Jane Now a Kept Woman (or at Least a Paid Blogger)

Some time ago I wrote about signing a contract with Newstex to be part of their Blogs on Demand product. The contract includes a formula for royalties, paid when the amount gets to $25.00. They are calculated monthly and run about 60 days behind (in Nov I get an email statement for Sept, etc). This blog was picked up by Lexis / Nexis in August and I started accumulating royalties then. The first check came today. If you want particulars, send me an email (listed on my blogger profile, link on right sidebar).

Two Updates and Something New

Two updates to items mentioned in previous posts:

Jonathan Newman has resigned as head of the state's liquor control board. Sad news for the state's wine lovers. The Inky has an online q&a with Newman here.

FEMA has decided that Pennsylvania can use the very detailed flood plain maps prepared under the guidance of Temple's Center for Sustainable Communities for the Pennypack Creek watershed. ("U.S. yields to Temple floodplain mapping: FEMA will use it for the Pennypack, saying its accuracy could be a model, by Diane Mastrull and Anthony R. Wood, 1/07/07)

For those who can't get enough coverage of the US House, there is a new blog that hopes to provide daily updates. Add the US House Digest ushousedigest.wordpress.com/ to your list of frequently visited sites.

PA No Longer Sweetens the Senate

As previously mentioned, former Sen. Rick Santorum kept a stash of chocolate and other sweets in his desk and handed them out to his fellow senators. The Wall Street Journal provides a little more information, and gives the fate of the designated “candy desk.” (in New Senate, The ‘Candy Desk’ Gets a Kiss-Off,” by Sara Lueck, 1/05/07).

It seems the desk is one usually assigned a low ranking Republican (the sweet spot is the desk, not the person sitting in it); it is in a “heavily trafficked area near the exit to the elevators.” The new desk occupant is Sen. Craig Thomas of Wyoming, and that presents problems. As the WSJ points out:

Ethic rules forbid member accepting gifts worth $100 or more a year from a single source. One exception covers items produced in a senator’s home state – so long as they’re used primarily by people other than the senator or his staff.

During Sen. Santorum’s term at the candy desk Hershey and Just Born, among other Pennsylvania companies, supplied the treats. Unfortunately Wyoming is not as similarly blessed with confectionary industries. Two of the possible items the state’s smaller candy businesses could send include

“moose doodles (chocolate covered almonds shaped just like moose droppings) and bison balls (round Rice Krispies treats dipped in chocolate, sold in packages of two).”

Ummmm, I think I’ll pass on those, thanks.

The article gives a history of the candy desk and outlines some strategies being considered for keeping the tradition going.

I’m filing this under “intriguing but odd.”

Off Topic: Good Train Read

Taking the day off to go to Washington on Thursday was a personal indulgence, a vacation day from work and leaving kid pick up and drop off both to Mr. J, but to make it really decadent I read a novel on the train. Didn't quite finish it yet but it was a good diversion from Pennsylvania politics. Poison Study is a first novel by Maria V. Snyder, who grew up around Philadelphia and still lives in the state. The main character is female but it doesn't qualify as chick lit; there is no giggling, no cadre of gal pals to chatter with, no talk of dieting, wardrobe, and, 50 pages from the end of the book, no overt romance. The setting is one of those quasi-medieval societies that often show up in Tolkienian fantasy but so far there's nary an elf, dwarf, or pointy-eared creature of any kind. I think the author just wanted a little leeway with the laws of nature as we know them. There is good character development, the requisite court intrigues (oh, darn, it does deal with politics!), alliances, etc. In any event, I like it quite a bit. There is a sequel that I'll have to track down.

weekly legislative update

No bills were passed in the Pennsylvania House or Senate this week (the House was busy picking a speaker). However, some interesting resolutions showed up. Please note the House resolution refers you to remarks in the House Journal. That is released about 6 months behind the actual date, so we might see those remarks, oh, next June or July.

House:

Serial No. 1 By Representative DeWEESE. Printer's No. 1. A Resolution adopting temporary rules for the House of Representatives. Introduced, Jan. 2, 2007 (Remarks see House Journal Page ), Jan. 2, 2007

Senate:

Serial No. 2 By Senators PILEGGI and MELLOW. Printer's No. 1. A Resolution providing for broadcasting of Senate floor activity. Introduced and adopted, Jan. 2, 2007

Serial No. 3 By Senators PILEGGI and MELLOW. Printer's No. 2. A Resolution adopting Rules of the Senate providing for a transition regarding regulation of the practice of lobbying. Introduced and adopted, Jan. 2, 2007

Serial No. 4 By Senators PILEGGI and MELLOW. Printer's No. 3. A Resolution providing for the adoption of Financial Operating Rules of the Senate. Introduced and adopted, Jan. 2, 2007

Serial No. 5 By Senators PILEGGI and MELLOW. Printer's No. 4. A Resolution providing for the Rules of the Senate for the 191st and 192nd Regular Session.
Introduced and adopted, Jan. 2, 2007

A Day in DC

Today I went down to Washington, D.C. to watch the swearing-ins, etc. Through one avenue or another 3 congressional representatives had invited me to stop by their office or attend a reception or something similar. It’s been awhile since I went to Washington so it was a treat.

The day did not start off well; trains to DC were delayed for 30 minutes. However, once there, things picked up. I teamed up with another woman from Philly (well, London originally but Philly most recently) in the Metro but we had different stops on the red line. There was a long line outside the Rayburn Office Building and people were grumbling about not getting in before the ceremonies were over. A police officer came over to suggest some of us shift to a side entrance. Off we went. Two officers on bikes made sure we got to the right spot. I found a reception with televised coverage of the proceedings. It was on a balcony but there were so many people we were backed up the stairs and into the hallway. The woman next to me complained that people were squeezing past her and getting a better viewing spot. I told her she wasn’t pushy enough and she side tackled me as an example of how pushy she could be. We jostled and joshed for awhile and complimented each other’s clothing and blocked others trying to sneak past us. It was all in good fun though. There wasn’t much to see on the televisions. The House was just waiting for representatives to gather. I got bored and set off in search of office open houses.

What I found was the lower levels of the Rayburn building; what I could not find was a way out of them. Fortunately I ran across some workmen who were able to give me directions. The hallways were full of creaky old desks and file cabinets. At first I thought it was surplus furniture going to the dump. However, when I got a look at the congressional offices and saw what they were furnished with, I decided the things in the basement were probably just waiting to be moved somewhere. No one runs for congress to work in palatial offices with nice furniture. I visited the work spaces of Reps. Chris Carney, Patrick Murphy, Allyson Schwartz, and Joe Sestak, scattered around the Rayburn, Longworth and Cannon office buildings (all connected). All of the staff I spoke to were very welcoming. In most, people were watching news coverage of House proceedings. I paused in two to watch the roll call for Speaker of the House. Trivia – it looked like representatives-elect cast a vote for Speaker before they were sworn in. The election of Nancy Pelosi was met with cheers and I heard part of her speech afterwards.

While I met lots of nice staffers I didn’t see any of the representatives themselves. However, outside Carney’s office I saw Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll. In other spots I ran into Sharif Street, Ruth Damsker, and State Rep. Bryan Lentz. Other notable tidbits overheard – on Patrick Murphy’s first day on the job his infant daughter spit up all over his tie. Suggestion for his office staff – cover everything with plastic and start keeping extra clothes in the office. Soon after spitting up babies often learn to projectile vomit. If I remember correctly this is no fun for anybody and can be very messy. Plastic keyboard covers are a must. Allyson Schwartz has very little staff turnover in her DC office. This was mentioned as a point of pride. From my completely uneducated viewpoint the constituents visiting Sestak’s office looked wealthier than the people in the other offices. Just my opinion. However, it was the only place I saw women in pearls.

After over 4 hours of flitting around the Capitol area I started to get hungry. If there was any food in the buildings I couldn’t find it. One office did have some fruit and crackers out and while it was very good it wasn’t all that substantial. There were some vending machines near some of the elevators but that was all I saw. No wonder so many of the staffers looked thin. So I decided to call it a day and headed back to Union Station to grab a slice of pizza before catching a train home.

There were probably a number of events that I didn’t get to but it was interesting. Special thanks to the nice woman in Allyson Schwartz’s office who was willing to answer my “what to wear” questions.

The Gang of Five

Daddy Democrat went to Harrisburg yesterday to watch his new state rep, Bryan Lentz, be sworn in. He also said:

I also note that Bryan’s sharing an office quite [suite?] in the capitol with fellow newcomer Rick Taylor. They’re in the same little neighborhood with the gang of other young, suburban superstars Vitali, Gerber, and Shapiro. I assume that they’ll have lots of chances to work together as a block on regional interests and issues. There is a heck of a lot of can-do and dynamism in that gang of five.

So Bryan Lentz and Greg Vitali, of Delaware County, Rick Taylor, Mike Gerber, and Josh Shapiro, all of Montgomery County, are office neighbors. Now that is intriguing. You know if you put a lot of brains, creativity, and gumption all together and mix, you either get something wonderful or a lot of soot and singed eyebrows. Let's keep tabs on this group and see what they come up with.

Bruce Almighty, Part IV

The cat seems to be out of the bag. There have been rampant rumors over the past few days that Bruce Castor, Montgomery County District Attorney, is going to seek a spot on the ballot as a Republican candidate for county commissioner. Previous posts have mentioned the poll he paid for showed incumbent commissioner Tom Ellis with very low positive numbers. The other incumbent Republican, Jim Matthews, didn't do so well either.

Today news stories appeared in a variety of Montgomery Newspapers ("Castor considers run for county commissioner by Margaret Gibbons) and in the Bulletin ("Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Ken Davis says Castor Running For County Commissioner," by Jim McCaffrey, saying Castor intends to run as part of a team with former state Rep. Melissa Murphy Weber. State Rep. Kate Harper is also rumored to be interested in running. That's five people interested in two spots on the ballot. The primary could be very interesting.

Gibbons' article also notes that Eric Kretschman, current county comptroller is also likely to face competition for the Republican spot on the ballot.

Layoffs at the Inquirer

Today the Inquirer ran an article saying that 68 people in their newsroom would be laid off ("68 in Inquirer newsroom to lose jobs," by Bob Fernandez). In the article managing editor Anne Gordon is quoted as saying:

"The Philadelphia Inquirer is an excellent newspaper, and we intend on keeping it that way," she said. "In order to do that, we will be making changes to beats and coverage plans in the next 30 days."

My own editorial response is to say "No, I don't think you can do that, cut that much and keep it excellent." This is just awful.

Rendell Press Conference on PCN

This evening I watched a press conference on PCN with Gov. Ed Rendell, new PA House Speaker Dennis O'Brien, and Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese. I caught part of a press conference with O'Brien, DeWeese, and Rep. Dwight Evans. Here is a synopsis of remarks made; I missed the last part of the Rendell press conference. As always, my apologies for any errors or misinterpretations. The sound quality of the microphones for both speakers and reporters were not the best and some things I just couldn't catch.

Rendell Press Conference

Ed Rendell: Election of O’Brien a good thing not for D or R but for PA. Partisanship can create more of an uphill fight than is needed. People don’t want that kind of govt, put people ahead of party. People don’t want us to spend time wrangling over things. Speaker O'Brien will have a different way of doing business. The most important things a public official can have is passion for doing things to make peoples lives better. We need a more inclusive operation. Should not freeze out minority party. We should forget about party designation for at least the next 18 months. Should focus on mega issues that affect peoples lives. ER will not sign a bill outside the budget cycle that doesn't include a way to pay for it. O'Brien a just and fair individual. PA will see a new day. DeWeese often a lightning rod. Last 24 hours his best 24 hours, put his own personal wants and desires aside to help his party and the people. No elected official can do anything better. People of PA owe him a great debt of gratitude. Keith McCall and Phyllis Mundy stepped off leadership roles for good of people. Congratulate Josh Shapiro the catalyst for this. On New Year's Eve Shapiro asked O'Brien to think about it. A word about John Perzel. Did and said some thing that created a lot of public ire. If this is the end of Perzel's leadership remember he has done a lot for the state. JP made a mistake on raise, but so did ER. Understand, without JP we would not have had economic stimulus package, become a leader in renewable energy, minimum wage bill [other missed]. No property tax relief. Perzel's score card should have a balance onit. There are some minuses but also some pluses.

Q: caltagirone

ER: He started a chain of events that brought us where we are today. But Thomas Caltagirone not the only Democrat to vote for Perzel

Q: switch paries

DOB: I am a Republican. ER says that is a good thing. DO'B did not reach out to us, did not put a price on this. This is something new and different. DeW says most advantageous aspect of work enhanced by personal chemistry. DOB and ER have great personal chemistry. However, DeW will do everything to wheedle and cajole.

Q: committed to any specific proposals

DOB: none at present, Josh Shapiro has views, will put together a committee to study this. Meaniningful reform and quickly.

Q: chairmanships of committees

DOB: D in majority

Q: priorities

DOB: children with disabilities (especially autism)

[At this point I was distracted as Mr. J started checking into O'Brien's work on disabled children and found a long and robust history of significant involvement in this case.]

New Speaker of the House

By the time most of you read this the newspapers will have provided fuller and more detailed information. As often as possible today I checked the Inky's blog on the nominations and election for the Pennsylvania House's selection of a speaker. If you don't already know, it is Republican Representative Dennis O'Brien of Philadelphia. Read the pagavel blog for the scoop.

Local tidbits: Republicans Curt Schroeder and Dave Steil of Chester and Bucks County respectively, voted for O'Brien over Perzel. Philadelphia Democrats Rosita Youngblood and Angel Cruz voted for Perzel over O'Brien. Wunderkind Josh Shapiro, Democrat from Montgomery County's 153rd district supposedly got the ball rolling with assistance from fellow Appropriations Committee buddy Dwight Evans of Philadelphia. Gov. Rendell was involved as well.

Thanks to the Inquirer for posting this information quickly. Note to Mr. Tierney, just think, this sort of thing would be much more difficult to do with fewer reporters. My thoughts as a loyal (about 15 years) subscriber to the Inquirer.

New PA Senate Rules Adopted

Yesterday I wrote about proposed rules changes for the Pennsylvania Senate. Today those rules were passed. The new rules are:

* Session times will be limited to between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.
* Amendments will be posted to the Internet before being offered on the Senate floor.
* The Senate will wait at least six hours before voting on an amended bill or a conference committee report.
* All roll call votes will be posted on the Internet as soon as possible after a vote, but always within 24 hours of a vote.
* Committee votes on bills will be posted on the Internet within 48 hours of the vote.
* The Senate's Legislative Journal - which includes the full text of all floor debates - will be posted on the Internet upon Senate approval of the Journal or within 45 days, whichever is earlier.
* An updated fiscal note will be prepared if a bill is amended after consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee, if the amendment has a fiscal impact.

Let me add one personal observation. For some time now I have been writing up a brief synopsis of the state house and senate journals once a month's worth has been posted to the legislative web site. I've been waiting, less than patiently, for a few straggling days' journals to be added to fill out a month. For the Senate that month is October. As of today at least one more issue for October was missing. That's two months behind. Under the new rules that probably wouldn't happen. Votes and debate in the Senate two months ago might still be interesting or relevant. In the House -- I'm still waiting for a few June issues. That's right, the PA House Journals are SIX MONTHS out of date. It takes six months for them to be posted. The things I'm reading are interesting but they would have been a lot more interesting back in the summer. There is no reason I can think of for it to take half a year for the voters in this commonwealth to find out how their state representatives voted on an issue or what their public remarks, if any, were on that issue. And to the best of my knowledge there is no other way for votes to find that information, without subscribing to a for fee service or nagging their representative for information daily.

PA Senate Considers New Rules

For those who missed it, over the holidays the Pennsylvania Senate released a proposed set of new rules. I like them. You can read more in the PA Senate press release. Here is an excerpt:

Under the new rules:
• Session times will be limited to between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.
• Amendments will be posted to the Internet before being offered on the Senate floor.
• The Senate will wait at least six hours before voting on an amended bill or a conference committee report.
• All roll call votes will be posted on the Internet as soon as possible after a vote, but always within 24 hours of a vote.
• Committee votes on bills will be posted on the Internet within 48 hours of the vote.
• The Senate’s Legislative Journal – which includes the full text of all floor debates – will be posted on the Internet upon Senate approval of the Journal or within 45 days, whichever is earlier.
• An updated fiscal note will be prepared if a bill is amended after consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee, if the amendment has a fiscal impact.

Yes, There Are Shenanigans in the PA Speaker Mess

Yesterday I reported that Democratic state representative Thomas Caltagirone had sent a note to his fellow Democrats announcing his intention to support current Republican Speaker of the House John Perzel over the probably Democratic speaker Bill DeWeese. I suggested there were likely shenanigans involved. VoicePA has put together a money trail. I haven't gone through and verified their research but it looks believable to me.

Want to know why people are cynical about government? This could be exhibit B, right after the payraise exhibit A. DeWeese doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me either, but Perzel is no reformer either.

What I want to know is why Caltagirone would announce his intentions in public. Why also wouldn't he suggest a Democratic alternative? It's all fishy to me and what VoicePA has come up with makes sense.

Update: The Inky has set up a blog, run by state govt reporter Mario Cattabiani, to report on the situation. See http://pagavel.blogspot.com/index.html

More Speaker Drama

Both PoliticsPA and the Inky are reporting that Reading's Democratic Rep. Tom Caltagirone has notified his colleagues that he intends to vote for GOP John Perzel to retain his Speaker of the House position even though there is now a Democratic majority in the House. Stay tuned. I suspect shenanigans.

A Toast for the Sergeants

Sorting through the "to be blogged about" pile, I've discarded many items whose timeliness has passed. One did catch my eye. It is customary this time of year to offer toasts and remembrances and no doubt many a glass will be raised for our soldiers and veterans. A passage from an article in the Dec. 11 Wall Street Journal really struck me, probably because my father spent most of his 20 years in the army as a sergeant (primarily drill and platoon) and one sibling served as a supply sergeant before going to college and emerging as an officer (much to my father's great pride and chagrin). As we celebrate the victories and mourn the losses of 2006, let us remember the sergeants.

“Escalating Tab: Despite Its $168 Billion Budget, The Army Faces a Cash Crunch, by Greg Jaffe, WSJ Dec. 11, continuation on p. A4

One of the most pressing personnel problems is the lack of sergeants, the enlisted leaders who do most of the day-to-day supervising of the rank-and-file soldiers.

At Fort Hood, Texas, the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, which returned from Iraq in March, has about 75% of the soldiers it needs to fill its ranks, but only about half of its sergeants. The 5,000-soldier unit likely will go back to Iraq in the fall of next year, and leaders in the regiment say they will get more sergeants before they deploy, but not as many as they would like.

“The sergeant is the one that the soldiers take after,” says First Sgt. James Adcock, who oversees about 30 of the unit’s soldiers. He can make or break how effective the privates are.”

PA in the WSJ

I finally finished reading this week's Wall Street Journal and found a few interesting Pennsylvania-related items:

Mullins, Brody, "Strings Attached: As Earmarked Funding Swells, Some Recipients Don't Want it," Dec. 26, p. A1+. This is from p. A10:

Leaders in both parties use earmarks to reward lawmakers. For example, Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who will be chairman of the defense spending panel, won't allow members to add earmarks to the defense-spending bill unless they agree to support it, according to aides on the appropriations committee. This year's defense bill, which included nearly 3,000 earmarks took a mere 20 minutes to pass the House in October.

Megan Grote, a spokeswoman for Mr. Murtha, says that "members of Congress who appreciate the synergy between local communities and the [Department of Defense] are much more likely to support the bill, and that is the essential goal -- to get members to support the defense bill."

According to the article about 4% of the nation's budget, about 40.8 billion dollars, goes to earmarks.

In the Saturday/Sunday, December 23-24 issue, a front page article, "By the Bedside: In Nursing Homes, A Drug Middleman Finds Big Profits," by Sarah Lueck, a Pennsylvania company gets a mention on the p. A7 continuation:

Omnicare isn't the only company in the field receiving rebates. AmerisourceBergen Corp. of Chesterbrook, Pa, which has a subsidiary supplying drugs to nursing homes, also gets them. "It's part of how we get paid," says AmerisourceBergen spokesman Michael N. Kilpatrick, adding that the rebates are for medically beneficial drugs.

Since 1994 Omnicare has hired he College of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia to compile an annual book -- now running to about 800 pages -- that lays out the best drugs to use in the elderly based on research. The company says the book is the basis for its drug recommendations. "This book is scrutinized by people who have no vested interest in helping Omnicare financially," says Catherine Dragon, driectory of the guidelines project at the university, describing the editorial process.

I found the entire article a little alarming. In the interest of full disclosure let me mention that the investment club I belong to owns Omnicare stock.

Reading Obama's Audacity of Hope, Part III

This is the last part of my review of Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope.

Chapter Seven: Race

As the only American senator with known African ancestry, Obama is in a unique position to discuss race. He talks, for example, about the importance of the support he received from wealthy African Americans early in his political career and senatorial campaign, and how, in past years, there simply wouldn’t have been that many people of color with that kind of money. But, even so, the gaps in income, education and net worth that exist today between racial and ethnic groups defy the notion that we have or are becoming a racially blind society. To be sure, he talks about individual responsibility in regards to education and family stability, but contrasts these issues with ways that public policy could help reduce the income gaps among differing groups of people. One example he gives is the possibility of scholarships for minority students in math and science graduate programs where the number of African American and Latino students is comparatively miniscule.

Consider this excerpt from p. 259:

What would that be worth to all of us – an American in which crime has fallen, more children are cared for, cities are reborn, and the biases, fear, and discord that black poverty feeds are slowly drained away? Would it be worth what we’ve spent in the past year in Iraq? Would it be worth relinquishing demands for estate tax repeal? It’s hard to quantify the benefits of such changes – precisely because the benefits would be immeasurable.

He also talks about the hard working parents trying to keep their kids out of trouble and teach them good values and a work ethic. He mentions a man in Chicago who owns a number of businesses and hires young men off the street to teach them job skills. His turnover is high but those who stay with him for any length of time start talking about college or trade school.

In this chapter he also touches on illegal immigration. On pages 265 and 266 he recounts a conversation he had with a Republican senator on an immigration bill. I wish he had named names because the senator in question says “These Mexicans are just willing to work harder than Americans do.”

Chapter Eight: The World Beyond Our Borders

This is the foreign policy chapter and Obama discusses in detail the years of his childhood spent in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather. Again, he gives a brief overview of American history in this area. He discusses in depth his visits to Iraq and the former Soviet Union. There are a number of pithy statements in this chapter but none that I thought were representative of the entire thought pattern. It is interesting to read and difficult to summarize or excerpt from.

Chapter Nine: Family

The family chapter is perhaps the most personal chapter in the book. He recounts meeting his wife and their courtship. He expands this to discuss the American family in general. Like many people today he was raised by a single parent and he talks about the issues involved in his childhood and in single parent families more broadly. He touches on marriage and child care. It is almost a requirement for politicians to write or talk about how wonderful their spouses are and Obama is no exception. His wife is lawyer and the two of them have the money to afford good reliable child care. In addition his mother-in-law lives nearby. He writes of knowing how fortunate they are to have family close at hand and the means to fill in the gaps where needed, as well as some flexibility in work hours, and of how many American do not have these luxuries. Again he brings personal responsibility into the discussion but also some ideas on ways that public policy could ease the day to day existence of many people.

Epilogue

Obama recounts the two times he attended the Democratic National Convention, one with more fanfare and success than the other. He ends the book by going back to a theme in the prologue, that of value of public service.

Source Notes

While the book is primarily a personal narrative he does include some facts and other information that should be cited. In lieu of a standard bibliography or list of footnotes, source material is available on a website for the book, www.audacityofhope.com. Sources are primarily reports, magazine, and newspaper articles; many if not most are from within the past few years. It is difficult to have too many sources but the list Obama (or, according to the acknowledgements, someone else) has put together is more than adequate to document what he says.

Overall Impression

As I said at the beginning of this review, I enjoyed this book immensely. He has a gift with words and writes beautifully, almost lyrically in places. Yet he writes with substance and I often had to stop and think about what he had said. He has that rare knack to talk about something significant and sometimes painful without being overblown or melodramatic about it. Some of his discussions on race, of people throwing their keys at him outside restaurants, assuming he is a valet, are loaded with emotion but presented in passing. Someone else describing an upbringing similar to his could easily do so in the harsh and jagged tones of deprivation and victimization. Obama talks of it in simple nonjudgmental terms of acceptance. I found it impossible to read the book and not maintain or increase my opinion of him. I did not walk away with a clear understanding of the specific policy measures he would like to see put into place, but I do think I have a better idea of what general goals he has for the country, and I like them.

Michael Nutter in the Philadelphia Magazine

I had been, by and large, blissfully ignoring the Philadelphia mayor's race, but it landed in my inbox yesterday so I should probably start paying attention. In one of those serendipitous finds, while perusing the magazine rack while in the checkout line of the grocery store last night, I noticed that the January issue of Philadelphia Magazine has a nice long article on declared candidate and former city councilman Michael Nutter. When fate thumps you it's a good idea to take the hint so I bought the magazine and read the article. It's well done and provides a political history of Nutter and how he came to be where he is, complete with reputation as a reform candidate. For local netroots fans, city activist Hannah Miller, who served as state representative-elect Rick Taylor's campaign manager, is quoted in a couple of places.

The article, "Michael Nutter's Dilemma: Is this man too much of a reformer to be mayor? Or so hungry to be mayor that he can't be a real reformer?," by Jason Fagone, is available on the magazine's website: http://www.phillymag.com/articles/michael_nutters_dilemma/, at least for now, so click quickly.

Reading Obama's Audacity of Hope, Part II

Picking up where the previous post left off, here are my thoughts on chapters 3-6 of Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope.

Chapter Three: Our Constitution

In this chapter he discusses the senate and the separation of powers. He also goes into detail on laws, and the devil being in the details. Those wanting a brief description of partisanship in relation to judicial nominees and the “nuclear option” regarding filibusters will find this chapter particularly interesting. As a former professor of constitutional law his lengthy and heartfelt review of the Constitution, its history and the development of current interpretation of it. Here are two comments, the first from p.86

And yet for all our disagreements we would be hard pressed to find a conservative or liberal in America today, whether Republican or Democrat, academic or layman, who doesn’t subscribe to the basic set of individual liberties identified by the Founders and enshrined in our Constitution and our common law: the right to speak our minds; the right to worship how and if we wish; the right to peaceably assemble to petition our government; the right to own, buy and sell property and not have it taken without fair compensation; the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures; the right not to be detained by the state without due process; the right to a fair and speedy trial; and the right to make our own determinations, with minimal restriction regarding family life and the way we raise our children.

And this from p. 96 on slavery:

How can I, an American with the blood of Africa coursing through my veins, chose sides in such a dispute? I can’t. I love America too much, am too invested in what this country has become, too committed to its institutions, its beauty, and even its ugliness, to focus entirely on the circumstances of its birth. But neither can I brush aside the magnitude of the injustice done, or erase the ghosts of generations past, or ignore the open wound, the aching spirit, that ails this country still.

Throughout the chapter, but especially at the beginning (the third page in) and ending he mentions Sen. Robert Byrd, who wrote a multi-volume history of the senate. I won’t give it away, but Byrd’s discussion of one of his few regrets in life is one that must have touched them both.

Chapter Four: Politics

This is my favorite chapter in the book. It is a bluntly honest description of fundraising and campaigning and how those things change people, specifically candidates and elected officials. If you haven’t ever seen the inside of a political race, this will provide a good introduction. It was so well-constructed that I found impossible to pull out any one paragraph or group of sentences that were any better than the others or able to stand on their own without including more of an excerpt than I thought people would want to read. Just go through the whole thing; it’s only 35 pages.

Chapter Five: Opportunity

Obama opens and closes this chapter with stories of what happens when you do and don’t fly on private jets. This comparison was my favorite anecdote (or connected series of anecdotes) in the entire book. I won’t spoil it for you by including any of those stories here. Again, read it yourself. In between he gives a brief history of the role of government in business, education, and energy. Doing so in such a short space means it is only the most cursory of overviews, to provide the structure needed in setting the stage for what is happening today. Later he takes on social security and health care, acknowledging the complexity of these issues and not pretending to come up with quick and easy solutions.

Here is a paragraph from p. 187

Americans are willing to compete with the world. We work harder than the people of any other wealthy nation. We are willing to tolerate more economic instability and are willing to take more personal risks to get ahead. But we can only compete if our government makes the investments that give us a fighting chance – and if we know that our families have some net beneath which they cannot fall.

He wraps up the chapter with a story about meeting Warren Buffet and talking with him about tax policy. They agreed on the need for the wealthy to pay more, as noted on p. 193:

And perhaps I possess a certain Midwestern sensibility that I inherited from my mother and her parents, a sensibility that Warren Buffet seems to share: that at a certain point one has enough, that you can derive as much pleasure from a Picasso hanging in a museum as from one that’s hanging in your den, that you can get an awfully good meal in a restaurant for less than twenty dollars, and that once your drapes costs more than the average American’s yearly salary, then you can afford to pay a bit more in taxes.

Chapter Six: Faith

It has been something of a fad for some Democrats to wear their religious beliefs on their sleeve. Obama doesn’t do that. Instead he gives the development of his own faith and how it has informed his politics. I like this statement as a good summation of what he has to say, from p. 221:

In judging the persuasiveness of various moral claims, we should be on the lookout for inconsistency in how such claims are applied: As a general rule, I am more pronte to listen to those who are as outraged by homelessness as they are by the indecency of music videos. And we need to recognize that sometimes our arguments are less about what is right than bout who makes the final determination – whether we need the coercive arm of the state to enforce our values, or whether the subject is one best left to individual conscience and evolving norms.

He does argue in favor of inviting people of faith into the Democratic Party, and not simply letting the conservative Republicans lay sole claim to votes who profess religious beliefs.