Going to the Candidates Debate

I went down to the Lewes Presbyterian Church this evening for a debate between the two candidates running in the special election to fill the 37th representative district seat. They are (from left to right) Rob Robinson, Democrat, and Ruth Briggs King, Republican.

I live-tweeted it, though that was a little painful just using my cell phone. Democratic Party twitterer DelDems was also tweeting; I'm guessing DelDems had a better keyboard than I, or maybe more nimble thumbs.

I've tried to use Twitter's advanced search option to create links to just our tweet streams from this evening. It mostly worked... You will have to read from the bottom up. Please pardon my typos.

I came in leaning towards Rob Robinson. I know him a little bit, and I tend to vote Democratic. It is also the case that a friend of mine serves with Robinson on the Georgetown Planning Commission and speaks very highly of him as a worker and as a leader. And Robinson has appeared in court before another friend, who says he is a good lawyer.

Robinson did well tonight. He was comfortable and charming. He was polite, but firm when he needed to be. He showed independence and a thoughtful approach. He has my vote.

Ruth Briggs King wasn't terrible, but I wasn't very impressed. I thought she contradicted herself at times and that she was trying to get in a few digs at Robinson without being obvious. I didn't like that.

Sarah Palin: Quitter?

Sarah Palin has announced that she will not run for reelection as Alaska Governor. And she plans to resign from her post later this month.

There is speculation that she plans to start soon on a run for the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Oh joy.

There's a quote in the NPR story on this that caught my eye.

She said she had decided against running for re-election as Alaska's governor, and believed it was best to leave office even though she had two years left to her term.

"Many just accept that lame duck status, and they hit that road. They draw a paycheck. They kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that," she said.

Excuse me? Weren't you elected to do a job? Isn't that job to run the government of the state of Alaska? For four years?

Leaving now, with the job not finished, seems like cheating the people of Alaska; leaving them behind to seek something better for yourself. That's not cool.

Maybe if you were closer to the end of your term, or we were actually in the 2012 cycle and you were clearly going to be the nominee. This early, though, just seems selfish.

I Hereby Challenge #1

I hereby challenge former Lewes City Councilperson and several-time Sussex County Council candidate Judson Bennett to Get Your Own Blog (GYOB).

Jud is a prolific e-mailer. He maintains a private mailing list he calls the "Coastal Conservative Network" to which he sends a constant stream of updates which read, to this jaded liberal reader of conservative thought, as blog posts.

Here are some subject lines from Jud that are still in my inbox:

• Future Scan-the Development of the future of Lewes?????????
  Repeating charges from some no-growth activists that a regional planning initiative by a local group is developer-controlled.
  
• Group threatens to stop Prayer at Sussex Council Meetings/Prayer Breakfast
  Jud is shocked that Americans United for Separation of Church and State object to explicitly christian prayer before county council meetings.
  
• Legislating or "Dictating Morality"- A Response
  A sort of "comment -rescue" in which Jud forwards a rebuttal by a local pastor to something he (Jud) had to say in a newspaper column.
  
• The sailing ships Nina & Pinta-coming to Lewes
  Cool local news.
  
• Marine Corp Band to Perform in Lewes JULY 1st !!!!
  Also cool, local and news.
  
• Lewes Council Goes for Carrying Capacity Study
  Lewes City Council agrees to try to get funding for a traffic study.
  
• Sussex County Council will sue DNREC ??????
  Jud questions the wisdom of the county suing the state.
  
• I endorse Joan Deaver
  Jud had recently lost the republican primary and endorsed the democrat running in the race. Big news locally.
  

I'm know I've deleted a few others over the months, and I left out several purely procedural e-mails. But there's enough here to illustrate my point: Jud is a blogger without a blog.

There was a period of time when Jud was contributing a regular "Jud's Rant" to the "First State Politics" blog (which became Delaware Politics after some other name, which escapes me). But that stopped. And he does appear occasionally as a "from the inbox" post on Nancy Willings' Delaware Way blog.

Other than the occasional guest spot, Jud continues to generate content that is only going out one-way and is not really part of a back and forth discussion (except when contrarians like me pester him back with argumentative e-mails).

I think the Delaware body politic would be better served if Jud left the closed-circuit of e-mail and entered the world of blogging, on his own blog. I think "Coastal Conservative" would be a great name. Blogger and Wordpress are both easy to use.

So... I hereby challenge you, sir. Get Your Own Blog.

This is What An Apology Should Look Like

Cape Henlopen School Board member Nobel Prettyman has a letter of apology in the Cape Gazette newspaper today. It refers to an incident recently in which Mr. Prettyman lost his cool and spoke his emotions more than his mind. The politics of the District, and the details of that incident, are not what interests me here. I wanted to highlight the following letter because it is, I think, what an apology from an elected official, or any leader, should look like.

I've taken the unusual step of posting the whole thing here, rather than just linking to the Gazette's letters page, because that page is not a persistent link; letters cycle off the page week to week.

Prettyman: “My behavior was totally unacceptable.”

I am a Cape Henlopen school board member because I desire for our young scholars to receive the best education possible. I have always voted with the best interests of the young scholars in mind. I am passionate about the issues before the school board.

Recently, my behavior has not lived up to the high standards at which I wish to serve. I speak specifically to the events that took place at the March 3 owners meeting. Not only was my behavior not of a high standard, but by any reasonable evaluation, my behavior was totally unacceptable. I wish I could take my offensive words back.

Unfortunately, I cannot. All I can do is apologize for my behavior and pledge not to repeat it.

When I read the article in the Cape Gazette, I cringe at the way my words must appear to the readers. I cannot blame anyone if, after reading this article, they made judgments about me. However, please do not draw any conclusions about my character based solely on a news report. A news article cannot convey my intent. In my heart of hearts I did not intend for my remarks to be taken in a racial manner. Furthermore, I did not intend for them to pit one part of the Cape community against another. I truly and deeply do apologize if my actions and words have offended anyone. I will take all the steps necessary to ensure this behavior is not repeated.

If my words were hurtful to any board members, I apologize to them for any pain I caused. I would be willing to take any training available to board members to help establish a better working relationship with my fellow board members. Since I am an elected official, I apologize to my fellow board members, district employees, citizens, parents and most especially to the young scholars.

I, Noble Prettyman, Cape board member, deeply regret that my words have distracted the district from the important business of educating our young scholars. In the future, I pledge to have the high standards expected of a Cape board member. As usual, I am available to any member of the community for input and discussion by email to n.prettyman@att.net or at 302-684-2658.

Noble Prettyman
Milton

Agree with Mr. Prettyman on the issues, or disagree, but the bottom line is that this is how a leader should conduct himself when in the wrong. I hope that I have the courage to conduct myself this way if and when the need arises.

A Good Day in Delaware

Delaware's General Assembly made me proud today; they stood up for equality. At least some of them. A little.

First, the State Senate beat back an attempt to enshrine homophobia in the state constitution. They voted down a bill that would have added language outlawing gay marriage (already banned in the Delaware Code, unfortunately) to the state's constitution. It would have been the first part of a several-step process to amend the constitution.

Later, the State House approved a bill to add sexual orientation to the list of things for which you cannot be discriminated against. (I think I wrote that correctly). Similar legislation has passed the State House in the past and died in the Senate, but there's a new feeling around and maybe this time it will pass there as well.

There was a rally outside Legislative Hall this afternoon of people in support of banning gay marriage and against outlawing discrimination against gays. It rained on them.

Shameless Self-Promotion #218 (Can't Be Helped)

I was mildly surprised to find myself speaking at a Census Bureau event this morning. I was on a panel with Congressman Mike Castle and State Representative Joe Miro. I'm glad I wore my best tie.

The event was an Open House to celebrate the opening of the Local Census Office in New Castle County. This is the office from which Census preparations, and the actual 2010 Census count, will be run in Delaware.

I had not expected to speak. The Executive Director of the First State Community Action Agency was on the agenda, but she was not able to make the drive all the way north this morning due to the weather. I was planning to attend to show the flag for the Office of Management and Budget and in my role as head of the Census State Data Center program in Delaware.

I found out on arrival that they needed someone to speak from a local perspective so I "winged it," based on my knowledge of the Census and on some examples of Census data usage that I had pulled together for the other speaker.

It is interesting, if a little scary, to step up to a podium without having prepared much; I suppose it's what the politicians do all the time.

I decided to speak from my own experience of almost twenty years in state government. In all of those years, I've needed and used Census data. I can't see doing much of the work that I have done in Delaware without that data. The Bureau rightly points to the millions of federal and state dollars that are apportioned among different communities based on Census data. That alone is reason enough to want a complete and accurate count and for local government leaders to encourage their constituents to "be counted." But for many of us at the worker-bee level, Census data are more than just guides for federal spending; they are the information that we have to have in order to serve the people.

I didn't speak long, and I probably made some fumbles and stumbles, but it's nice to know that when I have a subject I know, and care about, I can get up and make a statement that doesn't leave me blushing with too much shame. In fact, part of what I had to say was used in the WDEL report on the event.

The News Journal was on hand as well, talking to the new Office's staff and learning about the new handheld computers that Census workers will use. The publisher of the bilingual newspaper El Tiempo Hispano was there as well. There may have been other media; if there were, I missed them.

Echoes of a Scream

I just finished The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine, a Lebanese American writer, painter and one-time engineer. This is a fabulous book, exploring modern and ancient Arab, Muslim, and Lebanese life and culture. It is filled with wonderful stories -- myths, fables, lessons -- woven into each other like the many peoples who made Beirut such an interesting melting pot in the years before its civil war.

Much of the mythological portion of the book is the long tale of the great Sultan Baybars, who rose from slavery to dominion over all of the Islamic world. He is opposed by Arbusto, who tries, and fails, many times to prompt the overthrow of the ruler he feels has unjustly taken the throne.

At one point, in trying to inspire an army to victory, he offers a familiar-sounding speech:

"This is the city of Aleppo," Arbusto said. "Not only are we going to thrash them here, we are going to Damascus and Homs and Hamah, and we going to Baghdad and Mosul and Jerusalem, then we are going to Cairo to take back the sultanate. Yeeeeaaaah."

In fact, this speech, or one very like it, appears twice in the book.

Interestingly, towards the end of the book it becomes clear that Baybars is, in fact, an unjust king and the many stories of his glory are ancient public-relations efforts.

Echoes within echoes.

The Perfect Toy for the Moment

I give you obamicon.me, an on-line imagery toy that creates an iconic (Obamiconic?) version of any image you care to upload. It mimics that icon-like (Obamicon-like?) image by Shepard Fairey of the President-Elect seen recently on the cover of Time magazine.

I expect there to be a flurry of activity on this site. It perfectly captures both the mood of anticipation that marks this last week before the inauguration, and our national love of looking at ourselves. I know I found it charming.

And, we're just waiting. Sure, there are news stories to follow (if you are a political junkie), and football playoffs (at least in our region), but aren't we all just waiting for January 20?

So when an on-line toy that is appropriate to the time, we jump right in.

I tried a few different nihilistic inspirational posters, including the celebration of silly at right. I also tried for outdoorsy and for thoughtful. But I liked the goofy one the best.

Really High-Level Etiquette

President-Elect Obama and VP-Elect Biden met today in Chicago with former VP Al Gore. I'm sure there's a great deal of important news related to this meeting.

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about a basic question that troubles me as I look at this picture.

When a group of people this powerful gets together, which one drinks from the water glass first? The most important person? Or the least?

Mental Note: Don't Forget the Grain of Salt

It seemed like the only thing missing from this year's election was something to humble the media and the bloggers. That need has now been filled by a fake expert from a phony think tank.

The New York Times has the story -- A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence -- about a counterfeit McCain advisor from an invented institute who cast fictions into the political waters and reeled in bloggers and media alike.

Remember the story about Sarah Palin not knowing that Africa is a continent and not a country? Almost believable... Seems in character.... Matches our shared experience of Mrs. Palin's qualifications... but not true.

The "source" for that story was a Martin Eisenstadt, of the Harding Institute, supposedly an advisor to the McCain campaign.

...Martin Eisenstadt doesn't exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.

Eisenstadt is really Eitan Gorlin, who created the character along with Dan Mirvish as part of a long-term hoax intended as a promotional stunt to develop a television show. According to the Times, they have fooled several newspapers, TV networks and many bloggers, even after some of those who had been fooled published warnings about the hoax.

The lesson we take from this is to not believe everything that we see, or hear, or read even when it is "on the news" or "in the paper." And, in the hyper-news-sensitive environment we find ourselves, in a time when anyone with a laptop, an ISP, and rudimentary spelling skills can become a part of the new media, caution is even more important.

On the other hand, Mrs. Palin's response to the fake story (prior our learning that it was a hoax), was almost as interesting. Here's what she told Greta Van Susteren, as quoted on ABC's Political radar blog:

I don't know, because I remember the discussion about Africa, my concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue, as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska's investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars, I wanted to make sure that that didn't happen anymore.

Wait... what?

I'm also tickled by the hoaxers' explanation of how they came up with the fake advisor character's name:

Mr. Gorlin said they chose the name because “all the neocons in the Bush administration had Jewish last names and Christian first names.”

And for the Institute? They named it after one of the least popular presidents in US history. That seemed believable.

More Eyes on Delaware

It's not unusual that Delaware should be getting more attention now that our senior Senator is the Vice-President Elect. Web interest in Delaware had increased starting in the summer when Joe Biden was nominated to run with Barack Obama. I was a bit surprised by the sharp jump in views of my flickr pictures this week, though. Daily views have doubled since I posted photos of Joe at Return Day on Thursday.

Mo Dowd Muses on The Changes to Come

New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd has a sobering take on the Obama presidency this morning. In her column, Bring on the Puppy and the Rookie, she starts with the scene outside the White House Tuesday night and considers the nation's history, our recent past, and the challenges that lie ahead.

She suggests that Obama has already taken on the needed mantle of leadership; that his Tuesday night speech was the start of his presidency:

His somber speech in the dark Chicago night was stark and simple and showed that he sees what he’s up against. There was a heaviness in his demeanor, as if he already had taken on the isolation and “splendid misery,” as Jefferson called it, of the office he’d won only moments before.

It is a hopeful, if thoughtful, column and stands in tonal contrast to the more usual mocking Maureen Dowd columns.

An Election Collection

I picked up some interesting election-related items in my normal scanning routines today. I thought I'd offer some links here, in no particular order.

The text of both Barack Obama's and John McCain's election night speeches are on-line. I made wordles of each (yes, I am a great big techie-geek). As I've said, I was impressed by John McCain's speech, the wordle of McCain's speech does suggest that he puts (at least the word) "country" first. The wordle of Obama's speech suggests that he used the words "tonight," "people," and "America" most often.

There's a cool illustration of one of the changes that Barack Obama represents on the web site of Mathhew Buchanon. It shows, in a set of simple caricatures, the progression of faces of the 43 presidents so far, and the face of the 44th-elect.

I also enjoyed reading Matt Haughey's take on the election results. He used the graphic at left, which I have seen in a few other places. I like it.

Matt writes that he also missed the earlier version of John McCain:

I don't recall much of any talk from McCain from the last two months about his detailed plans or reasons why someone should vote for McCain, instead all I heard about was why I should against Obama. That's never a good path to take -- when you don't accentuate your positives and instead focus on negatives, even if you convince others to avoid the opponent you end up with followers that don't have much to be proud of.

Matt has a very young daughter:

I'm glad my daughter gets to grow up and will remember her first president being an inspirational guy that proves anyone can still make it in America.

Finally, there's an inspiring set of images of President-Elect Obama on the Boston Globe's "Big Picture" site. I particularly like this one (as a fan of artsy photography) and this one, because I like fist-bumps.

Today We Made History

I am happy, and proud, this evening. My country has made a change, I think for the better. We have made history and taken a step into a new generation of leadership.

I'm watching large celebratory crowds from all over the nation on television. I just watched a gracious concession speech by John McCain; I'm glad to see that that John McCain has come back to us.

This has been a good day.

Please Vote on Tuesday

It is terribly important that you vote in this year's election. It is always important, of course, but this year even more so. I won't pretend to be neutral; I hope you will vote for Barack Obama in the presidential election. I trust you won't be deterred by the many lies that are being spread around about him. If you are a Delawarean, please also vote for my friend Jack Markell; he's going to make a great Governor. (Not to mention Matt Denn. Vote for Matt too.)

Make sure that you have all the identification required to vote in your jurisdiction. Bring more than you need; don't be surprised at the polls.

Make sure you know where to vote. Google has deployed a Voter Info tool that uses Google Maps to geocode your address and relate it to your polling place. Don't trust this tool alone.

The image at right is Google's voter tool telling me that our polling place is the Department of Transportation building in Georgetown. It is not.

Our polling place is the old Lewes School building on Savannah Road, in Lewes. I know this because that is where we have voted in every election since we moved to this spot 14 years ago. I also know this because I checked the Polling Place Locator (at left) provided by the Delaware Commissioner of Elections office, which is a simple database look-up tool. It is not as cool and geo-techie as the Google tool, but it is accurate. I am a long-time geo-geek, but where-you-should-go-to-vote is too important to use only the cool Googly thing.

To their credit, Google is quite clear that you should always check with your local elections officials. And they have included a link to submit corrections. I did so, politely.

I will also note that I checked the Google tool using my parents' address in Maryland and it got their polling place right -- Bannockburn Elementary School. At least, that's where I went to vote in my first-ever election back in 1980, when I still lived at home. I assume Mom or Dad will correct me in the comments if I am wrong.

So make sure you know what is required to vote. Make sure you know where to vote. Make sure you vote for Barack Obama (and Jack Markell, if you can). Most importantly, please make sure that you vote.

Bruce Springsteen on Barack Obama

Ryan Cormier has posted the text of Bruce Springsteen's short speech in support of Barack Obama on his Pulp Culture blog. Springsteen spoke, and sang, yesterday at a voter-registration rally in Philadelphia. The News Journal's straight news section has the story as well (Springsteen rocks Obama rally in Philly). Both feature some impressive photos of the crowd that gathered.

Springsteen spoke about how his job has been to observe, and sing about, the promise of America. And he noted that he has observed a growing distance between the promise of the our nation and the reality of life lately.

I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. After the disastrous administration of the past 8 years, we need someone to lead us in an American reclamation project.

It is worth noting that Springsteen went on to remind the crowd that it will take more than voting for Obama to turn things around.

But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don't know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back.

From the New Lexicon #102: "Sarah-phonics"

NY Times Op-Ed Columnist Charles M. Blow has coined a new term in his column on the Biden/Palin debate (The Joe Biden Show).

Palin launched into her charm offensive — winking, smiling, dodging questions and speaking in her signature Sarah-phonics , a mash up of sentence fragments and colloquialisms glued together with misplaced also’s and there’s — gibberish really. Everyone in the bar lapped it up. It was The Sarah Palin Show." [Highlighting by yours-truly]

While we're on the NY Times site, I can also recommend Bob Herbert's column "Palin's Alternate Universe," which includes this gem:

...Ms. Palin’s words don’t mean anything. She’s all punctuation.

I Want One #316

I have spotted a technology that I want to play with. The Make Blog points to a plan by AS220 Labs to debut a new tool at the Maker Faire in Austin, Texas, later this month: The Hair and Balanced TV Filter.

The technology is simple.

The Hair and Balanced TV Filter taps into the composite video input to your TV, detects whether you are watching talking head pundits or newscasters, then draws mustaches on the faces on the screen. The TV filter is a new kind of hardware shield that helps users take control of their screen.

I love it. It reminds me of a novel I read some 34 years ago. I cannot remember what the title was, but it was about someone who developed a tool that let him add graffiti to live television broadcasts. I remember the novel following the consequences of that and the uproar it caused. It was a counter-culture novel. The Nixon people were the bad guys.

I do remember that I finished that book a few days before we learned that Nixon would resign the Presidency. It was an exciting time.

Just What Did Nancy Say to Upset Those Guys?

Some among the Congressional republicans are blaming a speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the failure of the republicans to deliver the votes they needed to pass the $700 billion bailout plan. Apparently Speaker Pelosi, like many of us out here on Main Street, blames the problems of Wall Street at least in part on George Bush:

Pelosi had said that the $700 billion price tag of the measure “is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush Administration’s failed economic policies — policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.”

Those are fairly strong words, but not out of line for politics and politicians. And was that all she said? I took a look at the full text of the speech, as posted on Talking Points memo this afternoon. That bit there? That's the second paragraph.

I yanked the text over into Wordle and created this word-cloud of the 75 most frequently used words in that text. I'm seeing "Street. Financial. American crisis. Recovery legislation. Must."

As I read it, she smacks the Wall Street folks around much more thoroughly than she does the President or the Republicans.

The corporate CEOs whose companies will benefit from the public's participation in this recovery must not benefit by exorbitant salaries and golden parachute retirement bonuses.

Our message to Wall Street is this: the party is over. The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the U.S. taxpayer bailout the recklessness of Wall Street.

This is the one thing that both right- and left-wing folks I've talked to agree about right now. (That and the delightful fact that the Cowboys were beat yesterday)

So. Was Nancy Pelosi so horrible? I don't think so.

I thought Barney Frank was very funny about this this afternoon:

Frank remarked on the numerical "coincidence" that the number of "deeply offended Republicans" who voted no equalled exactly the number needed to reach the 218 votes in favor to pass the bill.

"I'll make an offer," he added. "Give me those 12 people's names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they'll now think about the country."

A Bi-Partisan Yard

I found this mix of yard signs on a property in Lewes on a walk with the lovely Karen yesterday. It was nice to see a bipartisan mix of support in one yard:

• Joe Booth, (incumbent) Republican candidate for the local state House seat.
  
• Barack Obama, Democratic Presidential Nominee (and, I hope to God, our next President).
• Joan Deaver, Democratic candidate for the local County Council seat.
• Jack Markell, Democratic candidate for (and likely the next) Governor of Delaware.
• Gary Simpson, (incumbent) Republican candidate for the local state Senate seat.

I think this shows the power of incumbency in a small place. Of these five races, only two aren't "open" seats; these are the ones for which this property owner is supporting Republicans. As a side note, I think at least one of the Republican incumbents here is probably worthy of re-election.