461 Kerry the Politician

Brendan Miniter says Kerry will lose because he isn’t a very good politician. I wouldn’t count on that. The hatred for Bush is palpable even for people who don’t particularly like or support Kerry. Here’s what Miniter wrote in the September 7 Wall Street Journal.

“Mr. Kerry's problem is much worse than having phoned it in for 20 years in the Senate. Somehow he has built a political career without ever developing the skill of connecting with people or being able to read the pulse of the electorate. In the 1980s, he opposed nearly every new weapons system the Reagan administration rolled out. In the 1990s he fought to slash intelligence funding. Both look like clear mistakes now. On Vietnam, he misread how the electorate would react to his antiwar record. Some Democrats actually argued Mr. Kerry would be popular among veterans. So Mr. Kerry thought he was giving voters what they wanted to hear when he responded to the GOP convention by getting on TV at midnight to talk about Vietnam and whine about imagined attacks on his patriotism. Democrats politely say that he's not very charismatic, but the truth is that he's like a tone-deaf musician who stumbles into a gig at Carnegie Hall and can't understand why the crowd doesn't cheer.”

Full editorial here. [Unlike the New York Times, the WSJ doesn’t try to pass of editorial opinion as “news.”]

460 The Recession and the Recovery

The Kerry Campaign posted 143 inaccuracies heard during the speeches of the four day Republican National Convention last week in New York. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide the information to refute them. Now they’ve taken the list down. With all that money in the 527s couldn’t they hire a few librarians to double check the record? Anyway, Captain’s Quarters has cached the list so I looked at them. Democrats didn’t like #65 and #66 at all.

“65. Cheney: “As President Bush and I were sworn into office, our nation was sliding into recession…” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

66. Chao: “Thanks to President Bush’s tax relief, the economy is expanding, creating more than 1.5 million new jobs in the last eleven months. Today, the national unemployment rate is lower than the average for the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

But I can show anyone who wants to look at my portfolio of mid-2000, six months before the current administration took office, when the tech sector was beginning to implode, and that same portfolio in December 2003 when it had more than recovered.

Mr. Kerry, you and your staff as you swing through Ohio are welcome at my house. I’ll dig out the files and show you. Just don’t ask me to make coffee.

459 Why we need to pay very close attention to Beslan massacre

Melanie Phillips (British) comments on the blindness of many westerners about the terrorism in Beslan that murdered and maimed and terrorized so many school children. She draws comparisons and points fingers at the ineffective Russian response to Chechen terrorists.

“When the US was repeatedly attacked by Islamic terrorism throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it merely sat on its hands, made token responses, or decided to cut and run. Osama bin Laden concluded from this that the US was weak. We know this because he said so. And so he unleashed 9/11.

But instead of learning the correct lesson that the current horrors are the result of such a failure to act, the west has succumbed to historical amnesia over those previous attacks. It is convulsed instead by hysteria over the war on Iraq, with absurd conspiracy theories about Zionists and ‘neo-conservatives’ surfacing instead almost daily in the mainstream media and driving out rational debate.”

See the complete article at A war like no other

From her bio: Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She is best known for her controversial column about political and social issues which currently appears in the Daily Mail. Awarded the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1996, she is the author of All Must Have Prizes, an acclaimed study of Britain’s educational and moral crisis, which provoked the fury of educationists and the delight and relief of parents.

458 Language cleanup

Sometimes the convolutions to revise our language so that nothing offends anyone really are ridiculous. However, I am a bit surprised that a bi-partisan bill to remove “colored” when referring to race from the Ohio Revised Code insurance laws hasn’t been done before. That wasn’t even an acceptable term when I was in college over 45 years ago before all the political correctness started! H.B. 233, 125th General Assembly, Ohio. Apparently that part of the Code wasn’t looked at often.

457 Easiest recipes from Illinois

While looking up the strike at the Kable printing plant, I came across a site that has digitized some Illinois periodicals. Browsing the 2004 issue of Illinois Country Living, I came across a group of easy-prep recipes. Particularly the first one--the 3 ingredient cookie--sounded easy enough. I haven't tried any of them, but I will bookmark that page to try.

456 Steubenville and Mt. Morris

Mr. Kerry was in Steubenville, Ohio this past week. I read that protestors made up half the crowd, which wasn’t very large. Ohio gets a lot of attention from both the President and the man who would be President. I certainly hope he didn’t bring up that tired nonsense about outsourcing and manufacturing jobs. Steubenville is part of Ohio’s “rustbelt,” and it was killed by the unions in the 1970s, when they wouldn’t allow companies to eliminate jobs by improving technology, something that all companies do. First, companies just moved out of state--now they move out of the country. You wouldn’t be working at a computer right now if your department had kept all its secretaries and clerks and hadn’t forced you into learning word processing.

The effects of a strike at a printing plant in my home town in Illinois which was never satisfactorily settled (and the strikers moved on to well paid jobs in Mississippi), lingers today, 30 years later. It was the lesser paid workers and all the small businesses that depended on a flourishing company that suffered. The economic disaster caused by this strike was worse than the fire that demolished the town’s college in 1931.

“How much the community benefited from the company was demonstrated on May 10, 1974. On that day photo engravers at the company began a strike. A week later the book binders joined them on the picket line. This strike continued for six and a half years, one of the longest in northern Illinois' history. The enrollment in the Mount Morris schools declined in the strike years. Many community leaders feared Mount Morris would become a ghost town when many of the Kable employees found work elsewhere and moved away. After the strike ended, everything began to look much brighter for the community. The strike seriously depressed the community's economy.” The Kable Brothers Company

People less committed to the town's values began to move in, people who didn't care about education, churches and helping your neighbor. Bond issues failed. Now the town has lost its high school and is bussing its children to the next town, and may soon lose its elementary school, which burned down in a disastrous fire this year.

A town without a school system has no soul; a town with a greedy union has no heart.

455 What they didn't say

“Tonight I will talk about this good man and his fine record leading our country. And I may say a word or two about his opponent. I am also mindful that I have an opponent of my own. People tell me that Senator Edwards got picked for his good looks, his sex appeal, and his great hair. I say to them — how do you think I got the job?”

That’s good for a chuckle. But I ran a word check on the entire speech and neither Cheney nor President Bush ever said Kerry was “unfit” (alluding to the Swiftboat vets ad), nor did they question his patriotism. So why is the Washington Post (Thursday) and Kerry saying they did?

Full Text of Vice President Cheney’s speech

Full Text of President Bush’s speech

454 Boys will be boys

Friday night at the fireworks on the lakefront we had the opportunity to see families enjoying the last week-end of the summer season. We took our lawn chairs down about 8:30, but the first blast didn't go off for about 30 minutes. Looking around, I noticed three things, two timeless and the other timely.

First, little boys were running, wrestling, shouting Karate moves, ordering the other children to watch (one little guy actually said, "Now, feast your eyes on this!") and being belligerent in front of the little girls who licked their lollipops, played with little lighted worms, and quietly watched the little boys acting like chipmunks on speed.

Second, the older adults (50+) quietly conversed with each other and the group on the next blanket, or snuggled in the cooler air. They watched the children and reminisced and told stories of an earlier, but similar time.

Third, the teens and young adults, bored with the wait, pulled out their cell phones, making little spots of light throughout the crowd waiting in the dark, checking for messages, talking to people not a part of our little community, and taking digital photos of the people who were.

453 Multiplying shirts and shrinking pants

We are packing to go home for a few weeks, leaving some clothing here at the lake house for the cooler fall days in September and October. Seemed a good time to straighten out the folded items in the dresser. My goodness! The t-shirts have multiplied and all the jeans have shrunk!

My husband has been teaching VBS since 1993, and has 8 of those shirts here--electric lime green, black, brilliant royal blue, white, etc. I attended the Medical Library Association meetings from 1989 to 1999 (didn't attend my last year since I hate good-byes) and have the "Walk with Majors" t-shirts--about 8 of them, mostly white or red. Then there are the Lakeside t-shirts, most too scruffy to wear, but which are "favorites," two of our own design, a Tony Packo shirt (restaurant, Toledo) and a University of Illinois shirt. Then there were 5 plain t-shirts from Wal-Mart in beautiful (to me) colors. Also I uncovered five t-shirts we had designated as "work shirts" some time back but had misplaced. I think some of those mysteriously travelled up from Columbus at different times.

There is a pair of jeans 33 x 30 that should be my husband's but he claims they don't meet in the middle by 2 inches and swears they aren't his. I found a pair of women's jeans in a size 8 petite. When was I ever that small? When I was 12? Also a pair of loden green jeans I bought up here at a yard sale for $1.00, but are now too small.

Before leaving for Chicago I ran my hose and we dashed off to the store because I couldn't find any in the drawer. I've found seven, never worn, new pair this morning, still in the package, buried under the multiplying t-shirts and shrinking pants. Summer wardrobe rabbit sydrome.

452 What Kerry Could Do

Paul Cella writes at Tech Central that Kerry has two choices to get out of his VietNam dilemma:

(1) He could boldly stand by his position of some thirty years ago, when he went before Congress as an eloquent antiwar voice; he could reassert the view he propounded then, which was the view of the antiwar movement in general: namely, that the United States military, during the war it conducted in Vietnam, became in essence a criminal organization, from top to bottom countenancing and even encouraging cruelty, plunder, atrocity and mayhem. Now I want to say, in all sincerity, that if it is true what the John Kerry and antiwar movement alleged; if it is true that the whole institution of the military was implicated in the most awful of crimes, that events such as the My Lai massacre were not evil anomalies, but quotidian features of the war effort -- policy, even, promulgated implicitly or surreptitiously by its commanders; if the war was waged not by mostly honorable officers, mostly honorable soldiers, and a few cowards, madmen and psychopaths, but rather by a throng of fiends; if, in short, the American military conducted itself in Vietnam not as the armed force of a civilized nation, but as the savage and sanguinary instrument of a barbarian tribe, then Senator Kerry should stand by his condemnation. Indeed, he should thunder it from the rooftops. Patriotism that gives succor to such wickedness is no virtue; it is vicious madness.

Alternatively, (2) Kerry could repudiate his previous statements root and branch as reckless, inflammatory, malicious imprudence; attribute it to a terrible fever that overtook him and parts of the country; and beg forgiveness from his fellow veterans and the American people whom he slandered so venomously. I, for one, would forgive him.

Cella doesn't expect he'll make such a choice because either way he would loose a critical part of his constituency.

Kerry's Impossible Choice

451 Imagine that--four years before Bush!

How can this be? Isn't the blame for outsourcing and stagnant wages and unemployment to be laid at the feet of Dubya? Look at this July 1997 article in HR Magazine.

"Insecurity on Main Street" is behind the concerns about outsourcing and staffing levels, says John McDowell, director of the Labor Center at Los Angeles Trade Technical College.

"There's a fear that employment is declining, a fear that is heightened by relatively high unemployment levels. [Federal Reserve Board Chairman] Alan Greenspan thinks unemployment figures are low, but members of the workforce see 6 million or 7 million people unemployed. There are a lot of part-time and temporary workers and discouraged workers. There's a lot of competition for jobs," says McDowell.

Also, disposable income and real wages have remained stagnant for workers, he says. "We are supposed to be in a recovery mode, but workers don't see it in their paychecks. The overall economy is healthier today, and the strike is returning as the mode to put pressure on, within the collective bargaining process."

HR Magazine is for human resource management professionals.

450 Convention coverage and other Friday Thoughts

I've been listening to WJR [Detroit] "cover" the President's speech last night (I went to bed--10 p.m. is just too late), but so far all I've heard was Kerry's rambling speech of last night where he threw in every thing--except his 20 year lackluster record in the Senate. Kerry's again using VietNam to stump. Democrats started this with Dan Quayle's vice presidency because he was in the National Guard, they kept quiet about Bill's deferment, and now have returned to the theme. Kerry just can't get off the pot, poor guy. There is one bright spot if he gets elected. . .Hillary can't run in 2008. But America will survive the Johns pimping for all the tired, outdated liberalism of the 60s and 70s.

Our Florida relatives are staying close to home. My brother's recently had some surgery so he's supposed to stay quiet. Niece Cindy and family are not leaving because they have too many pets. Niece Karen who was going to truck some supplies from DC for the Charley victims may have to wait now for the next disaster. We have no report on niece Susie and her family in Sarasota, but right now the Gulf side looks to be in better position than the Atlantic side.

Fireworks at Lakeside tonight, so the gates are down again. The weather is looking a tad overcast--hurricane forerunner? The Archives is having its yard sale at the train station instead of our street. I stopped by yesterday, but didn't buy anything. Biking up the hill was good exercise, however. Tomorrow is Barbershop night with friends coming in to have dinner with us. Then Sunday it is home to Columbus, where we will host one of the artists of the Labor Day show in Upper Arlington.

449 Whiny Political Ads

Ohio must be getting the bottom of the barrel as the undecideds ponder the issues, or we're a test market for bad political ads. The newest one I've seen (by Move On Org I think) is just a talking head of a middle-aged woman who looks like she's been sucking lemons, has just learned she has a fatal disease, and hasn't seen her hair dresser in a while. Well, why not? She says she is a Republican "financial advisor." She's concerned that speaking out/dissent isn't considered patriotic. (Has she not seen the Democrat protestors in New York patriotically trying to shut down the Republican convention?) But she, brave soul will not be afraid to speak out, even if she loses clients because she is voting for Kerry.

There is all sorts of innuendo in the ad. But if she's a good financial advisor, why is she talking politics with her clients, except to report how the stock market has rebounded? We meet quarterly with our guy, and I have no idea what his party politics are--the subject has just never come up. He patiently explains risk, REITs, bonds, his fees, etc. If this gal (the person the actress is portraying) doesn't know what is off limits when in business situations, she deserves to lose clients, and it has nothing to do with her patriotism.

Her voting for Kerry may be her clue that it is time to stop calling herself a Republican. I was still registered as a Democrat when I voted for Bush in 2000, but changed my registration for the next primary. That's the only time anyone asks--certainly clients don't if you're good at your job.

448 Thanks, Janet and Bob!

We caught an early morning train out of Toledo Tuesday and were picked up in downtown Chicago by Bob and Janet a few hours later. Chicago has a new, fabulous park, Millennium Park, so that was our first stop. Located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, the 24.5-acre park was supposed to be ready for 2000, but it just kept growing. If you haven't been to Chicago for awhile, or since last year, don't miss this. It has wonderful fountains, and currently is running a photography exhibit called Family Album. It is a wonderful arena for concerts, food, art--and it didn't hurt a bit that we had fabulous weather.

After lunch at Bob's favorite Greek restaurant, Greek Islands, we headed for Oak Park where they live, and where there are many examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's home designs from his early career. We got tickets for the 2 p.m. tour and while we waited, did a simple walking tour. The tour of Wright's early home with his first wife and six children, and his office was very informative. We saw the plans of some of the buildings we saw in Buffalo laid out on drafting tables, which really pulled it all together. We had a quiet evening at home enjoying our hosts' gracious early 20th century home with wonderful leaded art glass windows and natural woodwork.

Wednesday we started out early for the Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago. That this house is still standing is no small miracle and it will take years and millions to restore it. It was used as a private residence for a relatively brief time, and has spent the rest of its existence in limbo, but appears now that it will be successfully restored. Across the street was the new Graduate School of Business building designed by Rafael Vinoly tying in the materials and design of Wright's Prairie style architecture and the Gothic style of Rockefeller Chapel.

After a nice lunch at a bakery downtown, we got in line for a 2 p.m. river architectural tour sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation where our talented guide pointed out significant architecture for 90 minutes. On a beautiful day, it is the only way to see Chicago. After a quick tour through some badly blighted areas that have been recently gentrified, our wonderful hosts dropped us at Union Station, and our train left on time to the minute, and we arrived in Toledo near 11 p.m. and were back in Lakeside by midnight.

Chicago is our favorite city, and not hard to get to with Amtrak. If anyone from home is reading, you can catch the VanGalder Bus out of Rockford and meet us at Union Station downtown for a week-end of tourism, good food, and culture.

A Little Break

We're off to Chicago for two days.

446 The RNC in New York City

I truly hope the main stream media can find something to talk about and focus on other than the protestors, even though I believe in the long run, they will make the Democrats look like a bunch of fringe lunatic losers.

There will be bloggers there who may be a better source of the news. WSJ online has an article about the bloggers credentialed for the Republican convention. Will it be different? Maybe:
"Some Republican convention bloggers also took shots at the Boston bloggers. Asked what they learned from Boston, some of the New York bloggers characterized the Boston coverage as self-absorbed and overly preoccupied with celebrity sightings. The Republican bloggers said they'd stay more focused on the issues and the convention itself -- a chance they'll get next week." Free link here.

Ben Domenech, a blogger I've never read, said in response to this question:"What did you learn from the Boston coverage? Just about everyone blogging from Boston had a completely misguided attitude towards convention coverage. The interesting part isn't talking about Michael Moore or Jon Stewart, but how the Michigan fan and the Ohio State fan get along after four cases of S'more Schnapps at the 25th Annual Gala to Stop Intellectual Piracy (which is just like normal piracy, except without the plunder and wimmins)."

445 The President at Ft. Meigs, Ohio

Only a thick filter of hate can cause one to say President Bush is not an effective speaker. We heard his entire speech Saturday live on a Toledo TV station (as near as I can tell, there is not a word about the speech in the Toledo Blade except to note on Friday that the President would be in Northwest Ohio on Saturday). Fort Meigs on the Maumee River was built in 1813 to protect northwest Ohio and Indiana from British invasion. I'm sure there is symbolism here someplace, lost on the local media. The speech was in front of about 15,000 party faithful who cheered no matter what he said or how. But from our living room, we could be a bit more discerning.

I’ve never worked for a national campaign except for stuffing a few envelopes for the Democrats back in the early 70s, but I plan to call the Franklin County office when I get home and offer my services.

444 School Starts

Last Thursday I had to wait 20 minutes at the coffee bar while the clerk prepared huge vats of coffee for the teacher in-service day at Danbury schools. Then this morning I saw many students waiting at the end of the drive-ways and lanes for the bus. What was interesting and was probably just a phenomenon of first day, were the number of families and parents waiting with the children. I saw only one child standing alone. The Danbury website only has last year's schedule up--for the taxes we pay here in Lakeside (virtually no school age children), the least we should get is a current website I can show you!

443 I know it was a legal product, but. . .

Somehow, this system looks a little odd when tobacco growers get a piece of the settlement pie.

"A year after the nation's tobacco companies reached an agreement with the country's attorneys general to pay billions of dollars for tobacco-related health-care costs, the companies made another agreement with the 14 states that grow tobacco.

Four of the country's largest cigarette manufacturing companies established the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust to compensate tobacco farmers for lost sales and encourage them to branch out into other crops.

As a result of the settlement trust, Ohio tobacco farmers will receive more than $70 million over 12 years.

Daily Reporter

442 Last week-end of the season

The end of the 9th week at Lakeside was dynamite! The symphony closed out its 41st season Friday night with Berlioz, Bach, Shostakovich and Dvorak. The pianist, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, knocked our socks off and even kept me awake.

Than Saturday night Hoover auditorium was filled almost to capacity to hear the Fifth Dimension, popular 60s-70s close harmony group. Two of the originals are still in the group, Florence LaRue and Lamont McLemore, and the other three are equally talented, Greg Walker, Willie Williams and Van Jewell. If you ever have the opportunity (the schedule looks like they perform perhaps once or twice a month), they are well worth the price and trip--putting on an outstanding two hour show.

The Annual antique show with about 25 dealers was Saturday afternoon. Patty and I went--we used to see the items from our mothers' and grandmothers' homes--now we're starting to see "antiques" from our homes since we've both been married over 40 years. Sunday morning the four of us attempted to attend church on the lakefront at the pavilion, however, the wind was blowing the rain all over the chairs, so we left for breakfast at The Abigail. Our house guests left about 10 a.m.

The gates went up at 8 a.m. Sunday. They will temporarily come down next week-end for the Barbershop show. We'll be here to see our friends Andy and Mary Frances who keep a sailboat at Port Clinton and come over for that, then we'll return to Columbus to enjoy the Labor Day Art Show.