this election seriously after she won the primary. The campaign was asleep at the switch. And Martha had little to say other than "I'm a Democrat so of course you'll vote for me." The lukewarm Dems and independents likewise didn't think this was worth going to the polls for. Many voters were lukewarm about the health care bill or actively turned off by it, and voted for Brown as a protest. ElectoralVote.com and the Boston Globe both have good analyses. One notion is that even some initial Obama supporters are disappointed in his record so far: watered-down health care reform, Big Business bailouts, etc. Obama voters wanted change in 2008 and haven't gotten it, so they stayed home yesterday, while anti-Obama types ...

There's an interesting piece by Newsweek blogger Michael Scherer about Sarah Palin's recent hiring as a Fox News commentator. Scherer claims that Roger Ailes -- head of Fox News, former political consultant to Nixon, Reagan and Bush #I -- is a "genius"  because while his peers hire on-air talent on the basis of their abilities (debatable, but OK), "Ailes knows you can also hire talent for who they anger, who they unite and what they represent... Ailes had not hired another talking head in Palin. He had hired a mascot for Fox News, a living breathing symbol of all that the network hopes to be: a place for the forgotten, besieged, suburban and rural American middle, long victimized, often dismissed, beset on all sides by elites and liberals, haters and foes." In reference to "60 Minutes," Palin herself is quoted as saying, "More and more Americans are looking at some of these networks, that biased journalism, and saying, 'Nah, that gig is u...

Have you seen those commercials for twin recliners that also have cupholders , coolers and reading lights? We always joke that if they just came with a Foley catheter attachment, the lazy slob would never have to get up. Well, this guy did it one better -- a motorized recliner for zipping over to the local bar for a beer or nine. Except he got arrested for drunk driving. * * * A few weeks ago, we were tripping and sliding over all the acorns in our yard (apparently there's a bumper crop of them this year), and foolishly I told the kids within earshot of Ben that Native Americans used to somehow grind them up and make acorn flour. This sent Ben hustling to the Internets, where he actually found a website explaining at length just how to go about doing this . And he gathered a bunch of acorns. A-a-a-and... he made acorn flour. I didn't think this was possible, but it had an even higher ratio of required labor to outcome quality than the Indian cutlet fiasco. In a nutshell ...

...or maybe just letting her decide if there should be a plug or not. Terrific NY Times piece by Timothy Egan discussing the notion that hey, maybe we can talk about reducing the country's end-of-life care expenses without veering immediately into OMG-plug-pulling-Kevorkian-death-panels-black-helicopters paranoia and political cynicism. As Egan says, "how do we reform a system that lavishes most of its benefits on a cure for the 'disease' of aging" when many studies as well as common sense show that most people want to die at home, yet Medicare will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for endless hospital procedures and tests but won't pay for non-hospice home caregivers. And then I read about a guy who was basically lynched by a bunch of hillbillies in Kentucky . Not because he was black (he wasn't), but because he was... brace yourself... a FED! (a census worker, to be specific). And we know this was an issue in motivation for the murder because they...

Why am I still amazed or even surprised? Yes, Michelle Duggar has bagel #20 in her personal toaster; in another generation or two, there will be so many Duggars they will take over the world , which obviously has been the plan all along. Oh the humanity...

Excellent obit in TIME Photo gallery of Kennedy Package of stuff in the Boston Globe I admired him more than any other politician, living or dead (except Abe Lincoln and Ted's two brothers, maybe). He was really someone to admire: a liberal, a political pragmatist, a consensus builder, a highly effective legislator... and a man born to power and privilege who stood up for minorities, women, immigrants, gays and poor people. Over the years, he did more for civil rights than anyone in American history. As just one example, America would look very different today if not for his efforts to change immigration laws that favored Europeans. Many immigrants and children of immigrants from Latin America, Africa and Asia owe their presence in America to him -- a white male whose grandfather told him stories of "Help wanted -- no Irish need apply" signs around Boston in his youth ("Irish need not apply"). That grandfather, whose own grandparents were all immigrants who...

For some time up until last week, I was having a private contest with myself (private because it's tasteless even for me) as to who would die first, Ted Kennedy or Jerry Remy. As the world knows, Ted has brain cancer; Remy is a beloved sports broadcaster and former second basemen for the Red Sox who had lung cancer surgery over the winter, started working again in the spring (albeit about 20 pounds lighter), then went on leave with a mysterious infection that lasted months beyond when it should have either been cured or finished him off. He didn't admit to the cancer initially, so I figured the "infection" was actually extended chemo and circling the drain from the advancing disease. Turns out Remy is actually fine physically but has been suffering from a crippling depression . He appeared briefly during the Sox game a couple of days ago and was very upfront about everything. He looked healthy but his voice had a slight tremor from the ongoing depression, his nervou...

Christ almighty, this is fucked up in so many ways. By "this" I mean today's news that the Senate health-care negotiators have dropped the provision in the health-care reform bill that would have provided hospice counseling and other end-of-life advice . First of all... VOLUNTARY, okay?? Secondly, since when does counseling about hospice = euthanasia? Do Americans even know what hospice is? Apparently not. They're so fucking stupid that they believe these BLATANT LIES put out by right-wing nuts who don't believe the lies themselves but are deliberately and maliciously doing whatever they can to torpedo health care reform and, by extension, Obama himself. And these sheep don't bother to do some basic checking to see if such an outrageous thing might possibly be, oh I don't know, maybe a wee exaggeration? Or even a complete falsehood? Nope, they just believe what they're told by liars. Who are using this provision to play on stupid people's primitiv...

My stepmother got us tickets to see Paul McCartney at Fenway Park as a birthday present for me, knowing what a Beatlemaniac I was (and still am, I guess). I got there in a somewhat crabby mood because they wouldn't let me bring in my backpack (I had to pay $10 to check it), expecting to be appreciative but not impressed by the concert, but I was happily surprised. I expected a 67-year-old geezer phoning it in Vegas-style ("You've been a great audience -- thank you. I'm here all week... Please tip your waitstaff") but actually, he is a great performer and a showman to the core. A real hambone, to be sure, and he really can't pull off this cheeky aw-shucks crap at his age. Sometimes I was rolling my eyes, but eventually I was pulled in (even when he twice "offhandedly" remarked that at Beatles shows, they could never hear themselves play because of all the screaming girls, evoking a predictable response). And just once I got a tiny inkling of the feel...

D'OH! This is a later addition -- I forgot to include the link to L's terrific inauguration multimedia experience . I took notes on this momentous day because I was just so damn psyched I that I wanted to be able to remember it later. OK, so I didn't get around to actually posting it until 10 days after the fact... whatever. 7:00 – Awoke to NPR, which continued in the exciting historical spirit of last night’s CNN pre-coverage. Kept listening on the car ride to the Alewife subway stop. Highlights included the mayor of Newark and his father, and the story of 105-year-old Ella May Johnson attending the inaugural accompanied by a nurse and bundled in a sleeping bag, and Cory Booker, the black mayor of Newark (“ Black Politician Says He Represents All Americans ”). Lest we get too giddy about everything, this disheartening reader comment on the latter NPR piece reminds us that ignorance and bigotry still alive and well in American as seen in this reader comment on that story:...

Great piece by Judith Warner on Sarah Palin, putting my impressions of her nomination into words better than I could. I love her point about how the public feels that they need to be able to "relate" to a rpesidential candidate -- so he or she can't be too educated or "elitist," since the majority of Americans don't see themselves this way. As Warner says... In the past, it was possible to fill that need through empathetic connection. Few Depression-era voters could “relate” to Franklin Roosevelt’s patrician background, notes historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. “It was his ability to connect to them that made them feel they could connect to him,” she told me in a phone interview. I mean, wouldn't you WANT the president obe a little smarter and more worldly than you are? Since when do you have to be a voter's BFF material to qualify for his or her vote? My minimum qualification for president even before political stance is basic intelligence and a reaso...

Welcome back to reality... it's the first day of school for Sarah and Becky, I'm back at work after a week's vacation at home, Hurricane Gustav just finished with Louisiana and there are three more storms lined up in the Atlantic, McCain named Sarah Palin as his VP and now we learn that her 17-year-old daughter is preggers... The week at home was nice, though of course I had a long list of Things to Get Done and only a few of them actually reached fruition. Also, for two of the days, Ben's car was getting fixed and he had to use mine to get to work (he took off only Thursday and Friday), so we didn't have a lot of outing options except walking to Valley Pond, but that was pretty much OK because the weather was good and we enjoyed swimming and learning to operate a canoe. However, the girls got major thrills from two of our trips, one to the Children's Museum -- where the most excitement came from riding the Red Line and squishing pennies in an inconspicuous hand...

The primaries are finally over and Obama has wrapped up the nomination. The big question remaining is what Hillary's role will be. There's talk of Obama picking her as his VP but I just can't see it. She and Bill won't be able to help drawing attention away from Obama, and that will diminish him in the eyes of voters, making him seem more like the junior member of the team. Lots of road-trip fun the last two weekends. The first was a trip to this swell resort in the Berkshires, courtesy of an old colleague of Ben's. He had his wedding at another hotel nearby and threw a 10th-anniversary bash at this place (fortunately we go a discount on the room, and the food and drink were free -- and excellent). A bunch of the people were guys who started this company that ultimately got bought out; the guys are super nice, and most of them had their wives and kids along, so that made out kids happy (that and the indoor pool; add that to the mix and a slow trip through hell woul...

Jerry Falwell just died, and I'm glad. So there. I know I'm slipping into his own gutter of insufficient compassion by saying this, but too bad. That man was just pure evil. Remember this comment right after 9/11? "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" If that doesn't make you mad enough, there are more of his timeless pronouncements here and here . Off to Old Blighty tomorrow evening. Part of me (the minority part) is sort of looking forward to hours of uninterrupted reading, sleeping and listening to my iPod, but most of me is sad and anxious about (a) not seeing the girls for four days (and Ben too, though he has an adult grasp of elapsed time and separations), and (b)...

Haven't posted in a while but have been accumulating topics, so I'll tackle them in bite-size chunks. When Two Religions Collide Such was the case last Monday, April 2, date of the first Red Sox game of 2007 and also the first of the two Passover seders . Fortunately we were not hosting; we went to the house of a friend of Sarah's and had an abbreviated seder necessitated by the presence of five children ranging in age from 2 to 7. Q: Why is this night different from all other nights? A: It isn't. The Red Sox lost the first game of the new season behind their supposedly ace pitcher. Maybe next year. What's the Hebrew for "Bah"? But... they have done better. Last night Papelbon was Da Bomb, getting the last five outs against Texas after the two middle pitchers, Piniero and Lopez, choked. And now that Passover has almost passed over, as in tomorrow sundown, we can commence the important ritual of dematzification , which means removing the bajillion c...

1. I admit it -- I now read politicalwire.com a lot. We love Charles Rangel . Which reminds me of something I forgot to mention about Election Day. I'm signed up for news alerts from CNN.com, so I sometimes get e-mails with the subject line "CNN Breaking News" and the body text has a one-line summary of the story. Obviously this is intended for news stories so big that you want to know about them ASAP rather than wait until you get around to checking the web site on your own. So on election day, I saw "CNN Breaking News" in my Inbox and sprang to attention, since I assumed it was something major to do with the election like maybe Cheney having a heart attack at his polling station or Bush conceding. Imagine my burst of relief and warm feelings when I opened the e-mail and read: "Britney Spears files for divorce from her husband Kevin Federline, citing irreconcilable differences." Thank God CNN.com has its priorities straight. 2. Dan Savage had a grea...

That's me, doing my daily NaBloPoMo post before midnight tonight so you don't forget, and the Dems, who have managed to gain control of the Senate as well as the House, as they just announced (this is Wednesday night) that Democrat James Webb beat incumbent Republican George "Macaca" Allen by a hair in Virginia. This beats even my rosiest expectations (winning back the House but not the Senate), and it's a sweet counterpoint to how I felt two years ago when it seemed Kerry had a good shot but Shitforbrains won by taking Ohio. Boy was that disappointing, especially since I was mired in the Deep South at the time. Now all I can say is... YESSSSSSS! I can't believe how caught up I got. Toward the end I was devouring politicalwire.com and electoral-vote.com , and last night I even printed out some score sheets for tracking the hot races like on Oscar night -- though CNN had a terrific personal tracking page as well. I certainly didn't get this worked up abou...

But first, sports. Click on the icons for details; they automatically go to the latest data so you can come back again and again. Like any sporting event, it's always satisfying when your team is ahead but it's most exciting when the contest is close – especially when the stakes are this high. Of course the House race got a little more interesting since the Foley scandal broke. Brian McGrory of the Boston Globe compares the GOP leadership to the Catholic hierarchy in light of sexual molestation in the ranks: ignore the wrongdoer and conceal everything. Saturday was Museum Day sponsored by the Smithsonian – you could get two free passes to pretty much any museum of your choice on that day only. So all four of us went to the MFA (kids get in free). I wasn't expecting too much and Becky did indeed get noisily bored after a while, but Sarah was really into it, to the point of bringing a sketchpad and copying in pencil some painting and a mummy case, complete with one-letter c...

Ben is much better now. He was a big pile of misery for 48 hours starting around noon on Wednesday until yesterday, when he got 85 pounds of sodden, packed cotton out of his nasal passages after day surgery for a deviated septum. We knew he would be uncomfortable post-operatively, but not to that degree. He was more or less OK when I picked him up Wednesday afternoon, but it turns out he still had some good drugs in his system even though he was awake and alert. Then they wore off and he took Percocet and tried to eat something, all of which resulted in him tossing his tacos repeatedly and feeling panicky about all the crap in his nose and throat, so we went to the ER and they have him some saline in an IV and calmed him down. I felt very helpless since I couldn’t make his fear and discomfort go away. Sort of like he felt in February 2001 when I hit the wall, post-partum-depression-wise, as I woke up one morning at 6:00 and realized I was so anxious and unhappy that I felt like I was o...