I’ve been out of town often recently. (Twice to Florida in less than a month, and both times it was cold, windy, and rainy. As I said to my brother, who lives near Fort Lauderdale, “I’m surprised you don’t want to live someplace warmer.)
When I’m staying in a hotel, I tend to have access to the internet. Sometimes it’s “free” (which means the hotel has found a way to add it to your bill), and sometimes it’s for purchase (which means the hotel is essentially adding it onto your bill). Increasingly, I also have internet access on the plane — in fact, every time recently I’ve had such access on the plane. And I almost always have access through my iPhone.
Where haven’t I had access? Twice now I haven’t had it at my home — I’ve returned to find it down. For no reason. While I was, well, somewhere three days ago, my son texted me to let me know that the wifi was down at my house. I had him reboot the entire system and discovered that it’s not just the wifi — it’s the internet in toto. He said it was working Thursday night, and then magically — it wasn’t. This is not the first time this has happened. Why? Who knows. But tonight I have to figure that out, or tomorrow I have to call the people who keep it up and running at my business and have them come straighten it out at my house. Because otherwise, I’m offline at home. And that’s too horrible a situation to endure.
My friend Terence Anthony’s terrific environmental piece “Blood and Thunder,” about two lowlife criminals caught in rising waters during Hurricane Katrina, closes this weekend after a smash six-month run. If you’re in LA and you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend you do. Here’s where to get tickets.
I’d like to thank Rielle Hunter. Because not only is she stupid, she’s tenacious, which means she will never ever ever stop dogging John Edwards — which means we’ll never ever ever find him serving in public office again. In Dante’s Inferno, the punishment serves the crime; for the pretty and formerly media-hungry John Edwards, Rielle Hunter is the succubus who will drain him for the rest of eternity.
What are the odds of this happening? I flew in yesterday from Los Angeles, and just checked into my hotel in Orlando — and discovered that my brother, who lives in New Jersey, is also staying here.
And no, we are not attending the same event, and we did not plan this.
Every week in one of the political science classes he teaches at the University of Southern California, my friend Dan Schnur throws a student Republican, a student Democrat, a Republican spokesman and a Democratic spokesman into a locked cage and throws away the key until the assembled class’s pizza runs out. Yesterday, the Republican spokesman was Jonathan Wilcox, a speechwriter for Pete Wilson when he was governor of California. For better or worse, the Democrats had me.
We weren’t there to advocate for specific candidates, although I couldn’t help agitating against Carly Failorina. The assigned topic was the U.S. Senate race in California, so it seemed like fair game: It’s a seat that Failorina — okay, “Fiorina” — is seeking. I find her candidacy especially galling, given her disastrous recent history: nearly destroying a storied American company (Hewlett Packard), and so poorly serving John McCain as a spokeswoman in 2008. I can’t imagine the basis for her campaign, unless we have a burning desire for more leaders drawn from the ranks of CEOs who jumped out with millions of dollars while their companies plummeted to the ground. (Although I was vastly entertained by her demon sheep campaign video. I hope she spent a lot of money — her own — on it.) Think I’m just a partisan standard bearer? Let’s hear from a Republican on the subject, one with the last name of Packard.
Wrote Arianna [Packard]: “I know a little bit about Carly Fiorina, having watched her almost destroy the company my grandfather founded. So, allow me to disillusion you of a few of your stated reasons for supporting her,” Arianna Packard wrote to Sens Jon Kyl, R-AZ, Tom Coburn, R-OK, and James Inhofe, R-OK.
“You write that she is a ‘proven business leader.’ This may be how she spins her career, but most business commentators consider Fiorina’s tenure at HP to be a disaster,” Packard writes.
That letter gladdens my heart. Although I did feel somewhat badly for the Republican student who took my bait after I linked “Fiorina” with “Failorina” — he then discoursed against the notion, repeating the word “failure” four times in four sentences with the name “Fiorina.” I pointed that out, and Dan pointed out that one of his upcoming classes teaches one to be careful about repeating the opponent’s talking points. That’s only a taste of what Barbara Boxer is going to do to La Failure should she get the nomination.
The Republican end of the table seemed to think that the Democrats in California are going to be in real trouble. Maybe. But it’s eight months until election day — an eternity in politics — and, as I said on the panel, you can’t beat somebody with nobody. Fiorina isn’t getting any traction in the Senate race. Re Meg Whitman, whom Jon compared to “Avatar” (as the biggest, best, and hardest to beat), well, I submit the video below. If you can’t work your own press event, how well are you going to do when Jerry Brown shows up and asks you real questions? That’s a debate I’m looking forward to watching.
Y’know what? I like getting mail. I’ve hounded the mailbox my entire life. I like the internet, too, but email doesn’t compare with what I sometimes find in my mailbox. With that in mind, I’m linking to this love letter to the post office.
Now that the post office is in fiscal distress, pay particular note to the debunking of the argument to “just privatize it.” We’ve all got complaints about the occasional postal mistake, but please bear this in mind when you hear the GOP propose privatizing mail delivery (as I heard someone do again today): Private operators would strip off the profitable routes, jack up the rates, and leave rural America underserved or overcharged.
I’ve plugged my friend Terence Anthony’s terrific play “Blood and Thunder” here before.
Now there’s a trailer for it.
It runs through the end of March. If you’re in town, I urge you to see it. My wife is a tough theatre critic indeed, but she loved this show. This gives you an idea of why. (And here’s where you can get tickets.
Count another fan of the Canadian health care model: Sarah Palin. In this interview, she says she used to “hustle over the border” for health care in Canada. I guess she wasn’t worried about the death panels over there because, well, they would be Canadians. She says her preference for health-care options up north is “ironic.” I can think of a few other words.
For the record, I have been an opponent of the various Democratic healthcare initiatives partly because I think they don’t go far enough, and partly because I can’t stomach the idea of the U.S. government forcing you to buy something, as I discussed here. But (speaking of stomaches) now I’m having second thoughts because Rush Limbaugh has promised to leave the U.S. if this passes. As of today, count me as a strident supporter.
Another elected Republican official has come stumbling out of the closet against his own will. This time it’s California state senator Roy Ashburn. Here’s the story. He was arrested for drunk driving, but what’s really done him in is the discovery of where he was coming from: a gay bar in Sacramento. Faced with the facts, he went public about his sexuality on a Bakersfield radio station this morning. I imagine the local response was akin to the response to the crowd of GOP voters on last night’s episode of “Big Love” when Bill Henrickson came out as a polygamist.
As the Times says:
The episode, widely discussed on Internet blogs, in newspapers and on TV, spurred charges of hypocrisy against the senator from gay-rights activists who noted that Ashburn, a divorced father of four, had voted several times against legislation favoring gays and lesbians. On Sept. 1, 2005, Ashburn voted against a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriages in California. The bill was later vetoed by the governor. Ashburn also was among the minority in voting against legislation last year that designated May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day.
Ashburn’s defense against this charge? That his votes reflected the will of his constituents. So much for leadership. I also wonder, when they were voting for him, if they intended to vote for driving drunk and telling lies.
