Political Advertizing the in Philadelphia Market

One thing I will miss when I move back to San Jose is Philadelphia politics. Because of its proximity to DC, and the fact that it is a much more competitive state than California, make it a vastly more interesting place to watch politics.

Take for example the issue advocacy ads. The one running on MSNBC right now is one from Heath Care For America Now. The ad, which strikes me as overtly political, is actually from a 501c4 issue advocacy organization, the Health Care Action Network. Their key tag line is:

If Insurance Companies Win, You Lose.

Interestingly, no talk about a public option. They do not single out any politician or piece of legislation, but say “Call Congress….”.

Its a pretty good site. Its media rich, which makes it slow on my netbook, and they are using Google Analytics, which shows some sophistication.

Public Option Day

MSNBC is saying its Public Option Day.

Interesting fact, only Baseball and Healthcare have exemptions from the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

In my view we need a mild public option, like support for Kaiser-like co-ops.

We need to take an incremental approach. It seems to me that this year's healthcare solution should take the following form:

1. Eliminate pre-existing condition rejection
2. Some tort reform.
3. Either eliminate monopoly control in states where monopolies exist, or:
4. Allow healthcare companies to act nationally (with a limit on the martket concetration).

Key point being this is a big hard problem, and democracies can not often handle radical change without a non-existential threat.

Unable to Reach Google Tasks

 

I have been getting a lot of connection errors to Google recently, like from Gmail and Google Tasks. Anyone else seeing this?

Bill Safire, R.I.P, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy moves on

I mourn the passing of William Safire today. Like Nicholas Kristoff, I disagreed with many of his political views, but his writing was beyond reproach. His On Language column was amazing.

In other news,  President Clinton says the VRWC (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) has moved on to attach President Obama. If this is the case, the VRWC is clearly fielding their second or third team. *Iam talking to you “Birthers”…..

Ordo ab Chao: Funny piece on Masons

There is a great piece today on the masons in Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27639.html.

The Order from Chaos thing is a bit freaky though.

2010 Midterm elections

They are predicting, on the Chris Matthews Show, that there is a good chance that Democrats will loose the House in 2010. In order to do this they would have to loose 38 house seats. Nate Silver and Charlie Cook are both predicting that there is a good chance that this will happen. But Stu Rothenberg has a point: This is like 2 tsunamis striking on after another.

We'll see.

Management Quote of the Day

I am in the middle of a job transition. It is a job transition that is mostly, but not completely of my choosing. This is mainly due to a different in managerial "styles". and it has caused me to reflect on what my "style" or philosophy is.

Believe it or not, I still used the the Franklin Covey planner, mainly because it leads to a well formatted diary. It also has a quote of the day. Today's quote comes from Warren Bennis, and typifies my philosophy of management.

The leader...is rarely the brightest person in the group. Rather, they have extraordinary taste, which makes them more curators that creators. They are appreciators of talent and nurturers of talent, and they have the ability to recognize valuable ideas.

In my view, the job of a leader is not just to manage, not just to "get things done". The job of a leader is to craft an excellent team where people are operating at their full potential. If a leader does their job right, people could be executing at a level beyond what they think they are capable of.

Gmail Down

First day off work and Gmail is down. Is this an omen in the other direction?

The Perfect Burger King

I am reveling in in my first day of unemployment. I left my car to get serviced. It needs and oil change, and I want to make sure it will make it across the country. Since I have no other means of transportation right now, I have to wait for my car to be finished.
I decided to walk down the street and hang out at the local Burger King. Now, my impression of Burger King is not especially good, but it was the only place near Clark's Auto Repair in Phoenixville.
I think I have found the perfect Burger King. Its freaky. They seem to be targeting me perfectly. First off, they have a value menu so I can get something small and reasonably healthy (by my standards of course). Second, they have free wireless, asnd it was east to get connected. Finally, they have CNN on flat-screen playing all the time. Who needs Starbucks?
I think this is a good omen.
Update: They block Facebook....wierd.