“No-cost”, by the way, refers to money (not) coming from the federal government to support the grant that had been awarded a while back. The agency where I’m working has underspent on the project, so they’re fine with getting no more money from the feds after April 30 ... the money already received, but not yet spent, can support staff for another couple of months. If, that is, the feds allow the work to continue beyond the original endpoint.

It seems like a no-brainer. Without having to spend another penny, the feds will get much more product (data displays on nearly three times as many indicators) at the minimal (non-financial) cost of waiting a few weeks longer to wrap it all up. But the wheels of bureaucracy run slowly. Logic doesn’t always carry the day. And even when it does, the process of dotting Is and crossing Ts takes a long, long time. Besides, the sequester just might be leading to cutbacks in the ranks of bureaucrats who do all that I-dotting and T-crossing.

Bottom line is that I’m fairly sure that I’ll still be working after Tuesday, but it isn’t a sure thing. Maybe I’ll have to skip a day or three at the beginning of May, but I’d really prefer to know my status before the month turns.

We’ll see…

This offer was quite unusual. The position hadn’t been advertised, so they needed to obtain a waiver of all sorts of hiring requirements (EEOC and such) and procedures. Once those hurdles were overcome, I was hired. I just finished my first week on the job.

There’s a catch, of course ... a big catch. The position is certain to exist only until April 30. There’s a small chance, if the granting organization permits it, that it could be extended until early summer. But no farther. As a temp job, it carries no benefits. And if there’s a permanent opening with the same agency, I’d have to go through the standard new-hire process ... it could not be thought of as an “internal transfer”.

Still, it’s good that I’ll have a paycheck, however briefly. Even though I have to answer to an alarm clock again, it’s good to re-establish a workaday rhythm to my days. I’ll have a few new skills to add to my resume when looking for something in the long term. And I may have additional potential sources for future letters of recommendation.

Does this bode well for the future? I think so, though (as always) time will tell.

• the space shuttle Columbia was being prepared for what would be its final flight
• Secretary of State Colin Powell had not yet delivered his pack of lies false justification UN Security Council speech in preparation for the invasion of Iraq
• no one on Earth knew that there was a SARS virus, much less that it would soon spread worldwide and kill nearly 1000 people
• shock and awe had not yet begun the destruction of Baghdad and Iraq
• Maurice Gibb, Bill Mauldin, Nell Carter, Walt Rostow, Fred Rogers, Rachel Corrie, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan were alive

Oh, in case you’re looking for something to mark this occasion, the traditional 10th anniversary gift is tin. As in “tin for ten”, perhaps? Modernists might consider another metallic element, aluminum.

Even as I opened the envelope, I didn’t think it was anything unusual. I could see a folded piece of bond paper with typing on it, which appeared to be (I thought) a standard-issue Christmas letter. That thought evaporated immediately upon reading the first line:

ATTN:  Electoral College Representative

[Quoting the letter:]

• A case where Republican ballots were thrown into a river where not all could be recovered with an unknown loss of votes (estimated hundreds+)
• Undefined loss of military votes because of miscommunication of deadlines and counting of ballots (military servicemen/women surveyed said they would vote Romney at least 2-1), the very citizens fighting to protect us and our freedom to vote

The “ask” didn’t come until halfway through the second page. The writer implored me to be what she called a “faithless vote” (in other words, be a faithless Elector), and cast my Electoral College vote for Romney. Interestingly, there was no such request in the Vice Presidential race. Romney-Biden, anyone?

Now, of course, if I do have the opportunity to cast a vote as an Elector, I won’t take the advice of my correspondent. And it won’t be because the state of Washington would fine me up to $1000 for doing so.

1. My father’s first cousin (and therefore my first cousin once removed) B.L. served on the crew of a destroyer escort, though to be honest I don’t know whether that was in the Atlantic or Pacific theater. He talked about the war on very, very rare occasions, saying very little about it on those occasions. His younger brother S.L. may also have served, but I don’t really recall.
2. My mother was the older of two sisters. Although her work colleagues at the Signal Corps were a major part of our family’s network of friends when I was growing up, I can’t include my mother as a veteran. Her sister’s husband L.S., however, definitely did service as a translator in Europe. His fluency in German (and Yiddish) became increasingly important as WWII was winding down.
3. My mother’s first cousin’s husband H.N. was one of the lucky ones. So very many of his fellow B-24 crews were shot down in the Army Airforce’s Operation Tidalwave campaign against the Romanian oil refineries at Ploesti, but he made it back from that raid and many others.

4. That would be B.P., the father of one of my closest undergrad friends. He’d been one of the thousands of soldiers who waded onto a beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944, and trudged eastward into Germany during the succeeding year. He saw concentration camps too.

5. My ex’s uncle E.P. did two separate military stints. He was on a ship off the Southeast Asian coast during the war, and later on he volunteered for the Army. Both times, he was a supply sergeant (or whatever they call the Navy equivalent).
6. My Congressman, Jim McDermott, was a psychiatrist in the Navy during Vietnam. I’m certain that Jim’s experience treating the PTSD and related ailments of shattered Vietnam War servicemen was a contributing factor in developing his progressive political philosophy.
7. After serving on the ground in Vietnam, my friend and fellow PacNW blogger Shaun Dale was lucky not to be one of those patients treated by Dr. McDermott. His “proudly partisan” activism as “A Democrat - without prefix, without suffix, without apology” (those slogans are right at the top on his Upper Left blog) is always informed and often based on his time in the Army.
8. The prolific and fierce HorsesAss commenter known as Roger Rabbit (I don’t know his real name) also carried a rifle in Vietnam. He’s a retired lawyer and former judge, but he proudly points to his military service while ceaselessly battling the trolls and poltroons that infest the HA comment threads.

9. One of the seminal influences on Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, whose nickname “Kos” is so well known in the progressive political scene, was his stint in the US Army. As he himself admits, his service is what changed him from a Republican to a progressive Democrat. As a very early Kossack (I started participating before commenters had to sign up for usernames, and registered as N in Seattle on the first day of the current site), I’ve met Markos many times.
10. Another Gulf-era vet—also a longtime Kossack—is R.H., who lives over in Bellevue. He retired from the Navy after more than 20 years, so he’s also an Iraq War vet. His military experience continues as a principal focus, as he has a major role in the national VoteVets organization.

11. My friend R.N. was deployed to Iraq twice before his discharge from the Army. He was trained as a translator—a Korean translator—yet he was never ordered to Korea or anywhere else in East Asia. Raised an evangelical in the Mountain West, he was (like Markos) “Democratized” in the Army. Now living here in Seattle, he’s aiming toward a degree in political science, political campaign activism, and perhaps even political office some day. He’d be a good one if that’s what he chooses to do.

Sure, Jeter’s injury created problems for the Yankees. I’d like to believe that they would have been just as thoroughly flattened even if Mr. Overrated had been on the field for all four games.

Those who—unlike me—are fans of Ichiro! will be happy to know that he was perhaps the only pinstriper with (superficially) good stats during the series against the Tigers. His line was .353/.389/.529 with a homer in Game 1 and a walk today.

As for me, I’m happy to see that Ichiro! isn’t going to play in the World Series. Of course, it’s much, much more satisfying that the detestable Yankees are done. That Ichiro! is denied a WS appearance is just a small added bonus.

But what of the two open, and one brand-new, seats?

It was widely acknowledged that the principal goal of the Democratic members of the Redistricting Commission was to center the new 10th CD on Olympia, and to anoint Denny Heck as their candidate. He faces underfunded Republican Dick Muri, who unsuccessful challenged Adam Smith in the old WA-09 two years ago. Well, it looks like Tim Ceis and Dwight Pelz got their wish, as the Cook Political Report rates WA-10 Solid D and DailyKos Elections calls it Likely D. The two organization agree that WA-01, where Suzan DelBene faces teahadist John Koster, Leans D.

The third open seat came as something of a shocker. Norm Dicks surprised many Washingtonians when he announced his retirement after 18 terms representing the 6th District. Conventional wisdom suggested that WA-06 had remained in Democratic hands largely because of Dicks’s seniority (ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee) and close ties to the strong Navy presence on Hood Canal and Puget Sound. The sprawling, largely rural WA-06 doesn’t fit the usual mold of Democratic CDs.

Well, conventional wisdom appears to have been wrong. Even though a Republican self-funding Weyerhaeuser relative is on the ballot, both Cook (Likely D) and dKos put the District strongly in the Democratic column. In fact, on Monday DailyKos Elections upgraded WA-06 from Likely D to Safe D.

The principal reason behind this happy outcome is the superb Democrat running in the 6th District, Derek Kilmer. I’ve known Derek ever since I arrived in Washington in 2001; at that time he and his wife Jen were colleagues of my sister in the 36th District Democrats. We in Seattle were disappointed when they relocated to Gig Harbor (he’s Vice President of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County), but it was clearly the right thing for them. I’m thrilled that the people of WA-06 see the same positive qualities in Derek that I recognized.

When Derek won his first political race (State Rep from the 26th LD in 2004), I began thinking that he could be a great candidate to replace Norm Dicks when the old warhorse decided to hang ‘em up. I didn’t expect it to come quite so soon, but it seems like I was onto something.

So Derek will, in all likelihood, slide into Norm’s position as a Democratic Congressman. That leaves the overall status of Washington’s delegation in DC in the same place it was when the Redistricting Commission finished its work—five Democratic CDs, four Republican CDs, and one up for grabs. If, as most pundits predict, DelBene keeps the odious Koster away from DC, we’ll be 6-4 Democratic. Not nearly what I’d like it to be, but I believe that would be an accurate description of our state.

As reported by the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, it’s been a very bad year for fires. Their current Large Fire Map looks like this:

Clearly, the hot spots lie right along the eastern slopes of the Cascades. The biggest of them, Table Mountain (over 60 square miles, in Cle Elum) and the Wenatchee Complex (more than 85 square miles, west of Wenatchee), were touched off by lightning strikes on, respectively, September 8 and 9. Yep, while Seattle was cloudy with a few sprinkles, the other side of the mountains saw thunderstorms (but no rain).

Three weeks later, neither of those fires has been contained, much less extinguished. NWCC estimates that Table Mountain is 55% contained, with containment expected within a week or so. The Wenatchee Complex is only 45% contained, with no containment estimate given. Those fires are on steep, extremely difficult terrain. Under the command of the Forest Service, over 2000 firefighters, on foot and in helicopters, are combating the two fires. Hundreds of homes and other structures have been destroyed, with nearly 1000 more still threatened.

Every once in a while, when the wind blows from the east, Seattle gets just the slightest whiff of smoke in the air. I’m sure it’s stronger and more frequent on the Eastside, and still worse in Snoqualmie and North Bend. But it must be rather hellish on the other side of the Cascades.

Obvious as it may be, this isn’t the time or place to drone on about funding cuts in federal and state services. Nor is it the time or place to say a lot about how the teahadists, libertarians, anti-government types, and wingnuts are undoubtedly pleading for more federal and state manpower, equipment, disaster relief, etc., etc.

I’m sure that if their heads weren’t pounding from all the smoke they’ve been inhaling, they’d recognize just how dissonant their cognition turns out to be.