That guy from Idaho

I've never actually heard of Senator Larry Craig before this week. He's not having the best time of it. I think he's missing the point, or at least the point I would care about. I don't care if he's gay or not. But I'm not from Idaho and he might know his constituency better than I do.

Maybe they do care. And maybe they'll believe his "I'm not gay" assertions and ignore the arresting cop AND the guy who claims to have had a sexual encounter with him in a D.C. train station. I would think this would be obvious, but if you're going to make the statement that you've never been gay you better know that no people are out there willing and able to credibly contradict you.

This would be a bad time for any Senator, but the hypocrisy stinks especially big on the elephant side of the aisle. A lot of them want him out. If it was just the arrest itself, I would think some kind of censure would be enough, but the more he's talking and proven to be a liar, the more he's burying himself. I don't think he'll last much longer.

Gonzo Gone

Anyone get the sense that by the time Junior gets out of dodge, he's walking out alone? Junior would have us believe that Gonzo was a victim of politics and partisan sniping even though his incompetence was the only thing everyone in Washington seemed to agree on in the last year. He was horrible and a key cog in forming and perpetuating some of the worst Constitutional abuses ever.

Like Rove, I'm wondering if he'll ever really get payback for his sins.

Taking Care

Universal healthcare is a term that's bandied about a lot these days. Everybody this side of Junior realizes there is a problem or at least a political opportunity to score points and their tripping over each other to come up with something to extend coverage to more folks and declare it "universal".

Haven't seen the Moore movie yet. About halfway through "Sick" Jonathan Cohn's very well written book on healthcare in this country.

Anyone who wants to see a proposal trying to get through the state see below. Write your governor and state legislators too.

http://www.onecarenow.org/sb840.htm

We won't miss you.

Rove is going home. This guy was abrasive as a strategist and probably did as much as anybody in the last 7 years to divide this country as anybody did. He wasn't somebody who cared about working with people who didn't agree with him and he made the president more that way than he probably otherwise would have been.

Does it mean anything now? Not really. It means lame duck Junior really isn't going to do anything until he's out of office. No big policy that required a strategist to beat up Republiskunk congressional folks. Junior's just riding it out at this point. It may also mean that Rove's getting away scott free on the Valerie Plame thing. Not really the right thing.

Maui Trip Summary

Day 1. Checked out our little two bedroom place in Kihei. Awesome view of the ocean. Ate Fish & Chips at the Pupu Lounge. Not that great. Went to Safeway and loaded up on supplies. Food, alcohol and about $100 worth of baby stuff. Hit the beach. Magnificent water. Played Ticket to Ride and lost horribly.

Day 2. Picked up W at the airport. Ate Vietnamese at Ba Le. Someone needs to franchise this and open chains all over the US. Went to the Maui Ocean Center. Very cool aquarium. Hit the beach again. Baby didn't really seem to like the beach.

Day 3. Picked up JB at the airport. Ate at Ba Le + L& L. The trend seems to be people are very hungry when they get off the plane. Drove off on the Road to Hana. Long pretty drive, but somewhat over rated. Limited in our hiking ability by somebody who doesn't walk yet. Rained a lot on way back. Wifey got extremely car sick. Fish tacos from Alexander's in Kihei. Good cheap eats.

Day 4. On the way up the coast to Lanai at Mile Marker 14 stopped at the beach right by the side of the road. Very shallow water. Excellent easy snorkeling. Evereyone played in the water a bit. Baby still didn't seem to like the beach or the ocean. Met a very cool woman just hanging on the beach. She was very very nice and a marine biologist to boot. She had everything from restaurant tips to beach recommendations to picture taking. She even lent us a snorkel.

After that we went to the Maui Onion Fest, which was really disappointing in some regards. It was held at an upscale mall to promote the stores and restaurants at the mall. Still, the onion rings and tacos were killer. Spent a couple hours shopping there. Afterwards, crashed at the Sheraton. Wandy went snorkeling while the rest of us sat out at the cabana by the pool.

Late that night, went to LuLu's for drinks with the Groom & Bride to be.

Day 5. Went to Io State park. (Was that the name?) It was up in the hills and covered by clouds. A much nicer climated. Learned a little about Hawaiian history. A great battle was fought there and the side that had guns given to them by white people won. Saw some people jumping off a very high bridge into water that didn't look deep enough, but they were enjoying what they were doing. Had dinner at Sensei. Awesome sushi. Saw Clint Eastwood there.

Day 6. Shuttled womenfolk to spa and wedding usher to brunch. Went to wedding mentioned in previous blog.

Day 7. Also covered this in blog. Spent the day travelling.

Airports suck.

Airports have become extremely stressful places. We had to get to the airport at 5:00 am to catch a 7:00 am flight. ATA has a nice niche as a discount flier, but they obviously take the worst gates and counterspace. It took us some time to navigate and find them. Not an especially troublesome action in itself, but throw in a baby and too much baby gear and it becomes a real trial.

ATA did not provide the plastic bag for the car seat that other travelers told us would be available. As a result, we carried on our car seat. Lugging it was a pain, getting it filthy going through the x-ray check point was another matter. And TSA guys aren't all very nice and understanding. Some of them are quite rude and bossy. And the advantage is in their court, because hell, they change the rules every couple of weeks. No one can really keep up.

Oakland airport was especially bad on our return. It took nearly two hours from the time our 30 minute late plan landed until the time we left the airport. Then the baggage claim took forever. When we got their bags from flight 4822 were circulating. It took about 15 minutes before our flight 4830 started going around. In between, about 7 bags from a mythical flight 4828 came out the shoot. They circulated untouched by anyone. I felt somewhat sorry for the persons who were looking for their bags off that unposted flight, but figured if they were wizards on their way to Hogwarts it probably evened out in the end.

To top it off, Oakland Airport is currently going through some construction. Usually there are taxi lanes and arrival lanes and departure lanes. On this particularly full evening, there was only one lane for all of this traffic.

After something like 15 hours of travel, I ended up getting to bed around 3:30 that evening or exactly the same time that I had left my bed to catch my flight to Maui one week before.

The plane flights themselves were okay. Little J was a trooper and didn't cry much and seemed to have no ear problems with the altitude changes. However, I did get covered from head to toe in a pretty think layer of baby spit as she sat in my lap. Also had one really nasty poo diaper on the plane. We bought a fully clothed baby to the lavatory in back and went back to our seats with a baby wearing nothing but a diaper. The clothes might have been salvageable if we were at home, but not on the road. Besides, she was growing out of them anyway.

Maui wedding

So I was in Maui for a week attending the wedding festivities of a good friend. It's grand to see him with a huge smile that may never go away. He found exactly the person he was always looking for and he's got a lifetime of happiness in front of him. She's not getting a bad deal either.

His wedding was at one of the fancy hotels at the end of the island where all the celebraties stay. I'm told some people had a Howie Mandel encounter if he counts as a celebrati. The groom went with a white tux and a white cake and the release of white doves from white wicker baskets. There was a one hour open bar and only about 40 guests. They had a minimum that they knew would be hard to reach and encouraged us to drink as many fancy drinks as we could suck down in that hour. That's the way to have a wedding.

Many other thoughts about Maui, but later.