triscribe

RIP Don LaFontaine. Discipline, commitment, excellence. If I had a choice to be known as the American President or unknown as the movie voice of God Himself “in a world where both of our cars are underwater”, I know who I’d want to be.

GEICO Commercial

5 Voiceover guys in a limo

Interesting article on theRoot.com about “From Piyush to Bobby,” as a look at Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and what Indian-Americans (Asian Americans overall) are struggling with their identity and getting their place on the table of American politics. Just in time for the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Gustav! (ok, sure, no coincidence).

So, yeah, I watched the RNC. It was more unappetizing to watch than I realized. I so disagreed with a lot that was said; perhaps I am reaching my own political evolution in my thinking. At the least, I had to hear out the thinking of the opposition, even if I disagreed with it.

Slate has an FAQ on Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), since we ought to know just a bit more about her. Factually, that is. I can’t really swallow silly gossip.

Her speech had good delivery; low expectations - and so a nice surprise for the Republicans, I suppose. Then again, I disagreed with a lot that was said.

John McCain’s speech — well, I suppose it was riveting in terms of biographical aspects; he’s not an orator; but good enough for him. Then again, I disagreed with a lot that was said.

Slate’s Timothy Noah on the scuttlebutt on Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), the VP nominee - hilarious! The big laugh for me: Noah says (I retained his italics; removed his hyperlinks),

The woman who made this complaint about big government taking your money is the governor of Alaska. Please take a moment to look at this U.S. Census chart showing federal-government expenditures, per capita, in the 50 states. You will observe that Alaska receives about $14,000 per citizen from the federal government. That’s more than any other state except Virginia, Maryland, New Mexico, and North Dakota. The chart is from the Census Bureau’s Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2005. I skipped over the 2006 report, the most recent one available, because Hurricane Katrina put Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Alaska that year. But that’s an anomaly. Alaska held the per-capita record for sucking on the federal teat in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000. According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Alaska gets back $1.84 for every dollar it pays into the U.S. Treasury—even though Alaska enjoys a higher per-capita income than 34 of the 50 states. This is a state that preaches right-wing libertarianism while it practices middle-class socialism.

NY Times’ Bob Herbert raises an important point: that the Democrats be very careful and don’t get distracted. His last line in the column was great: “[FDR's] words echo across the decades because they resonate with the very meaning of America, a meaning that is so much deeper than what our politics have become. ‘We are fighting,’ he told his audience, ‘to save a great and precious form of government, for ourselves and for the world.’”

NY Times’ Seth Kugel on ideas of a weekend at and near Bryant Park.

The passing of Don LaFontaine, the movie trailer voice-over guy.

The passing of Bill Melendez, animator - especially known for the Snoopy and Peanuts cartoons - see LA Times obit. I didn’t know he was also the voice of Snoopy! God bless Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez for making these characters come to life for us.

Hurricane Gustav wasn’t as bad as feared; but a storm’s no fun.

Spent Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C. with the siblings - We saw a Nationals v. Braves game on Saturday night; otherwise much sightseeing. Weather was nice and the sights were amazing.

Saturday: lunch at Fuddruckers in Alexandria, VA - quite a salmon burger! Walking the Mall - walking over to the Washington Memorial.

The World War II Memorial - quite a memorial! I liked it for giving quite the feeling of the American contribution - the 50 states and the territories.

Walked toward the Lincoln Memorial. The Reflecting Pool seemed to have a lot of duck crap along the way… hmm…

Sunday:

Thomas Jefferson Memorial; nice photos in Wikipedia. Took awhile to walk over there; I’m so out of shape!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was interesting, but not my cup of tea - yes, seeing FDR’s words etched on walls were quite powerful but seeing the statue of him straight out of the old photos of the Yalta summit and sitting by his little dog Fala — well, I can’t say that I felt impressed. The Wikipedia entry has some nice photos of the memorial.

Walked passed by and took a look at the International Spy Museum; hmm.

Walking through D.C.’s Chinatown felt strangely disappointing; felt very corporate, actually.

Took a break in the National Building Museum - beautiful building!

I kind of thought that D.C.’s Metro was impressive - more or less clean; fast; plus electronic signage that tells you the next train’s ETA. It did look a lot like PATH, in my mind; but PATH’s trains looks more like something out of the 1970’s - so you can’t have everything.

Watching some of the Republican convention, mostly out of trying to get context and to watch history in the making; I can’t say that I agreed with much of what was said on Tuesday night. Hmm. Anyway, I credit PBS for airing the full Joe Lieberman speech; ABC cut it off to get to local news; come on, networks - you’re doing people a disservice!

Slate’s John Dickerson on Hurricane Gustav’s effect on presidential politics; interesting point that he has: that maybe the candidates should just join forces to make ads to help the folks, instead of ads attacking each other.

Newsweek columnist Rabbi Gellman on how we can somehow move past our biases in this election; that is the question: can we?

Time flies… “summer” is about finished in so many ways and the ramp up of the end of year is coming up. There’s a bit of a yearly “corporate life cycle” - the ebbs and flows - and we plan our holidays and other activities around it. This year is happening really fast and I’m getting new folks arriving to the team this month. Just came back from a week in KL & Ipoh - part holiday and part training. Was good.

Will be quite interesting to see how things go from here. The old and the new trying to bring things together and bond. Pretty tired and looking for a boost and pick up. one more month and I’ll be heading stateside. That’ll be good !

Happy labor day all! And happy Merkeda Malaysia (51st year)!

McCain’s pick for Vice president left me a bit puzzled; I mean, all very nice that you picked a woman (and a governor), but the political positions involved leave me uncomfortable and Governor Palin’s experience level left me a little underwhelmed. John Dickerson of Slate summed up with a “Huh?” in his headline; yes, she was one of those considered, but still… well, it’s 2008 - we have an African-American presidential candidate; had a woman candidate; even had a Latino candidate (in Bill Richardson, even if he was more second or third tier); why not a woman VP candidate?

Democratic Convention thoughts:

Even though I have cable, I stuck with the PBS coverage. It was comprehensive stuff.

Salute to Teddy Kennedy.

Michelle Obama was pretty awesome.

Hillary Clinton was very good and gracious in her speech; the best of Hillary, I’d say (and I’m not exactly a fan of Hillary’s speeches; her sing-song speaking voice has been rather grating for me; but this time, she kept it smooth; I liked it). Mark Halperin on Time.com gave great grade.

John Kerry was actually pretty good speaking on the third night - quite strong. Halperin graded a good grade for Kerry on Time.com.

Bill Clinton did pretty well; hit all the points. Yeah, that’s right - he was a President of the United States - and he sure knows his politics. Halperin gave high marks on Time.com.

Beau Biden, Joe’s son and Attorney General of Delaware (and soon-to-be shipped to Iraq, as a JAG officer) was poignant in giving the intro to his dad; the camera’s capturing Michelle Obama’s getting teary eyed over listening to the tough tragedy of the Biden family was sweet.

Joe Biden - well, he was being Joe. His mother’s reaction to his reference of how she made him get back at his bullies when he was a kid (she mouthed to the person sitting next to her, “That’s true!”) : that was priceless!

Al Gore - “it’s time for a change…” - reminiscent of his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech of 1992, which I so very much remembered for getting my attention. He was right then; he is right now. If only 2000 had been different…! At any rate, I liked his speech; he really got to the heart of the urgency from the environmental front of issues (he scared me, as the news about the Arctic is rightfully scary) and he gave a wonderful analogy of Abraham Lincoln, who was seen as insufficiently experienced - yet inspired and re-shaped America. (well, Lincoln was Republican, but I’d think he’d be amazed and impressed by today’s Democrats and Obama). Anyway, I pretty much agreed with Mark Halperin’s grade on Time.com for Al Gore.

And, of course, the history making moment of Barack Obama as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party on the 45th Anniversary of the March to Washington — well, it was something. The video preceding Obama was interesting - yeah, it summarized his bio and his career; but, in a way, I thought it was almost a sequel of “Dreams of My Father” - in terms of his bio, it focused more on his mom and his maternal grandparents and had photos of his mom, his sister, and him.

The speech itself - well, the experts grasped it far better than I did. As someone who’s read both his books and heard a bunch of his speeches (at least on-line or on tv, or reading about interviews), much of the speech felt like a smoother re-hash of Obama’s best lines. He really demonstrated his specifics and his wonkish side; in fact, it almost got boring for me - almost Bill Clintonesque, really in the lengthiness of specifics (and, really, Bill Clinton’s past speeches have bored me). I’d give it a very solid B for Obama; he pulled his punches on McCain where he had to, and he tried to sell himself in one of the big moments of this marathon job interview for the top job of this country. I like his lofty rhetoric speeches, but this was where he probably had to get it down solid. He should have smiled more, I think. I like his smiles, but again, this is a marathon. He’ll have more opportunities. Joe Klein posted on an article Time.com and is quite right that by next week, we might not remember this speech; one of the historians on the Lehrer/PBS presentation made the excellent point that if Obama wins, his inaugural speech could outshadow this convention speech. This is just one more step in the process.

Still, I felt a bit of a tug of the heart strings when Obama referred to the March of 45 years ago; that’s really something.

So, we’ll see! Only in America can we have such amazing times in the 40 years since the Civil Rights era; dare we hope and believe?

A funny interview in Newsweek with actor Don Cheadle. I was particularly amused by his response to the question about his former castmates George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt, regarding who’d he date, if he were gay, which he isn’t; he apparently figured Damon and Clooney would treat dates to nice dinners and said Brad Pitt would just go for a burger; hmmm! Plus, a reference to his being in the cast of the “Golden Girls” spinoff, “Golden Palace”!

On the environmental and alternative energy front: the idea of green roofs and the real difficulties of harnessing wind power.

Off to Washington DC for Labor Day weekend!