I just got back from meeting a friend for beers. I should’ve quit after the sixth or seventh strawful. Anything more than ten strawfuls and I start making inappropriate comments to the wait staff. You can still see the red mark on my cheek left from the slap I received. Next time, I’ll stick with club soda.
My major task for today was to present material for both a morning and afternoon videoconference. The conference site was located in another building a few miles from my office, so I made two round trips on the shuttle bus that serves state employees in the area. And I rode in the back each time, where there wasn’t much in the way of shock absorption. The first time, it was kind of invigorating, like a cheap amusement park ride. The subsequent trips, not so much. As I bounced around in my chair, getting spinal adjustments on the fly, I had flashbacks to all those similarly turbulent school bus rides I took as a kid. And this was no shortbus like the kind you would typically associate with “special” kids like me. No, this was your standard-issue school bus, complete with a driver who had lost his hearing back before the continents drifted apart and who, judging from his terrifying driving, had absolutely no regard for the welfare of his passengers.
And people wonder how I got to be so tough.
Ugh. Bringing work home is not conducive to quality blogging, so my apologies if this post doesn’t live up to your usual expectations. Although playing the expectations game can be a dangerous business, as the markets showed us today. A few more days like that and my retirement savings will be worth less than a box of Junior Mints. Republicans have picked a strange time to discover populism. They never seemed to care much about what their voters thought abougt the war in Iraq, the rising costs of health care, or any number of issues. But I suppose that was before this president became utterly irrelevant.
If McCain doesn’t suspend his campaign again tomorrow, look for sheer panic to grip the nation.
During some aimless surfing last night, I stumbled across a short documentary entitled The Lucky Mutant. The film profiles a day in the life of Keith Hogan, a Texas man who has spinal muscular atrophy. Keith narrates most of the film most of the film, but it also features interviews with his personal care attendants (who clearly regard him as a friend) and other people in his life. Much of Keith’s routine seems similar to my own and I nodded in agreement with his observations on the “supercrip” phenomenon.
Here’s the film:
Immediately after watching last night’s debate, my impression was that it ended in a draw. Both candidates were articulate and well-versed on the topics, while neither one inflicted any significant rhetorical wounds on the other. McCain’s failure to make eye contact with Obama didn’t register with me at the time, but then neither did Gore’s now-infamous sigh during his debate with Bush in 2000. If the media is still talking about McCain’s passive-aggressiveness in a few days, I predict that his handlers pack him off to charm school for a crash course in feigned politeness.
It’s a good thing I’m not running for president; the blogs would probably describe my body language as “stiff” or “uninspiring” (unless I had one of my aides wave my hand to emphasize a point, which might not do much to improve my image).
Obama needed to present himself as someone whom voters could imagine occupying the White House. He accomplished that. Whether his performance provided him with an extra gust of wind at his back remains to be seen.
Next up is the vice-presidential debate. Over at the Atlantic website, Ta-Nehisi Coates expresses genuine sympathy for Sarah Palin, whom he regards as an unwitting tool of McCain’s ambition. I’m not willing to be as charitable and neither are some conservatives. Her ambition probably equals McCain’s, but her lack of self-awareness is what jeopardizes her political future. If she hopes to do well on Thursday, she needs to stop regurgitating talking points in scattershot fashion (as she did during the Katie Couric interview) and speak her mind. If McCain and his team won’t permit that, she can’t blame anyone but herself for the consequences.
Several of my colleagues and I were speculating today about the news that an unnamed Department of Human Services employee is under investigation for embezzling $1 million in Medicaid funds. We kept asking each other how this person managed to siphon away that much money without anyone noticing. My guess is that this person established a dummy medical provider and submitted false claims to the state. I can’t think of any other way one could get around the Department’s internal financial controls. The details will emerge soon enough and we’ll have to take a few licks in the media about not doing enough to prevent fraud and abuse, along with assorted cracks about government workers. It’s dismaying news and a distraction from all the good work DHS does.
Buried underneath the avalanche of stories about the ongoing bailout negotiations is news that President Bush signed into law the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. I blogged last year at the BBC about efforts in Congress to restore the original intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act after several Supreme Court decisions held that a person isn’t disabled if his or her impairment can be ameliorated with drugs or medical devices (e.g. an insulin pump for someone who is diabetic or seizure medication for someone who has epilepsy). The ADA Amendments Act rebukes those decisions by providing a more inclusive definition of “disability”. Individuals bringing suit under the ADA will no longer have to prove that they are “disabled enough” to qualify for the law’s protection.
And somewhere in Georgetown, Justice Scalia is shaking his fist at the Capitol and shouting, “Damn you, Congress!”
Look, Senator McCain, I had plans for Friday evening. And those plans involved me and a friend getting together to watch the debate, down a couple beers (well, I’m actually more the sipping type, but that’s beside the point), and mock your responses MST3K-style. But apparently, you’re of the opinion that we’ll wake up to mile-long soup lines across America if you don’t hustle back to Washington to save the day. Well, that’s just great, but the local deli isn’t going to take back this cheese plate I picked up.
I checked Wikipedia and, as far as I can tell, presidential candidates of the past continued their campaigns in the midst of wars, depressions, and other calamities. So how about dropping this weak attempt at mavericky-ness and showing up as planned? The republic will endure.
Researchers at M.I.T. are developing a voice-controlled wheelchair that also has navigation capabilities. For example, a person sitting in his or her kitchen could simply say “bedroom” and the chair would guide itself to the bedroom. G.P.S. systems could enable wheelchairs to navigate the outdoors as well (assuming they can be taught to distinguish between traffic signals). The researchers also envision installing mechanical arms on future versions of the wheelchair.
In the not-too-distant future, my chair will be able to pour me a glass of pinot noir and give me a footrub when I get home from work. I’m going to be one spoiled cripple.
The sweeping government plan to buy up nearly a trillion dollars in toxic mortgage securities may scuttle any hopes of achieving universal health care in the short term, but it may actually improve prospects in the long term. Here’s why:
When a President McCain or Obama is sworn in next January, the country is still going to be in the grips of sticker shock. $700 billion is equivalent to what we’ve already allocated to military operations in Iraq. And consider the worrisome economic climate that is likely to greet the new president when he assumes office. Home foreclosures will continue in significant numbers well into 2009 and it’s going to take even longer for the economy as a whole to recover. Elected officials will have little appetite for any new investments, especially if they sense any lingering voter resentment over the size and scope of the bailout. Make no mistake–the next administration will spend much of its first term trying to keep things afloat and it will be lucky to realize even a handful of domestic achievements. Health care reform isn’t going to be one of them.
But let’s assume that this Congress manages to implement a bailout that ultimately puts the country on more solid economic footing and perhaps even succeeds in bringing some tangible benefits. It might be enough to silence the most vocal opponents of government intervention in the marketplace while restoring confidence in government’s ability to assure the welfare of its people. A competently executed bailout could reframe the discussion surrounding government’s role in a complex world.
It may not seem like it right now, but this crisis may eventually set the stage for a grown-up solution to providing affordable health care to everyone.