Checksum Arcanius

Today was a archtype of my life. I awoke, snoozed a few too many times, showered, had a pear for breakfast, threw some chili and chips in my bag and headed out. First stop was BCC, where I dropped off my homework (due Wednesday but extened though Friday at noon), then I headed to my mom’s office, where I fixed a shortcut on her desktop and was confused by a problem the fax software was having of truncating incoming faxes. I then headed North on 405 though traffic that was, as usual, never quite clogged but never moving continuously either, until the extra lane shows up after 520 and it becomes pretty clear sailing. Its amazing how much just an extra lane can do. You hear that state legislature? Less empty busses, more empty lanes. Yeah, so I got to work and then worked for a while, doing my thing, which I can only really talk about in vague, abstract terms due to NDA’s. Then I cooked the chili and ate the chips (only a pear for breakfast, remember!) Then I had a training session, but my boss and a coworker came by, so I ended up missing the first 30 minutes and decided I’d catch the next installment of the training, if there is any. Then it was noon. After doing my thing for another while, I ended up in another meeting. Meetings are strange things. You don’t get anything done in a meeting, but things don’t get done without them either, it seems. One of those mysteries I guess. Well the meeting went longer than expected, so Dave and I had to duck out to get to the TRC meeting. We arrived slighly late, had only a few technical difficulties with a video, then got down to business: driver training. We created a mock field and challenge, then gave driver teams a minute to complete it. It was an excellent way toreally drive the point home that there is not enough time to do anything fancy out on the field. Everything has to work right, reliably, the first time, or there are major problems. On the other hand, not giving up, you can get something done in 20 seconds. Then we cleaned up, got the lego league stuff into my truck, and I headed back to my mom’s office where I met my mom and dad to go to my sister’s for dinner. Traffic on 520 was terrible, but we were HOV so we managed to survive (Gregriore best not be winning this election). My sister cooks eclectic dished, but this one was quite fabulous – chicken and pasta with squash. Dessert, a cranberry cake, was also excellent. Next we started a little shopping trip – my mom has been promising me a coat since my birthday. After a short jaunt at Univeristy Village, we ended up at Eddie Bauer in Bellevue Square, where my last coast (purchased Waaaaay back in 1999) came from. They have upgraded since then, but still have a good price on a good coat, with some good additions and a few things missing from the one I have now. So we got it in yellow, which had to be ordered in, but its the only way Scott will be able to see me when I’m around him (I turn “invisible” without my current yellow coat on). Anyway, my mom paid for it; she’s great, isn’t she. Big round of applause. Yeah, then we headed out, got some jeans, and I headed to Jon’s for Dodgeball. It made me laugh a few times, and the girl was hot, but I’m glad I didn’t pay anything for it. Then I returned to my home, after midnight, and checked my email, blogged, and (maybe) did a little somehting else too, but I don’t know what that would be, since I’m not there yet.

1,371,153 - 48.8666% - Christine Gregoire - Democrat	
1,371,414 - 48.8759% - Dino Rossi - Republican	
   63,346 -  2.2576% - Ruth Bennett - Libertarian	

You know its tight when the Secretary of State goes up to four decimal places. A mandatory recount is in order, and Rossi is having to fight for a certain type of provisional ballot to be counted in some counties where he leads (which happen to have Democrats running the show) while Gregroire is getting the same types of ballots here in King county, by court order.

Of course, republicans were earlier arguing not to let any of those ballots be counted, but I think the law, once ruled upon, should be applied uniformly. The article fromt he Seattle Times follows:
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Check out this piece by Tony Snow. An excerpt:

Elected officials derive their legitimacy from a system of government that lets citizens pick their lawmakers. Officeholders do not acquire additional “legitimacy” by virtue of the electoral margin. (Had that been the case, Ronald Reagan should have been able to assume czarist powers, and Bill Clinton would have enjoyed less proper authority as the winner in 1992 and 1996 than Richard Nixon did as the loser in 1960.)

Therefore, we now are ready to explain the 2004 election result in a simple declarative sentence: George W. Bush did not win a mandate; he got a job.

The same holds for the opposition. Democrats have an obligation to work with the president when they think he’s doing the right thing and to resist him when they think he has gone off the rails. Our system of government, like the legal system, thrives on adversarial conflict — the clash of ideas.

So, to summarize: The president doesn’t have a mandate; doesn’t need one; couldn’t get one if he wanted. He survives on the basis of popular support and consent — both of which he needs not just on Election Day, but every day. If he fails to persuade people that he is doing the right thing, he will bring his party to ruin, and perhaps his country. Ditto if his policies backfire.

But here’s the magical part: Every four years, we get a chance to correct our course. That’s because we — not a president — have the mandate.

From the New York Times, via New Media Musings:

President Bush isn’t a conservative. He’s a radical – the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is. Part of that coalition wants to tear down the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, eviscerating Social Security and, eventually, Medicare.

Well dang. If I had known that this was his agenda, I might have supported him for re-election.

And here’s a great piece by Tony Snow that mentions this article as well.

1,284,411 - 48.87% - Christine Gregoire (Democrat)
1,286,534 - 48.95% - Dino Rossi (Republican)
   57,242 -  2.17% - Ruth Bennett (Libertarian)

Still too close too call…

Let us say one thing: If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that at its least is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive.

But if our critics are wrong, if we are right, as I believe with every fiber of instinct and conviction I have that we are, and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership. That is something history will not forgive.

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A metaphor for what is wrong with government and politics today

The recent trend of bloggers and others complaining about the results of the last election has helped me find the language to bring to light a very important concept. As with many of my best posts, this one actually started as a comment.

Here’s the concept I try to get people with whom I discuss the results of the election to understand:

The problem with the government as it is presently constituted is not that the wrong people are in control of it, or that it’s headed in the wrong direction. These things may be true, but they are really beside the point.

The problem with the government is that it presumes to have the rightful authority to control parts of our lives that do not affect other people.

The government that presumes to have the authority to tell me what kind of contractual relationship I can enter into with an insurance company (ie, all the regulations government puts on health insurance providers) is the same government that presumes to have the authority to stop consenting adults from having any sort of contractual relationship they wish (ie, same-sex marriage).

The government that presumes to have the power to restrict gun ownership to people who pose no threat to law-abiding citizens is the same government that presumes to have the power to restrict the use of medical marijuana and other drugs by people that pose no threat to anyone but themselves.

The government that presumes to have the right to take people’s property with threat of force (ie, confiscatory taxation) is the same government that presumes to have the right to give that money to corporations and special interests relabeled as defense contracts, faith-based initiatives, or industry bailouts.

The pendulum may swing one way or the other at any given time, but once swinging, it will destroy most anything it touches – a veritable societal wrecking ball. The reason you are now noticing how bad the wreckage can be is that you now see that wrecking ball destroying your “house” – the issues you hold more dear – legal protection of abortions, equal rights for homosexuals, and equitable wealth redistribution, among others.

But let me assure you, people on the other side of the political road are just as scared of that wrecking ball when its in their own house, trying to restrict constitutionally granted rights to self-armament, raising taxes to pay for welfare programs that do more harm than good, regulating a free economy that works much better on its own.

I think that it is wonderfully poetic justice that the imminent destruction of that wrecking ball now looms over your house. Maybe you will come to realize that this is the same ball you were using to destroy that house across the street a few years ago. And just maybe this will open your eyes to what you very much helped create – a government that presumes authority to control contractual relationships, decide what you can and cannot buy, even when it affects no one else negatively, and decide from whom and to whom to give money that they take with threat of force.

If you want that great wrecking ball of government to forever leave you and your house alone, then you also have to abandon your desires to take down that house across the street. Or, if you really want to continue trying to destroy that house, you could at least have enough foresight enough to use a smaller wrecking ball, on a single room.

In case I lost anyone in the metaphor, I will restate the above in more straightforward language. If you want people to leave the rights you hold dear intact, it is only fair to also leave the rights they hold dear intact. But, if you insist on trying to take away rights others hold dear, do so with caution, and do it only at the state level. This way, fewer people will get hurt when you screw up. And if your idea really is so good, the entire nation can follow suit if they wish – but leave it up to them. If you can learn fro this election, instead of just redoubling your efforts to shove that wrecking ball back across the street, then maybe the last 70-odd years of ever-worsening destruction won’t all have been in vain.

Bobby, Chris, Bernie, Larry… Here’s to not giving up on you.