The Great(?) Debaters

I watched parts of the debate last night. I can't handle watching a whole debate, but I came in and out.

My father in law thought McCain won, but conceded that Obama looked rather good. I thought it was a draw on content, but had a couple problems with McCain. First and foremost, someone who has spent time in the military and 26 years in Congress should know the difference between a tactic and a strategy. McCain got that wrong; it wasn't a question of semantics, he was wrong. I didn't like Senator McCain's refusal to look at Senator Obama, it seemed condescending to me. I thought his "You just don't understand" line, which seemed like it was coached, or at least prepped, wore thin. Others thought it interesting that Senator McCain seemed to resort to this statement when his own answers seemed weaker (in their minds), based on what I've read in blog reactions, but I won't opine on that here.

Other opinions? Andrew Sullivan considers it a home run for Senator Obama.

John Cole at Baloon Juice has a nice collection of links supporting his conclusion that Senator Obama came out on top.

Talking Points Memo has poll results showing Obama as the winner according to 51% as opposed to 38% for McCain.

Finally, Angela Winters posted One Down, with a collection of reactions to the debate, on the Moderate Voice.

Day 2

This is my second day with power again and my first full day.

We've got just about everything back; the only missing item is the refrigerator. It's odd, because the freezer works fine, but there is no cooling in the refrigerator portion...

I want to thank all of my friends who offered help to us during the outage and to those who sent the good thoughts vibes our way - they were greatly appreciated.

Today will see us going to the baseball game. Father in law is an ardent Braves fan and they are in town to finish up the regular season. It should be fun.

More later.

And Now, Something on Sarah Palin

I will not subject anyone to the agony that was Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric. I had no electricity for two weeks and even I know how badly she bombed.

I will point you to Andrew Sullivan, a Conservative writer for the Atlantic whose Daily Dish has become one of my daily reads. Pithy and poignant, he says in five sentences what I would have difficulty conveying in fifteen minutes.

First and foremost are the Twelve Lies of Sarah Palin (though there is a thirteenth out there as well). I know what you are saying, every politician lies. True, but not every politician lies on matters that are easily discoverable and continues the lies every after demonstrably proven to be lies.

Then there's the post titled "Palin: Kissinger is Naive."

He is also rather upset at the lack of transparency of Palin as a candidate.

That's just a sampling. Palin is a horrible, truly awful selection.

Relighted

So, after 13 days, 11 hours and 30 minutes, we have lights again.

The power came back this afternoon at about 2:30 I was told.

I'm in my air conditioned house listening to two politicians blow a lot of hot air.

I'll be posting on the monumental mistake that was the selection of Sarah Palin here shortly, I'm sure. She's truly a horrific pick.

Twelve Days and Counting

Still no power.

Boiling Point

And not just because it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut.

I've pretty much reached my saturation point with Ike. We've been without power for 9 days now. We were informed, via the power company's website, that we were scheduled to have power back by Monday (tomorrow). This was welcome news to us. Instead, we find out today via our neighbor, who has a generator and thus power and thus access to the internet for longer than 30 minutes via dialup that our projected power return date has been moved to Thursday.

What's the big deal, some might ask? Well, when you've been without power for over a week and then they inform you that you are going to have to wait up to another 1/3 of the time you've already been out, you get frustrated.

Photog and his wife were quite gracious in offering the use of their laundry facilities for us, and we took them up on it on Wednesday. I declined today, primarily because we were expecting the power back tomorrow and we didn't want to impose any more than necessary. However, since we're running short on clothes, I may be giving them a call after work tomorrow to run a couple loads.

I'm so upset right now that I can hardly see straight. Everything is setting me off. I can't even wash dishes (in the dark) without getting upset about something. Perhaps what is most frustrating is that in our office of well over 30 people, there are approximately 3 who don't have power yet. What makes our neighborhood so damn unimportant?

We have hung in there like champions. We don't complain (until right now), our kids have been phenomenally well-behaved considering they've been upset from their routine like never before. We have kept the house relatively tidy. I didn't even bitch when I had to throw out half the refrigerator, because I figured that was part of the game. Had I known that we'd be camping in a POA for up to 2 weeks, perhaps I would have done things a little differently.

Give us some damn power. We've been good.

A quick update

Day 8 and we're still in the dark. My neighbor is currently cranking up his generator. Fortunately, the fumes don't make it to our house, but it can be noisy. I am not going to be the guy that asks someone else to be less comfortable just to make it that little bit quieter for me (besides, there are at least four houses within football throwing distance of ours that have generators running).

I'm currently running on my battery for my laptop - this is basically the second time I've been on the computer outside of work since the hurricane. I am back at work; had to put in about 5 hours today as well to help make up some of the time we lost this week.

The kids are handling everything pretty well; they seem to enjoy having had the week off of school, though I doubt they're going to enjoy having to make that time up in the spring.

I will be traveling to Boston in October. Two trips for two depositions. It will be nice to get back to that part of the country - I love visiting Boston. It's my favorite east coast city to visit, and neck and neck with San Francisco as my favorite city to visit.

The wife will be staying home on Monday as we still have no electricity and the kids' school is cancelled and there is apparently no daycare yet.

Fortunately, I was able to spend a few hours at Photog's house with the Princess on Wednesday after leaving non-work and got some laundry done, which got us through the week and should cover us (get it?) until Tuesday, when hopefully we will have our own power back.

In other news, I bought myself a wireless router for my computer. I ordered a Linksys 802.11n wireless router that is reverse compatible with my old laptop, and will be good for my next PC. It's refurbished, which means I got it discounted; picked it up for $50 at Fry's. They will be delivering it next week; I wonder which will get here first, it or the power...

In other news, the bloom appears to be off the Palin rose. I'm not sad. I think it was a bad, desperate move on the McCain campaign's part. I'll try to provide some links to good posts that I've seen today commenting on her lies, her distortions, and her lack of intellect on that which she was presented as being one of the top minds in America about...

The Update

I am currently sitting in my office at work. The office is closed, but there is power, which is more than I can say for my home. We have been without power since the hurricane hit; though it sounds like most of my friends have had theirs restored. I'm looking forward to getting the power back, as I am getting tired of hearing the constant running of generators from the neighbors (part of that is jealousy, but part is also genuine annoyance at the noise in the middle of the night).

About the hurricane. We did well. The storm was kind to us and our neighbors; just a few downed branches. The family next door lost one tree, and there were a couple more down on our street, but nothing too major. The people on the street behind us got hit much worse. Trees were down all over that street.

I slept through the storm. My wife did not. She had trouble sleeping that night. The kids were scared, but we let them camp out in the living room (just in case, as I did not want them upstairs during the storm), and they were all right for that.

Except for having no power, we are doing pretty well. We have gas, so our range works and we can cook. We have hot and cold running water, so we can bathe. I have to make daily trips to the grocery store to buy food for the day as we have no refrigerator, but we do have coolers full of ice (now). I am currently charging the battery on my laptop so that maybe I can get some news this evening.

By the end of the week, we're going to have to get some laundry done, but other than that, we are hanging in there all right. Hopefully daycare will have power back next week and we can both get back to work.

I'll have more of an update later.

Why I Cannot Vote For John McCain

I could write my own post on it, but, quite frankly, Andrew Sullivan (a Conservative writer) states my concerns far better than I could put on paper. You can read his post here.

And for Sarah Palin, the issues just keep on coming. Just read John Cole at Balloon Juice's post here. Thoroughly vetted my arse.

School Days

The Princess starts her new first grade class today. The school was overcrowded for first graders, so they had to create another class, and the Princess was selected to go into the new classroom. This is the second year she's been in school, and the second year that she has been moved into a new classroom. This is, however, a new school district.

I think it's unfortunate that they are asking the Princess to move again. I know someone has to do it, but two years in a row? How does that help her?

She's a tough one, though, and it shouldn't really affect her.

My Trip to Bountiful

I'm in Logan Utah tonight. I've reviewed my records on the flight, and I will review them again tonight, probably after dinner. I've got a general idea of what questions I might need to ask tomorrow - what testimony I may need to elicit.

The drive to Logan was nice - you're driving through mountains, seeing the scenery, and one dead deer on the side of the road. I stopped in Bountiful and had a late lunch at Carl's Jr. I've not eaten at this restaurant in 11 years; I missed it.

Interestingly enough, driving to Logan put me on the Road to Wellville (another city in Utah). I did not stop there, but it's still nice.

It took me about an hour and a half to get to the hotel from the airport; if my depo takes longer than about 3 hours, then I'm going to have to really work to get back to the airport in time. I don't anticipate this will be a long depo, but you never know.

Oddest Book Title

Every year, the Diagram Prize is awarded for the book with the oddest title. This year's winner was "If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs." However, they also had a vote for the oddest title ever, and the winner there was "Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers," an upset of the favorite "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice," which was the first ever winner.

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

Tomorrow morning will see me to the airport on my second flight to Utah in a month. I plan on being there for about 24 hours for another deposition for an upcoming trial.

I look forward to the scenery.

She Fit the Suit

I thought that when you were running for public office, you wanted to stump. You wanted to campaign. You wanted to get yourself out there so people can know who you are and why they should vote for you.

Senator McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate because she has the experience and tenacity to be the President should anything happen to him... but she can't be seen in public? How am I supposed to believe that she is ready to be VP if she can't even be considered ready to campaign for VP?

Look, I'm all for woodshedding witnesses. But witnesses are not trying to sell you anything, particularly not themselves for a job. And even then, the witnesses must be presented. Sarah Palin is running for the second-highest elected position in the land, and she can't be trusted to speak? Or is it that she has not yet been fully informed of what her positions are?

This could be the king of flip flops. She's ready to be Vice President, but the next day she's not ready to be Vice President... Sounds like a winner to me, and sounds like John McCain's judgment is exactly the kind we need in a President.

Who can follow this story and not believe that Sarah Palin was chosen not because of her merits, but because she fit the suit?

Rather than try to expound on this any more and coming up short on quality, I will refer my readers to Vim and Vinegar's excellent post on this topic.

Maybe it was just me...

But I do not recall seeing an American Flag on Senator McCain's lapel last night. And I can't swear that I saw one on Governor Palin's, either.

I guess, if you're a Republican, you're patriotism is a given...

John McCain is running for President, and he was a POW.

Truthiness

The Republican convention last night made numerous references to Barack Obama's having written 2 memoirs "but no laws."

This is an interesting bit of truthiness, because really, which congressmembers actually do pen their own laws? Who has the time for that while campaigning for re-election? Staff members write proposed laws. But that's not important, because we need to attack Barack Obama as a do-nothing Senator.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. You see, this was an issue the Clinton camp raised some months back, but, a very simple look into the Library of Congress's website shows that Barack Obama has sponsored or cosponsored 129 bills and resolutions in his time in the Senate this year. But, we're not supposed to go actually look. We're supposed to trust the Republican Party, who has not misled us in anything over the past 7 years...

How many has John McCain sponsored or cosponsored during the same period? 38. Wow. How can the Republicans attempt to paint this issue and not expect people to follow up on it? The fact is, they don't expect people to follow up - they believe that people are not interested in facts, rather image.

John McCain is running for President and was a POW.

Thanks, but no Thanks

Sarah Palin's speech last night seemed forced to me, the parts I could stand to listen to. The speech was filled with rhetoric and no substance, and condescending attacks on the Democrats for having a convention filled with rhetoric and no substance. I heard misrepresentations of the truth - "I told Congress thanks, but no thanks on the bridge to nowhere," A community organizer (code for black activist) has no responsibilities, that Senator McCain was a maverick, to name a few.

This is not so much an attack on Sarah Palin, as she did not write the speech, President Bush's speechwriters wrote the speech - you know, the speechwriters who gave us "a uniter, not a divider." But, she does have to wear some of the burden, as she accepted the nomination and the duty to be the voice for these speeches.

I find it humorous that the McCain camp has decided to attack the press for digging into Palin's past. How dare they?! She's the Republican VP candidate - we know what we need to know, why do you need to know it, too? Sure, she may be ethically challenged, but we don't know that for certain, and besides, it doesn't matter if she fires people who don't toe her line - that's the Republican way! You know when you are in public office that you serve at the pleasure of the Executive.

The more I look at Palin, the less I like her. She appears to be more of the same, and this country doesn't need that. McCain made a bad choice for VP, and that speaks to what types of decisions he would make if he were to win this fall.

John McCain is running for President and was a POW.

Wow, I'm Tired

Today was a pretty long day. The first day back at school for the kids after the holiday saw me going to work on a day that I was originally intending to be in Boston on a deposition. It's fortunate that I was there, as we had discovery responses due, and I was the one who drafted the responses. After my supervising attorney put his touches on the drafts, I had to transfer the work to the other 56 documents. This took a little longer than I initially thought it would, but it was not too bad.

Discovery can be rather stressful, not necessarily because the responses are tough to get, but rather, trying to find the proper objections for the ridiculous questions that prove to be little more than an exercise in billing from opposing counsel. Still, we got them all done and out the door before 6, so we did all right.

In the meantime, I get to continue my research for another docket that is in depositions, prepare for my own deposition on a third docket, prepare a case summary for that docket, and field inquiries on a fourth docket from angry clients who don't understand that just because a settlement agreement has been reached does not mean that they are automatically entitled to their money on demand.

Experience is Everything.

I read this on the Liberal Journal and just found it to be quite a humorous note: I do not care whether Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. I just care that her daughter's fetus has as much foreign policy experience as her.

Reactionist Politics

I'm still not sold on Sarah Palin as a pick. She may be a fine governor. She may someday be a fine governor (if you're going the route of there's not enough experience to get a good grip yet). What I don't like, more than anything else, is the rapidity of the pick - the day after the Democratic Convention ended with record ratings. I don't buy the argument that she was fully vetted, despite the revelations over the weekend that perhaps she wasn't until now (source: Talking Points Memo), or at least, not so deeply as to look into the newspaper of the town where she was mayor (source: the Huffington Post). I don't like that she was for the Bridge to nowhere before she was against it. I don't like that this pick does strip the Republican race of the experience argument, even though they will try to argue that these are apples and oranges.

The more that this drags on, the more it looks like John McCain and company reacted to the Democratic tide rather than acted to choose the best available candidate (who I think was Romney, even though I don't care for him). I think it shows a rash nature, one that is not something the President can afford to have. It shows a counterpunch mentality that works in the right situations, but not when applying for a position that requires tempered decision-making. We don't need four more years of "Bring 'em on!" We need someone who can reason a decision with the mind rather than spewing a decision from the gut.

While I'm not sold on Obama, I think the Palin decision helped him.

There is another possibility from this decision, though. The choice has given MUCH attention to the Republican candidate, who did not need a 14th trip to the Jay Leno show to get some more airtime. Perhaps this is a Harriet Miers pick. Maybe John McCain has his Samuel Alito somewhere - a pick that he otherwise wouldn't have gotten through had it not been for the horrific initial choice.

With Karl Rove involved in the process, I wouldn't put it past them.

Mmmmmmm

That was some good bulgoki.

It's a shame nobody was here to share it with my family.

Yum.

It'll probably be at least another 6 weeks before I make it again. If I make it too often, it ruins the treat.