Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Every place I've ever lived...

...will be represented in the House of Representatives by a Democrat in the 111th Congress.  It took a pair of R-->D electoral switches in yesterday’s balloting, and it’s a sweeeet feeling.

I note that happy fact not out of a sense of blue state provincialism, nor as any sort of gloating over yesterday’s electoral results.  It’s more that I’m astonished to see the good people of such a variety of locales display the voting wherewithal to elect people who are so much more likely to be of service to their constituencies and to the nation than Republicans have been and would be.

Herewith, a chronological roster of my home Congressional Districts during my 58 years on the planet.

• 1950-1960: When I was born, my parents lived in the colonial town of Woodbury NJ, county seat of Gloucester County.  Woodbury is in NJ-01, represented since 1989 by Rob Andrews.
• 1960-1968: In 1960, we moved a few miles north to the burgeoning uber-suburb of Cherry Hill NJ, part of NJ-03.  That district’s long-time GOP Congressman retired, and in yesterday’s election the seat was won in a close battle by Democrat John Adler.  NJ-03 is one of the two party switches in my CD lifelist.
• 1968-1972: My undergraduate years at Dartmouth College in Hanover NH.  In 2006, my classmate Paul Hodes defeated another Big Greener (two years behind us) to wrestle NH-02 into the Democratic column.  While at Dartmouth, I briefly lived off-campus in nearby Fairlee VT, which has been represented in the House by Peter Welch since 2007.  Before that, of course, VT-AL was represented by now-Senator Bernie Sanders.
• 1972-1973: I spent one miserable year in medical school at Temple University in Philadelphia PA.  Because the building I lived in is a block east of Broad St., I was in PA-01, represented by Congressman Bob Brady.
• 1973-1975: Moving into epidemiology, I spent two years in graduate school at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst MA.  Currently represented in the House by John Olver, MA-01 is the district in which I voted for a Republican for the first and only time in my life.  I happily and proudly backed Silvio O. Conte—environmentalist, supporter of public education and scientific research, liberal—in the 1974 election.
• 1975-1981: My first job was at the University of Louisville, located of course in Louisville KY.  The city is in the 3rd District of Kentucky.  After defeating horrid Republican incumbent Anne Northup in 2006, Representative John Yarmuth cruised to victory yesterday, again against Northup.
• 1981-1986, 1987-1994: Grad school, and later employment, at the University of Pittsburgh.  The strongly Democratic city is part of PA-14, and has been represented in Congress since 1995 by Mike Doyle.
• 1986-1987: Between those stints at Pitt, I did a post-doc back at Temple (see 1972-1973).  This time around, I lived in a different part of Philadelphia, in Chaka Fattah‘s district PA-02.
• 1994-1995: Briefly becoming a “gentleman farmer” while working at Pitt and then Allegheny General Hospital, I lived in the tiny rural hamlet of Fenelton PA (between Butler and Kittaning, if you really want to know).  That town is in PA-03, which is about to send freshman Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper to Washington.  She defeated Republican incumbent Phil English, who had been in the House since 1995.  In this usually-conservative CD, Dahlkemper’s late rush to victory was a real surprise.
• 1995-1996: Still at AGH, but soon unemployed, I spent a disspirited year in an outer suburb of Pittsburgh, Cranberry Township PA.  Continuing my tour through the Keystone State’s districts, it’s in PA-04.  This CD went from GOP to Democratic two years ago, when Jason Altmire defeated Melissa Hart.  Yesterday, he outpolled Hart again.
• 1996-2001: Moving into Medicare quality improvement research, I made a clean break in relocating to Somersworth and then Portsmouth NH.  Both cities are in NH-01, which was the site of perhaps the most amazing House race of 2006.  Hugely outspent in both the Democratic primary and the general election, and running against well-entrenched incumbent Jeb Bradley in the latter, Carol Shea-Porter won both times by dint of hard door-to-door work and an army of impassioned volunteers.  She confirmed yesterday that New Hampshire is now a blue state, handily defeating Bradley for a second time.
• 2001-now: Leaving the Eastern Time Zone far behind, I came here to ultra-blue Seattle, happily represented in ultra-blue WA-07 by ultra-blue Jim McDermott.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Think Blue

Today is Election Day 2008.  If you haven’t done so already, VOTE!!

If you’re in Washington, I urge you to support whichever of the candidates and measures displayed over on my sidebar are on the ballot in your particular jurisdiction.  In particular, Governor Gregoire and Peter Goldmark are in tight races ... they need every vote they can get.  If you’re in the WA-08 Congressional District, I urgently demand that you cast your vote for Darcy Burner.  And if you’re across the mountains in WA-04, you’ll find that George Fearing will be a vastly better Congressman for your CD than not-even-close-to-being-a-Doc Hastings (please don’t think of that as damning George with faint praise).

Soon after the bitter disappointment of the last presidential election, when my fellow Americans somehow saw fit to retain the disastrously horrid Bush malAdministration, and to permit a Republican-led House and Senate to aid-and-abet their destruction of our great land, I came across a website selling Think Blue wristbands.  I bought one for myself, and have been wearing it ever since.  It looks something like this:

Actually, my wristband is an “enhanced” version of the one in the picture.  Along with Think Blue, it displays the dates of the 2006 election—11/07/2006, when we took back control of both houses of the federal legislature—and the 2008 election—11/04/2008, when we take back the executive branch and solidify our majorities in the Senate and the House.  It also shows the website that sold these wristbands (thinkbluedems.com), which I’m sorry to report is no longer in existence.  For that matter, neither is its successor website, thinkblue2008.com.

It’s exciting as all hell that the message of that wristband is about to be fulfilled.  In early 2005, I don’t think any of us thought this result would be in sight on this day.  But now that its mission has come to a happy ending, I’m in a quandary.

What do I do with my wristband?

Do I now simply remove it and drop it in the trash with a happy sigh about a mission well accomplished?  Do I continue to wear it, even though its message is, in a sense, no longer relevant?  Do I frame it and hang it in some place of honor?  Do I offer it as a souvenir on eBay?

Suggestions are welcome.  In the meantime, I suppose I need to take in some nourishment as a stomach coating, in preparation for a night of celebration and happiness!

[UPDATE]

DailyKos CHEERS & JEERS maven Bill in Portland Maine, who also proudly wears a Think Blue wristband, has a suggestion that seems quite reasonable:

Just tack it to a wall.

Because it’s shaped like an ‘O’ so it’s got at least 4 years of life left in it and probably eight.

Amazing how those wristbands knew who would be the next president.  Spooky!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

World Champions!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay Phillies!!!!!!!!!

This time I got to see it!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

World Series status report

As the weather in Philadelphia continues to suck, the Phillies and Rays won’t return to the field tonight.  Game 5 is now scheduled to recommence tomorrow night, weather permitting.

There is precedent for multi-day delays during the World Series, if not for mid-game delays during the Series. 

Perhaps the most famous one occurred in 1975.  The justly-praised Game 6 of that Series between Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine and the Lynn-Rice Red Sox, the game in which Carlton Fisk willed his 12th-inning flyball to hit the foul pole for a Series-tying homer, took place a full five days after Game 5.  Following a Thursday game in Cincinnati and a scheduled travel day on Friday, the clubs were rained out at Fenway Park on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Another such delay, much shorter than 1975’s, also involved the Red Sox and also involved an extremely famous ballgame.  After the shocking Bill Buckner error game (Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Sox and the New York Mets), rain postponed Game 7 from Sunday to Monday.

If the Rays and Phils do play again tomorrow night, it’ll begin just after Barack Obama’s 30 minute television program, on the very same network (FOX).  At least, that’s how it’ll run in the Eastern and Central time zones.  No word yet on how the two programs will be handled in the Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, and Hawaii time zones.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Liveblog: World Series Game 5

Doing my part to jinx the Phillies, I’m going to try to do a liveblog of tonight’s ballgame.  It won’t be a play-by-play or anything like that, just observations as they pop into my head.  I doubt I’ll do this again if the Phils don’t win tonight, as I’m as subject to magical thinking as the next guy.

Cold and blustery at Citizens Bank Park tonight.  Think about that a lot, won’t you, Rays?  I see that Joe Maddon has pulled down the earflaps on his cap.  What a wimp!

[5:27pm, top 1st, 0-0]: Hamels’s first pitch to Iwamura is a strike, always a good sign.  Apparently the wind is blowing in from left, so Iwamura must have hit that flyball pretty well.

[5:29pm, middle 1st, 0-0]: Boy, that was a quick inning.  It’s understandable that Crawford stopped after a couple of steps.  Rollins really shouldn’t have dropped the ball.

[5:34pm, bottom 1st, 0-0]: I wonder what was wrong with Navarro’s mask.  It’s not like it was hit with a foul ball or anything.

[5:38pm, bottom 1st, 0-0]: Hmmm, Kazmir’s a bit wild tonight.  3-2 to Rollins, a full count walk to Werth, Utley plunked in the ribs.  And now, the red-hot Howard…

[5:40pm, bottom 1st, 0-0]: Oh well, it’s not like a Howard whiff is unusual.  C’mon, Burrell, break out of that oh-fer in the WS!

[5:43pm, bottom 1st, 0-0]: Gotta agree with the announcers that the homeplate ump was really squeezing Kazmir with Burrell at the plate.  Now it’s Victorino with the bases full, and a single rockets into left!  The Flyin’ Hawaiian strikes again, and it’s 2-0 Phils.

[5:47pm, bottom 1st, 2-0 Phils]: Full again after the Feliz single.  Burrell would have been meat if he’d tried to score on a sharp hit to left.  Oh well, even with the Ruiz flyout, we’ll take a quick two-run lead.

[5:55pm, middle 2nd, 2-0 Phils]: Thanks to the FOX announcers for giving the actual pitch counts so far.  I was just thinking about the economy of Hamels on the mound, especially after Pena and Longoria made outs on his first two pitches of the inning.  It was 9 pitches (and five outs) after Longoria, followed by a 6-pitch walk, then two pitches to Baldelli.  Total after two innings = 17, compared to 29 by Kazmir in the first inning alone.

[6:03pm, bottom 2nd, 2-0 Phils]: I’m increasingly impressed by Jayson Werth.  Oh, he strikes out too much, but he fought off several good pitches (well, also a pitch that was up and away) before ripping a single into the hole.  I don’t agree with putting on the shift for Utley, who isn’t really a dead-pull hitter.  Longoria had to trot over from shortstop to his regular position to catch Utley’s popup for the third out.

[6:08pm, top 3rd, 2-0 Phils]: Jason Bartlett had the best BA in the American League against lefties??  Which means, of course, that he must have been crapola against righties.  Checking the indispensable Baseball-Reference.com, we see that his splits were .379/.411/.508 (.919 OPS) and .248/.296/.301 (.597 OPS).  Yeah, that’s definitely crapola.  OK, Hamels breezing through the first three innings, allowing just a walk and a single.  Solid!

[6:18pm, end 3rd, 2-0 Phils]: That’s an interesting, and consistent, pattern for Kazmir—allow two runs in the first inning, then really settle down.  Looks like he’s doing it again tonight, though Victorino helped him a lot by fanning on a pitch a foot outside and a foot high.  Two runs won’t be enough, I fear, so the good guys had better put on their hitting shoes again.

[6:22pm, top 4th, 2-0 Phils]: Y’know, I don’t like those dugout interviews that FOX runs in each game.  Aside from offering little in the way of substantive information, I’m sure they break the concentration of the manager or whoever they talk to.  Hmmm, first hits of the Series for Pena and Longoria, and the Rays score a run.  I suppose their snooze had to end eventually, but it would have been fine if they’d waited a bit longer.  The rain appears to bother Hamels a bit, but not enough to prevent an easy 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.  Now let’s see how Kazmir handles rain on top of the temperature and wind…

[6:31pm, bottom 4th, 2-1 Phils]: So far, Buck and McCarver haven’t been as intrusive as they often are.  Not too many Timmy-lectures on some abstruse point, and no pontificating about some completely incorrect idea (leadoff walks score more often than leadoff singles, for example).  Ouch, let’s hope that pitch off the finger doesn’t start hurting Hamels too badly.

[6:36pm, bottom 4th, 2-1 Phils]: Does anyone ever not foul off the 3-2 pitch with two down and the runners moving?

[6:42pm, bottom 4th, 2-1 Phils]: Werth did a great job of ruining Kazmir’s pitches before finally working the base on balls.  Utley can be a huge turning point in this game ... if Kazmir gets him, the Rays are invigorated, but if the Phils score a run (or more!), it will negate that run in the top of the inning.  Oh boy, bases loaded, 3-2, two down ... damn, a groundball and the Rays still live.

[6:50pm, top 5th, 2-1 Phils]: Ugh, that wind must be really, really brutal.  Rollins looked positively awful on that popup by Baldelli.  But Utley makes up for it with an acrobatic little double play.  And the strikeout of Kazmir makes this an official game.  Let it pour!!

Now that we’re official, let’s take the remainder of this liveblog below the fold…