Painting That Note On The Broad Side Of A Barn

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Intellitouch Tuner for guitars, made right here in Texas by the good folks at Onboard Research Corporation in Plano. It allows one to quickly, easily and accurately tune the guitar. For someone of my musical ability, this is a very valuable product. The company also makes tuners for a variety of other musical instruments, including trumpets, clarinets and saxophones. Their products can even teach me -- well, maybe not me, but certainly you -- to play the drums.

I saw one of these last weekend in Marathon. My new friends Chris and Andy, who are fabulous musicians, told me about it. so I bought one this week. Count me one satisfied -- and tuned-up -- customer.

Eating Krogh

Egil Krogh was the first member of the Nixon Administration to go to jail, convicted for his role in the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. The Ellsberg break-in was ten months before the Watergate break-in that brought down the Nixon Administration, and was a sideshow to that spectacle.

Krogh has written an interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times, describing his role and the lessons he learned. Excerpts:

At no time did I or anyone else there question whether the operation was necessary, legal or moral. Convinced that we were responding legitimately to a national security crisis, we focused instead on the operational details: who would do what, when and where ...

The premise of our action was the strongly held view within certain precincts of the White House that the president and those functioning on his behalf could carry out illegal acts with impunity if they were convinced that the nation’s security demanded it. As President Nixon himself said to David Frost during an interview six years later, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” To this day the implications of this statement are staggering ...

I finally realized that what had gone wrong in the Nixon White House was a meltdown in personal integrity. Without it, we failed to understand the constitutional limits on presidential power and comply with statutory law.

He says that he wrote a memo to the incoming Bush Administration in 2001, urging upon them the lessons he'd learned. He concludes, "I wonder if they received my message." Probably not.

Why Bush Is Out Of It

GQ has an interview with Dan Bartlett, President Bush's departing communications director, in this month's issue. You can read the interview, which is by Bartlett's fellow Texan Robert Draper, on its website. The most interesting exchange is reprinted below, wherein Draper asks Bartlett whether the White House is in touch with reality.

To read some of Karl Rove’s recent comments, you’d think the state of the administration has never been rosier. Does anyone provide a reality check for the White House?
The president’s closest advisers are paid to make sure he understands every aspect of the decision he has to make. And I can confidently say that in the five years I’ve had this job, we haven’t walked blindly into decisions. Now have there been missteps? Of course. But I don’t buy this notion that Bush lives in a bubble. You can disagree fundamentally with the decisions he makes, but I don’t think they are based on a lack of understanding of what’s going on around him.
So then how do you get your reality check?
I have an informal group of advisers who are in the communications field, who work in various jobs in corporate America or have served in government. They come in once a quarter, and we have a working session where I pick their brains about what they’re seeing from the president: What are the visuals, what’s working and not working. Kind of my own focus group—people who’ve served in my role as communications directors, people who’ve worked in Fortune 500 companies, people who are at the highest level of corporate communications who aren’t directly involved in politics but who follow it. They know my trade, and I can ask them, “I know this isn’t working. How do I communicate it better?” Or they’ll say, “We want to see Bush more personally—not from behind the podium.”

Now, Dan, I'm sure you're a smart guy, very articulate and a good American and all that. But -- and excuse me for putting this so bluntly -- ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FU*CKING MIND? Do you really think that serving as a reality check on this Administration involves meeting four time a year with a bunch of Madison Avenue schmucks to see whether "the visuals" are working? Do you really think that sitting down with a group of your peers, whom you describe as all working for Fortune 500 companies and the like, has anything to do with a "reality" check?

Here are some suggestions you can pass on to Ed Gillespie, your successor:

1. Once a week -- not once a month, much less four time a year -- go to a VA Hospital and talk with an Iraq vet, preferably one who's done two, three or even four tours over there. Don't talk to them about the missing limbs, ghost pain, or the nightmares that haunt them -- that'll be too intense for you. But just ask them about the day-to-day cluster-fu*cked life of people in Iraq, and see if that has the remotest resemblance to the "being greeted as liberators" or "the last throes of the insurgency" swill you've been up-chucking for the last four years.
2. Swap salaries for six months with your administrative assistant and give up your taxpayer-sponsored health care. See how far the money goes to paying the bills, and then re-evaluate some of your talking points on whether more tax cuts for the wealthiest one or two percent are necessary.
3. In a well-ventilated, preferably outdoor area, create three piles of money, with the following amounts in each: $22,218, $5,835, and $2,732. Next, burn them. Now, figure out how to give your children a college education. Those numbers represent the increased annual cost of a college education at, respectively, four-year private, four-year public, and two-year public colleges since George W. Bush took office. (Source)

You should try some of these too, Dan. Not only will they make you a better public servant, they'll make you a better person.

I Heart Eliza Gilkyson

I have been listening to Eliza Gilkyson's music for a long time. It's one of the perks of living in Austin that fantastic singer-songwriters like Eliza come tumbling out of your car radio (especially if you listen to KGSR) or appearing at coffee houses, beer joints, or outdoor patios at one-of-a-kind Austin restaurants.

Eliza has released eight albums, but in my humble opinion really hit her stride with 2000's Hard Times in Babylon. The title track is elegant and beautiful, and the other great track on that album is "Beauty Way." Take a listen to a live version, which includes some great patter from her about the song and its origins:

Eliza Gilkyson -- Beauty Way Mp3

I think this is about as good as songwriting gets.

COOL TRIVIA: Eliza's father, Terry Gilkyson, was a popular and prolific songwriter who wrote such classics as "Memories Are Made of This," which was a Number One hit for Dean Martin, and "Tell The Captain," which gained immensely popularity as "Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys. Cool, eh?

Grade A Hypocrisy From Ron Paul

The Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, and Victoria Advocate have all picked up a story about Ron Paul's hypocrisy in fighting for earmarks in approproations bills, then voting against the bills on final passage.

The article, by Suzanne Gamboa of the Associated Press, notes that Paul has requested over 50 earmarks for his district, including "$8.6 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain the Texas City Channel and $10 million for the Galveston Rail Causeway Bridge. He also asked for money for a nursing program, expansion of a cancer center at Brazosport Hospital, a seafood testing program, a Children's Identification and Location Database and $8 million for Wild American Shrimp Marketing requested by the Texas Shrimp Association."

If past performance indicates future actions, Paul will fight to get those earmarks into the budget, then vote against the total document. Knowing that the vote to pass the budget will be overwhelming, he's in the best of both worlds: he can fight for all the pork he wants, sanctimoniously vote against the budget, then tell his colleagues, constituents, and citizens how he's voted against Bog Government Spending.

Paul's aide Tom Lizardo (I am not making that name up) defends Paul's speaking with forked tongue, saying "he feels the IRS takes the money and so it's (his) job to make sure money comes back in the district." Riiiiiiiight.

Political posturing and hypocrisy are nothing new, but Paul's hypocrisy points up the deeper problem with Libertarianism: it just doesn't work. You cannot live in the United States of America without paying the piper. We live in a complex, integrated, globalized society. In that environment, government plays a critical role -- not just in the "soft" health and human services issues, but in the coordination of basic institutions like transportation, public safety, finance, commerce, and education.

Libertarians are, I think, right about some things. I believe government should stay out of people's personal lives, for instance. Also, having watched George Bush and Rick Perry in action the last few years, I tend to agree with Thomas Paine that "that government is best that governs least." But Paul's knee-jerk libertarianism is, at its core, irresponsible.

Home Sweet Largest County In The U.S.

This is the view from the porch outside my cabin at the Marathon Motel. I got here yesterday for a quick weekend get-together hosted, as always, by Ty and Kate Fain. Their New Year's Eve parties -- when they and their Merry Band throw the best bash in the Big Bend -- are legendary, and this weekend is a summer version of that gathering. About 20 people are here, hanging out during the day and eating, drinking and making merry in the evenings.

This afternoon a large contingent went down to the Post, a county park five miles south of Marathon. The Post is like a little osais in this semi-arid country. It is luch and green, partly because there's been so much rain out here. While we were out there, a little storm washed over the area, freshening and cooling the air.



Tonight we'll have dinner, and then some musicians will entertain us for the balance of the evening.

UPDATE: I've posted some pictures from the weekend on Picasa, here.

Steve Murdock's Leaving

If demographers were rock stars, Steve Murdock would be Eric Clapton, even though he only ever wanted to be Johnny Unitas.

The Texas Observer blog reports that Steve Murdock, the State Demographer, has been nominated to be Director of the U.S. Census. This is surely good for the Census, but bad for Texas.

As Jake Bernstein points out in his post, Murdock has been a constant, if sometimes overly technical, prophet of a vastly different Texas, where Hispanics are the majority and our failure to invest in their education and empowerment turns us into a Third World state. He traveled the state extensively, making PowerPoint presentations to diverse groups and enlisting them in the cause of planning for a better future. He created well-researched by readable documents that explained the main points of his thesis. He even wrote a book.

I don't know who would replace Steve Murdock, but I hope his successor has his talent, energy and vision.