White House Conference on Aging -- day 3 (Tuesday)

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Wednesday December 14, 2005 · 5:14 AM PST

2005/12/14 · 05:14

Another long day -- this time working on "implementation strategies" for the top 50 resolutions. Delegates weren't told what the all-important ten top resolutions are, although they were known late last night and apparently leaked to the press this afternoon.

The press get more info than the delegeates. Great.

There was some passionate debate, a fracas on the Social Security implementation forum, a ruckus at dinner. (Don't you just love the print journalism vocabulary?) Delagates worked hard, delt with difficult questions, and reached consensus on many implementation issues. Will any of it matter? Read More

White House Conference on Aging -- Day 2

rdevaul

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Monday December 12, 2005 · 9:03 PM PST

2005/12/12 · 21:03

Day two of the conference saw the first public signs of insurection. Delegates stood up in the middle of the afternoon session to present a petition in support of the 10% rule. It was "managed" by the organizers and security.

The morning session included apocalyptic prognostication by the Comptroller General of the GAO, and the session was cut short by a fire alarm incident.

The rules were changed. The resolutions were voted upon. The speakers advocated a vision of aging primarily for rich white Norto Americonos. But in spite of this, democracy is working. Read More

liveblogging the White House Conference on Aging -- December 11th.

rdevaul

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Sunday December 11, 2005 · 7:15 PM PST

2005/12/11 · 19:15

I'm a Massachusetts at-large delegate for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, a once-every-ten-years event that (in theory) has major national, state, and local policy implications for our aging nation. The reason I say "in theory" is that this decade's WHCoA has more in common with a national political convention than a policy conference; the delegates have absolutely no control of the agenda. We get up-or-down votes on 73 resolutions, and have to vote "yes" on at least 30 or our votes don't count.

The most interesting thing about the conference may be what isn't being discussed -- which includes social security, and access to elder services for LGBT and other minorities. Read More

pseudosecurity

rdevaul

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Wednesday May 11, 2005 · 11:12 PM PDT

2005/05/11 · 23:12

Once again, the post-9/11 American "security" system has revealed its true, farcical nature. Yesterday the news broke that it was the Bush administration and not Tom Ridge that was constantly pushing for "elevated" and "high" terror alert status, with little or no basis in the intelligence. (See this AP wire report in the Kansas City Star, Wednesday's posting on myDD, or search google news for more coverage.)

Today we had the Cessna 150 scare, where a two-seater aircraft 1/3 the weight of a typical automobile with a cruising speed of 110 mph strayed into the large (~30 mile) "temporary" Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) restricted airspace above Washington DC. This horrifying event triggered scrambled fighter jets, the evacuation of the capitol building and the Supreme Court, and breathless coverage on CNN and (presumably) Fox News. Did this actually present a threat? Read More

preemptive love

rdevaul

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Thursday January 27, 2005 · 9:52 AM PST

2005/01/27 · 09:52

As I was biking through yesterday's snowstorm on the inadequately
cleared streets of Somerville I found my mind wandering (as it often
does) to the subjects of love and foreign policy. Fighting to keep the
bike upright in my snow-addled state, I imagined a state-of-the-union
address (delivered in an MLK-like southern Baptist orator's voice) on
the new US doctrine of "preemptive compassion." It was a nice
fantasy.

I believe that a lot of domestic and international problems could be
addressed by a policy of providing decent opportunities for
nutrition, health care, and social justice, and effective humanitarian
crisis-response interventions. But you would still have the problem
of megalomaniacal nutbars bent on screwing things up for their own
ends. How do we address this?

It occurred to me that if we required that all world leaders spend at
least one night a week getting properly laid, it might go a long way
towards taking the edge off of some of the craziness. I guess you
could call this the "Clinton/JFK doctrine."

It isn't over: Ohio is still in play

rdevaul

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Tuesday November 02, 2004 · 11:14 PM PST

2004/11/02 · 23:14

According to CNN.com, Ohio is still too close to call. With 96% of the vote counted, it is Bush at 2,687,002 (51%) and Kerry at 2,564,957 (49%). This could still go either way, especially with the possibility of absentee ballots and legal challenges.

If Kerry can pick up WI, and perhaps MI, and NV, this race is definitely still in play.

It will be a messy, nasty finish, but don't give up yet.

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