« December 2004 | Main | February 2005 »

January 26, 2005

Baseball: Mientkiewicz to Mets, Sledge Fighting for Job

Now that the Nationals are in DC, I have two baseball teams I'm inclined to follow. Now I recognize that most of my writing is political in nature, but every now and then I must comment on baseball. And today warrants comments.

The Sox are about to trade Doug Mientkiewicz to the Mets. I am admittedly slightly saddened by this, but I understand. I was hoping a way could be found to use both Millar and Mientkiewicz, but I know that never really was a possibility. And in a choice between the two I have to go with Millar simply for the Cowboy Up factor. My single bit of consternation is that with both Mientkiewicz and Kapler gone, the Sox will no longer be the most... Jewcy... team in baseball. The only cohen left is Youkilis, who I have much love for as well. And I do believe, in my heart of hearts, that our tribe's incrediable athletic skills were singlehandedly responsible for the World Series win. After all, they were the only team in history that I am aware of, that could of at any point been 1/3rd kosher.

Who's brilliant idea is it not to start Terrmel Sledge for the Nationals? Stick Wilkerson at first, trade Johnson for some pitching, and have your outfield be Sledge, Guillen, and Chavez! Jeez... You sign Guzman, but want to bench the most talented young player in your organization. DUMB!

Posted by MikeSager at 1:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2005

Stop Reaching Out to Pro-Birthers

Everytime a prominent Democrat reaches out to The Fundies, we're setting ourselves up to get screwed. Hillary says we need to reach common ground with the anti-abortion faction - there is no common ground to reach. Would we be trying to reach common ground with these people if they were protesting condoms or the pill instead of abortions? There is nothing that we want from these people - and we're not going to win any elections by giving in to the fundies. I repeat:

We're not going to win any election by giving up our cultural ground. The ones who have problems with abortions are never going to vote for us - period. Let's instead reach out to those who vote for the Republicans for economic reasons.

The sooner we understand this, the sooner we're going to recapture our country.

It's the culture war, stupid!

Posted by MikeSager at 3:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 24, 2005

No Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates. While I have lots of outrage to throw around, I haven't allowed myself to get angry enough to start ranting again. By fear not - I will soon.

In the meantime I may be going out on tour again with a theater piece. If I do, I'm going to start a separate tour blog on this site. We'll see what happens.

Posted by MikeSager at 9:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2005

No WMD

There are No WMD. George W. Bush knowingly lied to the United States Congress. He knowingly lied to the Countries in the United Nations. He knowingly lied to the people of the United States. Over a thousand of our soldiers are dead. Our international credibility is destroyed. Our fall from the morale high ground is complete.

Chimpeach.

Posted by MikeSager at 6:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

RIP HFS

WHFS, the pioneering radio station that was a staple of my youth is no more. The last station with an independent programming director has changed formats...to LATIN POP!!! Come on!

Euch. This sucks.

Posted by MikeSager at 5:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

My Own Experience with the Lawsuit Cutlure, DNC Chair Race, Monday, The New Slogan of the Democratic Party

As I write this, I'm sprawled out on my parents couch in Northern VA right outside of the District - recovering from knee surgery. The experience of finally having my knee handled is an interesting one - having turned from annoyance into saga over the course of 6 months of defensive medicine.

I was running on the treadmill in my building when I noticed my knee was hurting. So I stopped. And then after working the following day, I made a Doctor's appoint with my primary care provider. He recommended me to an Orthopedic Surgeon.

Doctor #1: He checks me out, observes a chondroma (benign bone tumor) on my femur - said it should be checked out, but nothing to really worry about. Orders MRI to find source of pain.

My father, also being a doctor, knows of various websites where you can checkout other Doctors. Low and behold, we can't find any information about whether this guy is board certified or qualified to be an Orthopedic Surgeon. So my father gets a recommendation from his friend on another Doctor - and I go to see him.

Doctor #2: Reads the MRIs, does an X-Ray, and wants me to see the Cancer Specialist.

Doctor #3: Spends the next 4 months doing CYA medicine, trying every possible technique to treat this without actually going inside and checking it out. Meanwhile, my knee has been hurting like hell since June and we start in August. My last visit with this guy was in December.

Finally, tired of no answer and a sharp pain in my knee I book a last minute flight to DC. I arrive on Wednesday, have an appointment on Friday, and surgery today. The moral of this story - if you're treated where the Doctor doesn't fear massive malpractice insurance costs and where he's comfortable to go with his instinct - you're going to get better treatment.

My knee is fixed, and I've grown disgusted with the Florida BAR Association.

Howard Dean is officially running for DNC Chair. I still haven't made up my mind. My gut tells me to support Howard, but I'm also very intrigued by Simon Rosenburg. I'll need to find out more about them before I make any kind of decision... Not that my opinion really matters on this one. But perhaps one of those voting members is reading.

And if you work for either Howard Dean, or Simon Rosenburg - I'm looking for a job.

Speaking of looking for a job, that adventure gave me some unique experiences on Monday. Monday afternoon I had lunch at the Four Seasons with a friend in Georgetown, rode the same Metro as Mike McCurry, and then had coffee in the basement of the Hart Senate Office Building. All in all, that was pretty damn cool.

I have a proposed new slogan for my party: "Democrats - By Committee". There's a noticeable lack within the party to let someone have a final say, or have a coherent decision on what they're saying. We're never going to win anything if we can't reach a consensus amongst ourselves - come on people!

Posted by MikeSager at 1:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2005

Quick Thought

Is it bad that I got excited because I saw Mike McCurry on the Metro today?

Posted by MikeSager at 6:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 6, 2005

Marriage Equality, Social Security “reform”, It’s Over and We Lost, Reunion, A Quick DC Trip

I had an interesting discussion on New Years with a friend of mine, who voted for Bush. While this wasn’t the reason he voted for Bush, he preferred Bush’s stance on Gay Marriage. This surprised me – this is someone who voted for Bush on security grounds, and he didn’t care for Kerry (though interestingly he said he’d have voted for Dean in a heartbeat…) Anyways, my friend is of the opinion that you can have Gay Marriage and call it whatever you want…except marriage. His argument on this not being a situation of “separate but equal” is that we opened up suffrage to women with the stroke of a pen, why couldn’t we extend full legal partnership rights the same way? Just call it something else?

I’d rather take it a step further – if the religious community has such a problem with letting gay people get married, then let’s simply remove marriage from the public domain completely. Everyone enters into domestic partnerships – be they straight or gay.

This way the religious communities can call it whatever they want, but all legal rights are the same. I think this is a solution that could please everyone. I didn’t get any legal rights when I became Bar Mitzvah, why should I get them for any other religious ceremony?

Why do I keep hearing that Social Security is broken? That it needs reform? The only thing it needs is for the Federal Government to pay back what it owes – then it will be fine. I understand that the CEO in Chief doesn’t like the idea of actually paying back what it owes, but it’s a simple solution that will make things work. There’s no need to go to Private Accounts. Furthermore – here’s the issue with private accounts…

The way Social Security works is the current workers pay for the current retirees. If the current workers start paying into personal private accounts, then the rug is obviously pulled out on the current retirees – or the government has to make up the money but running even more deficits. And what about when the current generation retires, or those who almost retired? If we switch to personal accounts then all the credits already built up will go away – unless the government intends to pay each worker all of their social security to invest – which is such a huge amount of money that I doubt even Bush would try that. This is a disaster waiting to happen that’s going to destroy the lives of a lot of people currently living on a fixed income.

To those Dems still crying foul – get over it. Now. We lost. We need to start the next fight, which will not happen if we’re still trying to fight the last one. There isn’t enough evidence to support a fraud theory – unlike 2000. They stole 2000. We lost 2004. End of story – let’s pick up the pieces and make damn sure we retake the House and Senate in ’06.

There’s talk of a JK Campaign reunion in NYC around inauguration day. That’d be a lovely diversion and a great reason to see Avenue Q. It’s amazing how many friends you make working on a Political Campaign…at least a Democratic one. I doubt I’d make that many friends working on a Republican campaign…then again, I doubt I’d ever work on a Republican campaign anyways.

As I write this, I’m in a plane heading up to DC (though I won’t be once I actually post it). Independence Air offers very inexpensive fares up and down the eastern seaboard – and thus far I’m quite happy with my experience on this flight. My only complaint is that once again I got tagged for extra screening for the flight. It usually happens when I’m on a One-Way Ticket or book less than 24 hours in advance. It just amuses me after working for the campaign, and being very close to some very powerful people. Oh well – not like TSA knows that. And if any of my readers are in the DC area, and I don’t already know you – feel free to drop me an e-mail.

I saw something on Headline News earlier about the American Heritage Dictionary announcing their word of the year at the end of the week. Last year it was “metrosexual.” I will bet anyone a Latte that this year it will be either “blog” or “blogger”.

Posted by MikeSager at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack