The effects of Game Change

Within journalism, one can be seen here:

    Me: "So we'll do this on deep background, right?"

    Them: "Yeah, but not 'Halperin deep background'--deep background."

    Me: "Right. I can use the info, but if I want to quote I gotta run it by you first."

    Them: "Yes. No book scenes, none of that stuff."

    Me: "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

Saturday Night

In Goodrich, getting paid to protect the light board from giant beach balls while dancing/working on a fellowship application. Oh, Williams.

The ongoing journey of self-discovery

One of these days, I'm going to wake up and be completely happy with my state of mind/understanding of the world from 6 months back. But I'm not there yet. There's too much to learn and understand, and too many people to see and meet, for me to stop growing.

Here's hoping that never comes to pass. I don't want to be done developing when there is more that can develop my ability to relate to all this world has to offer.

Rapaport '11 in Gaudino Style Class

A real-world education in Portland:

Rapaport is Jewish – the first Jewish person that Nkulu, a devout Christian, has ever met. Rapaport's grandparents fled Germany during the Holocaust. They came to the United States with nothing and settled in Kansas City, Mo.

"They had to build themselves up from square one," Rapaport said. "So, we're both relative newcomers to this country, and we both want to make America a stronger place."

Rapaport is one of six Williams College students who are living with local immigrant families and working with students who are learning to speak English in Portland's public schools.

Obama to write Newsweek story on Haiti

Of course, what we're really saying is that Obama will edit and approve an article written by his staff about Haiti, but so it goes. The Wall Street Journal reports.

And really, after spending some time in the Capitol, I can understand why offices have to cover so much ground: the amount of material delivered every day to each Senate office is extraordinary, and senators can only be in so many places at once. I'd argue that we can institute several reforms that would free up legislative time for more useful things, but the fact remains that the demands on the office of Representative, Senator, or President can only be met with an office of staffers and interns.

If you don't like it, fix the system, but don't hold senators accountable for staffer screwups, beyond hiring the people in the first place. There's too much legitimate blame to go around.

Obama cut more than Bush?

So says this article:

The administration says Congress accepted at least $6.9 billion of the $11.3 billion in discretionary spending cuts Mr. Obama proposed for the current fiscal year. An analysis by The Washington Times found that Mr. Obama was victorious in getting Congress to slash 24 programs and achieved some level of success in reducing nine other programs.

Among the president's victories are canceling the multibillion-dollar F-22 Raptor program, ending the LORAN-C radio-based ship navigation system and culling a series of low-dollar education grants. In each of those cases, Mr. Obama succeeded in eliminating programs that Mr. Bush repeatedly failed to end.

The Raptor was an economic boon to Georgia, but when the Pentagon doesn't want the plane, it's time to end the project. I'll be taking bets on if the conventional wisdom ever acknowledges this little factoid (and indeed, I don't even know if it matters, considering how much new spending was proposed.)

Actual Headlines, part 4

The case of the haunted scrotum

Fried

I desperately should be out seeing people and enjoying myself, but it's not in the cards: I've overworked myself.

I have (in the next three days; and this is cathartic, to list it)

• An interview for a thesis
• An interview for a 99
• Four freshman to mentor the way I wish someone had mentored me
• Two freshman who are supposed to be mentored, but who prob don't need any help
• A letter to return to an elementary schooler
• A Truman application to edit, and trade with another applicant
• Feast financial policies to learn
• A 24 hour theater festival to tech
• A Bar Mitsvah party to tech
• A whole bunch of yearbooks to scan (Gaudino, don't ask)
  
• A graveyard to film (also Gaudino)
• A winter study project to plan
• Rasan meeting
• Storytime
• A new CEP member to brief
• WOC equipment to pick up/fill with food
• Multiple people to Skype with
• A dinner with a friend
• My own 99 to work on
• A long letter home to write
• ~100 blog posts to read (might skip these)
• 2 3-hour shifts at Paresky
• Honorary Degree details to wrap up/packets to pick up
• A neat event to attend

I don't know if this is possible. Oh dear. Time to sleep.

Palin Policy

One of the benefits of being a Christian Baptist from the South is that I can get stereotyped as a Conservative, which helps my words get more traction with the right. One of the benefits of growing up in a church that welcomed gays as members and ministers, and having been affiliated with the Roosevelt Institution, is that I can likewise get stereotyped as a liberal. I am neither, but I'm not above taking advantage of misconceptions and fallacies in making my own points. See this, which I wrote to various Palin supporters on Facebook:

Hi, I saw that you posted on Sarah Palin's Facebook wall, and I wondered if you might like to hear a few things about her. There was a piece on 60 Minutes last night with McCain's Campaign Manager, and he said a lot of things that I didn't know about her, and that were very worrying.

Sarah did a lot of great things in Alaska. She was a hugely popular governor, and was willing to resign from an Ethics committee in protest of ethic violations. I admire that. But she LIED, and lied repeatedly during the campaign. I cannot tolerate that in leaders that I support, and hope that you will join me.

During Troopergate, she said on a press call that she had been cleared of "any wrongdoing" when the report stated that she had "abused her power." She said she refused the Bridge to Nowhere when she campaigned for it. She denied a quote she made on the record about human responsibility for climate change, and said that she improvised her convention speech when she did not. She thought the First Amendment (Freedom of the Press) allowed her to avoid any tough questions, and when on the world stage, you can't win by avoiding a problem: you have to face it head on.

Even more importantly, she wanted to be next-in-line to the Presidency of the United States of America while thinking that Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11 (he had nothing to do with it), without knowing why North and South Korea were separate nations (the Cold War with the USSR), and didn't know what the Federal Reserve did (it manages all of the money in the US). Every aspiring President MUST know these things. Our leaders must be our best, and our best should know who was responsible for 9/11!

The person who compiled the list below is biased, and some of these points are bogus, but most are true. It makes me very sad, because I think she represents America better than most politicians, but I cannot support a liar. Remember the 9th Commandment, and God Bless.

I surely hope that America can find a strong, conservative politician, but I don't think we have that in Sarah Palin. We MUST do better. Thanks for reading.

Will Slack
Decatur, GA

Biased reference: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/the-odd-lies-of-sarah-palin-a-roundup.html

Everything in the above is true. Sullivan is biased (some things on his list are definite stretches), and I do really hope that we can have a strong, fiscally conservative Republican who has the willpower to get the budget under control. We MUST do this, and Palin hasn't shown any sort of policy ability.

I worry that in becoming the head for a "movement," she will lose her sense of self. This is especially problematic because Obama's introduction included interviews with open honesty and acknowledgment of imperfections. I haven't seen that humility from Palin, but then again, I've yet to read her book.

Ebert done good

Roger Ebert has two good recent pieces up:

Fifty years ago, a brief letter to the editor of a student newspaper led to a national furor over academic freedom. When it broke in 1959, the Leo Koch Case dominated front pages and newscasts. It remained a story for three years. Today it is so thoroughly forgotten that not even Wikipedia, which knows everything, has heard of it.

"With modern contraceptives and medical advice readily available at the nearest drugstore, or at least a family physician, there is no valid reason why sexual intercourse should not be condoned among those sufficiently mature to engage in it without social consequences and without violating their own codes of morality and ethics. A mutually satisfactory sexual experience would eliminate the need for many hours of frustrating petting and lead to happier and longer lasting marriages among our young men and women." - Leo Kosh

The professor was fired immediately for expressing what is now a commonly held view. I also really like Ebert's last sentence, and have found it to be quite true in my own experience. Read the whole thing.

Also, this:

You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.

Having followed President Obama's suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims. [...]

This conversation came 48 hours after many of us had seen pitiful sights from Port au Prince. Tens of thousands are believed still alive beneath the rubble. You twisted their suffering into an opportunity to demean the character of the President of the United States.

You have a sizable listening audience. You apparently know how to please them. Anybody given a $400 million contract must know what he is doing.

That's what offends me. You know exactly what you're doing.

The American Political Pattern

1. Government fails
2. Democrats come to power
3. Government fails
4. Republicans come to power
5. Government fails
6. Democrats come to power
7. Government fails
8. Republicans come to power
9. Government fails

And on, and on, and on. We need more than two options.

(and yes, sillies: I'm well aware that each party has done some good stuff, but I have a higher standard which may or may not cause my own insanity)

Kimmel on Leno - Ouch