North Carolina Politics Goes Nuts

I don't know if you all know this, but Lizzy Dole is in danger of losing her senate seat to Democrat Kay Hagen. Kay seems to be a moderate southern democrat and is definitely getting my vote next week. Over the last few months the democratic party has does a good job attacking Dole's record and effectiveness. It's the kind of attacks that point out important facts about the candidate that avoid personal attacks and focus on record. I don't like negative adds, but the ones we've been seeing against her have been tastefully done and on message.

Then last week, a television ad ran suggesting that Kay Hagan was "godless." The shocking message has spread accross the state and have left me feeling a dark line was crossed. Kay Hagan needs to respond and here it is!



Simply put, this is the same blame through association game played out against Obama due to his academic contacts. It's everything that's wrong in American politics. It feeds on voters prejudices. It's just plain wrong. Senator Dole should be ashamed of her campaign for such an add.

On the 4th, you can vote with the moderate democrat seeking to find common ground or you can co with the senator who barely visits our state anymore and runs slanderous adds against her opponent.

Champs

I'm basking in the glow of the Phillies championship!

Keyboard & Mouse

I asked this question to Nothing Knew in an email, but I thought I would put it out to my readership as well.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions about keyboards & mice.

My fibro causes pain in my hands and wrists similar to the issues of arthritis &/or carpal tunnel sufferers. Meds help, hamd exercises help, but I often have trouble with comfort at the computer. (And the car and all sorts of other places.) The issues are long periods typing but more importantly gaming.

Standard just plain keyboards work fine from a functional standpoint. The standard mouse is too small and not shaped right. The keyboards provide no support and positioning hurts after a while.

I have a few things I've tried. I have a Microsoft wireless comfort keyboard & wireless laser mouse 6000 I got a few years ago. They are perfect from an ergonomic standpoint and I like the feel and throw of the keys. But the wireless is suspect, especially when gaming. It also cuts out in the presence of other wireless devices.

The wife has a Logitech cordless desktop mx3000. Wireless connection is much better, but the keys are too tight together and the clicks feel hard. The mouse is way too heavy.

I've got a Logitech Trackman ergonomic wheel mouse which is great but I can't do serious gaming with it. I've tried and it's too much.

So, what I'm looking for is something wired (usb) that has similar feel and comfort as my microsoft keyboard/mouse but at a reasonable price.

Sick as a Dog

Our poor pooch isn't feeling well. He's not "rush to the vet" sick yet, but I'm getting ready to boil some chicken and rice for him. He's trying so hard to alert me to "daddy, I need to go outside." But it's hard for him. The rug at the back door is about to spend it's second day in the washing machine.

This combined with me feeling all sluggish is making for a real fun time in our house. Poor Slick just comes home and looks at us with a "Now what do I do?" look on her face.

Health Update

Talk to the Hand
My hand is much improved. The swelling decreased a great deal on Friday. My hand still has a big silver-dollar sized "sunburn" on it, but otherwise fully functional. I've been taking some time to reorganize and resupply the emergency kits in the house and cars since it's clear that I'm allergic to wasps.

Fibromyalgia
I'm up to 75 mg of Lyrica a day. It seems to be helping with a lot of my fibro symptoms. Specifically, the day to day tingling and numbness in my hands, arms, feet and legs is almost completely gone. My issues with cold in my extremidies seems to be better. Muscle aches are greatly reduced. I'm hardly touching my painkillers. The side effects are harsh and I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to the next level of dosing because I don't think I'll be able to handle taking it during the day.

Unfortunately, my headaches have been bad due to seasonal allergies. And with everything that's been happening between the new meds, the allergies and the wasp sting, my fatigue issues have been really bad for the last few weeks. It's been one thing after another.

Today I found myself just frustrated with everything and had to just give myself a time out. I screwed around with a box of computer parts in the closet, played on the computer and the wife brought home some takeout so I didn't have to cook. (She's so understanding.)

Hopefully, with the first frost of the season expected tonight, the wasp sting healing & generally getting used to the new medications, I'll have a good November.

Stung

On Tuesday, I took the car to the shop and walked home with the dog. Unfortunately, about a mile from home, I got stung by something on the left hand. I honestly thought it was a wasp, but the whole thing happened so fast, it could have been just about anything from a fire ant to a spi...nothing to see here dear... There was no visible stinger and other than a mark on my hand and a sharp sting I seemed OK. I arrived home without further incident. I got through the rest of the day and aside from a pin-prick of pain forgot about the whole incident. No worries right? Yeah well...

By Wednesday morning the back of my hand was red and itchy. By Wednesday night, the back of my hand was red, itchy and swelling. We applied various bite creams and looked in WebMD for treatment info. By Thursday morning the swelling increased, the itch spread to my wrist and my hand was in pain. Sigh! On Thursday afternoon I saw the Nurse Practitioner at my Doctor's office, who basically told me that since I had survived the first 48 hours, I would probably live. She directed me to ice, elevate and increase my Benadryl dose. She warned me that the spreading might continue a little more but not to panic unless...

So, I spent the evening semi-sedated with my hand elevated & wrapped in ice. Stupid

This may be my last post for a few days since typing is uncomfortable. If you've had a hand or wrist injury, you understand my frustration. I can use my hand if I have to, but it's not comfortable.

Did I mention sigh!

Gotta Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run

Coming home today from the daily dog walk, my dog saw my neighbor & her dog outside and absolutely had to say hi. Our neighbor is great. I could pontificate about her greatness, how she takes care of Max when we're away, watches her grandchildren,...but that's not the point of this post.

Her brother & sister-in-law are visiting with their dog. After we got over the pleasantries of dog-ownership, dog-breeds & weather the conversation accidentally turned to politics. These very "moderate" (not) leaning folks are voting McCain and it's rather clear that their big issue is abortion. I very carefully defused the issue with an agreement that we're all faithful people and that we can simply respect eachother's position. Then the brother makes an aside comment about Obama's being Muslim.

I was floored. In that instance, I wanted to shout at this nice retired gentleman, "WHAT ARE YOU STUPID?" I wanted to point out all the fundamental problems with the lies he's obviously been spoon-fed. I wanted to remind him that this is a fundamentally pluralist society and that Muslims have died defending his right to say stupid stuff like that.

Instead, I took a deep breath, remembered how much my neighbor means to me, and beat a hasty retreat.

For King M from Slick

You Want to Talk About Fear?

I'm watching last night's debate this morning.

I want to take a moment to comment on one of the issues that I never identified as important but has quickly become so in this election cycle: Health Care.

I've looked it over and I'm afraid of McCain's health care plan. In debate, he keeps side-stepping the lost coverage, exclusion from coverage issue. Obama keeps suggesting (as do a number of articles I've read) that people with preexisting conditions will not be covered in the "open market." McCain's dismissal is to suggest that only people with "Gold-Plated" plans that cover insane medical proceedures might have problems. What about people like me?

I have to go to the doctor's office a lot. I have medical tests several times of the year to make sure that my symptoms aren't something else and to make certain that my medications aren't having an adverse affect on me. I regularly feel punished by our insurance company to find approved medication. Because it's so much fun skimming through the "approved medication" list with my doctor every time we want to try something new or every time they come out with a new list.

There's no way I'm getting into an open-market health care plan. There's no way I'm going to save money even with the tax credit if our premiums and deductables keep rising. (Which they are.)

I'm not saying that the Obama plan is the end-all-be-all. It's just scary because the cost of my medications would be unaffordable without health care coverage.

On a side-note: I've spent 2 weeks now on a minimal dose of Lyrica and have been seeing very positive results. So, we're going to the next level. It's very exciting.

I'm Casting My Vote for...

Baseball!

Tomorrow night at 8PM the Phillies have a chance to make it to the World Series. I am NOT switching to the debate when it comes on at 9PM. I should be able to download the debate on Hulu or iTunes anyway. Heck, I can watch MSNBC's Countdown postmortem as a PodCast if I want. Also, it's much easier to ignore specific news about the debate than it is to avoid the score of the game.

Besides, I decided to cast my vote for Obama about 18 months ago.

Bottom of the 9th

I can't stand it! Slick has gone to bed and I'm left here holding my breath. Can Lidge finish them off?

I got your drill right here

The political advertising onslaught continues here in North Carolina. Once considered to be a Republican stronghold, Elizabeth Dole is vulnerable and McCain is apparently not winning here right now either. Fingers Crossed!

Consequently 2/3 of all TV commercials seem to be political. Most fall into 3 categories: Attack ads on Kay Hagan (Democrat running against Dole), attack ads on Obama and positive, uplifting ads from Obama. Please note that there are plenty of ads attacking McCain & Dole and all sorts of politicians in-between.

It also seems like every office is up for grabs including Governor.

I've been feeling almost guilty about not paying enough attention to the Senate race. I don't like to blindly go into the booth and vote party-line. Sure, I've never done otherwise, but I like to be an "informed" voter. I believe that voting & paying taxes (zing) are my patriotic duty.

Thankfully, two very helpful organizations sent us mail today. One is "Freedom's Watch" who told me that Kay Hagan supports windfall profit taxes on oil companies & that she sides with organizations like the Sierra Club in blocking more off-shore drilling. The other is the "Associated Builders and Contractors Free Enterprise Alliance" who tells me that Dole wants to open more areas offshore & lift the moratorium on oil shale exploration.

Apparently, both organizations think that more oil drilling is good. And that more oil drilling will reduce our dependency on foreign nations. Of course, I think more oil drilling is stupid & that energy diversity will do a much better job. That's just me, a granola-eatin', Sierra Club lovin', Democrat-votin' fool.

Also, I like to read the New York Times! Gasp!

So, thanks to both of these wonderful right-leaning organizations for making me feel better when I go "all in" with the Democrats on Nov 4. Jerks!

Note: In NC, you can't "one stop shop" for a party. You must vote for president & then cast your party ticket. Otherwise, the vote for president won't count.

Thank You FOX tv

FOX television has the rights to the NLCS & the World Series. This means I will be able to watch the Phillies! As cable prices rise & wallets shrink, this is a big deal.

So, that iDad doesn't miss a game, here's the current schedule for the first 4 NLCS games. Note that game 2 starts at 4PM!

Phillies vs Dodgers

Thursday - 8PM
Friday - 4PM
Sunday - 8PM
Monday - 8PM
All times Eastern.

Remembering Karen

Posey & MrsKnew (the real power behind the throne) are participating in the Philadelphia 3-day walk for a cure in just a few weeks.

A few weeks ago, Slick and I were visiting with my inlaws and their friends at the beach. The one day everyone was sitting around watching sports and reading books when I overheard the Queen and some of her friends talking about someone they knew who has breast cancer. Sitting there, reading my book, thoughts of Karen suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to force myself to swallow the tears and keep reading.

Since then, thoughts of Karen keep hitting me. Out of nowhere I've been remembering visiting her in the hospital like it was yesterday instead of last year. I think about settling into our dorm sophomore year. I think about Karen's laughing down the hall. I think about how close we are to Halloween. I pray that we find a cure so no more families have to go without a wife and mother.

Please support your local Breast Cancer fundraisers.

Slick recently switched to Yoplait and is saving her lids.

Also, check out Army Of Women.org. It was featured on the Oct 1 broadcast of the Nightly News with Brian Williams. It's a place where healthy women can sign up to become potential breast cancer study volunteers.

As my sister is apt to say, God's peace ya'll!

Thank You Joe

I promised I wouldn't be posting more politics posts for a while, but I have to share my moment of thanks to Joe.

The setting:
Gov Palin has just evoked Dark Lord Cheney as an example for her Vice Presidency.
Me:
"Fuck this! Throw the gloves off Joe. Don't let her use Cheney as a role model. Tell the world how evil that bastard is!"
Joe:
"Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history..."
Me:
Fists pumping in the air, shouting, nearly missing the rest of his comments and getting odd amused looks from the wife.
"THANK YOU JOE!"

Indeed I was very impressed with Joe throughout the debate and could go on at length. But I just really wanted to share that moment.

Phillies Take 2-0 Lead

So, who was the MVP of the game? Was it Victorino with 3 hits and a grand slam or was it Myers with 7 beautiful innings pitched and some clutch at bats of his own? I just can't decide!

Next game on Saturday @ 6:30 at the Brewers.

NYT Article on the Crisis

Here's a phenomenal article on the events of the past few weeks. It puts everything into context. Amazingly, several of these events reminded me about worst case scenarios from training during my BFC days.

36 Hours of Alarm and Action as Crisis Spiraled

And yes, I saw the news from the Senate. I'm not sure if I should be relieved or cry.

P.S. Last economy/politics post for a while. This stuff gives me heartburn. I can't wait until Nov 4.

Yes, yes, the bail-out sucks. Still should have passed it STUPID

I know there are a lot of people on both the liberal & conservative sides who hate the idea of the Wall Street bail-out. I personally get sick to my stomach thinking about it. They fucked up, we have to pay for it. That doesn't sound right. The guy who ran WaMu for a week got over $10 million for doing what? Presiding over a major corporate collapse for a week. I'd take a few bucks, a cup of joe and some Cobra benefits for a week's work clearing out the trash for a week.

So, I will give bail-out haters their due. This just plain sucks.

No one should be surprised by Monday's global stock market dip. Tuesday's bump, thanks to bargan hunters, was great, but it didn't help the Credit market which is the real source of our issues. Eventually, things will work themselves out. Our response may help determine if things get better within the year or take a decade.

What folks are missing by actually caring about the reasons for the bail-out or by complaining about the elements of the bail-out is the harsh reality of the situation. The dullest, most back-water element to global corporate finance had a freaking asthma attack. Overnight loans between BFC's aren't happening. This has ripple effects to everything we do. They don't extend credit to each other, then companies don't loan money to us. They don't have liquidity to pay for capitol equipment or pay employees. Mortgage rates, car loans, credit cards, all this shit could feel the ripple effects. You think unemployment and foreclosures are bad now? Watch this shit drag out a few more weeks, then we'll see how those numbers look.

The bail-out is about fixing that.

And, if you don't think this is about helping "Main St" then you're wrong.

Yeah, it should never have gotten here. Yeah, this medication tastes horrible.

The longer this drags out the more concessions we will see to corporate lobbyists and conservative "deregulation" politicians. If you didn't like the plan that failed this weekend, you're probably going to HATE the one that is being proposed this week. And you'll loath whatever finally gets passed. You can't get what you really want in a Democracy. You simply have to hope that the compromise does what you need.

Meanwhile, the BFC's that survive this are going to get bigger and more powerful. Instead of correcting this imbalance between the rich and the rest of us, we're going to see it grow.