speaking of giant hairy balls.  DC’s new schools chancellor, korean american Michelle Rhee, is challenging teacher tenure by offering gobs and gobs of cash.  whatever the results shake up to be, it’s quite obvious that this woman is a fearless, pit-fighting warrior.  she’s been on a fucking rampage shutting down failing schools, firing tons of staff and principals and floating out-of-the-box (crazy?) ideas like paying students who get good grades.  and now she’s trying to bust up the revered sacred cow that is tenure.  giant, hairy balls. 

again, time will tell how effective her tree-shaking really is, but right now as far as korean americans on the national stage go, imo, there are very few who are more impressive.

i have a pretty healthy collection of movies on dvd.  some bought, most burned, nearly all unwatched.  they just sit there perpetually overshadowed by the 3-7 new rented movies waiting to be watched at any given time.  i dunno.  when i’m buying and burning these movies i know that i am just not the type of guy to sit there and watch a movie i own, but i buy/burn it anyway.  i think i have some kind of identity gap that requires me to try to fill it with a collection of films that someone else would be able to identify me by.  “here lies Miracle Max.  the only person on this planet earth that could simultaneously own Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Ordinary People.” 

anyway, just for the hell of it, i threw in a few recent movies i have laying around and realized to my total delight that these films are convincingly withstanding the test of time, and are totally still enjoyable.  thank God i burned/bought them!

The Proposition (2005) -  Australian western film.  except it’s not really a western, like Clint Eastwood type western.  this one is more of an art house flick that’s just set in a western desert setting.  gorgeous images, great soundtrack, some strong characters, a palpable feeling of desert air dirtiness and tight, sporadic bursts of wild violence.  it’s the Australian desert and a gang of bandit brothers is tearing up the country side with their raping and pillaging ways.  the local law man captures the two younger bros and offers one of them a proposition: i’ll let you go, but you have to kill your older brother or else your younger brother will hang.  stars Guy Pearce, Danny Huston and the eternally under-rated Ray Winstone, a guy always on the radar after his performance in another interesting unknown film called Sexy Beast. 

Casino Royale (2006) – James Bond suddenly grew a pair of balls.  giant, rotund, hairy, manly balls.  i was never a big Bond fan.  i am a HUGE fan of this one though.  James Bond plays poker and wins some money or something, but not before laying the heavy handed, rough and tumble smack down on some poor motherfuckers that had the criminal misfortune to get in his way.  you can’t kill him, dumbass!  he has giant, rotund, hairy, manly balls, motherfucker!  he doesn’t sleep; he waits!

Sunshine (2007) – Danny Boyle’s space epic.  the sun is dying and planet earth is about to freeze over.  the last ditch, hail mary effort to fly into the sun and re-ignite it with the mother of all nukes just hit a snag…  overall, not a perfect movie, but i keep coming back to it because it does have one twenty minute scene of intense movie perfection.  worth it every time. 

Change I Can Believe In

I have dreams. I may seem like a boring pundit whose most exotic fantasies involve G.A.O. reports, but deep down, I have dreams. And right now I’m dreaming of the successful presidency this country needs. I’m dreaming of an administration led by Barack Obama, but which stretches beyond the normal Democratic base. It makes time for moderate voters, suburban voters, rural voters and even people who voted for the other guy.

The administration of my dreams understands where the country is today. Its members know that, as Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center put it on “The NewsHour,” “This was an election where the middle asserted itself.” There was “no sign” of a “movement to the left.”

Only 17 percent of Americans trust the government to do the right thing most or all of the time, according to an October New York Times/CBS News poll. So the members of my dream Obama administration understand that they cannot impose an ideological program the country does not accept. New presidents in 1932 and 1964 could presuppose a basic level of trust in government. But today, as Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution observes, the new president is going to have to build that trust deliberately and step by step.

Walking into the Obama White House of my dreams will be like walking into the Gates Foundation. The people there will be ostentatiously pragmatic and data-driven. They’ll hunt good ideas like venture capitalists. They’ll have no faith in all-powerful bureaucrats issuing edicts from the center. Instead, they’ll use that language of decentralized networks, bottom-up reform and scalable innovation.

They will actually believe in that stuff Obama says about postpartisan politics. That means there won’t just be a few token liberal Republicans in marginal jobs. There will be people like Robert Gates at Defense and Ray LaHood, Stuart Butler, Diane Ravitch, Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Jim Talent at other important jobs.

The Obama administration of my dreams will insist that Congressional Democrats reinstate bipartisan conference committees. They’ll invite G.O.P. leaders to the White House for real meetings and then re-invite them, even if they give hostile press conferences on the White House driveway.

They’ll do things conservatives disagree with, but they’ll also show that they’re not toadies of the liberal interest groups. They’ll insist on merit pay and preserving No Child Left Behind’s accountability standards, no matter what the teachers’ unions say. They’ll postpone contentious fights on things like card check legislation.

Most of all, they’ll take significant action on the problems facing the country without causing a mass freak-out among voters to the right of Nancy Pelosi.

They’ll do this by explaining to the American people that there are two stages to their domestic policy thinking, the short-term and the long-term.

The short-term strategy will have two goals: to mitigate the pain of the recession and the change the culture of Washington. The first step will be to complete the round of stimulus packages that are sure to come.

Then they’ll take up two ideas that already have bipartisan support: middle-class tax relief and an energy package. The current economic and energy crisis is an opportunity to do what was not done in similar circumstances in 1974 — transform this country’s energy supply. A comprehensive bill — encompassing everything from off-shore drilling to green technologies — would stimulate the economy and nurture new political coalitions.

When the recession shows signs of bottoming out, then my dream administration would begin phase two. The long-term strategy would be about restoring fiscal balances and reforming fundamental institutions.

By this time, the budget deficit could be zooming past $1.5 trillion a year. The U.S. will be borrowing oceans of money from abroad. My dream administration will show that it understands that the remedy for a culture of debt is not more long-term debt. It will side with those who worry that long-term deficits could lead to ruinous interest-rate hikes.

My dream administration will announce a Budget Rebalancing Initiative. Somebody like Representative Jim Cooper would go through the budget and take out the programs and tax expenditures that don’t work. “If we have no spending cuts, then we’re saying government is perfect. Nobody believes that,” Cooper says.

Having built bipartisan relationships, having shown some fiscal toughness, having seen the economy through the tough times, my dream administration will then be in a position to take up health care reform, tax reform, education reform and a long-range infrastructure initiative. These reforms may have to start slow and on the cheap. But real reform would be imaginable since politics as we know it would be transformed.

Is it all just a dream? I hope not. In any case, please be quiet and let me have my moment.

zippity doo-da zippity day!  my oh my

your next president is black, son.  it’s a beautiful thing.

so now we get to find out which side of obama’s conflicted platform will win.  his progressive policy stance or his promise of an inclusive and bipartisan government?  they both can’t work together.  he has to pick one.  which do you pick?  i pick the bipartisan government.  i’d rather move in half-steps with everyone on board than go full blast with an agenda that alienates half the country. 

with that in mind, the thing i am most afraid of is a Democratic party monster in the same mold as the former GOP monster.  corruption, power-grabbing, complete disregard for any other opinion, etc.  the Dems have to be careful to be transparent, fair and open to the idea that they govern the entire country, including the very significant conservative population of America.  i think we need to keep a close eye and short leash on the party to make sure they don’t get drunk with power now, start acting like assholes. 

that being said, i think the country spoke pretty fucking loudly in support of some progressive agenda items.  not the entire slate and not all at once, but would a new healthcare system fucking kill us?  we pay the most but get (comparatively) terrible care.  our infant mortality rate rank is like twenty-something.  wtf is that all about?  education, which is the engine of innovation, which is the engine of industry, which is the engine of our economy.  education has to pick it up.  and alternative energy.  the big daddy project.  campaigning on finding new, viable alternative energy is kind of like campaigning on finding a cure for cancer, easier said than done.  but shit man,  let’s do this!  i’m amazed that the world isn’t in a heated, balls out race to find new energy alternatives.  the winner will be the clear center of the world’s core new industry and probably the seat of world power.  healthcare, education and new energy.  let’s try to work these three new progressive items.

but first and foremost, let’s try to remember the losers in this election.  i thought mccain’s concession speech was quite moving, especially when he reminded us that we’re all fellow americans and that meant more to him than anything.  i really believed him when he said that, and i thought that was a beautiful moment of graciousness and class.  the losers are still our countrymen and neighbors.  hopefully, the winners will exercise proper self-restraint and remind themselves every once in a while that — as our new president likes to say — we are the UNITED states of america. 

please tell me you voted.   PLEASE for the love of bacon PLEASE tell me you voted!!!!!!!

****

check out this interactive map. 

it looks like the key states to look at are:

Ohio (20 electoral votes)
Penn (21)
Virginia (13)
North Carolina (15)
Florida (27)
Colorado (9)

Colorado and Virginia are leaning blue.  assuming those two go blue, mccain has to literally run the table and not lose any of the other toss up states, including PA.  i think the key states to look out for are:

Virginia and Florida (polls close at 7)  if both go blue, game over.  obama wins.  if just VA goes blue, which might be likely, look for:
Ohio and North Carolina (polls close at 7:30)  if either go blue, that’s game over.  obama wins.  if they both go red, however, look for:
Penn (polls close at 8)  if PA turns blue after VA, game over. 

essentially, if OH or PA or FL or NC goes blue after VA, that’s game over.  mccain could win every remaining toss up after that and he’d still lose, barring some election night miracle like obama losing california or something.  obama could even lose Colorado and Nevada, two states that are leaning blue, and things would still be ok.  looks like this one will be decided early.  pay attention!

(so exciting!)

the primary goal here is to get asian americans voting so that we can collectively stand and be recognized as functioning members of this country.  i’m an Obama guy, but even if you have to vote for McCain, go for it.  stand and be recognized.

that’s the primary goal.  if you are open to suggestion though, please vote for Obama.  it’s a risky pick, no doubt, but not nearly as dicey now as when he first started.  the campaign is finished and everyone who is watching seems to be agreeing that Obama ran one of the best campaigns in recent history.  that’s experience.  just over 1.5 years of it, and of course it can’t be compared to real presidential experience, but it’s definitely no Sunday stroll.  and not only was it a good item to put on his resume, but it’s something brand new to him that he excelled at.  McCain got schooled by Bush and Karl Rove in 2000, and what’s his best strategy after eight years on the bench?  “if you can’t beat em, join em.”  that’s the best he could do, no matter how (yes) out of touch that kind of sharp elbowing and GOP base-raising is today. 

mccain fails because he couldn’t quite grasp what it is the country is looking for: change, a move away from Rove’s GOP.  mccain fails because he couldn’t come up with a better strategy to suit this drastically new political climate.  mccain fails because he abandoned his strength, the political middle, when it should have served him best.  ironically, this physical and political warrior tucked-tail and ran to daddy GOP when things looked like they were getting rough.

this newbie Obama waltzed into the scrum and showed all these seasoned veterans how it’s done.  i took the risk and supported Obama hoping for more of what he showed in his campaign:  superb people skills, analytical thinking, a clear focus on the goal, prudent self-restraint and organizational superiority.

why should you, an Asian American, vote next Tuesday? 

to me it’s quite simple.  BECAUSE YOU DON’T.  if you consider that a nonsense answer, consider the fucking question.  it’s quite ridiculous that anyone should have to think of a reason for you.

it’s not my birthday, but thanks anyway, jerkies.

yesterday’s post developed from a conversation i had recently with someone, i forget who, about how thomas jefferson helped create the brilliant US Constitution when he was about 33 years old, and me, i felt pretty damn happy with myself for having quit playing WoW.  that was my big achievement for the 33rd year of my life.  anyway, this person was like “33 is the age of doing.”  and that made perfect sense to me. 

if you read this blog at all, it’s probably not hard to guess that i’m a perpetual downer when it comes to stuff like, you know, the state of my life or something.  hitting 33 didn’t help, because when 33 hit i did have this innate sense of incompleteness, which might have many sources, but when i had that conversation, it was definitely coming from the feeling of lost years that i should have spent positively building up to my 33rd year.  up until that point, it really was a case of “it will all make sense tomorrow, i hope.”  so 33 came and went, and, nope, there is no sense to be made.  i want to start everything over.

not i thought i’d change the world, though that would have been nice, but i definitely felt like i would have done something by 33.  made a lasting mark.  contributed to the world, even if in some small parochial way.  even if they don’t change society or create a lasting piece of world history (as far as we know), other people my age accomplish this by having children and that’s a pretty huge accomplishment.  or some people are just good at what they do.  in it up to their chins.  me, i can barely decide which pool to dip my foot into. 

so, yeah, 33.  that bit of advice doesn’t come from any place of accomplishment, as you probably correctly assumed.  it comes from a feeling of loss from inaction and indecision.  kinda like when someone who just lost a parent tells you to tell your parents that you love them, kinda but not really.  don’t go teaching english in korea for five years unless you aspire to be a kick ass english instructor when you’re 33.  don’t put off grad school because eventually — and maybe sooner than you think — it really will feel too late to go.  don’t put off marriage and kids for a shitty job that you hate and will eventually abandon anyway.  prepare to be where you want to be when you’re 33. 

is it me or are young people just irritating to be around?  them with all their strong assumptions and (seemingly) formed opinions.  they should just shut their mouths and ask us old people what to think, nay? 

if you’re young — like say under 24 or so –, you should know that i’m not very interested in your opinion unless it is to tell me how awesomely brilliant you think i am, or how enticingly i lick my fingers after i eat your doritos.  i’ve spent a lot of thought and alone time sitting by myself staring at the world, looking in from the outside, coming to conclusions anchored in bedrock, and any dissent isn’t merely a form of self-expression but an act of betrayal against the forces of good in the universe.  you offend God, who granted the creation of wisdom through age and grumpiness.  blasphemer.  idolator.  sodomite.  yes, you.  you take it in the rear.

actually here’s one bit of practical advice for young people.  (and i mean this in all seriousness now)  plan to DO by the age of 33.  every step you take should be preparing you for actual action when you’re 33.  make a plan and stick to it and make sure the number 33 figures in there.  build a career.  gain knowledge.  build a network.  research.  position yourself.  whatever you do, make sure you have something to show for it by the time you’re 33. 

thomas jefferson led a rebellion against the world superpower and formed a lasting, new nation when he was 33.  Jesus Christ died for all mankind when He was 33 (and if you’re a non-believer, you can at least concede that Jesus formed the basis of one of the most influential movements in world history when he was 33.)  or if that’s a little lofty for you…  Neel Kashkari is leading the US government Wall St bailout under Secretary Paulson.  he’s… well he’s 35, but you know, margin of error.  Francis Ford Coppola was 33 when he released The Godfather.  George Lucas was 33 when he released Star Wars. 

think about that.  33!

-  is it me or does it seem like the market is the guy from Memento?  complete short term memory.  it’s as if these motherfuckers wake up every morning and realize for the very first time that the economy looks bad.  didn’t shit look exactly this bad yesterday?  isn’t that why the market crashed 700 points?  why are you so bloody shocked that new housing construction and employment are down? 

-  this can’t be proved, and of course can be debated but i’m convinced that a lot of the blame of how bad the market and the economy is doing today is a direct result of congress’ initial rejection of the bailout bill.  the world expected the bill to pass easily and when it came back rejected, the world panicked and, for the very first time, looked over the edge and couldn’t see the bottom.  the market tanked and money movement halted.  the Dow recovered the day after the bailout rejection, and had the face of recovery, but in reality the credit market lending rate more than doubled that day and that was the tangible beginning of the credit freeze, i believe.  once that happened, the actual effects of economic slowdown created the bunker mentality that exists today.  the rejection is the one spook that caught the world off guard and caused everyone to sit down and consider how far this could go, and, so, of course, it will go that far. 

-  they blame a lot of the rejection on partisan in-fighting in congress.  in-fighting takes two sides so i blame all those douchebags.  democrat, republican, all of them.  they all vex me.  i’m terribly vexed.

-  i also blame Paulson and Bush, for making that ludicrous initial proposal requesting king-like authority for Paulson.  they all vex me.  (though i am hearing pretty unanimously that no one, except the general, unknowing public, really doubts Paulson’s good intentions in all this.  john mclaughlin, who i admire and think has a good sense of most things political, called Paulson a “noble man”.) 

-  i hope none of you are under water on your mortgage, living with an ARM that adjusted past your payment potential.  if so, i have about $100 laying around somewhere.  want to sell me your house? 

-  i love The Onion.