$ 3,000,000,000,000

The cost of the war in Iraq (3 trillion) by a Nobel Prize winning economist.

Number 4

61,655 passing yards, 442 touchdowns, 160 regular season victories, 3 MVPs, 17 seasons. Favre retires.

These are not "just words"...this is action by speech

While Hillary takes up the Karl Rove politics of fear, Obama admits to occasional homophobia amongst blacks and addresses it directly. This is a perfect example of words that are so much more than "just words." Imagine another candidate going to a constituency and trying to get their votes by challenging them rather than appealing to their base, rather than handing out more platitudes. It doesn't happen.

An hour and a half with Barack Obama.

Marc Andreessen is one of Netscape's co-founders and he recently wrote about an hour and a half that he had in early 2007 with Barack Obama, here (tip to Sullivan). "With most politicians, their curiosity ends once they find out how much money you can raise for them. Not so with Senator Obama -- this is a normal guy....But it's also apparent when you interact with him that you're dealing with one of the intellectually smartest national politicians in recent times...Put the primary campaign speeches aside; take a look at his policy positions on any number of issues and what strikes you is how reasonable, moderate, and thoughtful they are...He's a post-Boomer." You should also read his description of Obama's answers to his "experience" and "foreign policy" questions.

I've never watched American Idol but this was really good:

Here. If that link gets taken down I think a search for "David Archuleta Imagine American Idol Youtube" will find something.

I didn't expect to quote the Wall Street Journal in the primary season, but here it is:

"The assumption behind much of this criticism is that because Mr. Obama gives a good speech he cannot do substance. This is wrong. Mr. Obama has done well in most of the Democratic debates because he has consistently shown himself able to think on his feet. Even on health care, a complicated national issue that should be Mrs. Clinton's strength, Mr. Obama has regularly fought her to a draw by displaying a grasp of the details that rivals hers, and talking about it in ways Americans can understand.

In Iowa, long before the race became the national campaign it is today, Mr. Obama spent much of his time at town halls in which he took questions from the audience. His answers in such settings were often as good or better than the rhetoric in his stump speech, and usually more substantive. He spoke about issues like immigration and national service in a thoughtful manner -- not wonky, not pedantic, but in a way that suggested he'd spent some time thinking about them before."

From this article in the Wall Street Journal that warns Republicans against making the same mistake Clinton has made: she never took him seriously. She assumed eloquence meant absence.

Recipes

I posted some of the recipes from Christmas here. Recipes included: enchilada casserole, tamale pie, and dutch baby among other things that caught my eye in peoples' recipe collections. Hopefully more to come. This link is also in the links sidebar.

Obama and the power of hope

From Peter Drier and the Nation, here.
"A onetime organizer himself, Obama knows that, if elected, his ability to reform healthcare, improve labor laws, tackle global warming and restore job security and living wages will depend, in large measure, on whether he can use his bully pulpit to mobilize public opinion and encourage Americans to battle powerful corporate interests and members of Congress who resist change."

...and including this from Obama:
"Nothing in this country worthwhile has ever happened except when somebody somewhere was willing to hope."

The Los Angeles Times for Barack Obama

"Clinton would be a valuable and competent executive, but Obama matches her in substance and adds something that the nation has been missing far too long -- a sense of aspiration."

Here.

Substance and hope are not mutually exclusive.

The other day I was trying to say that Obama has substance and hope while Clinton only has substance. Here, Andrew Sullivan puts it much better than I. With respect to the idea that Obama is lacking in substance he writes:
"I find this criticism bewildering. Obama has a host of policy positions, on taxes, healthcare, Iraq, Afghanistan, immigration, climate change, and this blog has mentioned or debated many of them. There seems to be a meme that because someone is inspiring, there has to be no substance. But they are not mutually exclusive categories. In the Democratic race, the only real substantive difference is healthcare mandates, which I've aired a great deal. And compared with McCain, Obama is a wonk."

Sullivan wrote more about Obama's substance here.

Joseph Wilson for Clinton

Joe Wilson gives his endorsement to Clinton and offers up some worthwhile considerations about Obama.
The full article is here.
The strongest parts:
"Senator Obama claims superior judgment on the war in Iraq based on one speech given as a state legislator representing the most liberal district in Illinois at an anti-war rally in Chicago, and in so doing impugns the integrity of those who were part of the debate on the national scene. In mischaracterizing the debate on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force as a declaration of war, he implicitly blames Democrats for George Bush's war of choice. Obama's negative attack line does not conform to the facts. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I should know. I was among the most prominent anti-war voices at the time -- and never heard about or from then Illinois State Senator Obama.
...
In his tendentious attack, Obama never mentions that Hans Blix, the chief United Nations weapons inspectors, declared that without the congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force the inspectors would never have been allowed into Iraq. Hillary's approach -- and that of the majority of Democrats in the Senate -- was to let the inspectors complete their work while building an international coalition. Hillary's was the road untaken. The betrayal of the American people, and of the Congress, came when President Bush refused to allow the inspections to succeed, and that betrayal is his and his party's, not the Democrats. "

Yes we can

Obama for President

Hillary will be a liberal version of politics as usual. The most pointed evidence I can offer is the way she and Bill went after Obama in South Carolina. She is qualified, she is prepared, she has good ideas, she would probably make a great president, and she will continue the mud fight in Washington because she's been a part of it for 16 years. I believe Obama is only slightly less prepared but that he has the only true chance of being a transformative president. Not only that, I'm not sure she can beat McCain in November. They would split the country like normal because they are normal - a liberal and a conservative still fighting the same fights. They both play better with the other team than Bush II, but neither has a fundamentally different play book.
Obama is something different. Listen to him and it's obvious. When the questions are detailed questions - HE DOES have detailed answers, and the differences between him and Clinton are slight (2 points to Clinton for her better health care plan). But what he chooses to talk about when he has free reign over the microphone...the way he applies the language of the civil rights movement to the entire country...the way he demonstrably tries to be inspiring: THAT IS DIFFERENT. He's not attacking anyone, he's taking everyone with him. Yes, it's soft and fuzzy. But I repeat - he can answer the questions the way Clinton and McCain do - he can go on and on with policy declarations with the best of them. But what he CHOOSES to talk about, that's different. He's talking about prosperity and opportunity. It is hopeful. It is forward thinking, it is inclusive ... it is NOT politics as usual.
Some say Obama is all hope and no substance. I say Obama is substance and hope and I wonder why we don't ask for the same from Clinton and McCain.
Moreover, I don't think she can beat McCain. The people driving the record participation levels in this primary season are coming out for Obama, not for Clinton. McCain and Obama appeal to independent voters. I do not think the same thing of Clinton. I admit, I worry about his lack of experience - it's why I wasn't for him initially. Now I've accepted the argument that his lack of experience is exactly what gives him the greatest potential to be transformative.
I think Obama can talk the policy wonk talk (not as well as Clinton but) well enough to be President. He chooses not too. That is different.

Election 2008

John Stewart to Mitt Romney following Mitt's failure in the GOP primary: Fuck You.

I never liked Romney the Barbarian, so I'm glad John Stewart put it so elequently.

What if everyone around you froze at the exact same moment?

More from Improve Everywhere.

My Dad

I wanted to let everyone know that my Dad is doing pretty well almost a week after the cryotherapy procedure/surgery that he had to treat his kidney cancer. That said, the surgery took more out of him than I, and I believe than he, expected. In the mornings he doesn't have much energy but over the course of the day he becomes stronger and more alert. Today the doctor explained that about 25% of the kidney was affected by the surgery and I was relieved to realize it was such a small fraction of his kidney. He is feeling better but he still gets tired very quickly at times.

Some Christmas Pictures

DSC01320
Originally uploaded by p-a-k

Flickr (where these pictures are hosted) is not as good as Picasa, but if you look around you'll find a bunch of pictures from Christmas 2007.

Into the Wild, in one word: Awesome

In a few more words: Beautiful and with a great cast. I loved the book so much I almost didn't see the movie. That said, this is one of the best adaptations I know of, one which I feel almost enhances the book.

Walking around town

In the Life-in-Wyoming category of things, I love a town where you can walk around. When I got back to Laramie after four months my car registration was expired, my auto insurance was expired, and my battery was dead. Without a car for a week? No problem, I just walked everywhere (fortunately my housemate took me grocery shopping). Yesterday I walked to one of the high schools for work as a substitute and in the evening we walked to the further of the two theaters in town to take in a movie. I love it.

There was a falcon, not sure what kind, sitting on my back fence for five minutes today.

...too bad my camera was on the wrong shelf.