Why is the Iowa Caucus so important?

For some reason, Iowa gets to go first when it comes to the United States’ national primary process. And for some other reasons, it didn’t go so well here in 2020. Words like chaos, debacle, and ‘unmitigated disaster’ seem quite popular to describe it. As an ‘Average American,’ with no connection to politics or the campaign industry, here’s my take on it.

Who cares.

As someone who does NOT live in Iowa, or #2 New Hampshire, I have always felt baffled and bitter that these two states - for no rational reason that I can discern - get to narrow the field of candidates before I even have a chance to voice my opinion. 

In some ways, the Iowa issues have leveled the playing field a tiny bit this year. There’s no clear ‘winner’ that the media can then crown with statistics for the next week. This uncertainty is going to - gasp - force people to pay more attention to the entire field of candidates. 

Perhaps this ‘mistake’ is a blessing in disguise. People are talking about this being the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back,’ and I hope it is. I hope this is the end of our ridiculous staggered primary system. Because having my primary vote actually count for something sounds like a step toward a shorter campaign cycle and better democracy. 

Shutdown Insanity: Day 32

Twenty-five years ago, I studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was young, starry-eyed, politically active, and cartooning for The Daily Tar Heel. Then I graduated and moved on to other pursuits, like … working, commuting, raising a child, etc.

But the events of the past few years, and particularly the Federal shutdown of the past 32 days, have gotten me so upset, so frustrated, and feeling so powerless that I snatched up my pen again and started scribbling away.

It is ironic that our dear elected officials pay themselves to bicker while forcing others to work without compensation. Others like … the protective details who are armed and tasked with maintaining security for these same officials, the TSA screeners who prevent dangerous devices and individuals from infiltrating the planes that these officials travel on, and the air traffic controllers who then prevent these aforementioned planes from crashing into each other.

Can one cartoon make a difference? Perhaps it can.

I’m issuing the ‘Shutdown Cartoon Challenge’ to all the amateur cartoonists and artists out there, no matter how active or inactive they may currently be. Please jump back into the fray, even for a just a few sketches. The pen can be mightier than the sword, and a good picture is still worth 1000 words (and maybe more than 100,000 tweets)

Shutdown Day 32

And when you pick up your drawing pen, also pick up your writing pen. Contact your Representative. Contact your Senators. Contact your President. Tell them how you feel. Make your voice heard.

Personally, I’m  going to contact my elected representatives and request that a bill be introduced that requires that if any part of the government is furloughed or unfunded due to Congress and the Executive branch not being able to agree on a budget, that all elected officials will be required to work without pay and they will NOT receive back pay. The Democrats want Social Equality? The Republicans want to cut government Spending? Here’s a bill they should both agree on.

Hey, Congresspeople! This isn't kindergarten

It's like a big, festive carnival up there on the Hill. Whee!

I'm going to digress to politics for a week. (I'm in DC; I can't help it.)  But it's not as much of a digression as you might think. When it comes to our elected officials, we're all the customers. We elect them, and we pay for their salaries and their utterly fabulous benefits. So, I expect and demand a little service in return.

And what I'm getting now is a cross between a soap opera and a circus, with as much nuance as a kindergarten recess.  I just read the current status: Principal Obama has invited the kids to come have snacks and juice in his office so that they can all work it out. I only hope that all the snacks are locally grown so that I can have some kind of positive feeling about the whole thing, because otherwise it's just a giant mess.

Seriously, this is how Paul Kane and Jon Cohen of the Washington Post described it today:

As the deadline neared, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) exchanged insults, each side blaming the other for the stalemate.

Swell. Did they fire their Nerf guns at each other, too?

You've got a job to do folks. Stop the drama, and start behaving like the educated negotiators that you all claim to be.

DMV: UGH

Look up the word 'bureaucracy' in any thesaurus and the phrase 'Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)' will surely be listed as a synonym.

Here's my current conundrum: My old 1994 Nissan failed Virginia State inspection in a fairly spectacular and very expensive way. As we just bought a new Toyota Rav4 last week, this gives me the flex to say "Time to donate you, faithful Sentra." To donate the car, I need the title. And of course, I can't find the title. So, time to contact Virginia DMV and get a reprint.

They have a wonderful site with all sorts of great online options, and all sorts of accompanying problems.

1. Bad secure key. That's the first issue. It would appear they are in the process of changing domains. My mailing I just got from them sends me to http://www.dmvNOW.com but as became obvious very quickly, the site's secure key is still tied to http://www.dmv.virginia.gov. Sooo, when you click on any form link you get BIG SCARY SECURITY ERRORS. Understanding the web as I do, I just put in an exception and keep going, but I bet a lot of others don't. Best to fix that, DMV. I suggest using just one domain myself; stick with .gov. You are not a .com.
2. A 'request a PIN' form that requires a PIN to submit it. Everything on the DMV site -- including the ability to request a reprint of your title -- requires a PIN (Personal Identification Number), which you must request to be sent to you in paper form. So, I filled out the request a PIN form, submitted it, and immediately got sent to a confirmation page that required a PIN. That is ... awesome.
3. An automated phone system that drives people into a dish-breaking rage. Feeling that I had struck-out online, I tried their automated phone system. Requesting a PIN was an option. Great. You had to enter your customer ID. OK. The auto-attendant started up "If your customer ID begins with an A, press 1. If your customer ID begins with a B, press 2. If your customer ID begins with a C, press 3..." As I looked at my 9 digit Customer ID in front of me, I felt I could not make it, so I abandoned the cause.

At this point, I am hoping that my ill-fated PIN request online went through. I guess I'll know in a week. In the meantime, my car can hang out at the Nissan Dealership, I guess.

[If you're sitting there saying 'Why don't you go to a DMV office?" My response is Ha-ha-ha-ha. The last time I went to one was 10 years ago. It opened at 9am. I got there at 8:30am. The line stretched around the building 3 times and I was told that it was already too late. i.e.,. They counted the people and calculated that they wouldn't be able to get through them all by the time the office closed.]

Everyone needs a new TV by Feb 2009, huh?

Years ago, when I first heard about the government mandated shift to high definition, my first thought was "Yeah, right. This is going to be an exercise in permanent postponement" Shockingly, I have been correct in this assessment. Yet again, the mandatory transition from analog to digital television broadcasting has been postponed, from February 17 to June 12, 2009.

The part of this whole ordeal that is surprising is how little Media attention this has garnered over the past months.

• Why haven't there been complaints regarding the vast government sponsorship of the electronics industry? In particular the companies manufacturing these converter boxes?
• Where is the social commentary? The poor and the elderly are clearly impacted by this transition. Heck, I imagine that some people don't even know it is going to happen, honestly, and they'll just be very surprised one day when their TV stops working
• Have I somehow missed the environmental uproar? Given that most affluent consumers are simply going to trash their old TVs -- for no other reason than this mandated change -- and get new ones? And thousands of perfectly good TVs are going to end up in our dumps?
• Is there not one investigative journalist who thought it would be interesting to compare the lobbying effort that helped to pass this mandate with the combined forces that made marijuana illegal (thus boosting the tobacco, cotton, and wood pulp industries in the process) and the Great American Streetcar scandal (where established urban streetcar systems were dismantled by the american automotive industry, in order to sell more automobiles. )

Not one journalist thinks any of these topics are worth investigating? I guess not. I suppose this is because they've all been too busy covering the more important stories, like the ever-growing family size of Brad and Angelina.

But now that the Campaign is over, and Obamessiah is in office, and the Pitts aren't quite ready to have another baby, we are finally starting to see a few stories on this topic. Will the transition ever happen? Maybe. Personally, I've got my coupons in hand and I'll be going to get my boxes, soon. Do I need the coupons? No. Can I pay for the boxes myself? Of course I can, just like most folks who have requested these coupons. But I guess this topic isn't interesting to reporters, either. Oh look ... is that Britney over there? Quick! There's news to be told!

Cover the Event, Please

Unless you are hibernating in a cave somewhere, you probably watched, listened, or read about the Obama Inauguration today. This was one of my days home with my 1-year old (he'll be 1 year old in about 2 hours!), and so I was lucky enough to be able to watch a great deal of television coverage.

I rotated between the big 3 TV networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
As we live 15 minutes outside of Washington DC, we had non-stop coverage all day, even when the nationals went to 'local' coverage.

I want to applaud the local coverage. It was interesting. They talked about road closures, metro issues, parking problems, etc. It was just the sort of stuff that we locals can't really get enough of.

The national coverage went off the path a bit. What I wanted to see and hear about was what was happening right then and there. But for the most part, especially during the parade, what the announcers were talking about had nothing to do with what was being shown on the screen.

Example:
As the new first couple left the Capitol building, the cameras showed a very interesting colonial marching band. I wondered ... is this a military band? A band from Colonial Williamsburg? Unfortunately, the announcers were interviewing some talking head pundent (I think it was Jesse Jackson in this case, on ABC) about race relations in the USA, blah-blah. This is what people have been talking about for MONTHS. Could they have not covered the moment and talked about what was happening? As my husband wryly commented, "Of course not ... that would take research. It is much easier to just snap photos and editorialize so you don't need to really know what is going on."

Some of the stations did better at times. I believe it was NBC who had a former police chief with them, and he was talking about security. For example: He noted that the motorcycle police had the side carts on their motorcycles so that the motorcycles would be stable at such low speeds. That was interesting.

Even if the quality of commentary was not exactly what I was hoping for, it was still great to see such an array of live coverage. It really felt like being there, but about 60-degrees warmer.

Election Day: All those 1's and 0's

Just in case you've been hibernating for the last few weeks, today is Election Day in the USA.

The last few years, there has been a myriad of issues with the electronic voting machines. I'm thrilled to see that our local governments have been paying attention. Four years ago, we could only vote using the electronic machines. Yuck-o. This morning, we had a choice of paper or electronic. PAPER, baby!

One of the poll workers tried to assure my husband and I that the electronic machines were 'easy to use.' Well, of course they are. But you see, that's not the point. My husband and I both work in the software/database industry. And we KNOW how easy it is to change data in a database. One row at a time or in bulk.

Having all voting records electronically is inappropriate. There is too much at stake. There needs to be a paper back-up of some sorts in case the database fails or is compromised in any way. We applaud the decision to offer paper, and we imagine that in 4-8 years the electronic machines may be gone.

USPS: The Yin and Yang of Customer Service

Within one hour last week, I had the BEST and WORST customer service experiences with the United States Post Office (USPS). [I'm not sure Yin and Yang is the best way to describe this, but it's close enough.]

The situation:

We went away for two weeks. We used the online form at usps.com to hold our mail for two weeks. When the form asked if I wanted it delivered or if I wanted to come pick it up, I chose "pick up" because our mailbox is a useless 3" x 3" tube that doesn't hold anything more than a post card. [This is because our home owners association and ARC seems to feel that large mailboxes are unslightly and not in keeping with the colonial feel of our neighborhood. Of course, electricity doesn't really match the colonial spirit, either, but don't get me started on this topic.]

Then, I talked to a friend who said that they'd bring the mail in one of their big boxes and put it on our doorstep. Hey! That sounded great! Especially since my car was going to be in the shop when we got back from vacation, and I wouldn't be able to drive to get the mail. So, I decided to call my local post office to see if I could have them bring the mail to us.

First: the BAD

I went to the website to lookup my office in Springfield, Virginia 22152, and get the phone number. Well, they don't publish the local numbers; they only show the main 1-800-ASK-USPS. Sigh. So, I called this main line.

The USPS automated voice system is a BEHEMOTH. It is monstrous to behold, like that multi-tentacled beast in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Mere mortals dial into this phone system to test their mettle and bravery in battle against forces greater than themselves.

After some amount of 'battle,' I got to the part where I could get a human being on the phone, and after waiting for some amount of time, a woman picked up the phone and said in a curt voice,
"The system is down, call back later" and hung up on me.

Hung up on me.

Didn't even find out why I was calling. What if she could have answered the question without the 'system'? What if she already knew she couldn't help me? What if what I wanted was on the web site and she could just send me there? What if I was calling to say that the building that the call center was in was ON FIRE? Would it have killed her to at least give me a chance to speak and then apologize that she couldn't help?

Man, I was ANGRY.

I dialed back and did battle with the phone system again. By taking a different fork in the path, and then another and another and another and another, I DID finally manage to get the local number of my office. I suspect that with enough patience, one could actually find out just about anything.

Now: the GOOD

I called my local post office and spoke with "Diane," who didn't know me from Adam, so to speak. When I explained the situation, she offered to drive out our mail, right then, personally, herself. I couldn't believe it. She said that she could use a break from the office and that there was indeed a lot of it. So, 10 minutes later, there was Diane on my doorstep, with a big smile and a huge box of mail.

WOW, you're amazing Diane. Talk about exceeding customer expectations. Speaking as a former Disney employee, I can tell you that there is a place for you at that company. You are a super-star of customer service!

The Economic Stimulus Check

The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 is now in full swing. Many American's, depending on their household income, have already received or can expect to receive, a 'rebate' of $300 - $1200.
As comforting as it is that President Bush firmly believes that these checks will solve all of our economic problems here in the USA, I must confess that I am skeptical.

Made-in-USA.org nails it on the head, in bold type at the top of their site this week:

Here is the place to use your Tax Rebate Stimulus Package money.
Patriots will always start their shopping with Made in USA products.
Boost our economy instead of China, as this program was intended.

But let's be real ... how many Americans are going to spend their stimulus checks solely on American-made goods? Heck, how many are going to do anything with it besides help offset the higher price of gas?

As a consumer, I'm certainly not going to refuse the check, but it just doesn't seem like the silver bullet the Administration is looking for.

The Nitpicky Voter has been Cheated

With all of the hysteria leading up to the Pennsylvania Primary on Tuesday April 22nd 2008, I think it's time for the Nitpicky Voter to get up on the soap box.

Voting is a special sub-set of consumerism. If you wanted to make an apple pie, you'd need to research the various types of apples and the qualities that they'd give to the pie. i.e. you'd choose the apple to make the type of pie you want. The same process should be applied to choosing a candidate for president. You must research to make sure you are choosing the person who will be the type of president you desire.

The news media is calling this year's contest for the Democratic spot on the ballot the "hottest race of our lifetime." A more accurate statement might be to say that this year has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that our primary system is completely broken and is in desperate need of modernization. When you start to hear people say things like, "I am so excited; this is the first time my vote has ever meant anything," you know that something is broken.

What we desperately need, to ensure that all opinions are heard, the field offers the choice that we all deserve, and everyone's vote counts, we must change to a National Primary. i.e. Super Tuesday needs to be 50 states, not 24 states. The staggered primary system is leftover from a bygone era ... an age with no radio and certainly no TV. With no way to instantly communicate to the entire country, the elections and caucauses had to be staggered so that candidates could travel to the various parts of this vast country. Here in the 2000's, when we more forms of instant communication than we probably even need, this system needs to be trashed.

Just think of what a National Primary would mean:

• We'd all get to vote for ALL the candidates. Right now, only Iowa and maybe New Hampshire gets to vote for all of them. Then the candidates start to drop out as the media picks their favorites. How is that fair? Why are they so important? Why should the opinions of two relatively small states get to decide the candidates for the rest of us?
  
• The media wants to cover what is NEW; they want to cover the black spot on the white canvas. With a national primary, there wouldn't be as much time for certain candidates to become the black spots, based either on background or actions or words. All the candidates would get more equal coverage.
• There would be a greater, more sustained focus on Issues. In the beginning, long ago, there was more serious talk of problems and solutions. Now, as the weeks drag on, the campaign has wittled down to grandstanding, stumping, and spinning (and of course jibes at the other candidates). Real talk about real matters has faded away.
  
• All these millions of dollars that are being used to create ad after ad in state after state could be used in better ways. Whether that be helping the environment or simply helping to fill our fuel tanks.
  

We lost some very good candidates too early. These people had important things to say, and some of us were listening. But given our current system, and its dependency on witty personalities and huge budgets, they weren't able to continue the race.

On the Republican side, Ron Paul (who I believe has never uttered a sound-bite in his life) got no press at all. Early on, he did MUCH better than Fred Thompson, yet the media gave all the coverage to Thompson, a colorful former actor who provided more entertainment value than the issues-driven Paul. And on the Democratic side, John Edwards and Bill Richardson couldn't compete with the first woman and first African-American. The Media didn't even give lip service to Richardson, and barely covered Edwards, even though he did extremely well in Iowa. Had the Primary been National, it is almost assured that the nominees would be different.

So, now Pennsylvania voters have a chance for their vote to "count" ... in a field that is down to only two candidates whose ideas are so similar that even the press can't figure out what makes them different beyond their obvious racial and gender differences. Here's to hoping that this is a wake-up call and that four years from now all of our primary votes will count.