#1000

This is my thousandth post. When I started this blog back in 2003, I wanted to brush up my writing skills so I could start writing "seriously" again - short stories and novels. But I got hooked on the medium, and it's been a heck of a ride.

I've met people I probably wouldn't have otherwise met. I've gotten more involved in politics than a guy without much bank otherwise might have. I've tasted beer more intently, and helped spread the word about some cool restaurants. On a good day I'll get a couple thousand hits, but I really enjoy the comments more than the traffic. I've received some recognition, and I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't pay attention to the blogger influence ratings.

And this blog has more than served its original purpose. Tomorrow, I'm starting a novel. (Maybe even tonight, depending on how late I stay at the party across the street.) It may cut down on my commenting, but I'll still try to post once a day.

A thousand posts is nothing compared to a lot of blogs, but it's been a large part of my life. Thanks for visiting.

Missouri Plan, Wedge Issues, and "Someone's Gonna Get Their Eye Put Out"

As written here before, the Republican efforts to undermine the Missouri Plan are simply the latest cynical attempt by political insiders like Jeff Roe to create a wedge issue. Informed, thoughtful voters on both sides of the aisle recognize that further injecting electoral politics into judicial selection will undermine the independence of the judiciary, to the disservice of all. But certain political insiders care less about the damage done to the state's legal system than they do about driving mobs of misinformed Neanderthals to the polls intent on driving out the "activist judges".

Whenever the rough-housing among her six children would begin getting rough, my mother would warn, "It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye put out." It was her wise way of encouraging us to look down the road and see how escalation of nudges to pushes to shoves to pokes was going to lead to an all-out donnybrook. As the youngest boy, I learned to appreciate the warning, since I usually came out the worst for the wear.

Folks, wedge issues are all fun and games until someone gets their eye put out. I understand that those of us who enjoy politics enjoy the prospect of a good wedge issue. I'll agree that the point of the minimum wage issue on the ballot in 2006 was only partially about raising hourly rates for workers - it was also about portraying the Republicans as heartless class warriors keeping the little guy down. Similarly, only a few of the originators of the gay marriage amendment in 2004 really cared about gay marriage - it was mostly about getting fearful conservatives to the polls.

Some people came out of these earlier scrapes with some bruises, but no eyes were put out. Fast-food restaurants have managed to avoid the economic apocalypse they feared, and the gay community lost a right it never had in Missouri.

But this time the inter-party rough-housing is threatening to put out an eye. We've had a judicial selection process that has worked for decades, through Republican governors and Democratic governors. It was good enough for Governors Carnahan and Teasdale, and it was good enough for Governors Bond and Ashcroft. We don't have nasty, expensive campaigns funded by trial lawyers and insurance companies for Supreme Court judges, the way they do in some other states, and we don't want them.

Yesterday, I received the following press release from a group dedicated to preserving the Missouri Plan. I'm reprinting it in its entirety, because I think it's an important issue that all Missourians need to pay close attention to.

Coalition Names Six Former Chiefs as Honorary Co-chairs as List of Member Organizations Continues to Grow
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

JEFFERSON CITY — Following a summer fraught with criticism of the method by which a slot on Missouri’s Supreme Court would be filled, six former chief justices of the Court have joined an organization formed to protect Missouri’s nonpartisan court plan and preserve the independence of the judiciary.

“Having served as chair of the Appellate Judicial Commission during my tenure as chief justice, I know the plan works to keep politics out of the judicial selection process,” said John Holstein in agreeing to support Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts. “It troubles me that there are forces at work intent on injecting politics back into the process.”
Holstein, an appointee of Gov. John Ashcroft who served on the high court from 1989 through 2002 and as chief justice from 1995-97, joins five other former chief justices who have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairs for Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts.
The other co-chairs:

* The Honorable Jack Bardgett – appointed by Gov. Warren Hearnes (D), served as chief justice from 1979-81.
* The Honorable Ann Covington, appointed by Gov. Ashcroft (R), served as chief justice from 1993-95.
* The Honorable Andrew Jackson Higgins, appointed by Gov. Joe Teasdale (D), served as chief justice from 1985-87.
* The Honorable Edward “Chip” Robertson, appointed by Gov. Ashcroft (R), served as chief justice from 1991-93.
* The Honorable Ronnie White, appointed by Gov. Mel Carnahan (D), served as chief justice from 2003-05.


“As former chief justices of the Missouri Supreme Court, we believe that Missourians depend on fair and impartial courts to provide stable and rational resolution of disputes, protect property and economic interests, and, when needed, protect people from the overreaching of government,” said Covington, the first woman to hold the position of chief justice on the court.

Through their involvement with Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, the former chiefs will advocate for Missouri’s courts to remain accountable to the constitution and the laws of the state — not political pressure and special interests. For nearly 70 years, Missouri has been a model for the nation, creating a nonpartisan method for selecting judges that nominates judicial candidates based not on political party affiliation, but on merit. They are devoted to protecting Missouri courts from attacks by a small group of politicians and special interest groups.

“Unfortunately, Missouri’s highly respected nonpartisan court plan is under attack by special interests who believe that some other process – some politically-driven process – would produce judges of the same quality that now serve Missouri’s citizens as the final arbiters of the law,” said White, who retired from the court in July. “Justice should be fair and impartial. The Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan should be preserved to protect our individual rights.”

As the six former court chiefs join forces with Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, membership in the broad-based coalition continues to grow, including nearly 40 business, education, religious, professional and consumer groups such as AARP Missouri, Missouri National Education Association, Committee for Economic Development and the Missouri Municipal League, in addition to a number of legal organizations.

“Our diverse membership proves that this isn’t an issue that matters only to attorneys and judges,” said Landon Rowland, Committee for Economic Development trustee. “Our system of judicial selection seeks the best qualified judges while maximizing independence and still allows a degree of direct accountability to Missourians.

“There’s a reason so many other state governments have adopted parts of the Missouri Plan – because it works.

Kraske Seeking Answers: Freedom Inc. - What is the Point?

I tend to be fairly hard on Steve Kraske - for someone who works a 40 hour week focusing on local politics, and who has access to the resources and tipsters of the Star, his level of insight ranks just below the drunk guy at the end of the bar, and far below most amateur blogs. If the Star hired a clever and attentive beagle to write the local political analysis, they could probably get similar columns, and Gusewelle would enjoy coming to work more.

But, on in his Sunday column, Kraske takes a new tack. It appears that he has recognized his limitations, and will, from now on, simply ask questions that other, wiser, more perceptive people can answer for him. He writes:

What’s up with Freedom Inc., the African-American political club in Kansas City?

First, the group signals that it will oppose the 1-cent sales-tax renewal for capital improvements. Then it reverses course.

Now, the group has yet to take a stand on the big question of whether public schools in Independence can pull out of the Kansas City School District.

At some point, the question for Freedom becomes: What is the point?

Good question, Steve, and one which requires a little knowledge of history and current events, so it is wise of you to leave the question of what is up with Freedom, Inc. to others.

Freedom, Inc., was formed back in 1962 - only 45 years ago according to the calendar, but centuries ago in terms of societal change regarding the role of blacks in government. When it started, it served the purpose of helping get black people to the polls and voting for supportive politicians. They would screen candidates, and those candidates would make donations to the organization to support their get-out-the-vote and other functions. Great leaders like Leon Jordan, Alan Wheat and Emanuel Cleaver received crucial support from Freedom, Inc., and Kansas City has benefited from the leadership that Freedom, Inc. has fostered.

Over the past several years, though, the organization has lost its way. It is unable to attract young leadership, and its ability to deliver the votes is acknowledged to be a thing of the past. The busloads of voters clutching their Freedom sample ballots are an icon of a bygone era.

The tradition of seeking donations from candidates has continued, though, and the suspicion that Freedom's endorsement is for sale has undermined the reputation of the organization and the impact of its support. Perhaps the nadir was reached in 2006, when Freedom threw its weight behind Charlie Wheeler and Jason Klumb in two hotly contested races. Both endorsements were suspiciously pro-establishment, and both resulted in stinging defeats. In a prior era, the Freedom, Inc. endorsement would have been the deciding factor in both elections, but, in 2006, it was at best irrelevant, and possibly even a negative.

In 2006, Freedom, Inc. suffered a further embarrassment when it was fined by the FEC for failure to register as a PAC and comply with contribution limits and other provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act.

So, Steve, you ask what is up with Freedom, Inc., and the answer is a simple one. An organization formed to support social change has changed its focus to money. When Freedom, Inc. came out against the sales tax, it had nothing to do with what was good for the community. When it came out in favor of the sales tax, it had nothing to do with what was good for the community. The change in position was due to a change in how it perceived the money would flow.

As for the School District issue, the reason that they've remained silent is simple. Nobody has written them and told them how they should feel about it. As soon as someone writes to them in their preferred form, they will have a position. Their preferred form being, of course, in the memo section of a large check . . .

Conduct Unbecoming an Officer

This whole exchange creeps me out.

One of the cornerstones of our country is that the military stays on the sidelines of politics. Bush has as little respect for this cornerstone as he does for the Constitution, and has never hesitated to use the military for a wrong-headed photo-op (Mission Accomplished?) or even a fabricated neo-con war. But all Presidents have used the troops as a patriotic photographic background, and the military has a proud history of accomplishing missions without questioning their wisdom.

It took Bush, though, to apply litmus tests to his senior command. He has rid our military leadership of those whose loyalty to the President can be questioned, and, as a result, we have a military command structure that resembles a rightwing blogger convention. The line between being a gung-ho soldier and a rabid rightwing partisan has been erased, and one of the first challenges for President Dodd or Clinton or Obama or Edwards will be to restore the dignity and political independence of the military. Col. Steven A. Boylan may be looking for a job - perhaps he can get a job as Drudge's security chief.

Amy Coffman's Website

It's finally up! Our long wait for information about Amy Coffman's positions is finally over . . .

To be fair (as always), it is a perfectly adequate page. It doesn't have nearly the depth of Jason Kander's, and it does have a few minor typos (close that quotation on Senior Dignity!), but it does take a bold and shocking stand in opposition to Janis Joplin - "I refuse to believe that 'freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.'” There goes the hippy vote . . .

I don't dare say anything more, for fear that her sister will accuse me of tearing apart a webpage that Coffman is "completely happy with", after her sister has "seen personally the work she is doing diligently on this highly anticipated website and frankly her detail to attention is what should be expected, not condemned.." So, go browse and see whether you agree with me that Jason remains the best candidate in the 44th, both in person and on the web.

(Update: It should be noted that Amy's first political attack was on Kris Kristofferson, the writer of the "Me and Bobby McGee" - Janis Joplin was only the performer.)

Next Group Blogger Activity?

Had a wonderful time at the party on Friday evening - such a fun, interesting, lively group of people. The following morning, I was a little worse for the wear when we got up to start a shift at Harvester's at 8:30 in the morning . . .

Harvester's is one of the very best short-term volunteer opportunities I've ever experienced. Everyone was organized, and careful not to waste our time. They told us what to do (separate canned goods into categories and box them up), but didn't tell us how to do it - they let us work together without supervision to accomplish the task at hand. It wasn't overly rah-rah, and it was hard work without being painfully strenuous. At the end of four hours, we were tired and at least I was a little sore, but we knew we had done something worthwhile, and that our time was well spent.

So, what do you fellow bloggers, commenters and readers think? Is anybody else interested in socializing in a different venue? If you'll volunteer, I'll get it set up - maybe Saturday, December 1? Those of you with kids are welcome to bring them, if they're over 6. You don't even have to turn in your name, if you enjoy your anonymity.

Who's in? We had 16 people at the party, and I bet we could get 25 or more to help out a good cause. To sweeten the pot, I'll volunteer to serve lunch and beer after the shift.

Email me at dan@gonemild.com, and check back here to see if we achieve a critical mass . . .

Blogger Appreciation: KC Beer Blog

Despite the fact that I greatly enjoy beer, I'm not a huge fan of most blogs devoted to the topic. Most of them are waaay too serious, and focused on numbers and rankings. Despite my efforts here from time to time, you can't fully convey the taste of a beer with words, so a website devoted solely to beer tasting gets pretty boring after a while. But, here in Kansas City, we are blessed with a sharp-eyed observer of the beer scene with the rare ability to stay both varied and focused - KC Beer Blog."

The writers of the site are Wes Port and Bull E. Vard. Between them, they keep readers well-informed about new beers available in the area, where to find them, which bars are worth visiting (pretty much all of them, depending on your mood), beer jokes, beer news, and so on. 99.9% of the time, the topic is beer, or beer-related. I admire the discipline, since I've seen comments from Mr. Vard here on political topics, but they don't make it onto the site.

The thing that really makes this site worth visiting is the writing. The posts are always engaging, and often hilarious. Witness this piece of writing, when Bull E. Vard has decided that a fellow patron at the Studio Bar is a douche for drinking Bud Light from a bottle where it is available on tap:

Wes finally arrived, I told him of the PBR special, he did the "hmm, wonder what I wa..PBR please" joke. He noted the douche to my left (Bud Light in bottle), I pointed to the tap handle, a knowing glance was exchanged. Next time this happens and I have time for another beer, I think I'll order a Bud Light in the bottle, then look at the tap handles "notice" they have Bud Light on tap and say to the bartender "sorry, didn't meant to be a douche, I'll have the Bud Light on tap". The downside of that ploy would be that I would still be a douche for drinking Bud Light, but the real douche would feel really douchey or just beat my balls in. Maybe I won't do that, silent mockery is probably best.

Folks, if that visit into the inner thoughts of a guy at a bar didn't make you smile, order yourself another bottle of Bud Light.

Homebrew for the Blog Party

I kegged 10 gallons of homebrew yesterday evening for the Blogger Party, and I thought I'd offer a preview for those wondering whether to pick up a six-pack on the way, in lieu of risking the free stuff.

It's a maibock, which means it's a sneaky big beer. If you're a fan of Bud Light or Corona, this could be a gateway beer for better things, but you might want to bring cab money for the ride home. My version comes in at about 6.4% ABV - kind of low for a maibock, but still enough to mess you up if you don't treat it with respect.

The aroma of the beer is pure grain - little to no hop aroma. There is a hint of DMS - a cooked corn aroma - but the overwhelming impression is sweet malted grain.

On the tongue, the beer is rich and complex. It wound up a little higher in finishing gravity than I was intending, so the mouthfeel is full and silky. It's sweet, but there's a solid hop bitterness to keep it from being too sweet. It's a warming beer, with the Hallertauer hops providing a peppery flavor, and the alcohol backing it up.

This is a very good beer - it would be better in a couple months, but we're not going to wait that long, are we?

Not Worried, but Definitely Concerned

My daughter is spending the semester in Budapest, Hungary. She's been having a wonderful time, and boldly experiencing everything from porcelain to Transylvania. If you're interested, visit her blog, Hungary Heart. Everything has been going wonderfully.

Until tonight, on her way home from dinner, she encountered mobs of excited people. Right-wingers are rioting and clashing with the police. Tomorrow is the 51st anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. Let's hope things calm down instead of escalate.

I'm not really worried - she's a smart kid, and part of a well-run, responsible program. And, while I'm concerned, I'm happy she's over there, seeing everything - even this.

(Update: I chatted with her this morning, and she's studying at a friend's apartment further away from the center of the action. Her own apartment is in the heart of everything. She's more concerned about her History midtown than she is about the riots, though she might stay away from her apartment for the day.)

Comparing Apples to . . . Apples

Honestly, a good apple matters more to me than what opinions some other bloggers have about my opinions. A bitter-skinned, mealy Red Delicious apple is nothing but an attractive disappointment.

The best apple for eating out of hand is the Honeycrisp. Sweet, juicy, and cracking-crisp, it is THE BEST apple I've ever had from a grocery store (nothing beats a sun-warmed McIntosh off a tree). This is the first year I've noticed them, so, if you're keeping the doctor away an apple a day, I highly recommend giving them a try.

Kansas City Isn't Good Enough for La Raza?

She turns and looks a moment in the glass,
Hardly aware of her departed lover;
Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:
'Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over.'
- T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

It's disappointing that the national convention of La Raza is rejecting Kansas City because it disagrees with the politics of a member of the Parks Board, but, really, I'm glad it's all over. The drama and headlines were getting awfully tedious - especially when you realize that they were all over a convention that will take a few phone calls to replace. Yawn.

One of the amusing sidenotes to this controversy is the "economic impact" argument. People with no regard for the truth (and joke bloggers) will claim that La Raza just took $5-7 million away from Kansas City. Those numbers are made-up, porous nonsense. We do, however, get a free $75,000 because La Raza breached its contract. Love it.

Another amusing sidenote is that La Raza is having its next convention in San Diego! No, really, they are going to take their convention to a place where the STATE REPRESENTATIVE (that's a slightly more important office than Parks commissioner) is a huge, vocal supporter of the Minutemen, and much of the population is active with the organization. When asked about the hypocrisy inherent in the discrepancy, Janet Murguia claimed that it was somehow better that the state representative had been elected by the citizens!

WHAT?! Does that make any sense in any universe? La Raza would rather go someplace where racism has been embraced by the populace, rather than Kansas City, where there's an insignificant parks board member who supports the Minutemen?? Really?!

Maybe, just maybe, there's something else going on here. Maybe somebody talked a bit too much, and tried to spin this into a bigger power play than he could handle. Maybe vocal parts of the local Hispanic community got behind the loudest and most strident voice, instead of the most responsible and smartest voice. Maybe the local Hispanic community is going to be seeing a little shake-up in its leadership.

Or, maybe not.

La Raza thought it could bully our mayor around. In fact, they could have. Who doubts that he would have gone pretty far with concessions and compromises? But La Raza made the mistake of drawing their line in the sand, and pushing for the right to control every single appointment in this city, down to the Parks Board. And nobody in his or her right mind wants that.

So, La Raza is off to sunny San Diego, where they can see Minutemen supporters on every corner of every street. I wish them a safe and happy journey. Whichever convention takes their place here in Kansas City will see a far more tolerant community that can only be pushed so far.

Thank you, Mayor Funkhouser, for your good-faith efforts to bring the La Raza National Convention to Kansas City. Thanks, also, for not caving into La Raza's ridiculous demands. The vast majority of Kansas City appreciates your handling of this manufactured showdown.

Congressman Pete Stark on "Bad Sam" Graves

Here's what the Congressman from California's 13th District has to say about people like Sam Graves:

First of all, I'm just amazed they can't figure out, the Republicans are worried we can't pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where ya gonna get that money? You going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement. This bill would provide healthcare for 10 million children and unlike the President's own kids, these children can't see a doctor or receive necessary care. [...]

But President Bush's statements about children's health shouldn't be taken any more seriously than his lies about the war in Iraq. The truth is that Bush just likes to blow things up. In Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.

Believe it or not, Sam Graves still voted against insuring children. He needs to go. If you're outraged, go here to make a contribution to Kay Barnes.

Ten Dollars for Tony's City Hall Credibility?

Back in mid-July, when Tony became "One Trick Tony" with his "Bash-a-Day" obsession over Kansas City's Mayor, he started a "Cauthen Countdown", because he was convinced that Funkhouser was going to fire City Manager Wayne Cauthen.

While I had never discussed Cauthen with Funkhouser or anyone on his staff at the time, I knew that Tony knew as little about City Hall politics as he does about Sprint Center parking, so I offered a little wager - I'd donate $10 to a charity of his choice if Cauthen was gone by 10/26, and he would do the same to a charity of my choice if Cauthen was still in place.

It's now looking like I was right, though the date hasn't yet passed. Is Tony still confident that he was correct in his "Cauthen Countdown"? Or was it all just a shout for attention - one that he would rather forget now that events have undercut his credibility on the issue?

Kind of places his talk of Funkhouser's lack of popular support into a different perspective, doesn't it? It certainly sets the credibility bar for Tony's talk of recall . . .

99 Bottles of Beer on the Blog - Samuel Adams Hallertauer Imperial Pilsner

Just by looking at the name, you get the sense that Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner is going to be about the hops. The word "Hallertauer" refers to a variety of German hop - famous for its spicy, herbal flavor and great aroma. It is one of the four "Noble hops" (the others being Spalt, Tettnang and Saaz), grown in Germany and prized for their classical flavor.

Pop one of these bottles open ($9.99 for a 4-pack at Gomer's Midtown), and you'll earn your "hop head" stripes. You'll smell the hops as it pours, slightly hazy, with a golden straw color. By appearance, it's a pretty typical pilsner style lager, with nothing more than a slight haziness to tip you off that there's an explosion waiting in the glass.

Most great beers are balanced - this is not one of them. There's a decent amount of malt and body there, but it is overwhelmed by the hop bitterness and flavor. The bitterness lingers on the back of your tongue after you swallow, and burns on the way down your throat. Part of the burn may be the 8.8% alcohol - this is a warming beer fit for a winter evening, though it looks more like a lawnmower beer.

Note the glass in the picture - it's a special Samuel Adams glass the brewery sent me and other members of the American Homebrewers Association. It's designed to gather hop aroma in the swollen top section of the glass. Despite its growth into a size that can scarcely be called a craft brewery anymore, Samuel Adams deserves kudos for keeping in touch with its roots in the homebrewing arena.

The choice of Hallertauer hops for a pilsner is slightly nontraditional. Pilsners are famous for Saaz hops - Hallertauers usually go into German lagers. Regardless, the spicy flavor of the Hallertauer makes a great beer. It would be fascinating if they would make varieties of the beer with the other 3 noble hop varieties . . .

If you like hops, this is a beer you'll love. If you pefer a malty beer, or even a balanced beer, you'll want something much less aggressively hopped.

Shark Week for Politics

Quarterly finance reports have been filed in most state and federal races this past week. 99% of the population does not even know what that means, and could not care less. For the 1% of the population that is fascinated with the minutiae of electoral politics, though, this has been like shark week - an orgy of downloaded pdfs and posturing and "shocking" news. The spin cycle is on hyperdrive.

It's really all kind of funny.

Here are a few random observations . . .

Koster got himself caught up with a Republican money-laundering scheme. He is not a Democrat, and he has no respect for the law. He cannot be taken seriously as a candidate in the Democratic primary. It is a prime example of his self-promotion taking precedence over his integrity.

Amy Coffman has some wonderfully creative and resourceful people on her side. Having raised barely half as much during the quarter as Kander, thus falling even further behind, and having fallen even further behind in the number of donors, they are proclaiming that they have the advantage. Good for them! I admire their pluckiness. I also admire their resourcefulness in using the comments section of this site to try to get their news out, since they don't have a website up yet, a month after we were told we would have one. (In all seriousness, the $10,000 Coffman raised shows that she's a credible candidate, and the creativity and resourcefulness of her people shows that she might be able to stretch her limited dollars.)

Has Grisamore given up? He only has a hundred dollars in the bank, and his adventure in Jefferson City has put him in debt to the tune of $8500. Maybe he's just going back to his handsomely-paid nonprofit gig.

Blogger Appreciation: Rhymes with Right

Rhymes with Right has been on my blogroll a long time, and I've probably commented on that site more than any other. More than any other right-wing blog I have found, Rhymes with Right is an informative and thoughtful voice, committed to open debate.

Obviously, I'm not always impressed with the positions that Greg takes. He denies man's role in global warming, he thinks that the turning point in the Iraq Disaster is perpetually 3 months away, and he has a weakness for condemning Islam without examining the Christian world. Make no mistake, Greg is a right-wing blogger, with all the weak logic and fact-impaired excesses of his ilk. And he'd say the same thing about me and left-wing bloggers.

But Greg really does care about the truth. He's well-informed, and will criticize the right wing when he sees it going astray. He may be a true-believer, but he's not a knee-jerk partisan. For example, he didn't participate in the despicable swift-boating of Graeme Frost.

He's also one of the hardest-working bloggers I've seen. He posts often, and provides a good mix of topics, ranging from national politics to baseball. He's a sucker for archeology stories. If you want a window into mainstream right-wing thought (yes, it does exist), few blogs can provide it better than Rhymes with Right.

Talk About Segregation . . .

Rockhurst University is hosting Kevin Fox Gotham on Tuesday evening of this week, to deliver a FREE talk on "Residential Segregation in Kansas City: Origin, Development and Consequences" at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Theater, Sedgwick Hall.

In a totally coincidental, random, unrelated-to-the-topic, strange circumstance, you can't park for this event if you try to enter the campus from the east side.

See you there, if you're willing to go east of Troost . . .

Blogger Halloween Party

Some of the local bloggers are going to get together on Friday, October 26th for a Halloween party. I'll be bringing some home-brewed beer, File Girl will be bringing some jello shots, and a good time is as predictable as Tony complaining about Funkhouser - absolutely certain. If you want an invitation, email me. Les, Travelingal?

Play the Music, Not the Audience

Went to see Wilco last night at the Crossroads. Fantastic show - great opening act, lively crowd, gorgeous evening, cool venue, and even a fireworks display. Awesome, and a hell of a lot cheaper than the old man who entertained the bigwigs at the Sprint Center.

But, while we're on the topic of fireworks, I resent it when bands do bogus encores. An encore is supposed to be an extra segment of performance inspired by the spirit of the evening - not a scheduled, routine opportunity to extort extended applause and reduce the audience to beggars.

Wilco walked off the stage for the first time after barely an hour of music. Just to make sure we didn't all just chalk it up to a lazy band, a roadie went out on the stage and gestured for more noise.

After a few more well-rehearsed, tightly performed songs, Wilco abandoned the stage again, and again the roadie/cheerleader came out to make us beg for the performance we had paid for. After a few minutes of the charade, out came the band again, for a few more well-rehearsed, tightly performed songs. Only this time, they set off fireworks at the end!

So, am I supposed to believe that they had set up an entire fireworks show, with grand finale, but they weren't going to set if off if the audience members hadn't inspired them with its enthusiasm? Around the time that we were treated to the rockets' red glare, I realized the show was about as spontaneous as a symphony.

The show was great - the band was on - the performances were snappy and professional. I'm glad I went, and it was probably the best concert I've seen in years. But don't play me for a fool with faux encores anymore, okay?

Kraske - Hacktastic again

Steve Kraske, the Star's political news columnist, offers up this gem in today's paper:

It’s official: Mayor Mark Funkhouser admits he, too, has heard the talk of a mayoral recall stemming from the Frances Semler appointment.

No leader of such an effort is emerging, but reporters are on watch.

I swear that's the entire segment. Go ahead, follow the link and see if he explains why the fact that Funkhouser has heard of something that has been discussed in political circles, on blogs, and even in Kraske's freaking paper is news. (He doesn't.) Go ahead, follow the link and see if he explains why he's devoting space to a recall drive that he acknowledges doesn't even exist outside the imagination of a few crackpots, blowhards and joke bloggers. (He doesn't.)

I have a scoop for Kraske. Political observers are talking about how worthless his column is, and wondering whether the Star ought to just get rid of it. Someone, someday, might circulate a petition asking that they ditch it. Nobody's actually doing it, but now that he's heard about it, it's worth putting in his column, isn't it?

Priceless

Not mine, so whoever deserves the credit deserves the credit . . .

Speculation on Forsee

Gary Forsee was forced out of the CEO position at Sprint Nextel this week, and handed parting gifts of around $55 million. My question is "why now"? I mean, the stock's up over his four years, and they did it right before the opening of the Sprint Center - an occasion where they could have projected an image of strength and stability instead of having to scurry around to find someone to cut the ribbon. Even if they thought he wasn't doing a good job, the timing was poor and odd.

Could the answer be found in Washington?

This past week, the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committee approved some changes to the FISA, and one of the bones of contention is whether Congress will give telecom companies secrecy and immunity for their cooperation with the people who want to spy on Americans. Could it be that Forsee lost his job because he allowed the NSA to spy on Sprint customers? Could it be that in the boardrooms of Sprint, the "powers that be" canned him not because of mediocre performance (they should be accustomed to that), but because he violated the privacy of Sprint customers - a breach of faith that could expose the company to bankrupting lawsuits and a PR nightmare equivalent to Bhopal and tainted Tylenol?

Let's be clear here - I have zero evidence to support my theory, beyond the fact that Sprint chose an awkward time to fire its leader, and that time coincides with the possibility that the American public might find out who has been allowing the Bush administration to listen to its calls. And that $55 million would sure buy him a nice place in Costa Rica . . .

Niecie's, KCUR, and Racism

One link, sent to me by my wife/muse, provokes 3 blog-worthy thoughts . . .

1. The Splendid Table, an American Public Radio program for foodies, recently visited Niecie's, a restaurant on the East Side. Jane and Michael Stern, pioneers of road food, do a nice segment on a classic soul-food restaurant right here in Kansas City. Go here to listen to it!

2. KCUR is a great public service provided by UMKC, and I appreciate it every time I listen to it, which is almost every day. But my love of the station does not blind me to its flaws. Walt Bodine must go. Also, the station is slow to adapt - we were among the last cities in the nation to get A Prairie Home Companion, and now we are behind the curve in picking up The Splendid Table, a wonderful show for the foodie in all of us. If Kansas Citians have to resort to podcasts to get the freshest and best shows on public radio, why bother with the broadcasts?

3. It's time to admit that I am a racist. I fear people who are different from myself, and I allow that fear to color my perception of the world, and my behavior in it.

Why haven't I been to Niecie's? I can come up with a dozen reasons centering on convenience or forgetfulness or whatever, but let's not fool ourselves. It's fear that's kept me away from Niecie's. It's racism that prevents me from going over to 5932 Prospect for lunch.

My racism may be slightly less obvious than that of the Johnson Countians I love to mock for being too afraid to come to Swope Park. And I'm too smart to be like Bill O'Reilly, who started the whole world laughing with his amazement that a restaurant in Harlem was just like a restaurant run by whites.

But let's not kid ourselves. The difference is one of degree, not one of nature. The same racist crap that colors O'Reilly's view of Sylvia's is coloring my view of Niecie's and dozens of other places. At least O'Reilly has been to Sylvia's . . .

The lamentable truth is that I, and others like me, have that scene from Animal House looping in our brains, where the gang of white kids walks into a bar to see Otis Day, and wind up having a large black man rip a table out of the way and asking "Do you mind if we dance wif yo dates?" in a scary baritone voice. A version of that scene flickers through our minds when the thought of going east of Troost comes up. And, so, we choose someplace more comfortable.

(Can you imagine if a black guy were as fearful as I am? Can you imagine a black guy sitting in the Grand Street Cafe or PF Chang's, nervously aware that he's the only black person in there? Ridiculous! He couldn't get anywhere in the business world if he were as racist as I am.)

I'll get myself over to Niecie's pretty soon. It'll be an adventure. I'll feel like a tourist, and a bit of an exhibitionist. "Look at me, black people, I'm boldly going where few white men go!" And I'll be full of insufferable superiority when I tell my less adventurous white friends about my expedition.

Maybe, just maybe, if I do it often enough, the sharpest and most prominent jagged edges of my racism will get knocked off or worn down. And I'll "pass" as a liberal non-racist. But don't let me fool you. It's been there all my life, and I'll carry it to the grave. Bury my heart in Johnson County.

Kander Returns Excess Contributions, Still Rolling

As reported here a while back, Jason Kander has returned the contributions made to him that exceeded the cap reinstated by the Missouri Supreme Court. (Some commenters had asked whether he would do so, and, when I provided the answer, they claimed I was trying to give him excessive credit for simply following the law - you just can't satisfy some people!) It should be noted that faux-Democrat Chris Koster and several of his Republican colleagues, including "Bad" Sam Graves, have refused to return the money.

The good news for Kander is that he's doing quite well in raising small donations. According to a press release I received early this morning (get some sleep, Jason!), he raised over $18,000 in the most recent quarter, and has over 250 donors. That's an impressive showing when the election is 10 months away.

Being a fair-minded, equal-time kind of person, I went to Amy Coffman's website to see if she had any similar success to report, but she continues to limit her site to a "coming soon" promise, now more than three weeks after we were told to expect an informative site. After my last post pointing out that her site was pushing an event that had already happened, though, she did finally update her site to remove the notice. (Yes, I do promise to post a link here when she finally does post her website - the suspense about what this long-overdue website will be when it is finally posted is building!)

Fortune Cookie Makers Taking Themselves Too Seriously

Kind of like bloggers, fortune cookie makers can lose their charm and become annoying when they start taking themselves too seriously and try to be more influential than they really are.

“Today is a disastrous day. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” reads one fortune showing up around the country.

“It’s over your head now. Time to get some professional help,” advises another.

As the messages, contained in cookies made by Wonton Food in Queens, have spread across the country, some diners have registered their reactions online. As a result, the company has a marketing challenge on its hands.
. . .
“We wanted our fortune cookies to be a little bit more value-added,” Mr. Chow said.

Believe it or not, the entire article about fortune cookie messages doesn't even mention that you're supposed to add "in bed" to the end of most fortunes - which is why I still have "Your ability is appreciated" and "Do something unusual tomorrow" posted on my bulletin board.

A Word About Recall

Once again, a disgruntled, uninformed citizen is demonstrating his ignorance by spouting off about "recall" of a city councilperson. It happens all the time, because whiny, frustrated, impotent people want to get a little attention, make a threat, and maybe even make the news. Especially if you have the cell phone number of a columnist who has resorted to writing about Connie Stevens for 3 weeks in a row, and whose ignorance of City Hall politics contrasts with his encyclopedic knowledge of dissolute heirs facing middle age. Recall sounds official - when you use the word, it sounds like you're somehow more serious than if you say "I'm really, really, really, really, really mad" at someone.

In fact, people who resort to using the threat of recall in Kansas City are announcing in clear tones that they are ignoranuses. They are stating boldly and clearly that they do not know what they are talking about, but they want attention, nonetheless. They standing on their soapbox and loudly embarrassing themselves, hoping you will watch.

Even if one of the "look-at-me" jerks who like to rant about recall were industrious enough to do all the work of drafting petitions and gathering signatures equivalent to 20% of the people who voted in the prior regular election (silly people rarely show such seriousness), they would be confronted by the real legal issues of when recall is appropriate. Here is the actual language from the Kansas City Municipal Code setting forth the standard for recall:

Grounds for recall must relate to and affect the administration of the officials office, and be of a substantial nature directly affecting the rights and interests of the public. Grounds for recall are limited to objective reasons which reasonable people, regardless of their political persuasion, could agree would render any officials performance ineffective, which must be an act of misfeasance, the improper performance of some act which may lawfully be done, or malfeasance, the commission of some act wholly beyond the officials authority, or nonfeasance, the failure to perform a required duty.

Folks, that's a high standard, as it ought to be for causing the city to spend money for an election to overturn the will of the people.

Recall is a valuable tool in Kansas City. It's valuable once in a great while for removing bad officials (which it can and has been properly used for), but it's much more frequently valuable for identifying who is foolish and ill-informed. And who thinks they're newsworthy.

Blogger Appreciation: Scribblings from Sarajevo & Hungary Heart

Lengthy international travel used to mean that someone was out of our lives for the duration of the trip. Phone calls were prohibitively expensive, so communication was done by pen and paper, or, more typically, not at all. When the traveler returned, you would listen to their rehearsed narrative of the experience, while you handed pictures around in a circle.

The internet has changed that, making real-time updating of travel possible. Two great examples of the new mode of blog travelogues are Scribblings from Sarajevo and Hungary Heart. Both offer the vicarious thrill of living abroad through the eyes of Kansas Citians.

Scribblings from Sarajevo chronicles the experiences of Melinda and John - two people I met and chatted with briefly at Hooper's. They've relocated to Sarajevo for a year, and Melinda will not be working during that time, so we can look forward to lots of updates (and maybe even a novel). The joy of this blog and others like it is its immediacy. Today, we get Melinda's bemused reaction to a machine that jiggles your cellulite. That is exactly the sort of detail that adds to the oddness of being abroad, but would never register clearly enough on your memory to be included in a post-trip narrative. Similarly, her descriptions of seeing kittens and shopping for an apartment would be lost to those of us back home, and probably to her, as well, as memory fades.

Hungary Heart is my daughter's blog, chronicling her semester abroad in Budapest. It features less daily detail than John and Melinda's blog, but it makes up for it in terms of some wonderful reports on traveling though the Hungarian countryside with a roving band of college students. Again, though, the amazing thing is the breadth of detail and its immediacy. The old lady with "the beer bong of wine" in the Valley of Beautiful Women would probably be lost in the wealth of details Ali will accumulate over four months in central Europe. And the photographs are half the fun.

Both of these blogs, one by a virtual stranger and one by one of my favorite people in the world, connect me to places I've never been, and provide a surrogate form of experiencing fresh and strange surroundings and culture. They do so in the fashion of the best travel writers of the past, but infused with the digital photography and immediacy those writers lacked. The work of these and similar writers is shrinking the world, and enriching it with details we'd otherwise never see. Thank you to both of them!

Beltway Myopia

It's disquieting enough that Fox actually has a show called the "Beltway Boys", where "boys" of around 70 pontificate on what the insular DC crowd is thinking. "Beltway thinking", in this age of information and analysis, is almost synonymous for misguided, arrogant, conventional and flawed thinking. And Fox gives us 30 minutes of it every week.

I accept, however, that Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes do represent a portion of effete DC culture. That's why this quotation from Fred Barnes is so incredibly disturbing:

You know, I've thought for a long time that Obama's not in quite as strong a position on the war in Iraq as he really thinks he is. Remember, when he famously came out against the war, it was back in a time when the entire world believed that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that he would probably be willing to use them himself at some time or pass them along to terrorists who would use them. And yet, Barack Obama was against going to the war at that point. I don't think that shows that he is very strong on national security, which he needs to be. But that argument's not going to be used against him in the Democratic primaries. It would, however, by Republicans in a general election.

So, when everyone else was wrong, OBAMA WAS RIGHT!! And that makes him weak?! What kind of topsy-turvy world must you live in to criticize someone who dared to be correct when everyone else around him was wrong?

The irony gets even worse if you go back and look at what Obama had to say when the United States was being driven to war by a fear-mongering, war-bent President and a cowardly Congress:

After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism.

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income -- to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear -- I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

Now, I'm not endorsing Obama for President right now. But I wish our Beltway Boys, and all the other "serious" voices who help form our public opinion, had paid attention to him then. Instead, because they were wrong and he was right, they are paying attention to him now, and deriding him for the crime of not suffering from the Beltway myopia that has damaged our country so horribly, and killed so many people.

Noodles Squared

Saturday at lunch time, we visited the new Noodle Shop at 641 East 59th. It was the second lunch in a row there for me - after visiting with a friend on Friday, I had to take the lovely spouse there. Simply a great place, but I see no need for me to write about it when the Moody Foodie has already written a thorough and well-written review. The only thing I would add is that the pickles plates are fascinating - people react strongly to the strong flavors, and like and dislike different items. Oh, and don't hesitate to try one of the cold noodle specials. The Noodle Shop is hip, yummy, friendly and inexpensive. If Moody Foodie and I aren't persuasive enough for you, or if you are a visual learner, Lynn has a review with pictures!

The Noodle Shop shows noodles can be hip.

Dinner showed that noodles can be square.

After catching an outstanding documentary (In the Shadow of the Moon - loved it!) at the Glenwood, we cruised up Metcalf and found a restaurant that wasn't swamped by children in suits or wobbly heels (it must have been homecoming somewhere). We found Villa Capri, and stepped into the past.

Formica tables, grapes that lit up, garish painting on the wall - it was right out of my childhood days, when we would have thought it the epitome of class. And the food was right out of the 1960s, too - iceberg lettuce salad (the guy at the next table got French dressing!), canned bland sauce, hard meatballs, and pasts cooked well past "al dente". Mega-brewery beer, no wine. Despite it all, the place had a certain charm. It felt like an elaborate set for a black and white movie - a throwback to a time long past.

In one day, noodles went from trendy to square. I'll go back to the Noodle Shop for the food, and, if I go back to Villa Capri, it'll be for the atmosphere.

I Can Do This . . .

50,000 words of fiction in November. A short novel.

November will be National Novel Writing Month. I'm going to do it. Want to join in? We could nag each other . . .

Don't worry - I promise not to post any of it here.

It might slow down my bickering with some of the people who leave comments, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Away from it all

THE World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours . . .

Wednesday was a good day, but sometimes the best time to address insanity is before it starts. So, in the late afternoon, I quietly exited my office, merged into the already-heavy traffic on 71, and headed out to James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area.

Once there, I put on some hip waders, rigged up my fly rod with a popper, and practiced my fly casting on Bodarc Pond. It was a nourishing way to spend the end of the day.

Walking around the pond, catching and releasing dozens of small fish, was stress-free fun. I don't rely on fishing for my meals, and I am not seeking a trophy for my wall, so fishing, for me, has the three attributes of what I consider a "true" hobby - something that requires complete concentration, an unattainable level of skill, and doesn't really matter.

All three are crucial. Complete concentration takes you away from everything else. Work, home, people, issues, everything melts away until you're there, in the moment, just a guy working a fly rod. The skill level required needs to be beyond you - partially to assist with the complete concentration part, but also to keep you working toward something near perfection. I wish I could say this in smaller, more modest language, but it's a way of brushing up against that other dimension, be it God, infinity, or some unifying force, that stirs and quietly thrills a part of me that can't be dormant.

Finally, it can't really matter in the day-to-day sense. It has to be pure - something done for its own sake. Most of what we do is, in some way, about impacting the world. Our work, our politics, our conversations, our philanthropy - they're all a way of asserting our presence in the world - remaking the world in some small way to better accommodate us. But a pure hobby does not really impact the world in such a manner. It places you "in" the world, instead of somehow with or against it.

When I arrived, the shadows were already getting long, and the contrast of the sun and the shadow on the trees was beautiful, and heightened by the reflections on the smooth pond. It's not yet fully autumn, but some of the green of the trees is fading into yellow and orange, and the sky was a powder blue with just a little haze to soften it.

The sunset Wednesday night was not a flashy, spectacular show. Instead, it was a fading of the light into rose and orange. By the end of the evening, I had the pond all to myself, except for the buzzards roosting in a bare tree over my shoulder. At the end, when I could scarcely see the rise of the fish to take my lure, I didn't want it to stop. I could hear birds and animals calling and rustling in the woods. A woman and her horse passed in the distance.

I love my daily world. My wife is the love of my life. My work is meaningful and challenging. I'm blessed with friends, a nice home, and decent health. My children are loving and wonderful.

Despite all that, a few hours apent on a pond in the suburbs takes me away from all that is pleasant and unpleasant in my daily world. It removes me from my daily world, and offers me a glimpse of something else - something that is always there, but all too easily ignored.

Way to Go, Gottstein

Councilwoman Beth Gottstein has heard enoough constituents complaining about smoking in bar and restaurants, and she's going to do something about it. She has introduced a measure to allow Kansas City to vote on a real smoking ban on February 5, 2008. The Barnes-led council back in '04 handled the matter the way it did most things - ignored the will of the people, buckled to a few influential business owners, and changed nothing, all through backroom deals. Beth's taking it to the streets - let the more persuasive side win.

Prepare to hear lots and lots of whining. "It interferes with my freedom," some will complain, ignoring the fact that the freedom to pollute my space is not enumerated in the Constitution, and, if it were, it would end where my lungs begin. "It's bad for business," some will cry, as if New York and Minneapolis and Lawrence had become dry territory after their successful smoking bans were instituted. "Let the market decide," some will counter, ignoring the fact that bars and restaurants are (thank goodness) already heavily regulated for the health and benefit of the public, and they have no more free market right to serve tainted air than they do to allow tainted meat.

I admire Beth for getting out in front of undoing the damage done by the prior council. She has exposed herself to a nasty and vituperative group of people who will attack her personally, and she's probably cost herself a few donations in the next campaign cycle. But she's doing the right thing, and she's allowing the people of Kansas City to be heard. We'll have four months to discuss this issue, and then we get to vote. I'm going to vote in favor of the ban, and I know plenty who will vote against it. On February 6, we will know what the majority decided.

The Pitch's Best Political Blogger (2007) Award

Thank you to the blog-friends who have given me a heads-up that the Pitch named me Best Political Blogger (2007). Personally, I don't think about accolades or praise or attention of any sort. I just do this from a selfless devotion to the common good. I only hope that I can improve my corner of the world, and that maybe someone will happen upon this modest page and pause a moment.

(Anybody want an autographed copy? I'm mailing one to my mom . . .)

Thanks, Pitch!

Coffman still Stumbling at the Starting Gate?

Back in early September, I did a post about Amy Coffman's candidacy for the 44th district, and mentioned that she, a political new-comer to town, had stumbled at the starting gate by not having a website to let us know where she stands before she sent out invitations to her campaign kick-off.

My wise and gentle observations touched off a bit of a firestorm of comments, spilling into a second post. In the second round of comments, her treasurer visited and commented -

Amy will have a website at www.amycoffman.com that will provide a great deal of information about her, and that will hopefully be of use to people who want to know more about her and what she will bring to the job. I expect that website will be up either contemporaneously with her kick-off event, or shortly thereafter.

As of this morning, though, we're still stuck with a "coming soon" notice, pushing an event that happened two weeks ago. The expectation of an informative website contemporaneous or shortly after the kick-off event has not been met. It seems like a fairly reasonable expectation, and one that could and should have been met.

Now, really, it's just a website for an election that won't happen for over a year. I don't mean to make a huge deal out of the website itself. When it is finally posted, I'm sure that it will have nice pictures and maybe even a few word-smithed position statements designed to avoid offending anyone. I'm sure that, in plenty of time for the election, we will get a perfectly adequate website from Amy Coffman.

Here's why I even mention it, though - the 44th District is a strongly democratic district, and we ought to be sending a genuine leader down to Jefferson City with a can-do attitude who demonstrates competence and energy. A campaign presents an opportunity to show who you are and how you'll operate in office, and one campaign is stuck on "coming soon" and not meeting expectations, while the other one includes a job evaluation by the U.S. Director of Intelligence in Afghanistan - "Second Lieutenant (2LT) Kander is an outstanding leader and a superb intelligence officer … his hard work directly resulted in arresting enemies and saving lives … leading by example". Sounds like he exceeds expectations.

Bad Sam, Good Sam, and Kids Hurt by Fear and Dogma

As written here back in July, SCHIP represents an instance where the Bush administration is going out of its way to harm children because of its dogmatic need to prevent government from offering solutions to people.

Now that he is actually wielding his pen as a sword to cut off access to health care for children, the right wing has been forced to try to reframe the debate into terms that are somehow less heartless. Sam Graves attempts to explain his blind support of all things Bush in this morning's paper, with a truly despicable attempt to blame his support of harming children on his (bogus) fear that some of the children helped might be "illegal immigrants". Mr. Graves, when your hysteria about brown people reaches the point that you cannot stomach the thought of their sick children getting necessary medical care, you've gone around the bend.

It takes a sick mind to deny millions of children health care because you don't want the brown ones to get it.

A less disturbing but more humorous argument being trotted out has the benefit of actually being Bush's true motivation. The REAL reason we can't allow SCHIP to work is that it works. If we help the children with a state-sponsored health care, people will see that "socialized medicine" is actually a sensible and workable approach.

Let's go back to Graves:

according to the Congressional Budget Office, the expansion of this government-run health-care initiative would likely mean that 2 million kids who already have private insurance would opt for their states’ government-run health-care program. In Missouri, that would involve a waiting period. That isn’t fixing a problem, it’s increasing government.

WHAT?!?! For years we've been told that single-payer health care is the worst thing in the world, but here's Sam Graves telling us that if we allow people who live in the shangri-la of medical insurance to cross over into the pit of despair that is government-sponsored health care, they will actually make that choice? It would appear that the medical establishment and their Republican hired hands have been lying to us all these years. Shocking!

(Hint to right-wing commenters about to poke a hole in my argument by pointing out that the state-sponsored health care is cheaper - here's a friendly caution to be careful with that argument - it could be a rhetorical trap . . .)

In the face of Sam Graves' embarrassingly weak defense of denying kids health care, it's good to know that Missourians have Sam Page, a genuine doctor with a thorough understanding of the health care system. Not surprisingly, he disagrees with Sam Graves, and sent me a press release that calls him on his heartlessness:

"It is shameful that our state's leaders are willing to sit silently while politicians in Washington deny access to health insurance for Missouri children," said Representative Sam Page.

Sam Page, physician and a Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, is urging Missouri's U.S. Representatives who voted against the SCHIP expansion to change their votes in order to override the president's veto, but warns the state should not be reliant on national policy.

In Missouri, our citizens and especially our children are already losing healthcare coverage at a rate three times the national average. The SCHIP expansion that received strong bi-partisan support in congress would bring nearly $1 billion in new healthcare funding to Missouri.

"We cannot continue to allow our children to suffer from illnesses that could be prevented if families had affordable access to doctors," said Page. "In the Missouri House I fought against the Medicaid cuts in 2005 and I have worked on Healthcare Committees to restore those cuts. As your Lt. Governor, I would not sit silently while politicians destroyed a child's opportunity to lead a healthy life."

Sam Page supports allowing children the opportunity to lead a healthy life. Sam Graves does not. No amount of spin, no amount of brown people fear-mongering can explain away the contrast.

Who Owns the Red Cross? Don't Buy Johnson & Johnson!

There's a legal battle brewing between Johnson & Johnson and the American Red Cross over use of the red cross logo on first aid, preparedness and related products sold to the public. Seems that Johnson & Johnson registered the emblem in 1887, while the American Red Cross was not chartered until 1900.

Generally, the rule in Trademark Law is pretty clear - the first one to register wins. I haven't studied this particular lawsuit carefully, but, if I were a betting man, that's the way I'd lay my money down.

When I first heard about this lawsuit, my reaction was that the American Red Cross is wasting its resources in trying to fight it. Legally, that might still be correct, but, in further reflection, it occurs to me that Johnson & Johnson is trying to profit from the good work done by the Red Cross.

Why is that red cross emblem valuable? It's certainly not due to anything done by the corporate giant Johnson & Johnson. It's due to the work of thousands of nameless volunteers who formed the International Red Cross Movement back in the 1800s. It's due to Clara Barton and her post-Civil War advocacy. It's due to the millions of people who have sought relief from suffering because of war, famine and natural disasters, and found that relief in the form of a Red Cross.

Legally, Johnson and Johnson may have the upper hand. Morally, they are stealing from volunteers and Clara Barton.

If you share my disgust at this corporate power play, make a mental note to avoid these brands. There are other brands of each of these products, and you won't be supporting corporate theft. And then go here and tell them why. (Update - don't bother! Their form is designed to frustrate consumers with useless questions and demands for personal information.)

Blogger Appreciation: Viable Third

Last week, I had lunch with Airick Leonard West, the spark plug behind Viable Third. Viable Third pushes the limits of what I consider to be a blog - it has a journal, it features amateur's opinions and it allows comments, so it qualifies in my book, but it is really an advocacy site more than a typical blog. If Viable Third were a more traditional effort, its website would simply be another homepage of a nonprofit.

So, what is Viable Third? It is a focus on improving the viability of Kansas City's Third City Council District - the geography bounded by Independence to the north, 45th street to the south, Troost to the west, 435 to the east, and fear on all sides. The opening page of Viable Third features this explanation:

what i stand for:

A viablethird district that will catalyze a peaceful, clean, educated and thriving community.

Economic viability is a catalyst to change the way we think about urban blight and the neighborhoods that wear that label. It is not acceptable to have neighborhoods with conditions so low that people are disinclined to live there, go to school there, open businesses there, and work there. The agreement that such neighborhoods can exist in Kansas City must end. And a new agreement must take its place. I agree to a viablethird.

Audacious and simple, isn't it?

The website features commentary from Airick, Robyne Turner, and others, and it also features a space where visitors are invited to make their own commitments to support the Third District (Alexis - let's see those photos!!).

It is fitting that Viable Third pushes up against the boundaries of the blog format. It's its own thing. It's not a 501c3 organization with a Board and staff. It's not a closed group of activists meeting in some dim basement. It's not one person's project, cautiously controlled by the founder. Trying to describe it in traditional terms prevents you from "getting it". Instead, you have to visit the site, visit the neighborhoods, reflect on it and understand it in your own way.

If that kind of thing makes you nervous, though, I've figured out a way you can kill it out of your own world. First, make Airick a hero. He has some of the attributes - a willingness to get involved in causes and address needs with little apparent concern for his own financial and other needs, a sense of outrage that comes through as intensity rather than anger, a ubiquity in the "hot spots" of Kansas City's social activism, a willingness to help out the least of our brothers with longterm personal involvement, and an energetic charisma. It would be easy to slap a hero label on Airick, which would allow us to dehumanize him and free ourselves of the challenge to internalize his issues and involvement. After you slap that hero label on Airick, you are free to excuse yourself from imitating his efforts to help the Third District. Indeed, you can then even view the effort as quixotic and implausible, and do nothing.

Airick Leonard West is one of the more challenging people I've ever had lunch with. I might even say "inspiring". But I won't say he's a hero - instead, I'll say that he has challenged me to look at my own commitments with a dissatisfied eye.

Koster and Bartle, Sitting in a Tree . . .

How many other good democrats love sitting in Matt Bartle's office, reminiscing about the years of frustrating the will of the people, depriving kids of health care, and laughing about whether democrats would be stupid enough to believe he's one of us?

(He's not.)

Cuban Doctors Heal Cataracts for Che's Killer

Cuban doctors volunteering in Bolivia performed a free cataract surgery for Mario Teran, the Bolivian army sergeant who killed the legendary guerilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara in captivity, the daily Granma newspaper reported.

The Cuban medical system is obviously horribly deficient - any American insurance company would have found a way to deny him coverage . . .