The Kudzu Chronicle

Are you sure that is your Final Answer?

Look, I know that I am a sad soul and that my pride in being halfway decent at Trivial Pursuit just proves that. Being able to name Israeli Prime Ministers back to the late '70s is a nice party trick (some party!) but it obviously has limited utility. But, come on people! Certain pieces of information you should be able to graduate from school knowing and actually RETAIN some of what you learned. I know people make fun of us Americans because too many of us believe in the strict Genesis version of how mankind came to be. But, apparently France has some issues themselves (you absolutely have to watch the video. It's a complete train wreck, especially when he asks the audience for help). The author of the post tries to paint an optimistic picture but I will just put it in my tool belt as another way to make fun of the French, though I'm sure the same question would stump far too many Americans for me to be proud of. To review: the moon orbits the Earth. Earth is one of nine planets (Mars and Venus are two others, for example) that orbit that flaming ball of fire in the sky known as the sun. FYI. Might be good to know. Were I actually interested in helping the French, I'd translate this into French. Instead I'll just laugh in their general direction.

Save the World With a Song

Imagine Musicians could save the world through bloviation

Its easy if you try

 

Were you aware that there is this thing called global warming? Apparently the earth is getting hotter and its our fault (mankind's that is) and we only have ten years to live, or ten years to stop it, or ten years to sign a treaty before it starts getting colder again or something. Maybe I am confused. Maybe I need a concert to raise my awareness.

Well, don't worry. If you don't know about global warming, nothing raises awareness like musicians having a concert. You know, youngsters with a talent for song who in most cases probably made D's in chemistry and biology will educate you on the threats to the climate produced by global warming and all the ways you can do your part in reducing your carbon footprint. LIke, using less energy, for example using lower wattage lighting. Like traveling less. And these musicians will have some million dollar light shows, I mean just killer lights and lasers that will help raise your awareness of this problem. Oh, and they'll log 222,623.63 miles flying in planes to make it to their concert sites in the worst polluting vehicles known to man: jumbo jets and even worse: private lear jets. Hey, nothing raises awareness like hypocrisy.

Seriously though, how much vanity is involved here. You have to be def, dumb or blind not to be "aware" of global warming. We've been hearing about global warming for the better part of 20 years. There was this movie, An Inconvenient Truth, about it that won an Oscar, by a frickin US vice president and presidential nominee. Just about every teacher in the western world tries to indoctrinate the children to the supposed threat of global warming. If you are skeptical of the causes, never mind the phenomenon itself, then a bunch of dipsh*t musicians ain't going to change your mind. I mean the idea that we need a world wide concert to "raise awareness" particularly one that is going to spend a HUGE amount of CO2 producing energy is shear obnoxious hubris.

Live Earth is a demented joke.
 

 

Bush and Scooter Libby

Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence isn't great politics primarily because Bush breathing, walking, combing his hair, or eating crackers is bad politics. Someone somewhere is going to make an oil or Nazi reference over anything Bush does. And the news media will do their typical "some say" with anything that Bush does. "Some sources say that Bush's jogging is an obvious proof that he is running scared over the fact that some members of his administration want him to resign over the latest scandal, where we learned Bush sometimes has a New York Steak instead of Texas grown Angus beef."

So, I'm not going to worry much about the politics of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence. To me it just proves the repeated lesson of Bush's second term: every time Bush tries to compromise he sinks lower and lower and lower in public opinion. I mean, just pardon him already, at the least the base would have a minor reason to like you again after your train wreck of a 2nd term.

And of course, the Clinton's had the nerve to speak out against Bush's decision. As Tony Snow mentioned, that's some real chutzpah. Let's see: Bush let off an administration hack who was convicted of perjury before an independent prosecutor prosecuting a crime that...repeat after me: NEVER HAPPENED. Richard Armitage, a man who almost certainly is one of those unnamed sources journalist trotted out over the last five years criticizing Bush, was the source of the leak that was being investigated. Why wasn't HE prosecuted? One reason is that he certainly was not part of any White House conspiracy because at that point the White House knew Armitage couldn't be trusted. And there was another reason he wasn't prosecuted: because he probably didn't commit a crime. Valerie Plame was just so covert that everyone in the Washington Press corps knew she worked for the CIA. She was so covert that when Novak (the purported press source of the leak) didn't even say her name but mentioned that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and and anyone with a copy of one of those Whose Who of famous people books, could thumb through to get her name. And the prosecutor knew Armitage was the leak before he even questioned Libby!! So, no crime was committed, yet Libby may have lied to a grand jury in an investigation that should have never happened. Don't get me wrong, if Libby did commit perjury, perjury is perjury. But, call me one who lives in the past if you must, but I think perjury in an investigation into a non-existent crime is at least on par with perjury committed by the sitting president in a sexual harassment trial. Though, I'd argue that perjury is perjury in the great scheme of things.

Of course, presidential pardons are like that. You are, by definition, letting off someone who was committed of a crime. So, its hard to be a law and order guy and then pardon ANYBODY. Of course, the idea that the Clinton's would criticize Bush over this is laughable and the way the liberal media is splitting hairs to make Bush look worse is just embarrassing. In Clinton's case, you have the wife of a wealthy tax evader (Marc Rich) that happens to be a staunch Clinton supporter and has given richly (yep, pun intended) to his campaign and then upped the ante by donating half a million dollars to Clinton's presidential library. And then Clinton pardon's her tax evading husband. Here's an exercise for you. Imagine if said tax evader was an oilman or a former exec at Halliburton and his wife gave richly to Bush's political machine. Just how apoplectic do you think Keith Olbermann would be? He'd frickin explode. You get the point. The idea that Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich is somehow less severe or inexcusable than Bush's pardon (i mean commutation) of Scooter Libby because Libby was an actual crony is simply grasping at straws to make Clinton's pardon seem OK.

Speaking of pardoning political cronies, why no mention of Susan McDougal*? She was pardoned as well as well by Clinton. And she was the very definition of a Clinton crony. She was even in jail because she was held in contempt of court for refusing to testify against...all together now...Bill Clinton. Yet, Bush is abusing the presidential pardon privilege by letting off a crony. PUHHHHLEEASE. I don't have a journalism degree from Columbia, but this doesn't take five seconds to cut through the B.S. that the Clinton's are giving out.

On a side note. I read tonight that Scooter Libby was actually Marc Rich's attorney. Jesus Christ! What a small corrupt world Washington DC is.

And in case I'm not clear, Bush should pardon Libby if he feels he was given a raw deal, not this half-ass get out of jail but still pay the wicked fine crap. Do I think Libby's sentence is a political miscarriage of justice? Kind of. But perjury is really perjury. Again, whether its in a B.S. criminal investigation or a sexual harassment lawsuit, its a crime.
 

*Links to Wikipedia are given with the full knowledge that topics that are remotely controversial will often not have the most accurate analysis.

Small Town American on the 4th of July

We went to the Independence Day parade today in downtown Woodstock where I live. Its nice to be just a couple of minutes drive from downtown. Here are some thoughts:

1. What age do you have to be to join the Shriner's? 50? Is it ok to join for the soul purpose of wanting to drive those cool little go-carts? "Yeah, yeah, helping the kids would be great and all but I really just want to drive those little cars. Where do I sign up for that?"
2. Small town America: Where the Coroner gets his own car in the Independence Day parade. If we can't give the coroner h+is due, then the terrorists have won.
3. Loved the Uncle Sam Unicycle guy, even if he did bust it when he tried to go over the railroad tracks.
4. OK, a little note to the Sons of the Confederacy. For the sake of argument, I'll concede that your motives are simply about heritage and not about bigotry or any real regret that the South lost the war and allowed those uppity black folks to own land, never mind vote. But, is it to much to expect you to not have a tent where you hand out rebel flag stickers glorifying a group of people who REBELLED against the very nation whose birthday we are celebrating? Couldn't you do that on the Labor or Memorial day parades? Do you think they tried to give out those stickers when black kids came by? I'll admit I was too shocked to tell the otherwise pleasant old man dressed in Confederate guard that my kids aren't going to where the rebel flag so I let them have the stickers then I took then off and tossed them in the trash a couple of tents over. I'm not proud of how I handled that.
   
5. I wonder if my fantasy football league could register for the parade. That'd be kind of cool. I mean how are we different than the twenty kids from the Karate school? Other than the fact that we are old, fat, inactive, not community oriented, and obscene in a borderline tasteless fashion?
   

 

July 4th thoughts from the Gipper

I am ripping this post completely from National Review's the Corner, but its so good, I didn't want to trust you guys to follow the link. From Ronald Reagan's farewell address to the nation:

You know, down the hall and up the stairs from this office is the part of the White House where the president and his family live. There are a few favorite windows I have up there that I like to stand and look out of early in the morning. The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument, and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial. But on mornings when the humidity is low, you can see past the Jefferson to the river, the Potomac, and the Virginia shore. Someone said that's the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from the Battle of Bull Run. I see more prosaic things: the grass on the banks, the morning traffic as people make their way to work, now and then a sailboat on the river.

I've been thinking a bit at that window. I've been reflecting on what the past eight years have meant and mean. And the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one—a small story about a big ship, and a refugee and a sailor. It was back in the early '80s, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck and stood up and called out to him. He yelled, "Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man."

A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who wrote it in a letter, couldn't get out of his mind. And when I saw it, neither could I. Because that's what it was to be an American in the 1980s. We stood, again, for freedom. I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again, and in a way, we ourselves rediscovered it.

 

You mean Michael Moore isn't Honest?

This may be shocking, but apparently Michael Moore doesn't play it straight with the facts. I know, your world is crushed with such knowledge. I saw a Drudge headline a couple of weeks ago that said it was the least controversial movie he's put out. Yeah, a movie that is a great big kiss to a communist dictatorship is not going to be controversial. Anyway, believe it or not, Kurt Loder, of MTV no less, might have the single best takedown of Moore's movie Sicko. The whole thing is priceless, even when he concedes Moore's points about the problems that occur in the American healthcare system. No one thinks the US system is perfect, so yes, you are going to find infuriating stories. The scandal is that Moore apparently doesn't present any downside to the other systems. He glorifies Canada, France, Britain, and frickin' Cuba with apparently any note of their problems of people not being properly treated. Loder provide's a little balance:

As one patient in a British hospital run by the country's National Health Service says, "No one pays. It's all on the NHS. It's not America."

That last statement is even truer than you'd know from watching "Sicko." In the case of Canada — which Moore, like many other political activists, holds up as a utopian ideal of benevolent health-care regulation — a very different picture is conveyed by a short 2005 documentary called "Dead Meat," by Stuart Browning and Blaine Greenberg. These two filmmakers talked to a number of Canadians of a kind that Moore's movie would have you believe don't exist:

A 52-year-old woman in Calgary recalls being in severe need of joint-replacement surgery after the cartilage in her knee wore out. She was put on a wait list and wound up waiting 16 months for the surgery. Her pain was so excruciating, she says, that she was prescribed large doses of Oxycontin, and soon became addicted. After finally getting her operation, she was put on another wait list — this time for drug rehab.

A man tells about his mother waiting two years for life-saving cancer surgery — and then twice having her surgical appointments canceled. She was still waiting when she died.

A man in critical need of neck surgery plays a voicemail message from a doctor he'd contacted: "As of today," she says, "it's a two-year wait-list to see me for an initial consultation." Later, when the man and his wife both needed hip-replacement surgery and grew exasperated after spending two years on a waiting list, they finally mortgaged their home and flew to Belgium to have the operations done there, with no more waiting.

Rick Baker, the owner of a Toronto company called Timely Medical Alternatives, specializes in transporting Canadians who don't want to wait for medical care to Buffalo, New York, two hours away, where they won't have to. Baker's business is apparently thriving.

And Dr. Brian Day, now the president of the Canadian Medical Association, muses about the bizarre distortions created by a law that prohibits Canadians from paying for even urgently-needed medical treatments, or from obtaining private health insurance. "It's legal to buy health insurance for your pets," Day says, "but illegal to buy health insurance for yourself." (Even more pointedly, Day was quoted in the Wall Street Journal this week as saying, "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years.")

Actually, this aspect of the Canadian health-care system is changing. In 2005, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man who had filed suit in Quebec over being kept on an interminable waiting list for treatment. In striking down the government health care monopoly in that province, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said, "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care." Now a similar suit has been filed in Ontario.

 
Got that? Not only does the government pay for healthcare in Canada, no one better bother to compete. Nope, must protect the government monopoly lest the peasants think there are better options and mistakenly tell American film makers that Utopia it isn't.

Loder goes on to destroy Moore's big love letter to Fidel Castro. Moore actually wants his viewers to believe the care he and his guest received is the exact care every Cuban receives. Lenin supposedly had a description for this: "useful idiots."  And of course, France is held up in high esteem. Presumably there is no mention of how the French healthcare system allowed 15,000 people to die of HEAT (!!!!) in 2003.

Its a must read and gives one hope that perhaps, someone under 30 won't be horse fed Michael Moore's Orwellian propaganda as some sort of greater truth, because, you know, documentary's never lie.
 

Dear God No

If you wanted a perfect microcosm of the difference between the American and European mind, you could hardly do better than this:

"The road safety community in the UK is united behind the call for a UN global ministerial conference to give urgently-needed direction to road injury prevention."

What in God's name could the global community come up with that driving instructors, air bags, and the local highway patrol have not come up with. Wow, some teenagers drive fast and die in car wrecks. What do we do about this (short of refusing to buy your 16 year old a sports car)? Well, gee, I don't know but I'm certain if we got the best bureaucratic minds in the world together we could figure it out over caviar and champagne.

It doesn't get more local than people dieing on your roads. Do we honestly believe that transportation experts from Guatemala have something to offer Great Britain? Or Vice Versa?

And has anybody pondered the idea that most fatal accidents occur because of a) carelessness, b) recklessness and c) impaired abilities due to too much to drink? And sometimes its just dumb luck? Five percent tops could be prevented through some sort of government regulation (with regards to road construction or safety features in cars). Oh sure, we could all make our cars as safe as the average NASCAR vehicle, but there's this little thing called costs that gets in the way. And danger sometimes just isn't a deterrent. Notice how many people still drive motorcycles? A world conference on driving. Is this the moment where the international community jumps the shark?

Vegas Style Casinos in Atlanta?

The Atlanta Business Chronicle is reporting that an anonymous group of downtown business leaders had a study done to see what impact a Vegas style casino would have in downtown Atlanta. Since this article is on their “pay-side” of their web-site and I can not post links I’ll give you the fine points. 

The Advantages

• $676 million – $1.67 billion in economic impact. I guess the large gap is just in case Bill Campbell gets reelected.
• $135.3 million in tax revenue. They could fix the sewer!
• 10,800 jobs
• $3 million in the city’s hotel-motel tax fund.

The Disadvantages

• The cost to the city $320 million a year
• Increased crime – In other cities the increased crime has lasted 2 to 3 years and then it declines back to normal. They say this is the learning curve for law enforcement.
• Gambling dependence. Nanny State!

Apparently Atlanta is losing the convention dollars to cities with Casinos. One blogger made a great point when he stated "“The conventioneers are tired of Atlanta's strip clubs and hookers.”

I know this is a long shot but they even picked out a site, “The Gulch.” But, in a city rampant with “civil rights leaders” who I am sure will say that this will be a burden on the poor, and religious zealots who think the city will be swallowed up by fire if one poker hand is played, this is a long shot at best. 

Like my good friend Russ says we are a free country unless you want to gamble with your own money. We can dream though….we can dream dammit!!!

Election 2008 Preview - The Democrats

I want to believe in the Hillary hype. Not the part about her being the first woman president, or a Bill Clinton redo, and certainly not any of the hope of people who think (and hope) she really is a true 60s liberal. No, what I’m hoping for is the contention that she’s a hardass who shouldn’t be messed with. Does this mean I want Hillary to win? No. Pretty much the opposite actually. But, I’m a betting man and I’m also just old enough to have seen multiple pendulum swings in my lifetime.  The fact is that sometimes voters just vote for a change, regardless of any real ideology. Trust me, the majority of Americans, and a not insignificant portion of loyal voters believe in the “they are all the same” meme. So, changing parties is seen as a change of pace, but done with no real hope that things will change, but an expectation that they’d like to deal the devil they know, the incumbents, a nice dose of humble pie. I believe fully that this was the case with this last election.

So, come 2008, after 8 years of a truly mediocre President Bush, voters will be inclined against a Republican president. Now there is a good chance they’ll be generally tired of people named Bush AND Clinton as well, so it’s not a done deal. But, if I’m a betting man, my money is on Hillary. With that said, I’d say she’s a 3 to 1 favorite. Good odds, but not insurmountable, since after the primaries it’s her or one other foe and you never really know how elections will play out. So, without further ado, let’s break down the  Democratic candidates (both declared candidates and those strongly hinting at it). The first of a three part election preview

The Democrats, aka the party of Euro-fetishists:

Former Vice President Al Gore (he won the popular vote and don't you forget it)

I'd be shocked if he runs. He'll be to busy snuggling with his Oscar and will miss the deadline to file his papers or start his exploratory committee.

Senator John Kerry (you can call him JFK)

Damn. He’s not running. I honestly wanted him to run. I think he’s the worst candidate of my lifetime with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter. Look, say what you will about Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis but at least they were honest liberals. Sure they made their pitch to be “tough” but they both stuck fairly consistently with their liberal playbook. Bob Dole and Gerald Ford represented a really stale Republican establishment and ran vanilla campaigns that excited exactly no one but their staff. Good men, but really unimpressive candidates. But this John Kerry fellow was (IS) just an insufferable elitist who simply can’t believe he wasn’t handed the presidency. Kerry is a man who was anointed by the Kennedy royalty to be Senator (he grew up a friend of the family, natch) and has spent his 20 years in the Senate running for president, just because he figured it was his turn. He accomplished absolutely nothing in his legislative career accept rooting for the Sandinistas. He’s had no timely controversial position to speak of and has worked really hard to say what he thinks people want to here. He’s just a vapid individual. Yes, I know he’s not running but I want to lament the fact that he won’t be there for us to kick around anymore. And yet it’s also important to note what a week candidate GEORGE BUSH was and how powerful the media still is. Kerry almost won. Mark Steyn addressed this point perfectly a couple of weeks ago:

I agree with Jonah’s column on the general ghastliness of the Botoxicated Brahmin, but it’s hard not to see that the Goldberg disparagers also have a point. If Kerry was so unlikeable, why was it so close? If Karl’s Rovebot laboratory had spent years constructing the perfect candidate to run against, it would have looked pretty much like John F Kerry – a vain thin-skinned self-regarding tone-deaf francophile insecure not-quite-blue-blood incoherent anti-war war-hero from a Swiss finishing school with nothing to show for 20 years in the Senate other than getting wrong every foreign policy question of the day and so alien to the habits of his electorate he’s unable to engage in as routine a photo op as eating a hot dog without looking like a Grand Duchess dropping in on the village idiot’s hovel.

And yet the media came within a whisker of pulling him across the finish line. If it’s a 50-50 nation with John Kerry dragging down one half of the seesaw, what would it have been with someone marginally less unlikeable on the ticket? A blowout? With hindsight, 2004 should have alerted Republicans to significant weaknesses in both the Bush and Congressional brands.

Yep, November 2006 should not have shocked anyone. We’ll see if the Republicans can learn anything. So far, the results aren’t good.

We’ll miss you John F Kerry. I really wanted to see just how Hillary would have chosen to crush you. My guess is she would have ignored you as a has-been. That would have rankled you I imagine.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Mars)

He's an utter moonbat. No chance in hell. You can find his candidacy somewhere in John Lennon's Imagine.

Senator Joe Biden

He offiicially started his exploratory committee today. So he's in. What's that? He said what? Looks like Biden's legendary foot in mouth disease, one of the longest running phenomenons in Washington, has finally turned fatal:

In the article published Wednesday, Biden is quoted evaluating presidential rivals Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. His remarks about Obama, the only African-American serving in the Senate, drew the most scrutiny.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

No, no, Joe isn't being condescending or isn't acting shocked that an African-American could be articulate, bright, clean (CLEAN?!!) and nice looking. I mean, I'm sure some of Joe's best friends are black.

Joe Biden 2008. We hardly knew ya.

(and before you think he shouldn't sink based on what was surely a well intentioned remark...ask yourself...what if Trent Lott said this?)

Governor Tom Vilsack

The former governor of Iowa with a somewhat interesting biography is running because, well, he’s the governor of Iowa and every four years, a candidate in close proximity to Iowa or New Hampshire runs with the hopes their geographic location and name recognition translates to early delegates that turn into delegates down the road. In most early pols, he seems to be running well behind Obama, Hillary and Edwards IN IOWA. Mark him down as dead in the water. Future secretary of something in the next Democratic White House.

Governor Bill Richardson

Ed Morrisey, of the must read Captain’s Quarters blog, thinks Richardson is the sleeper candidate that could surprise. I don’t think I agree. He’s got a heck of a resume, but that and George HW Bush’s only term as president will get you a nice t-shirt and an early retirement to Kennebunkport (Bush Senior had the most impressive presidential resume of anyone in the last half century and only got as far as he did because Reagan let him ride his coattails). Richardson may have a good resume but he’s done nothing of note in any of those jobs. As an ambassador, he did nothing to thwart our enemies and was as responsible as anyone with the Clinton/Carter attempts to bribe North Korea with nuclear technology on the hopes they won’t use said technology to, you know, build nukes.

Mickey Kaus, among others, have referred to a few skeletons in his closet that could sink him should an opponent chose to shine a light in the right direction. Anyone bet that Team Clinton wouldn’t turn these rumors into “fact” if he became a threat? Remember, the Clintonites wrote the book on the politics of personal destruction (and proudly signed the book jacket).  Yes, I know he’s a Hispanic, and that will be powerful in future years but I’m betting immigration to be a huge issue in ’08 and that issue won’t swing in the direction official Hispanic interest groups want. But if he flames out early without his opponents taking a real swipe at him, mark Bill Richardson down as the leading Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic ticket in 2008. 

Former Senator John Edwards

Let’s give a shout out to the two Americas. The one that can afford a 28,000 square foot house that John Edwards will live in and the one the rest of live in, that Edwards claims to champion. Look I’m not about to speak ill of obscene wealth. Three cheers to those who can build 28,000 square foot houses. Granted, when your income is built off sueing doctors and medical companies that are usually just trying to help people (for a decent profit of course), then perhaps you are less deserving than others. Ambulance chasers are not my cup of tea.

Still it takes some gall to be the single biggest class warfare artist in the upcoming election and still think it’s a good idea to build a ridiculous mansion in the deep south with the hopes that no one but North Carolina contractors will notice. Team Hillary and the Obamarama have already prepped their black and white attack ads with the internal code name “Plantation Hypocrite”. Coming to a battleground state near you.

Now, of course, that’s a single storyline. Campaigns are made up of more than boilerplate attack ads (but granted not much more) and Edwards conducted himself as a mostly positive and apt campaigner. Unfortunately for him, he’s a white lawyer from the deep south with an estate the size of some counties, running against the Woman and the Black Man in the DEMOCRATIC primary. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here by saying he won’t exactly have the liberal media helping him out. Good luck John. At least you got a nice house out of it.

On a side note, this house he’s building WHILE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT displays an almost John Kerry-esque political daftness. Certain things you don’t do when running for president as a Democrat. Unless your name is Kennedy (or like Kerry, you think the initials JFK work just as well), don’t flaunt your wealth until the election is over with. You might want to turn away because I’m about to say something borderline sexist. I think this is his wife’s doing. I remember reading during the ’04 election that Mrs. Edwards would be a heck of a media magnet if Teresa Heinz hadn’t of been almost bag lady flaky. I’m thinking she oversaw this project and John Edwards doesn’t have the power to tell her to cool her jets until January 2009.  Just a guess. Or he really is so elitist he doesn’t understand how this will play.

Senator Barack Obama

I have been telling everyone who would listen that the idea that Hillary is vulnerable in the ’08 primaries simply doesn’t understand the Clinton machinery. Well, then I started to question that with this Obama boomlet. Perhaps I drank the same bad Kool-Aid as the American media because we are already seeing the pols (with the usual caveats about pols a year in advance) that show Hillary starting to show strength over Obama after some initial scary numbers (one that had her 4th in Iowa, though that seems to have been an outliner). I’m back to thinking Hillary will squash him like a bug and that he’s merely building a network for 2012 or 2016.

The more fascinating aspect of Obama is how the media created his stature. First off, don’t misunderstand me. I think Obama would be insane NOT to run. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be president (and your fallback position as Senator from a large state is relatively safe) then you should take your shot when it’s most advantageous. Now is most definitely his time to run. Hillary is potentially weak IF Iraq is the primary prism of the ’08 election (or if the electorate freaks out about going Bush Clinton Bush Clinton as if we were some sort of banana republic). She did vote for the war and has up until like two days ago spoke in terms of changing strategy but not cutting and running. She has always been a war critic but a war supporter at the same time. Becoming THE anti-war candidate simply isn’t in the cards for her without getting laughed off the stage. She has to do a Clintonian straddle and hope that the majority of Americans aren’t anti-war, just not happy with its direction (the correct assessment in my opinion). Of course, it’s not the majority of Americans that is her immediate problem. It’s her party base that is the threat. The party base is anti-war and very liberal. And obsessed with diversity. Barack Obama is everything their hopes and dreams represent in 2007. He is the great black hope (yes, I know I’m not the first to use that line).

Are Americans ready for a black president? I think absolutely we are. But, it has to be the right black American. I always thought the first black or female president would be a Republican. My thinking was that a black or female Democrat simply couldn’t help wearing their identity on their sleeves and that would wear thin on most Americans. Well, with exception of Nancy Pelosi most NEW black and female Democrats (call them 2nd generation or post-60s minority politicians) have wisened up and toned down the “black power” or “I am woman hear me roar” shtick. And given the relentlessly negative media attention on minority or female Republicans, it’s just hard for them to get the pub necessary to be a viable national candidate unless they are hopelessly moderate like Colin Powell. So I think, much to my dismay, that the first black or female president will be a Democrat. Sigh. And probably in 2008. Republicans as the white male party is not good for the party or the country. This is a case where diversity really is a good thing.

What about Obama on the merits? He’s a liberal. A textbook liberal. You’ve probably heard that he is articulate, and perhaps you’ve also heard, that’s a nice complement to give to a black person. If by nice, you mean well intended but usually condescending. He’s been in Congress for two years. This is good for him in that he hasn’t had to accumulate a record of kneejerk partisanship mixed with the uncomfortable compromise votes on legislation that everyone voted for but no one actually liked. His record is fairly clean, other than the textbook liberal voting record.

Many Republicans have pointed to this liberal voting record and tried to say he hasn’t done ANYTHING to distinguish himself and this is flat not true. The anti-pork or anti-earmark movement has had a big impact on the two parties in a very short time. Not bad for a movement that was started exclusively on the web by radical lefties and staunch conservatives. The establishment of both parties have tried in vain to ignore this as loud revolts have taken place in both parties to try to bring some transparency on the earmark process which is the very essence of congressional corruption. The earmark process is at the heart of every congressional scandal that doesn’t involve sex. The Abrams scandal is an earmark scandal. Tom Delay and Trent Lott are hated by independents because they represent the back scratching ethos of the post-Newt Republicans who were the very stereotype of Republican fat cats. Republican Tom Coburn has been a hero in the U.S. Senate trying to bring some accountability and transparency of the earmark process, usually over the protestations of the party leadership. After many attempts he finally got some earmark reform legislation through the Senate. The co-sponsor for his bill? Barack Obama. As a freshman Senator you NEVER take on your party leader but that’s exactly what he did since Harry Reid is the Democrat’s Tom Delay. In fact, Reid has the Abrams stench on him as well, the media just hasn’t gotten around to really going after him since they don’t want to give a new Democratic congress any scandals after Pelosi promised to “end the culture of corruption.” To Obama’s credit, he’s at least walked the walk on this point.

One big problem for him though is that there is evidence that he doesn’t even have the overwhelming support of the black community, the single biggest voting block in the Democratic primaries. The long and short of it is that were he a Republican you’d be hearing the Oreo slur (black on the outside, white on the inside) at every turn. Jonah Goldberg pointed this out a couple of months ago and many other columnists are starting to pick up on it. His mother is white and his dad is Kenyan. His bio doesn’t really scream “being African American” even though he quite literally is an AFRICAN American. But that’s the demented politics of multiculturalism for you. Being one generation removed from Africa doesn't count.

In the end, he’s a straightforward liberal. If the Republicans are looking like they’ll run someone who can string two sentences together and can’t be smeared as a right wing extremist (McCain or Guliani) expect to see a flight to “electability.” An Illinois liberal won’t fit the bill in that scenario, especially if he’s only got lukewarm support from what is supposed to be his solid voting block.

The Obama boomlet will peter out nearly as quickly as it blossomed. He’ll sell a lot of books and get a prime time convention spot in Denver. And he’ll start forming his own PAC in preparation for his next shot at the title. But it won’t be in 2008. Ultimately, this isn’t hard to understand. He’s running against the wife of the first black president.

Senator Hillary Clinton

Bill Clinton was the most skilled politician since maybe JFK, and probably FDR. As a POLITICIAN he was raw talent and world class skill. Do I think he was a moral abyss of a man? You bet. Do I think he was a bad president? That’s not an easy answer. He wasn’t particularly presidential in many of his acts, but his policies were mostly in the “do no harm” realm, which is really what a libertarian/conservative like myself wants out of a Democratic president. This excludes foreign policy of course, but if you remember his elections which were right after the cold war, foreign policy was far away from everybody’s mind. Bill Clinton passed some of the most successful Republican initiatives any recent real Republican president could have hoped for (welfare reform, free trade, capital gains tax cuts). His strategy of “triangulation”, i.e. steeling your opponents’ ideas and making them your own, or at least finding the magic middle ground on every possible issue, was wildly successful, if you rank success in terms of getting elected and remaining popular.

So will his wife be a Bill Clinton redo? No doubt she learned a lot from her husband. She clearly has her own ideology though. Call it mild socialism by way of The Children. Her record is also fairly liberal, with the “not totally liberal” votes coming on big ticket issues: immigration, the war, No Child Left Behind, etc. There is a reason behind every one of her votes and that reason has less to do with principle and more to do with setting the stage for a presidential run. She’s firmly pro-choice and anti-conservative judge. This plays to her base and doesn’t particularly upset the majority who would vote in a general election. The swing voters usually have more pressing concerns than abortion or federal judges. Pro-choice Democrats and Pro-life Republicans make swing voters yawn. They are simply playing to type. So when she’s liberal, its on issue the voters in a general election could care less about but the base are rabid over.

Every Democrat and every Republican know good and well that Hillary is out there to get elected to the Oval Office and has been from the get go. Republicans will scream in vain at this since the Democrats simply won’t care that much about her calculations. They’ll ask “can she win.” The answer to that question matters far more than principle to the great majority of partisan Democrats, though trust me, they won’t admit it. Bill Clinton went against his party on bread and butter issue after issue and they still loved him. Why? Because he was a winner. Everyone loves a winner.

The modern Dems are basically split between the Deaniacs and the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). The DLC (which Bill Clinton was formerly a chair of) has been the dog that wags the tail on the national front since after Dukakis lost handily to Bush Senior. The DLC is made up of what are usually called Blue Dog Democrats. These are moderate, usually southern, democrats who occasionally have a conservative streak. Since most of the southern DLC types have either switched parties or been defeated by real conservatives, the DLC’s overall power has slipped. Since 2004, the Howard Dean crowd has exerted serious muscle on the party, even though John Kerry was nominated specifically because they thought Dean wasn’t electable. Well, Dean and Co. are back with a vengeance. Pelosi and Dean are two sides of the same coin. San Fran and Vermont. Berkely meets Ben and Jerry’s.

We are about to witness a great political story, for political junkies anyway. The Ideologues vs the Machine. When it comes to American party politics, always bet on the latter. Sure many on the left, the netroots for example, can’t stand Hillary and have an impressive grass roots organization. They not only want us out of Iraq but they want us to cede military authority to the UN. They love this country except for pretty much everything that makes us different and more prosperous than Europe. They have Marxists assumptions though only a few will speak glowingly of ol’ Karl (not Rove) on Meet the Press. The ideologues are the Deaniacs. The Machine is the Clintons and the DLC. The Clinton political machine has basically engulfed the DLC and has basically replaced it. Two other DLC stalwarts, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, have gone their separate ways. Gore has become a radical movie producer and Joe Lieberman has become an Independent war supporter. All that’s left are the Clintons.

Obama will likely be the candidate of choice for the Dean crowd. The Machine is all about Hillary. Pelosi in this case is probably a “swing vote” since I think she’ll ultimately back her sister Hillary even if she agrees more with Obama. The media is also a swing vote. I think they will ultimately go with Hillary. While we all know the media is predominantly liberal, they also have to sell a story so they NEED Obama to give her a run for her money. But the Clinton team plays hardball and you can bet your exclusive interview that certain campaign spin will get free play with the understanding that the media types who don’t question the spin will not be frozen out of her campaign and White House. It’s about power and the Clintons wield it like a fork.

Ultimately, I think the primary race will be fairly clean. John Edwards will have great hair but a floundering campaign. Richardson won’t get within a 20 points of Hillary and Obama will be a graceful runner up. The Clintons will make it very clear to her opponents that if they want to advance in their careers post ’08, they better not damage Clinton to the point that she is weakened when facing the Republican challenger.

In the end, the Machine will win out. Obama is from Illinois, land of the original Democratic political machine (the Daly family) and he knows the score. The netroot juveniles will gripe. Some might even beg for Ralph Nader or write in Dennis Kucinich's name, but when the media finally kicks in and tries to sweep Hillary to victory, they’ll get in line and say they are counting on the 60’s version of Hillary to resurface after her inauguration.

Can she win? She WILL win the Democratic primaries, barring an unforeseen scandal (which the Clintons have proven they can weather). Can she win the general election? If the Republicans were still in charge of Congress, I’d say she was 2 to 1 odds to win it. But with Pelosi and Co. stealing a lot of Hillary’s thunder I’m not as sure. Pelosi and Hillary simply can’t say two words without mentioning “The Children.” I think that will get very old very quickly as most adults start to wonder why they need to give up freedoms and pay more taxes just so the kiddies are taken care of by a government who says it knows better than you how to raise your children. In a time of war, focusing entirely on mundane played out domestic issues will worry most voters. Given the fact that most of the new Democrats who won this past November were actually quite moderate to conservative, I think the country is still mostly conservative. I don’t think we turned blue overnight. The Republicans just got stale and could not have been lead more astray by arrogant leadership that completely missed the whole point of the 1994 Republican sweep: less government, more accountability, fewer scumbags.

Hillary can win. I think she is the odds on favorite to win. But, if the Republicans manage to nominate someone with crossover appeal (Guliani more so than McCain) or with a Reaganesque aura and street cred (please, for the love of God, insert a name here) then it could be a real race. We shall see.

Next up: What I’m looking for in the 2008 candidate.

It's A Boy!

We saw the parinatologist today and found out that we have a boy on the way! I am ordering his crimson and white jersey right after I post this!

What Happened to Beavis and Butthead? A commentary on the State of Music Today

I think I am officially old. I hate just about all new music.

I have been trying to figure it out for some time now. Does today's rock really suck or am I just out of touch. What really got me on this subject was I watched VH1 Classic air what they said were the top 20 videos of all time. I will not get into their rankings, as bad as they were. It did get me wondering though, how do kids today learn about new music and the artist, and how do they waste entire summer days? I began feeling very nostalgic watching GNR, Van Halen, and the various Pop bands with their Flock of Sea Gulls hair.

MTV in it's glory days was very influential in the music industry. It played new music and a wide variety at that. It also gave you a chance to get to know the bands and artist. SInce they stopped playing videos 24/7 music really has gone into the crapper.

So I ask, are their any real rock bands that can fill arenas anymore? Or are we stuck with the "American Idol Tour."

I do not feel that I am closed off to anything new, I just have not found anything I like and I think I know the reason why. There are no real guitarist anymore. My personal opinion is that Greenday (who I like by the way) made it ok not to feature the electric guitar anymore. It seems to be accepted to just hammer away on the instrument and not put any thought into what you are doing. Green Day did this well and it was new. Now everyone just uses it as an excuse to be lazy if you ask me.

Every band/artist I love features a huge guitarist. I am not saying the new bands should replicate the solos of the 80's. I am just saying lets get creative out there. Did the electric Guitar fade away after MTV went to reality TV? God I hope not. I am still waiting on the next Jimmy Hendrix, Jimmy Paige, Keith Richards, Angus Young, Eddie Van Halen, David Gilmore, Slash, The Edge, Kurt Cobain, Mike McCready, Dean Deleo, just to name a few. Did it all stop with the grunge movement as my list did? I feel bad that this new generation does not get to get those cold chills up their spines when they hear something like the solo in "Comfortably Numb," or the opening Rif in "Start Me up."

So, I never try to complain about something without offering a solution. Beavis and Butthead must be brought back. The way I see it the two animated couch potato music critics are the only thing that can bring back real rock. Like it or not they were quite good at pointing out what was crap and what was good about music. I will never forget the day Butthead said, "huh, huh, huh, Ozzy's old, huh, huh, huh." How prophetic.

Update:

All Dave Mathews fans, I want you to close your eyes and relive the scene in Animal House where John Belushi smashes the folk singers guitar on the wall. If I ever walked up to Dave Mathews on a flight of stairs playing the guitar I would do the same thing. It's bad folk music you pansies. Just because he tries to act high all the time does not make him The Gateful Dead or even, well, good.

Say It With Me.....The SEC is the Best

The SEC is heads and shoulders above the rest. The best two teams in the country are Florida and LSU. No argument. I won't hear it. I have said it over and over, I hate my rival SEC teams. I bleed Crimson. But, when it comes to bowl season, I put my hate aside and pull for my conference.

 Hey Big Ten, PAC 10, Big 12, ACC, Big East, and Notre Dame I'm gonna help you out......It's called defense and it wins championships. Look into it.

 Congrats to the Gators way to show the world how we play football down South. I am ready for next year. Until then go SEC and Roll Tide Roll!

 

My Insane Last Minute Trip to Australia

NOTE: Pictures have been uploaded to the photo gallery.

 

We all have those places we wish to visit but honestly never expect to make it there. Australia was one of those places for me. Well, I got to visit that far off place this past week. It has been an insane 11 day trek that nearly took me to snowed in Chicago, but instead took me to D.C. then Sydney via LA. We are in the product planning stage of development for our next release. I’ve been working on test plans, reviewing specs, and testing the first drops of code. And that was the plan for Wednesday, November 29^, 2006.

So, I’m starting work, my co-worker and myself have already done our bit of trash talking about the fantasy league playoffs (where he and I face off for the title of 5^th best team in our 10 team league. Yes, its all for the glory). Then, our office manager/jack of all trades/scheduling manager came through and talked to my co-worker, who is our senior support guy and probably the biggest expert in our company for our main product. Well, she asked him if he could go to Australia in 2 days to train some Microsoft partners that have booked our pre-sales authorization and implementation class so they could sell our product. It seems my boss, who was originally slated to go needed to stay in town and deal with a customer implementation that was going awry. They had scoured the company already for certain consultants to replace my boss, but everyone was hung up with customer work and simply could not get away. So, they came to me and my co-worker, even though we don’t usually travel. The only reason he’s not consulting is because he doesn’t want to travel 80%+ of the time.

I was like, “Australia”? My co-worker seemed to hedge, not knowing if he could swing it at home. Well, I let it be known that I’d be interested. I know the product really well and the only real difference in the product knowledge of myself and our support guy, is he has a better understanding of the real world application of the product (which is significant for ERP applications). He had some family issues that made the timing really bad. I wanted to get my feet wet on training and customer/partner interfacing so I thought this was a great chance to expand my potential job duties. So, after mutual calls to our wives, it looked like it was more realistic for me to go. He couldn’t really swing it, and while my lovely wife was envious she was supportive (she said: “Sure, but just so you know, I hate you”).

One problem: Me no have no passport. I initially tried to go through an expedite service that essentially has a 48 hour turn around (You overnight them the stuff, they get your passport, and overnight it back to you). So, I gathered all the docs and went to the post office. Well, it seems my birth certificate I have from the hospital isn’t what you need for the passport. You have to have a state certified birth certificate for such things and I didn’t have that. So, there went the expedite service plan. I needed to fly out Friday and this was Wednesday afternoon. It was too late for me to go down to vital records to get the birth certificate. My company had already said they’d be willing to fly me to whatever city I needed to go to get the passport, so it was up to me to figure out which city. Went home, started to prep for packing and figuring out where to go. D.C. was booked for Thursday except for first thing, but couldn’t do that since I had to go to the state vital records near Buford Highway first thing Thursday morning before heading to the airport. Chicago and Philly had afternoon appointments. The passport call center said it’d take about an hour and said that it was possible to get it done same day, but it was not guaranteed. Nice. Well, I decided on Chicago since it was open the latest and would give me an opportunity to use the Central time zone to my advantage. Booked a 2:30 appointment and a 10:00 am flight. I got the birth certificate at vital records in 10 minutes (my tax dollars at work!) and made it to the airport in time. So, I finally get to relax for the first time in 24 hours waiting for the flight but then I watch CNN and it seems St. Louis and Dallas have been snowed in and it was heading to Chicago. The flight attendants who were waiting to board thought we’d get delayed and I wouldn’t make the appointment. I waited a little while and it looked like the snow was moving slowly and I could get to the appointment but then it was really doubtful I’d get out of town. After consultations with my office, I tried the D.C. option again and I was able to get a Friday morning appointment at the D.C. passport office. My company said to do it. I left the airport and the Chicago flight and went home to book a flight out that night. I originally thought I’d book a flight, spend the night in DC, get the passport, fly back to Atlanta, to get on my already booked flight to Sydney (via Dallas and LA). So much for relaxing.

I get home, Jenn has started packing for me (she rocks and had booked my hotel and rental car in Sydney. She’d be an awesome travel secretary). I called American first and started thinking, maybe I should fly direct out of D.C. instead of trying to come back to Atlanta. The flight change wasn’t that expensive (what’s a couple hundred bucks when you’re already in the hole for $7,300 and your company had already told you to go to another city). Plus, I was able to go direct from DC to LA, so one less connecting flight to worry about. And it turned out this was the first good luck I’d had. Because the same day passport prep actually took five hours, not the one hour that the passport call center mentioned. Anyway, back up a sec. I flew to DC on Delta Thursday night packed and ready to go all the way to Sydney, Australia the next day, a trip that wasn’t planned 20 hours before. And oh yeah, I didn’t have a passport (ya think it was important for us to send someone to this class?).

I was packed for a nine day trip (though nearly 3 days would be spent traveling). I had with me, two laptop computers, a network router and enough Ethernet cabling to wire an office. And a couple of books to read, and two notebooks that contained what I was supposed to teach, one of which had never been taught before because it was a brand new class we were teaching. Needless to say, I got a special screening from the TSA. A one way ticket to DC complete with two computers tends to raise eyeballs. I have no idea why.

Get to my hotel near Reagan National around 10:30 pm Thursday night. A quick note about the flight. One of the genuinely neat things in our country is a flight into Reagan National, especially at night and especially if you are on the left side of the plane. The plane skirts down the Potomac and you get a perfect shot of the mall with the Washington monument in the foreground and the Capital (aka the parliament of whores) on the other end. It’s a spectacular site.

Next day, wake up at the crack of dawn and take the metro to within a few blocks of where I need to be. No one has a good answer on what station I need to go to so I just kind of wing it. I’m roughly six or seven big DC blocks away and its drizzling. I start hoofing it. Not entirely certain where I need to be, I call Jenn. Google maps baby. She sets me straight. I knew the number street (19th street) I needed but had no idea what it intersected with. I called Jenn when I was on 18^th and she told me I needed to be at L Street. Three cheers for centrally planned cities and the internet. Made it with time to spare. I actually did get out of the appointment in an hour, but they said I’d need to come back at lunch time to pick it up. So much for lunch with my friend Derek, who works for the Navy up there. So, I go back to hotel, update the office, send some e-mails, talk to the wife. Pack up and check out. Leave my bags with the hotel clerk. Metro back to the passport office (still needed to hoof it half a mile even after figuring out the nearest metro station). Then I wait. Tick Tick. I finally get the brand spanking new passport just past 1pm. I need to be at the airport around 3 to 3:30.

Next issue. I need an Australian Visa. Call the office and they are able to do it all online while I’m standing in a corner at the passport office and she faxes me the confirmation at the hotel. Mental note: Aussie visa’s = piece of cake, as long as you have a passport (good on you mates).

OK, metro back to hotel, call hotel while walking back and they order a taxi. Off to Dulles (that would be the airport that I’m NOT staying next too). But, I make it to Dulles with time to spare. Get checked in, have the American Airline folks ogle my passport (apparently, the new ones are cool). The direct flight to LA arrives on time (8:55 pm PST) and I have plenty of time to spare so I can have a nice meal and a beer. There are three flights leaving for Sydney between 11 and midnight and one gets its gate changed and the other is like 4 hours late, so they pack a bunch of folk on our plane. What was to be somewhat empty flight was now almost full. Didn’t matter, I was going to Sydney.

 

Qantas Airline Rocks

I love Qantas airlines. First off, I had some real travel luck on this trip. Not getting on the Chicago flight. Then going to DC and making the decision to fly out direct, which became a requirement. Then, I managed to get a window seat on the Qantas 747 (albeit a little close to the wing) with a space in between me and the young college student on my row. So, I was able to put the bag that would have been under my feet in the empty area and let her have the seat for “spillover.” She was an art student from the Savannah College of Arts of all places which had a gaggle of young semi-obnoxious students on this flight. She was nice and put up with me and my small bladder.

Cool things about Qantas: Beer and wine is free in coach. If you need something, they get it for you. I had lots of water and lots of coffee (hence the small bladder issue). The two meals which were the best airline meals I can remember. A breakfast that filled you up and a dinner that was actually quite hardy and tasty. Chicken that was moist and not tough. And an early morning (or late night, I can’t begin to remember) hot cocoa treat. I’m easy to please.  

Then they have this entertainment system. I don’t know for sure, but this is probably just for international flights. But, every seat, coach on up to first class, had a TV that had like 30 movies to choose from, some silly video games to play, full CDs to play, and a variety of TV shows from the Office (British version), the Simpsons and CSI. And you could check the flight path any time you wanted. Very cool. And somehow, I manage to get several disjointed hours of sleep.

One odd thing about Qantas was that the steward/stewardess ratio was roughly 80/20. When the ratio in the states is probably 10/90 male/female, its an odd thing to see (and that’s meant to be a value neutral statement).

So, after being over the Pacific Ocean for over 12 hours (I wasn’t nervous, as far as you know), we finally get to Sydney. Its overcast and I’m wondering if we’ll get a view worth a crap. I’m on the left side of the plane and starting to wonder if I’ll see anything. Fortunately, the flight path veers inland towards the airport (in the southern part of the city). I actually get a great shot of the opera house coming in. Cool! I’m actually in Australia.

On the Ground

Surprisingly, I have packed a jacket because I figured DC would be cold. Turned out it was rainy and muggy. When we leave the airplane in Sydney, I get a blast of wind that is quite chilly. Who knew? Its supposedly summer. This was my first trip through customs since I was 12, so that was a new thing. I should have bought some beer at the duty free store, which was stocked like mega-liquor store. The duty free line moved much quicker than our line. Met a fellow in line who apparently was a hippy from Oregon making the trip solo. Was going to be there for 45 days. And really had no plans of going to the outback? I figured he was a surfer. Nope. He just wanted to visit the coast. OK. 45 days in Australia, you don’t surf and you are just going to hug the coast? I didn’t understand, but to each his own.

Customs was smooth, if convoluted. Dropping Microsoft’s name usually stopped the questioning about what I was doing there. Then I go to the rent a car counter to get a Nissan I’ve never heard of. The nice thing is they give you a map that is a one inch thick book. And apparently each Australian province has a different name for it. In New South Wales, it was diggeradoo, or some such. Map is apparently too vague. The clerk helps me sketch out a path to get to my hotel (which is 30-45 north of the airport). Supposedly, I just follow the main roads and it’ll keep changing names or something (not quite how it ends up working).

OK, so I find my car. An econo box that has several scratches (all told to me ahead of time). Since my insurance doesn’t transfer over hear, I buy the full insurance for $300 (Australian) more since well, I have no idea how to drive on these crazy roads. You know, they drive on the wrong side here. Steering wheel? Same story. Oh crap. And it doesn’t even have power windows. What is this? A third world country?

Well, I hop in and try to follow the directions.  Getting totally freaked out about the left side of the road thing. They don’t have interstates here per se. Just “motorways” that occasional act like interstates before turning back into normal roads that split off in 3 directions. So, naturally, I get lost right off the bat and end up 10 minutes in the wrong direction. Turn around and I’m on my way to terrorize Australians on the north side. I’m just following signs to the city and I end up in Sydney and end up going across the Harbor Bridge (which is a toll road) and see my first shot of the Opera house, even though its partially blocked by the bridge structure. More on the Opera House later. The Harbor bridge is 8 narrow lanes across with just a thick white line down the middle. I’m just following the cars hoping I stay on the right side ( I mean, left side or wrong side, depending on your point of view). I get to a toll and realize I need to pay in cash because I didn’t have exact change. More on their money later too.

So, I get into the northern suburbs trying to find Epping road, not to be confused with Epping the town, or the Epping Road which connects with M2 versus Epping road which actually takes you to Epping and Lane Cove. Well, I end up in Lane cove driving in circles. Ask three different pedestrians where the corner of Epping and Herring is. This is where my hotel is and that’s the official address: Corner of Epping Road and Herring Road. Street numbers are apparently optional. Finally come across a guy in his 50s and ask him where it is. God bless the man he actually says “you are a couple of miles off.”  He even tried to speak my language by saying “miles.” Nice people these Aussies.

Anyway, I find the hotel and check in. I was given three options for hotels and this was the only one I could get the full week booked at. It was really nice. Four stars supposedly and I guess that’s right. I just know I had a stand up shower as well as Jacuzzi tub in a bathroom that was marble tile head to toe. And I have a kitchenette (minus a microwave) and a stocked fridge. Naturally everything in their costs and I think I ended up having a beer and a couple of bottled waters. Internet access costs and is expensive. I ended up paying $100 (Aussie) for the week to have access since it turned out I didn’t have it at Microsoft’s office.

And oh yeah, the exchange rate just killed us. It went from 75 cents on the Aussie dollar to 82 cents on the Aussie dollar during the course of the week. Judging by the prices at the mall, the regular exchange rate was probably 60 cents to an Aussie dollar. This trip is going to be expensive. Great timing for the dollar to tank.

 

Training at Microsoft

The training was at Microsoft’s Australian headquarters in North Ryde a few kilometers south of where I was staying. The hotel shuttle took me there after going through a half dozen other tech offices (HP, Navartis, Nikon). The area I was in was a little like the Perimeter area in Atlanta, except with the tech offices you’d expect in Alpharetta or Norcross. The MS office is what you’d expect. A nice reception area, its own café (complete with an Xbox 360 kiosk) and all the red, blue, green, yellows of the Windows and Office brands. The people were either highly professional and dressed perfectly, or were jean clad hipster geeks.

Not much to say about the training itself. I threw together two classes that should never be taught together and really target different audiences. We didn’t come across looking particularly organized. Not sure what they thought of getting the QA manager. I understood the product. I understood our development process (since I authored many of the policies) and our relationship with MS and how we certify with MS. But, these people were bright and had a hell of a passion for manufacturing and solving manufacturing problems. They asked a lot of questions that I could not answer (though I was usually sure if we did what they were wanting or not). It was a challenging endeavor that’s for sure. At night, I’d come back, usually take a nap, then hop on and work the rest of the night (since that’s when I could communicate with the folks back home), preparing for the next day, sending e-mails to get the attendees questions answered or testing scenarios. I ordered room service in. One of the hotel’s specialties was curry foods, and I had curry the first two nights. Very good (especially the butter chicken). Breakfast at the hotel was the same stuff we eat here except for their addition of grilled tomatoes (and poached eggs when not having scrambled, ick).

On day three I finally had figured out how to get to the office and drove myself. It was just down the road, but had a turn that, if you missed it, you were apparently screwed. That’s the thing that I discovered when driving. You really got to know where you are going. Signs are sometimes helpful, once you realize what they are telling you. But, there is a lot of back tracking. They aren’t big fans of turning right here so if you miss your turn, you got to really work your way back to where you needed to go. I did this a lot. I actually got to see the method to the madness of roundabouts. They acted as u-turns, but also right turns, and moreover, prevented the need for red lights. As long as people knew who to pause for (the person turning right on the inner lane), it went pretty smoothly.

I had exhausted the training material by Wednesday afternoon, and the class was thrilled to finish early (they were all from other big Aussie cities or New Zealand). I went out drinking…I mean I had a business dinner…with a couple of the consultants from Brisbane that night at a pub across the street from my hotel. This was an interesting thing. I apparently stayed in a hotel. OK, well, the hotel across the street was also a hotel, but they didn’t really refer to it like that. Because it had sports betting (sorry, no NFL), slot machines, a public bar (aka a Pub), and a big restaurant. The restaurant, was an Australian version of Piccadilly. Except it had beer. (More on the beer later). We basically closed down the interior part of the pub (at 10pm on a Wednesday) and took off, though the outside was starting to get hopping. This wasn’t an old English pub mind you. More like a bowling ally/Picadilly/Three Dollar Café type joint (without the bowling). It was called The Ranch naturally. Yeahaw.

So, I now had two full days of tourist stuff, instead of the originally planned Friday afternoon/Saturday morning gig I thought I’d do. What to do?

The Opera House

I have to say I’ve become jaded and cynical. I’ve watched too many Simpsons and Seinfeld episodes that made fun of the mundane as well as the over hyped. I expected to be kind of underwhelmed by the Opera House. I mean, it’s an Opera House that looks like a conk shell. First, I decided to drive around the city to get the lay of the land. I ended up going through the harbor tunnel (by accident) which goes under the harbor (they have lots of tunnels in Sydney). It dumped me near a wharf (don’t remember which one) and I just kind of went left. I had studied the map, but apparently not hard enough. So, I went up through these winding hills into an area called New Town, which can only be described as a weird eclectic version of Pre-Guliani Times Square, Little Five Points in Atlanta and Chinatown. Lots of artsy stuff. Lots of Asians. Lots of porn shops. But still a fairly clean and vibrant urban area believe it or not. I just drove around the city for an hour before figuring out a place to park. I’m sure I looked the tourist. Putting the map on the steering wheel at every stop light, when I wasn’t taking pictures.

I finally found a hotel near the Opera House to park at. They have public parking throughout the city and it looks like every place with a parking lot takes a rake. They have a standardized way the parking is done (from signage, to paystations and meters), but each location charges its own rates. I guess its like a franchise sort of thing. I parked at the Sir Stamford hotel, which was the sister hotel to where I was staying (the Stamford Plaza North Ryde). Then I was off to the Opera House.

The first thing I came too was this beautiful park with all these big ass trees. This was actually the grounds to Government House, the Prime Minister’s Sydney residence (apparently, he stays here or in the capital of Canberra). When the flag is raised, he’s in. Well it was raised. Kind of cool. Our boy John Howard was in the house. I like that guy. As eloquent as Tony Blair, without all of Blair’s socialism. The Government House is obviously a holdover from the empire as it is much a castle. They weren’t doing tours unfortunately. From the Government House, you head down a path, and the Opera House is just a bit away.

I have to say, the Opera House is just a very cool structure. First off, it’s near this big downtown park that it shares with Government House. Its right on the harbor, or rather it juts out into the harbor. Its distinctive architecture is quite special. But it’s not just the architecture. It’s the location. If this was put in some area of the city (in order to revive a downtown area, a la Turner Field) it would not be near as cool. The location though is inspired. It sits on the Harbor. To one side, you have that wharf I accidentally drove too that services military vessels it appears. Across the water, you have North Sydney, a distinctive skyline in its own right (North Sydney is very much like LA, the way it is built into the hills). You have the harbor bridge which is a massive old bridge. You then look the opposite way, with Government House and the park to the left and downtown Sidney to the right, with Circular Quay, where the Ferries launch from in the foreground. Then you have another ward and the Naval shipyard to the left.

The Opera House itself can’t help but remind me of the Simpsons (see earlier comment about being jaded). Particularly, the episode where they go to Epcot and Lisa makes a comment on how Epcot is what people in 1982 thought the future would be like (complete with flying cars sponsored by now defunct Pan Am). This just made me think of that for no good reason. The Opera House has some age to it. It’s glass windows has a brown 1970s dinginess to it. The shell structure isn’t nearly as white as I imagine it once was. Inside, in the concourse, it feels like any old stadium with lots of concrete. I did’t take the tour. From the looks of it, the inside arena is spectacular, but it wasn’t worth it to me. It is an opera house after all.

From the Opera House, I walked down to the boardwalk which is part of the Opera House mall. And that is where I had me some fish and chips at the Opera House bar/restaurant. And some Australian blonde style beer. And let me tell you, the beer batter fried fish was really good. The fries were bland, but the fish was really tasty. Sure I’m on a low carb diet when I get back, but surely we can find a recipe.

So, a note about the beer. One of the myths that still exist is that Americans have lousy beer. And in the 1970s that was surely true. Most Americans still drink one of the big three and many people in the northeast have regional beers that may be better than Coors, but they aren’t THAT much better (think Yuengling or Genesee, which are pretty good, don’t get me wrong). But, since Sam Adams hit it big and created the American micro-brew industry, I would argue, that most bars, and certainly most liquor stores offer a better selection of beer than most other countries, at least for my taste. Its pretty much all pilsners or lagers in Australian with a few ales scattered about. Sure the alcohol content is a tad higher, but does anyone on the wrong side of thirty drink ONLY to get drunk? Bottom line: dark beer was damn hard to find in Australia. But, I did find one: Toohey’s Old. It was fantastic. I did have several of the other beers and they probably lacked the aftertaste of the mainstream American beers, though a few were skunky. It was just a reminder that the myth of inferior American beer is really long dead. I’ll take our variety any day of the week. Though it is funny how your perspective changes. When I was at one pub downtown, I asked for a dark beer and she only had Toohey’s Old or Guinness. When she said Guinness, I huffed almost like “don’t offer me that dredge.” I mean its Guinness. I love Guinness. But I didn’t fly halfway around the world to drink what I can get down the street at home.

 

The Circular Quay

Sydney has several hubs where tourist (and Aussie’s in general) will congregate. The Circular Quay is the dock/harbor area for the Ferries. They have a big Ferry system in Sydney, almost certainly as big as New York’s. There are shops, offices all around the Quay. Also, there are lots of street acts. Magicians, banjo players, Jack Johnson wannabes, a real Aborigine doing Aborigine things (I assume American multicultural academics haven’t made it over hear yet), and a white guy playing the Aborigine pipe to dance music (giddyup). The one I really wish I had photographed was the Aborigine with dreads playing Jamaican steel drums to Van Morrison (Brown Eyed Girl). It overloaded the senses man. One side note, I didn’t see hardly any Aborigines. I don’t know how prevalent they are but they certainly are not very numerous. They apparently have a lot of land in the north and western part of the country. I gather it’s a somewhat more dignified arrangement than our reservation system I suppose. Still, I was surprised at the lack off Aborigines in the city though I guess I have no reason to think they would have been everywhere.

I walked all around the Circular Quay. They had a statue of Captain Bligh, which was kind of cool. I had heard of him and all (the Mutiny on the Bounty guy, and also a pretty distinguished Royal Navalman). On Friday, I took a Ferry to Manly Beach (yep, that’s what it’s called) from the Circular Quay.

 

The Downtown

I really just enjoyed walking through downtown and I covered several kilometers of it by foot on both days and much more by car. I said earlier that North Sydney (the area across the harbor) reminded me of LA, but the down town is definitely an Aussie New York. And yes, I know the limitation in comparing it to American cities. I’m just trying to paint a picture here. The city is absolutely streaming with people at every corner. I was there during Thursday and Friday during the business day and it appears to be quite healthy economically. There are pubs everywhere. One of my pictures is of the Australian National Bank with the words Pub carved into the side, with more prominent signage actually. Business and the pub, they simply can’t be far apart.

The reason I compare it to New York is that it’s loaded with people, a very pedestrian friendly city, but it’s also a mixture of old and new. I’ll research the exact date (I’m on a plane right now) but I believe it’s been around since 1800 so it’s fairly old (by American standards). Their old majestic buildings, with all the ornate carvings, sit right beside modern glass towers. Many of the buildings are definitely remnants of the British Empire which is kind of neat. There are pedestrian only squares throughout. There are shopping areas in or near any large commercial tower. Coffee bars are as numerous as Pubs.

The one thing to note about Australia and Sydney in particular is that it is certainly an Asian city. I would say the population is 30-40 percent Asian, with another 10-15% of Indian decent, the remainder being British or European decent. The number of Japanese tourists probably dwarfs what you usually see in Hawaii (I’m not kidding). There are Korean/Japanese supermarkets, sushi bars, etc everywhere.

It is just a very neat place, with the mixture of old and new and a city life we don’t get here except in New York, Chicago and maybe DC, Philly, San Fran or Boston. My pictures surely will not do it justice.

 

Darling Harbor

On Friday, I got up early and did Darling Harbor. I heard this was another must see. This is basically on the opposite side of the harbor bridge from the Circular Quay, bordering the main harbor. This was a neat area, but one that struck me as very planned (not that that’s always a bad thing). It was very pretty and well laid out with huge plazas, a Chinese Garden that I kind of wished I’d paid to see, shops and hotels galore and beautiful views of the city. Located here was the Australian Maritime Museum, the Aquarium and more tourist oriented ferries (basically tours of the harbor). You could actually walk on Captain Cook’s ship here as well as some Aussie military vessels.

They also had a huge bridge that was now reserved for pedestrians and they also have a Monorail station here (again, the Simpson’s episode on the monorail has ruined me). As nice as Darling Harbor was, it wasn’t anything like you wouldn’t see in a city like Tampa or Miami or any Southern California city. And it took a small eternity to get a coffee at the Jamaican coffee shop there. Still, it is kind of one of those things you must check out while in Sydney.

 

Manly Beach

As I said before, I took a ferry to Manly Beach from the Circular Quay as my final big thing to check off. The people in the class this was something I needed to do. I could have driven there from my hotel but they said you should really take the ferry from downtown. It was a good call. The ferry was a pleasant and relaxing trip. It took 20 minutes on the way in because I was on a turbo ferry and thirty minutes on the way back on the standard ferry. On the ferry you really get to appreciate just how big and developed Sidney Harbor is. With the exception of a few wilderness reserves, each side of the harbor is covered with what I imagine is high priced residential areas. And given that this was December, i.e. the summer in Australia, the weather was quite pleasant for a boat ride.

Manly Beach itself is apparently named after some other British dude and is not some homo-erotic reference. It’s a very cool beach town with houses reminiscent of south Florida and sailboats and yachts everywhere. The shopping area is nice and I ate at a Hungry Jacks, which is Burger King with a different name. Its literally got the same signage packaging and a fair amount of the same menu item. The funniest part was the palm trees covered in Christmas tinsel and one shop that had a Santa Clause manikin sitting on its awning.

The beach itself was pretty typical of Pacific beaches though by Aussie standards the waves were probably subpar. But pretty much every kid at the beach had a surfboard, boogie board, some other surfboard knock off. Its what they do down here. I dipped my feet in the south Pacific and then, after getting a smoothie I headed back.

The ferry ride back was nice because it had gotten sunny. We passed an Aussie steamboat much like what you’d see on the Mississippi which was neat but kind of out of place to this southerner. On my way back, I got my money shot of the Opera House. I got a picture that was a perfect silhouette of the place that completely matches the logo which was cool.

 

The Way Home

Well, that was basically all I had time to do in Sidney. I flew out the next day. I did get to fly business class for the Sidney to LA leg which frickin’ rocked (the benefits of buying 2 days in advanced on a flight that actually had coached sold out).

Once I got to LA, I had as tight a connection as can be imagined (one hour that included a trip through customs). Well, I rushed like a maniac to get to gate and barely made it…except the flight was delayed. And delayed. And delayed again. Basically, they didn’t have a plane to get us to Dallas for the connection. After much griping (because I was going to miss my Dallas connection) they put me on a Delta flight directly to Atlanta. It all worked out. I was dying to see my kids after all this and could not stomach more delays. Basically my plane got in about an hour after my originally planned flight.

I must say Sidney was one cool town and Australia is definitely on the list of other countries I’d consider living. I really hope that I can get back there with Jenn and actually drive from Brisbane down to Sidney then to Melbourne. I bet that would be a cool drive. I would love to visit the wine country there too. It was a whirlwind tour of a place I never thought I’d visit. I’m quite glad the opportunity presented itself.

Bama Stuck in The Coach Bryant Era..........Yeah, And This is Bad Why?

I have posted a story below that coach Bryant told at a Touchdown Club meeting. Read it and I have some thoughts for you at the end.

A Great Great Story....

At a TD Club meeting many years before his death, Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant told the following story, which was typical of the way he operated.

I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was 'havin' trouble finding the place.

Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said "Restaurant."

I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me.  Seems I'm the only white 'fella' in the place.  But the food smelled good.

So I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit.  A big ole man in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?"  I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today?

He says, "You probably won't like it here, today we're having chitlins, collared greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't even know what chitlins are, do you?"

I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from Arkansas , I've probably eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I'm in the right place." They all smiled as he left to serve me up a big plate.

When he comes back he says, "You ain't from around here then?"

And I explain I'm the new foot ball coach up in Tuscaloosa at the University and I'm here to find whatever that boy's name was and he says, yeah I've heard of him, he's supposed to be pretty good. And he gives me directions to the school so I can meet him and his coach.  As I'm paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him, but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay.

The big man asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to show I'd been there.  I was so new that I didn't have any yet.  It really wasn't that big a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him one.

I met the kid I was 'lookin' for later that afternoon and I don't remember his name, but do remember I didn't think much of him when I met him.  I had wasted a day, or so I thought.

When I got back to Tuscaloosa late that night, I took that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it under my keys so I wouldn't forget it.  Heck, back then I was excited that anybody would want a picture of me. And the next day we found a picture and I wrote on it, "Thanks for the best lunch I've ever had.  Paul Bear Bryant."

Now let's go a whole 'buncha' years down the road.  Now we have black players at Alabama and I'm back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed.  Well, he's got two friends going to Auburn and he tells me he's got his heart set on Auburn too, so I leave empty handed and go on to see some others while I'm down there.

Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it's this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still want me at Alabama?" And I said, "Yes I sure do." And he says okay, he'll come.  And I say, "Well son, what changed your mind?" And he said, "When my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said no, he pitched a fit and told me I wasn't going nowhere but Alabama , and wasn't playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since y'all met."

Well, I didn't know his granddad from Adam's housecat so I asked him who his granddaddy was and he said, "You probly don't remember him, but you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a picture that he's had hung in that place ever since. That picture's his pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear Bryant came in and had chitlins with him. My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to remember him or to send him that picture, but you kept your word to him and to Grandpa, that's everything.  He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I'm going to."

I was floored. But I learned that the lessons my mama taught me were always right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost 'nuthin' to do the right thing most of the time, and it costs a lot to lose your good name by breakin' your word to someone. When I went back to sign that boy, I looked up his Grandpa and he's still running that place, but it looks a lot better now; and he didn't have chitlins that day, but he had some ribs that 'woulda' made Dreamland proud and I made sure I posed for a lot of pictures; and don't think I didn't leave some new ones for him, too, along with a signed football. I made it clear to all my assistants to keep this story and these lessons in mind when they're out on the road. And if you remember anything else from me, remember this - It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable.

My father e-mailed me this story. He tries to inspire and motivate me since I am a business owner now. He eats this stuff up and I have to admit I do to. He also added that this is the man that used to come out and chat with my Mom. I mentioned before that my Dad played baseball in sixties at Alabama. My Mom would come each day to pick up my Dad at the athletic building. Coach Bryant would usually be leaving at the same time and he would see her sitting in the car waiting, and he would stop and talk to her sometimes until my Dad came out. I am not sure if he was flirting or if he felt like a 19 year old girl should not wait by herself in the parking lot. Who knows. The point is he exuded class according to the people who played for him, coached for him, or just met him in passing.

When you hear that we want to continue in the Tradition that Coach Bryant set this story and many others like it outlines what we mean. It does not mean we want to play football like they did in the sixties and seventies. It means we like our players to act like they have been their before when they score. It means conducting yourself with class on and off the field. It means benching star players when they violate team rules. It means you make sure you call your mama (you have to have seen the old Bear Bryant Show's to get that one). So I ask you again, why is this a bad thing?

Sorry I forgot one thing; It also means you beat Auburn.

The Use of Your Credit For Your Insurance Rates

This weekend there was a lengthy piece in the AJC outlining the use of Credit in the Insurance industry.

 

Most of you know I am an agent for an insurance company and that is why I use a nickname when writing on this blog. I do not want to associate the company I represent with my opinions expressed here. I also sell securities, which means this blog would have to be regulated by the NASD. That is why I give no financial advice at all on this site.  Please never purchase any securities based on my ramblings on this site. This is strictly for fun and gives me a place to vent. Every now and then I will speak up on insurance issues because that is what I know best and what I do for a living. You should always check with your agent about your specific issue because coverage’s and policies vary from company to company. Ok, disclaimer over.

 

There was a great editorial written defending the use of credit today by Jim Wooten it is located here.

 

My personal position is that the use of credit has helped the industry and agents write more business, which means we are able to insure more people. Why you ask? In the past if you went into an agent’s office with one of the bigger more conservative companies and you had three or more incidents in the last three years on your recor