Obama's Open Letter to the Gay Community

It's worth calling attention to Obama's "open letter" to the gay community. He's in a fight with Clinton for the last states. He's been called "too liberal." And he's got a whole lot to lose right now.

But he's still willing to write this:

I talked about the need to fight homophobia when I announced my candidacy for President, and I have been talking about LGBT equality to a number of groups during this campaign – from local LGBT activists to rural farmers to parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. Martin Luther King once preached. Just as important, I have been listening to what all Americans have to say. I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBTAmericans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary. Americans are yearning for leadership that can empower us to reach for what we know is possible. I believe that we can achieve the goal of full equality for the millions of LGBT people in this country. To do that, we need leadership that can appeal to the best parts of the human spirit. Join with me, and I will provide that leadership. Together, we will achieve real equality for all Americans, gay and straight alike.

My hat is off to him.

4 Movies, 2 Flights

Thanks to the miracle of in-flight movies and iTunes movie rentals on my iPhone, I watched 4 movies on the long haul back from Puerto Rico yesterday. In chronological order:

The Nanny Diaries -- This movie was far better than the script, if that makes any sense. And that's mostly due to Laura Linney, who did a really great job playing Mrs. X. Scarlett was pretty (as usual) but it wasn't a great part and she didn't add a lot to it. But fun.

Saved! -- This brutal comedy is set at American Eagle Christian School, a born-again high school. It's very funny, I felt. Mandy Moore is actually quite good as a high school queen bee whose Christianity is mostly used to attack others. She is sincere in her faith, but expects it to bring great rewards, like popularity and good skin. The movie doesn't really question faith or Christianity, but aims for the evangelical moral code that opens itself to hypocrisy, self-flagellation (figuratively) and self-delusion even.

Live Free or Die Hard -- The absolute silliest movie of the four (and that's saying a lot since the next movie I watched was Hairspray) but dang this is a fun action movie with bizarre set piece after bizarre set piece. It uses cars a lot. The car that took down the helicopter I could almost buy. The SUV that ended up in the elevator shaft was hard to take. That said the premise of the movie is actually rather terrifying, and the film actually captured some of that.

Hairspray -- Don't judge me, but I really liked this film. It's got fun music, it had extraordinary art direction and production design, and the characters were well drawn (for a musical). I'm still not exactly sure why John Travolta had to play a woman, but he did a very good job at it.

Vieques, Puerto Rico

I left last Thursday for Vieques, Puerto Rico, and today's the day for the return trip. Here's what the trip home looks like:

Catch a plane to San Juan. Wait for three hours in San Juan. Fly for five hours to Houston. Wait there for an hour. Fly for 5 hours to Sea-Tac. Wait for baggage, get home at 1:00 am (5:00 am body time).

That said, this crazy trip was totally worth it. I splashed around in a bioluminescent bay; visited deserted Navy storage bunkers, the last Spanish fort built in the Caribbean, bizarre rock outcroppings, and the ruins of a sugar plantation; shared the road with wild horses, snorkeled the reefs, and lounged on no less than 8 pristine beaches (including one black sand beach)--all protected from development because they are inside the boundaries of the wildlife preserve. Most of the beaches required a bumpy trip over a dirt road through the preserve. It is an incredible thing to see beaches like this surrounded by lush green rather than hotels.

If you click on the photos below they should get a lot bigger.

Sorry, no pictures off the bay. It was pitch black and while the luminescence was crazy bright, my point-and-shoot camera wouldn't have captured it. But to give you an idea of what the bay was like, the single-cell organisms that light it up numbered 500,000 to the gallon. And every time you move them they light up. They caught in my beard and made it glow (briefly) and when you swim it looks like you've got angelic wings. It's an incredible thing.

Cuba Without Castro

For the general sake of my reputation, you won't see me venturing too far off my normal topics here, because I'd hate to really come off as totally ignorant. Take the elections in Pakistan. I got nothing. No idea what it all means.

But then there's Cuba, where today Fidel Castro announced his resignation (first posted on the Internet before anywhere else if you can believe it; how's that for high-tech communism?). In the late winter of 2000, I actually went to Cuba. And perhaps you remember there was a bit of a stink in Cuba at that time, because the US was still months away from giving back Elian Gonzalez (remember him?).

My time in Cuba was short, only three days, but it was fascinating. I arrived in Santiago de Cuba on the southeast side of the island from the water, on a 125' schooner actually. Things didn't get off to a good start when we raised the Cuban flag up the mast, as a sign of respect. Unfortunately, it went up the mast upside down, a declaration of war (my trust lab partner noticed the red star in the middle of the otherwise symmetrical flag was pointy-end-down).

But as to Cuba itself ... I rather liked it and liked its people. For a short time I walked the city and just looked in shops and hung out in plazas drinking bottled Coca Colas (a real surprise to find it available there, let me tell you).

Come time for the US Embargo to end and Cubans will be the best mechanics in the world. All the taxis are American cars from the 1950s that are still running. One opened up the hood and showed off the Soviet radiator that was installed in the Cuban engine of a 57 Chevy. When they need a part, they melt a piece to replace it.

And the people were very cool. It's an interesting thing, I should mention, to have everyone think you're German or British and be surprised that you're American.

The important thing about romanticizing Cuba, though, is to remember that the country is still--unquestionably--run by a dictator. Having been there, I will tell you that any soft-heart people have for Castro is misguided. The first Cuban I met, the harbormaster at the marina, said almost immediately after shaking hands, "I don't talk about religion or politics." One Cuban who a group of us kind of befriended was nearly arrested for bothering tourists, and we all had to vouch that he was welcome in our group. I saw a missile in a lettuce patch pointed north (really). Cuba is not a free country and its government and leader should not be romanticized (most especially Che, who might have had a good movie made about his motorcycle ride, but was rather a butcher after that).

But sipping that Coca Cola there got me thinking. I think the Embargo is a load of crap. If we really want to change the country, now that Castro's retired we need to take the opportunity to shake things up. George W Bush could actually pull off something pretty great if he opened Cuba the same way Nixon opened China. If we really want to help the people of Cuba, lifting the Embargo would be the place to start, and now we have the political excuse to do so.

They won't stay communist for long, as China has showed with their slow transition away (which still has a couple hundred years more ahead of it). Instead of withholding, I think we should be flooding the country with tourism and capitalism. I know there are problems on the state-to-state level of that but in terms of changing the "hearts and minds" of the Cuban people, I think it's not a bad way to go.

The View From My Window

For the record, the "View From Your Window" post up on Andrew Sullivan today is from my window.

That's right, that's my window, baby! Tacoma's on the Atlantic blog!

Private Mint in Tacoma?

Can I just say now that I think this is very cool.

A private mint in Auburn is looking at possibly moving to Tacoma. Part of the theory is opening the mint factory up for tours to add another business line and get a little synergy going with the rest of the museums.

But I want to point out that we need more companies like this looking at moving Tacoma. There are a bunch of businesses in Tacoma that sell things, and that's great. But what we really need are companies that sell things to people who don't live in Tacoma. This company is the unofficial mint for 19 countries around the world, and the money that he makes (that doesn't go into the currency obviously) stays where his company and his employees are. Put him in Tacoma, and that money starts sticking around here, giving more of it to people to spend at the other businesses.

I know this is a pretty rough economic model here, but I think it's important to look at what kind of business we really need to make grow in the next 10 years. Big companies or small, whether you manage mutual funds or sell widgets on eBay ... if you're pulling money into Tacoma from elsewhere, keep it up! You're doing a good thing for Tacoma.

Small Island in the Caribbean, Here We Come!

Last summer, Mary and I were faced with a dilemma. We wanted to do a tropical vacation, but where?

The all-inclusive resorts didn't beckon for a number of reasons, but the main ones being that it would just be too crowded (and expensive). On the other hand, going to some remote isolated destination where there aren't many tourists has its own problems.

Which is when we found Vieques. Ever heard of it? I hadn't. Turns out it's a small (very small) island just east of Puerto Rico that is part of the US. One end of the island was a shelling range for the Navy, so it--understandably--didn't build up much tourism. In fact, now that the Navy is gone, it's remained relatively empty. No mega-resorts, no cruiselines. Nuthin'.

Our room is on the beach in a converted house with 4 apartments in it. The island has some incredible attractions: nearly empty beaches, wild horses running around the island, and bioluminescent bays (read:glow in the dark water).

It's going to be awesome. We leave Thursday. I doubt we'll have a lot of internet connectivity, but if there's a chance to post some pictures we'll be sure to. Meantimes, check out the link to Vieques above. The wikipedia article has some good stuff in it, including some awesome pictures.

Just three more days!!

Dr. Jones Returns!

I read the cover story in last month's Vanity Fair about the new Indiana Jones movie ... I have high hopes that they've captured the fun spirit of it.

Plus, it comes out on my birthday. It's pretty much the most awesome birthday present I could imagine. Thanks, Steven and George!

Free Day at the Facility

Next Wednesday is a free day at the Point Defiance Facility. From Exit133:

The free day is offered as a thank-you to Tacoma voters, who in 1999, approved a $35 million bond issue to pay for Zoo improvements. Since then new features have included the Kids’ Zone children’s area, the five-acre Asian Forest Sanctuary, Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater, and a new front entrance, gift shop, and café.

Obama: Hype vs. Substance? Can he have both?

There's a growing backlash against Obama as an over-hyped candidate (this post was in fact inspired by an e-mail to join a facebook group that's against Obama as all-hype). His reputation for that comes from a couple places:

• He has focused on process over issues (the ways of Washington do not work, etc)
• He is a good speaker and inspirational to many and so the policy arguments get lost
• He is a "cool" candidate right now and is helped by YouTube videos made my celebrities but also hurt by them at the same time.

This criticism is becoming more common. Erica C Barnett at the Stranger's Slog (a Clinton supporter) disparages Obama because of his glazed-eyes supporters. Matt Bai at the NYT Caucus Blog talks about a friend who was dissuaded from voting for Obama because of the hyped will.i.am video. Etc, etc.

I tend to thing the criticism is baseless (but, then, I would). As Bai points out Obama is working hard right now to be more policy focused in his recent speeches. Here's Matthew Yglesias on Obama's policy-driven speech on the economy in Wisconsin. I'd also like to add that a quick gander at Obama's issues pages on the website should hopefully do away with the myth that he's got no ideas or proposals. Disagree with the proposals or not, they're there, and they're pretty wonkish. Here's his energy plan, for example, which gets pretty danged specific.

I think what's important going into Texas and Ohio is to emphasize that not only can Obama but be an inspirational speaker, but he's got the substance behind it.

UPDATE: Here's Andrew Sullivan on this same issue today.

Obama has a host of policy positions, on taxes, healthcare, Iraq, Afghanistan, immigration, climate change, and this blog has mentioned or debated many of them. There seems to be a meme that because someone is inspiring, there has to be no substance. But they are not mutually exclusive categories. In the Democratic race, the only real substantive difference is healthcare mandates, which I've aired a great deal. And compared with McCain, Obama is a wonk.

Ouch.

A "Facility?" Really?

There is a word in the English language that gets used all too often. And that word is "facility." It strips all the color from our language. Prison, gym, dump, school, church, office, warehouse ... all frequently get turned into "facilities.'

If you're a fan of Will Strunk and EB White's little book then you know that they hate this word as well. It's a generic word that is seeping into our language from plasticized business jargon (ie, "After finalizing the TQM report I'm going to tour the new exercise facility.")

I am against this word.

And so it was very sad when I noticed a billboard for the Zoo while idling in my car at 6th & Sprague. The billboard has a huge picture of a tiger looking right at you, and something about inviting you to see "high definition reality." It is a good advertisement and makes me want to go see the Zoo.

But then, snuck in at the bottom of the billboard is the phrase: "A Facility of Metro Parks Tacoma."

Um ... SayWA? It's a facility? This cool place with lions and polar bears and penguins and sharks is a facility? Talk about stripping away the English language! It's a zoo! It has llamas and otters and a yak, and you're trying to call it a facility! It's a zoo! Call it a zoo! Call it a Zoo and Aquarium! But don't call it a facility! The "facility," if you must have one, is the pumphouse for the aquarium, the feeding shed for the wolves, and the ticket kiosk at the gate. The facility is what I use after hours of being entranced by the wildlife you have at the Zoo. It is not the Zoo.

I would suggest on the next billboard simply "Run by Metro Parks Tacoma" or "Operated by Metro Parks Tacoma" or heavens-to-betsy "A Zoo of Metro Parks Tacoma."

But you're killing me with your fancy facility.

Virginia Exit Polls

Here's CNN's Exit Polls. Obama won everyone. Really. Women, churchgoers, whites, blacks, college grads, non grads ...

Also, he won 16% of people who thought Hillary would be a better Commander in Chief. ... Really? So out of everyone who thought Hillary would be a better CinC, Obama still took 16%? (In contrast, Clinton got 1% of the people who thought Obama would be a better CinC.)

That's quite a victory.

Washington Super Delegates

Before the caucus on Saturday, a few big names in Washington State made their endorsements. Gregoire for Obama. Dicks, Cantwell, and Murray for Clinton. Not only are these big names, but they are also "superdelegates."

Yesterday, Jamie over at Thrice All American argues for Washington superdelegates to reflect the overwhelming caucus victory for Obama in this state. Which got me interested in just who exactly these superdelegates are. Fortunately, I found a list of all Democratic superdelegates here on Wikipedia. Would you believe Washington has 17 (out of a few hundred).

And a lot of them are names you've probably never heard, but that's probably because you don't know all the names of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Out of the 17, those currently for Obama (according to the list) are Gregoire, Adam Smith, and someone named Pat Notter who lives on the east side of the mountains (she's DNC).

For Clinton, we have Cantwell, Murray, and Dicks. From the list that leaves 11 uncommitted (assuming that the Wikipedia list is correct).

Those uncommitted superdelegates are Ron Sims, Brian Baird, Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott, Rick Larsen, Dwight Pelz, Tom Foley, Ed Cote, Eileen Mascoll, Sharon Mast, and David McDonald. (UPDATE: Foley, Sims, and Inslee endorsed Clinton. Thanks, Jamie.)

Let's say that the superdelegates were going to go by the percentages with which Obama and Clinton split the state caucuses. In that case, a full 11 would be for Obama and Clinton would get 6 "superdelegates."

Of course, neither the Obama supporters or the Clinton supporters probably want delegates to divide up evenly like that.

But I still think it's pretty interesting too look at the superdelegates and what they will do. That said, this all may become a moot point if Obama keeps racking up victories. Virginia was just called for him by the networks ... that was the state Clinton had a lot of hope to pull something out this round. It's even the site of her national campaign headquarters.

If Russell really doesn't want to stay downtown ...

I know everyone's working like crazy to keep Russell in downtown Tacoma. And I'm all for it. But the risk of them going to Federal Way to build their own "campus" is a scary one. If they really want a less urban location, we need to still make sure we can still offer them a place in Tacoma.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest a second option to the Haub site in the Downtown Financial District: the Nalley Valley. Perhaps even the beautiful warehouse that most recently has held "Ideal Home Furnishings."

Here's the case: Russell, you really want a lot of square footage on the same site. Done. You want easy freeway access. Done. And, as it happens, the Sounder will be running right by your front door. We could do a Russell campus station for you for easy mass transit, including a reverse commuter option from Seattle.

I really really do want Russell to stay downtown. But I think that if they are considering moving to Federal Way, we should have a better option ready to present about the options within Tacoma that are better than Federal Way.

The Coens and Chabon

This one is for ZestyEnterprise, a big Coen Brothers Fan (you can tell by the name of her blog) who was also not super wild about No Country.

But seeing that she and her SB were at the Michael Chabon lecture last month, I think she'll be excited to hear that the Coen Brothers will shoot an adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman's Union (which I reviewed here for Exit133) after they finish their current project.

I know I'm excited.

"Maine Didn't Count" - and other stories

I liked to this on the sidebar through my Google Reader feed of "What Erik's Reading," but I think it's too good to pass up.

It's from blogger Matthew Yglesias at the Atlantic.

Back in October 2007, Clinton was beating Obama in Maine by a hilarious 47 to 10 margin, but it seems he's carried the state today, once again by a large margin. My understanding, though, is that this doesn't really count because it's a small state, much as Utah doesn't count because there aren't many Democrats there, DC doesn't count because there are too many black people, Washington doesn't count because it's a caucus, Illinois doesn't count because Obama represents it in the Senate even though Hillary was born there, Hawaii won't count because Obama was born there. I'm not sure why Delaware and Connecticut don't count, but they definitely don't.

The strategy that Obama employed has worked amazingly well, in some ways. Looking ahead after Iowa, Obama saw the three biggest states looming: California, New York, and Illinois. Clinton was going to get NY, Illinois was going to Obama, and so he tried to narrow the vote as much as possible in California.

But where he was more prescient, was seeing that states like Idaho and Kansas (where he was the first Presidential canidate to visit in 44 years) gave him the opportunity to run up the score. There's an interesting commentary here, too, about how Obama's campaign saw the long-drawn out battle and so had operations working in Nebraska, Washington, Louisiana, and Maine well before Super Tuesday. The Clinton campaign was banking on ending things on Super Tuesday and were unprepared for the later contests. As Hilzoy points out, they could have seen Obama coming as early as mid-November, if not January 4 immediately after Iowa, and planned for it.

Andrew Sullivan is pointing out that as reporters start digging into the resignation of Clinton's campaign manager, they are finding a remarkably poor run campaign. For example, Clinton didn't tell her campaign manager she was loaning the $5 million, which is kind of unbelievable on the face of it. And as Marc Ambinder points out, their spin on the four losses this weekend is very weak: Obama "saturated the airwaves" and they didn't actually try to compete (see Matt above).

Everyone's chiming in right now about a campaign in trouble, so I won't add too much to that fire. But these are not good signs of a campaign that's going to get the nomination.

I'm still not ready to say that Obama is going to get it. I'm actually still quite nervous about it--the superdelegate question (see Tacoma's Thrice All American for more on that) is a little scary. But I've got some real hope.

Obama Voters in Tacoma

So far ... Scott Fontaine says that Obama won every precinct for those at Mason Middle School. It appears he won the same at Jason Lee. In my precinct, the 27-316, he won delegates 2-1. Same with the 315 I hear. Anecdotally I hear that he's winning all over Tacoma, but it will be interesting to see how it comes out when numbers start get released tonight.

I'm also going to be a delegate to the 27th Legislative District caucus in April. Sweet. Go Obama!

UPS is (still) Obama Land

It's interesting that Hillary Clinton eventually landed at University of Puget Sound. They had a hard time finding a venue because of some union regulations, and ended up being back where Bill Clinton was originally slated to appear.

I mention this because the President of UPS did a surprising thing a few weeks ago. He essentially endorsed Barack Obama in the Seattle Times. Now, he doesn't come right out and say that, probably due to his being the President of a University, and he hedges his bet a little with a single line that references Hillary. But he very explicitly compares Obama to Bobby Kennedy and writes:

And the Obama campaign rhetoric about "hope we can believe in" not only resonates with this sensibility, it also strikes a chord with the conscience of my generation of Americans. When Obama says that "Hope is not blind optimism, it is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us, if we have the courage to reach for it," he speaks to the child in all of us.

Since I did not go to the rally, this leads to the question -- did Ron Thomas speak? This would be pretty standard stuff for a University President to do. But I'm quite curious. Anyone know?

Obama-philia

I thought this piece in the LA Times by Joel Stein was pretty good. It's funny and cautions against putting too much hope into Obama. He writes:

What the Cult of Obama doesn't realize is that he's a politician. Not a brave one taking risky positions like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich, but a mainstream one. He has not been firing up the Senate with stirring Cross-of-Gold-type speeches to end the war. He's a politician so soft and safe, Oprah likes him. There's talk about his charisma and good looks, but I know a nerd when I see one. The dude is Urkel with a better tailor.

All of this is clear to me, and yet I have fallen victim.

The point is well made. I would like to add a caveat though. Obama is a politician, and a damn good one. He has walked through minefields in this campaign and come out unscathed every time. He's gotten past stupid errors on his part, handles the media very well, and neutralized about a million different arguments coming at him from the Clintons. There's nothing wrong with him being a politician. Chalk up the reason so many people like him to his exceptional politican skills.

Stein closes:

I can't root against a person who believes he can change the world. The best we Obamaphiles can do is to refrain from embarrassing ourselves. And I do believe that we can resist making more "We Are the World"-type videos. We can resist crying jags. We can resist, in every dinner argument and every e-mail, the word "inspiration." Yes, we can.

I'm still pretty stoked.

On Lost

I think I'm already enjoying this season a little more than last season. The pacing, the back and forth between Locke and Jack is different than before. The season 3 ending was a game-changer of sorts, and that's made this season more interesting, I think.

Too bad it's only 8 episodes.

For real?

As all the political blogs are buzzing, Clinton has put $5 million of her own money into her campaign.

But I just got an e-mail from the Obama folks who are trying to raise money to match it. That's rather expected. But this wasn't expected:

Thanks to you, we have raised more than $3 million since the polls closed on February 5th. But we have no choice -- we must match their $5 million right now.

For real? Obama has raised $3.4 million since the polls closed last night? SayWA?

The campaign also continues to hype their momentum from yesterday: "Barack Obama won the most states and the most delegates on February 5th." Which is very true, as I mentioned earlier. But still ... $3.4 million since last night?

Also telling--the e-mail says "Hillary and Bill Clinton just gave $5 million to their campaign." That's a very interesting pronoun ... "their" campaign. Intriguing.

UPDATE: The campaign is passing $5.9 million right now. That's $5.9 million since the polls closed last night. Dude. ... 9:30 PM Update: Alright now it's $6.1 million. I'll stop giving updates. But that's still pretty crazy.

Those Crazy Delegates

These numbers couldn't be crunched until this morning, but it would appear that after narrowing Hillary's California lead to less than 10 points, Obama will narrowly wind up with more delegates from Super Tuesday.

From Politico:

The Obama camp projects topping Clinton by nine delegates, 845 to 836.

NBC News, which is projecting delegates based on the Democratic Party's complex formula, figures Obama will wind up with 840 to 849 delegates, versus 829 to 838 for Clinton.

I have also found the NYT "Election Center" to have incredibly easy to use information with maps and charts and all sorts of cool stuff. Check it out if you want to look at more info on all the craziness last night. Thanks to all my friends who turning out for the whomping caucus victory for Obama in Minnesota!

Scarlett Johansson at Carleton?

So these past two days I've suddenly gotten a bunch of traffic from search engines looking for the phrase "Scarlett Johansson Carleton College." It's not surprising that Scarlett or Carleton are mentioned on my blog--I like them both very much. But why were so many people in Minnesota searching for this term?

I asked the Carleton e-mail listserv, and according to one person, she is going to be at Carleton tomorrow in support of Barack Obama.

Um ... can you say totally unfair? Scarlett, Tacoma is where Obama really needs your celebrity endorsement! Visit us here! Make your case!

I'll be watching for some sort of confirmation, which I haven't found yet. Save that she is in St. Paul, MN, tonight.

We got Kerry and St. Paul got Scarlett. Feeling like we got the short end of that stick.

UPDATE: According to someone at the Carleton Bookstore, Scarlett will be Sayles at 1:00 to rally people. Once again .... dang.

UPDATE II: Here's a slideshow of Scarlett at Carleton from the Carleton news page.

WA may be big for Obama

If the SurveyUSA poll is true, it's a huge difference: among Democrats who say they will caucus, Obama has a 22 point lead over Clinton.

This might be telling for other races tomorrow ... here's hopin'.

From the Slog.

Yes, We Can

This is pretty dang awesome music video. It is really really well done--directed by Jesse Dylan and with the Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am. Of course, I'm partial because Scarlett Johansson's in it.



Obama. Yes we can.

The math on the Link

Here’s some math about the Link that I think is worth investigating. This is inspired by a discussion currently happening on Exit133.

So. The Link cost $80.4 million to build, and costs to operate it have been about $3.7 million annually.

So in 2004, the first full year of its service, estimates show that the Link had about 840,000 boardings. At that point, the costs were $83.7 million (capital + operating costs), or $99.64 per every boarder. That’s a number that is—of course—crazy high.

After two years, though, a total of 1,600,000 had boarded the Link, the total cost of which was $87.4 million, which means that already the total cost per boarder was down to $54 dollars per boarder.

Jump ahead to today. Estimates put the total Link ridership at 3.5 million boarders. And the total cost has been $96 million. The total cost to date then, has been $27 per boarder.

Is that high? Yes, of course. But it hasn’t even been 5 years! Transit is dang expensive, and it’s all about the long haul. Follow that math and in 5 years the total cost per boarder will be down to $5 per boarder or so.

But think how it would look in New York? If I had the time, we could figure out how much New York invested in subway lines since the first piece opened in 1904 and divide that by the total number of boarders in those same 104 years. I bet that the total cost divided by boarders is very small, likely even below the cost of a fare.

All I want to emphasize here is how expansion of a transit network becomes more cost-effective over time. Connecting Tacoma to the airport and to Seattle would initially have an incredibly high cost per boarder, but over time would drop substantially. Same as connecting the suburban areas of Tacoma to downtown. We should be doing both, but I understand that we may have to choose one first. I don’t think it matters which one we build first, just that we keep building.

It’s cheaper to build now than later. So let's build.

All new LeftiesForObama.com

That jokey site I started up last April is getting a surprising number of hits. LeftiesForObama is at the top of the Google list if you do a search for Obama Left Handed.

It's been mentioned on blogs and some newspaper comments, too.

So I figured it was time to make it look a little prettier. It's still not where it should be, but it's a far sight better than it used to be!




Yeah for textpattern and easy web design!

Surprise! Trib endorses Obama

Don't know why, but I'd got the distinct impression the Tribune editorial board had been leaning toward Clinton. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps they were leaning toward Clinton, but the campaigning before South Carolina turned them off.

This is what they wrote:

But as a candidate, Obama has gone beyond the Democratic same-old same-old. He has run an unusually principled campaign. He has stirringly invoked a common American identity that transcends red state-blue state partisan antagonisms. Of all the presidential candidates, Obama has demonstrated the greatest ability to inspire.

I'll take it. This is going to be an interesting week. For my readers who aren't into the political stuff, I apologize. I'll try to make sure I have some non political posts up to keep it lively.

Don't be the bunny

Last year Bellarmine did a very good production of Urinetown the Musical. This year, TMP took it on and also landed a very good production. I saw it today at the Narrows Theater and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Local blogger Andrew Fry was a great villain and gets two of the most fun songs in the show (including Don't Be The Bunny, which is quite memorable). It's a bizarre, unusual, but very funny musical that I would certainly recommend.

But it closes tomorrow. Sorry for the late notice.