I’m struggling with the decision about whether to participate in Tuesday’s caucuses.  I like the theory of political caucuses, but in practice I think they attract the same people year after year.  The caucuses are supposed to get people involved in the political process at the grassroots level, but all of the discussions about resolutions and other arcane matters gives caucuses an “insider” feel that can be alienating to most citizens who aren’t deeply involved in politics. 

 

If I do attend, I need to decide which gubernatorial candidate I want to support.  I’m torn between Steve Kelly and Becky Lourey.  They’re both strong progressives with clear agendas, but I think Kelly has more appeal to independents.  I used to think I would support Attorney General Mike Hatch, but his campaign has seemed lackluster and, well, boring.  I think Peter Hutchinson, the independent candidate, is eminently qualified and he has some good ideas, but I’m not sure he can excite enough voters to get elected.  It might not even matter who I support because no candidate is obligated to abide the endorsement process. 

It’s Friday and I’m in the mood for a meme.

 

Four jobs I’ve had:

law clerk for a judge

intern at a legal aid society

Tutor

Policy consultant

 

Four TV shows I dig:

Lost

Battlestar Galactica

The Daily Show

Hustle

 

Four places I’ve vacationed:

San Francisco

Miami

Paris

Denver

 

Four movies I can watch repeatedly:

Blade Runner

2001: A Space Odyssey

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Meaning of Life

 

Four favorite foods:

Mashed potatoes with gravy

Brie cheese

Mint chocolate chip ice cream

New England clam chowder

 

Four sites I visit daily:

 

I’m not tagging anyone else to do this because, well, I think tagging is kind of annoying.  But feel free to credit me if you get inspired to carry on the meme.

Some of you know that for the past couple years, I’ve been working on the implementation of a complex research initiative for the Department of Human Services.  A short abstract of Minnesota’s initiative has been posted on the website for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  We’ll be ready to actually begin enrolling individuals in a few months, a prospect which is both exciting and a little nerve-wracking.  I use Microsoft Project to track the tasks that still need to be completed before we’re up and running; the list has a troubling tendency to sprout new items every week. 

 

I’m also learning a great deal about the inner workings of the state’s publicly funded health care programs.  Minnesota offers several more coverage options than most states, which explains why we have relatively fewer numbers of uninsured than other areas of the country.  Administering all of these options is a gargantuan task and much of it is invisible to the general public, as it should be. 

I saw Good Night, and Good Luck over the weekend and ever since then, I’ve been craving Scotch and cigarettes.  At the end of the film, Murrow blasts television as an escapist, superficial medium that has failed to live up to its promise as a tool for creating an educated and enlightened citizenry.  He proposes setting aside a few hours a week for current-affairs programming.  I wonder what he would make of today’s television landscape.  Today’s viewers have a wealth of informative and educational programming available to them, if they choose to seek it out.  Most television news reporting, however, is abysmal.  The cable news outlets rarely do a story that runs longer than five minutes.  What passes for “analysis” is a series of disembodied heads reciting the prepared talking points of one side of the debate or the other.  It’s predictable.  It’s boring.  Worse, it breeds the kind of political apathy and disengagement that is rampant in this country. 

 

Maybe we need to allow smoking in the nation’s newsrooms again.  Maybe the type of reporter who smokes three packs a day is the kind of reporter who might fearlessly pursue the stories that need to be told. 

ABC has given the greenlight to a new anthology series, Masters of Science Fiction.  According to the press release, it will adapt classic stories from authors like Asimov and Bradbury into one-hour television episodes.  I’m going to start a pool on how many weeks this series will last before ABC gives it the axe.  Science fiction has never done well on network television and it’s difficult to build an audience around an anthology.  But perhaps it will stick around long enough to give us a decent DVD set.