Welcome to the War Zone!

Many friends of mine know I'm a huge fan of end-of-the-world movies. If it's about the world's impending doom or after a handful of nuclear bombs have detonated, I'll be first in line at the theatre. My obsession is so bad that several months ago I had a vivid dream whose story mimicked the new show "Flashforward." But I'll save discussion of that dream--and end-of-the-world movies--for another post.

Because right now, if I didn't know any better, I'd think that Pittsburgh is preparing for the end of the world. My seven block walk from the bus stop to the Law & Finance Building this morning was spooky: lots of boarded up storefronts, street traffic reduced to next to nothing, and the handful of people on the sidewalks were all walking purposefully, eyes downcast. I also saw a lot of police officers: in squad cars, on motorcycles, and on foot with dogs.

This afternoon I'm perched in a downtown office building overlooking the courthouse. Car traffic has not increased, but the silence is pierced by the regular sound of sirens. I just saw a convoy of ten police vehicles gunning down Grant Street--two I noticed from Montgomery County (that's the Philadelphia area, for those unfamiliar with Pennsylvania) and for the last two hours, it's been nonstop beeping and sirens.

But this is the last "normal" day downtown: tonight the barricades go up to cordon off the G-20 zone from the rest of us (code for civilians and those mean, despicable protesters). From what I understand, unless you are involved with the G-20 (delegates, media, police, G-20 volunteers, etc.) or live downtown, no one gets in or out.

During the Summit, buses will be diverted, dropping off passengers on the other side of downtown, for those poor souls who have the misfortune of having to work downtown, outside of the G-20 zone.

For all of Obama's good intentions of letting Pittsburgh showcase all the wonderful things to do and see here, I'm not sure what the G-20 delegates are going to make of all of this. Opinions expressed in recent news articles feel that Pittsburgh will end up losing money rather than making money, based on the added costs for security.

As if this makes it all better, the Summit planning committee will be outfitting volunteers and other helpful individuals with this special pin (shown above). So welcome to Pittsburgh, G-20-ers! Don't mind all of the barbed wire and boarded up buildings--we're the most livable city in the country!

EarthEcycle update

Just a quick update regarding an earlier post regarding EarthEcycle. Since my original post, the EPA has turned back now two (it was originally one) cargo shipments allegedly originating from EarthEcycle headed to South Africa.

As recently reported in the Trib EarthEcycle has asked for an administrative hearing with the EPA, to say, as Jeff Nixon himself (I'm assuming it was him, since he posted the comment anonymously) said, get all of the facts out.

However, EPA spokeperson Deb Berlin said that the request from EarthEcycle came after the deadline given to the company, so it remains to be seen if EarthEcycle's request will be approved.

The Trib further reported that the Monroeville warehouse still contains discarded computer and electronic parts, and that the company stands to potentially be fined up to $37,000 a day if found out of compliance by the EPA. Stay tuned!

Julie & Julia; Julie and that Bobby Guy

Today I went to the movies to celebrate a financially profitable month (thank you, air bed and breakfast) and to escape the hottest day of the summer. Taking the suggestion of a couple friends of mine, I went to see Julie & Julia.

I can't recommend this movie enough: Nora Ephron did a marvelous job interweaving the stories of the two principal characters: Julia Child and her diplomat husband, Paul; and Julie Powell and her editor husband, Eric. I suspect that Meryl Streep will get the lion's share of attention in her portrayal of Julia, but to my mind, Stanley Tucci did just as brilliant a job. The two of them had genuine chemistry and became Julia and Paul quite convincingly onscreen.

Kudos also to Amy Adams and Chris Messina, who also did a great job as Julie and Eric. They gave what I thought were not-over-the-top performances (I mean this as a compliment) and also had a nice on-screen rapport. And of course the fifth star of the movie was the food, and my God, if you don't leave the theatre ravenous, then there's something wrong with you.

Going into the movie I knew more about Julia than I did Julie and of course knew that Julie had written a blog (before everyone and their brother wrote one, myself included). But I knew nothing about what prompted her to start writing. Turns out she had a job in lower Manhattan post-9/11 in a part customer service rep, part ombudsman, part whipping boy as she helped families of the victims. It also turns out that she was also a writer with a half-finished novel and a circle of friends who were uber successful.

On the eve of her 30th birthday, her husband suggests writing a blog, and once she got the idea of working her way through the entire Child cookbook, she took to it like a house afire. As a blogger myself, I shared in her blogger-related joy in parts of the movie ("I got my first comment!" she excitedly shared with a co-worker, then quickly deflates when the identify of the commenter is revealed; then, later "I got 53 comments and they're all from no one I know!").

The movie got me to thinking about this blog, and I thought I'd tell you all why I started mine. Because I guess it never occurred to me to tell you. Duh.

When I was a little girl I loved two things: reading and writing. Growing up in a small town in a fairly remote area, reading gave me an opportunity to be, as Isak Dinesen said, "a mental traveler." And writing gave me the chance to create worlds of my own.

I never thought I was smart enough or good enough to write for a living, so I went to school and took business classes and got a job at a bank. Then fate intervened and I found myself out of a job a few years later. After some "what do I want to do with my life" moments, I decided to go back to school. I got a job at CMU, and took two writing classes there, which I loved. It didn't hurt that I had the good fortune of having some of the smartest English majors in the classes and very supportive professors.

So I graduated and I did a bunch of stuff: consulting, marketing at an engineering firm, working for a bunch of trade associations, and finally starting a charity. When the time came to look for a job last year, I knew I wanted to get back to doing more writing as part of my job.

There's a company in Pittsburgh that is the go-to place for writing, strategic planning, branding, etc. I'd been applying for every available job, when finally I got an interview. As interviews go, it was a weird one, with a guy I'll call Bobby and a girl I'll call Betty (which may or may not be their real names). They made a bunch of snarky, inside-y type of jokes, and I got the sense that sitting at the table interviewing me on the pleasure scale was somewhere between a root canal and having your motherboard crash.

Post-interview, Bobby tells me I have to take a writing test, and emails it to me. It's a draft of a magazine article. It's dreadful. I've been allocated no more than 2 1/2 hours to either re-write or write one from scratch. I research the topic, write the article, checking punctuation, etc., and email it back. Then I get an email back. Apparently it is so bad that Bobby not only doesn't want to hire me, but won't even consider having me work freelance.

Talk about deflated. Then angry--I have a writing degree, dammit. From CMU--known for its writing programs, yes, plural, programs! Then--oopsie--I realize I'm forgetting one trifling detail: I hadn't written anything of any length in over three years! Three years! Of course I sucked!

So just like a marathoner has to stretch muscles and go for a run each day, I decided I had to exercise my brain--or at least the part of the brain that allows me to string words together, anyway. So I had to find a way to write: on a regular basis, doing research, finding topics, coming up with something interesting to say.

So this blog was born. This isn't Tolstoy, but it's my little mental stretching of those writing brain cells. And saying I designed and write a blog looks not bad on my resume. So thanks, Bobby, for giving me a figurative kick in the pants when I was getting too big for my britches. I owe you one. And your weird little friend, too.

Two Attacks: One Local, One Worldwide

I saw the headline on Yahoo! -- shooting in gym kills at least 3, injuring others. It didn't mention the city, and I assumed it happened somewhere else. Then I saw my friend Lori posted on Facebook: "Just wanted to let everyone know I'm okay. I'm a member of LA Fitness, but I wasn't there this morning," and I realized that the shooting happened here in Pittsburgh.

According to reports, George Sodini entered the Collier Township gym and sprayed bullets into a group of women gathered for an early morning exercise class. Then, after killing 3 and injuring 10 more, he turned the gun on himself.

Acquaintances and co-workers recall Sodini seeming like a normal enough guy. Sodini, 48, worked at K&L Gates, doing IT work for the prestigious law firm for the last ten years. He owned a small, tidy home in Scott Township, where his neighbors describe him as friendly, although not overly so.

But it seems Sodini had lots of secrets, which he shared online. Like Richard Pawlawsky, the individual who killed three police officers this spring in Stanton Heights, Sodini also chronicled his ramblings via an online diary. It's full of racial and political epithets, hatred directed at his family, his friends, and his employer.

Fueled by self-proclaimed loneliness, lack of happiness in his life, and his perceived rejection by women over more than a decade juxtaposed against the "young girls here [who] look so beautiful" at 24 Hour Fitness, he begins a plan: arming himself and killing. Read his online diary and you'll find evidence that within his "normal" exterior laid a very troubled man.

While Sodini took great lengths to leave some sort of legacy through his diary (where he urges "copy this to netgroups, where my voice will speak forever"), another individual halfway around the world from Pittsburgh was equally intent on removing the voice of another.

Yesterday, social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and the site that hosts this blog, Blogger, were all hacked into. Facebook, LiveJournal, and Blogger (for the most part) stayed online, but Twitter's site completely went dark.

Ordinarily my response would be so what, these sites are fairly frivolous and the worst that could happen is that you have to wait a few hours to take yet another inane Facebook quiz. However, according to published reports, the attack was carefully planned and orchestrated and had only one target: an individual going by the user name Cyxymu.

So what's so special about this guy Cyxymu? Cyxymu is reportedly from the former Soviet republic of Georgia and has been making some statements that made some people angry. So angry, in fact, that they decided to silence Cyxymu by bringing down these web sites. The fact that not only Cyxymu, but the other millions of users also went offline, was apparently just collateral damage.

Internet experts have tracked the hackers location to Abkhazia, a territory along the eastern coast of the Black Sea that's in dispute between Russia and the Republic of Georgia. The presumed thinking was, shut down the websites, and it will shut up the person.

Many of you know that in 2003, I started a nonprofit that brought together volunteers with charities that needed help. Pretty innocuous, right? As it turned out, another charity didn't like what we were doing and threatened us with a lawsuit. When we didn't back down, four weeks later our web site was hacked into and destroyed. Coincidence? I never thought so. The FBI were called in and traced the hackers to overseas, where their jurisdiction ended, and the case was closed.

It was bad enough that this happened, but the hackers hacked into the server and not only destroyed our site, but the 50-60 other sites on the server, not unlike these hackers that brought down an entire site in an attempt to silence one person.

No one wins when a hacking like this takes place. And as these hackers will discover, it won't shut down a single person or a single organization. A few weeks later, my web site was back online, intact and just as strong as ever. I suspect the same will happen to Cyxymu.

Buy One Get One Free Applies to Groceries and Sometimes...Diplomacy

You can laugh at Bill Clinton all you want, but he is the "git er done" man of the hour, paying a visit to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and successfully convincing North Korea to free Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two American journalists arrested in March for illegally crossing the border into North Korea.

Clinton was an unexpected choice, doing what I'll call a "Jimmy Carter" (an ex-president pressed into service to do some quasi-diplomatic work) and sitting down with Kim Jong Il, who, according to an Associated Press report has not met with a prominent leader from the West since allegedly suffering from a stroke a year ago. In fact, Carter might have been a more logical choice, since he himself sat down with Kim Il Sung, Jong Il's father, for similiar, unofficial diplomatic talks in 1994.

The situation of using Clinton reminds me of a slogan used in Clinton's first presidential campaign: buy one, get one free. In that case, it referred to electing Clinton (buy one) and getting the brainpower of Hillary, too (get one free).

It's interesting that this time, roles have been reversed, with Obama appointing Hillary and getting Bill for free. Many politicos squonked about Bill being a detriment when Hillary ran, and I will admit he publicly said some pretty reactive, stupid, off-the-cuff remarks. But maybe, like Carter, he has found his ken as a behind-the-scenes guy smoothing the way with prickly dictators and even closing a few deals.

I'm sure the commentators will express trepitation that he will overextend his power and influence, usurping not only his wife's role as Secretary of State, but of Obama's as well.

And I mean this as no disregard to Clinton (or Albright before her), but despite many Americans thinking that the world is an enlightened a place as we are when it comes to the role and status of women in work and society, it's not. Certainly it's safe to include North Korea into this less-enlightened category.

And while I don't think that anyone should replace Hillary Clinton (or any female in that position) as chief diplomat, perhaps in countries where we know females are treated as third-class citizens, adding to the mix a seasoned (and yes, male) diplomat such as Bill Clinton (or Bill Richardson or John McCain or even Jimmy Carter) makes infinite sense. Especially someone who has a long-standing, positive relationship with a person or country that historically has not been an ally.

Since the journalists' arrest and sentencing Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others in the State Department have issued public apologies to North Korea and asking for the immunity of the arrested journalists. And there were indications that perhaps it wasn't falling on deaf ears.

In July, Ling (through a phone call to her sister Lisa Ling, herself a National Geographic Channel correspondent) reported that she and Lee were never transferred to prison after sentencing, but were rather being held in what was classified as a "guest house". It was speculated that while they were not free per se, their kind of house arrest was preferable and more humane than in transferring them into the North Korean jail system.

I have long said that North Korea is the country to watch, especially with Kim Jong Il at the helm. Not to discount the unrest and atrocities in other parts of the world, but we sometimes tend to forget this little island country that now, suddenly, has nuclear capability and a leader that doesn't always seem to think too rationally. I am hopeful that this is but a small step in a series of other steps to open up diplomatic talks with North Korea.

Vick Becoming a Steeler? A Dog of an Idea.

Michael Vick (shown left, with his attorney) is asking for a chance. I don't know if this has involved getting on bended knee and groveling, but the former Atlanta Falcons star did meet Wednesday with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell concerning Vick's possible reinstatement.

We Americans tend to have a short memory when it comes to things like this, so let's recap what Vick did: using money he earned playing football, he funded a dogfighting ring: an activity that is not only illegal, but immoral and downright deplorable. This activity took place in a house that Vick owned, again paid for with revenue from football.

If you are not familiar with dogfighting, it is a brutal, horrible bloodbath of a "sport"--dogs are bred to be aggressive, to attack animals, and to fight to the death. People pay to see this, and apparently Vick was happy to bankroll this operation.

When these charges first surfaced in 2006, Vick denied any involvement. His denial continued for months, until his former associates presented evidence against him, and testified against him at the trial. Vick was subsequently found guilty of charges associated with operating a dogfighting ring, and was sentenced to 23 months in a federal prison. Personally, I think the punishment of 23 months did not fit the crime, but that discussion I will save for another post.

So now Vick wants to return to football. I have mixed feelings about this (again, for another post), but his reinstatement is up to Commissioner Goodell. Sources say reinstatement will likely happen, perhaps with a four-game suspension once Vick is signed with a team.

Of course, speculation is running rampant about who might sign Vick. Experts agree that once signed, keeping Vick out of the limelight would be advisable, so a starting quarterback position would be all but out of the question. With this (possible) scenario in mind, it's likely that the team most likely in a position to sign Vick would be an NFL teams who already have a solid starting quarterback already, but might need a relief, second-string player.

And who might those teams be? The New England Patriots and....the Steelers! An article published on Yahoo! reported that the Patriots and Steelers "both have fan bases that would be accepting of the team taking a chance on Vick."

What? What?!! Pittsburghers may have a mentality that said "give the kid a chance" when it came to electing Luke Ravenstahl, but there is no way on God's green earth that Steeler fans are going to come close to embracing this former operator of a dogfighting ring.

Not to mention the players themselves: many of the Steelers are dog owners and admitted animal lovers, including Deshea Townsend, Charlie Batch, Jerome Bettis, and Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers has lent support to area animal shelters: shelters that provide a safe haven to the kinds of dogs that fall victim to organized dogfights.

I can only hope that what the experts are speculating is just that: speculation. But let's nip this thing in the bud, and tell the Steelers organization that despite what the experts think, we don't want to see Vick on the bench, wearing a black and gold jersey. You can contact the Steelers organization and tell them exactly what you think about the idea of Vick becoming a Steeler. Here's their contact information:

Administrative offices:

Pittsburgh Steelers

3400 South Water Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15203-2349

Phone: (412) 432-7800

Fax: (412) 432-7878

Not Too Late for the Fairytale Ending

Figure skating is a solitary sport. You train alone, with your coach. You get up every morning before the sun comes up, to spend hours in a cold rink. Jumping and falling, jumping and falling. The same series of movements, over and over, with toe pointed, head tilted, hand fluttering just so. Always with a smile on your face.

Every day of the year you train: ballet and dance lessons. Weight training. Running. Workouts in the gym. And twenty hours every week in the rink.

Yours is a sport that despite having a newer, more quantitative scoring system, you’re still judged on everything from the color of your panty hose to the number of sequins on your outfit. Your off-rink life is judged. Are you humble? Are you articulate and well spoken? Do you come from a respectable family? Do you deserve to win?

You don’t have a life outside of your sport. Every morsel of food, every swallow of liquid is parsed out and monitored. You give up friends, you give up school, you give up a social life, you give up a life with your family. You’re 15 years old and can’t remember a time when life wasn’t like this.

Your sport is a series of qualifying contests that leads up to one big contest. There’s no coverage of the qualifying contests, like all of the football games that lead to the super bowl. No one in TV Land cares who won the Midwest Sectionals or the New England Regionals. In your sport, the only thing people are interested in and tune into is the Big Event: The US Nationals.

With Nationals, it’s the equivalent of the last play of the Superbowl, fourth down, and you’re the quarterback trying to throw the winning pass. You have less than seven minutes to show the judges you are worthy. There are no mulligans, no do-overs. You have one chance: one slip of the blade, one fall spells failure.

You approach the ice and think about the thousands of hours of practice, the $100,000 or so each year you and your family spend to get you to this point. In this sport, everyone sacrifices.

The winner and runner-up receives parades, glory, and a chance to compete internationally. Anything less than third place is a disappointment and another year to train--and hope.

Given all of this, you have to wonder why anyone would want to become a competitive figure skater. Maybe it’s the feeling of propelling yourself and flying in the air. Maybe it’s the combination of artistry and athleticism.

In 1994, skater Nicole Bobek was asked why she skated and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, “Because I like it.”

Bobek had what coaches would call raw talent. She was an easy--albeit sometimes sloppy-- jumper, and yet being a bit rough around the edges, had a lightness and grace about her on the ice. Growing up never knowing her father, Bobek and her mother, a former skater from the Czech Republic, formed a close-knit bond.

Listen to skating commentators today, and septagenarian telecaster (and former Olympian) Dick Buttons will still wax poetic at the grace of Nicole Bobek. It's rumored that because Buttons went on and on about Bobek's signature spiral (in photo, right), that it served as a wake-up call for other skaters, including Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen, who ended up with signature spiral sequences of their own.

Bobek’s ascent into elite figure skating did not come easily. Her skating record could diplomatically best be described as irratic. One year she came in fourth, the next 16th. She earned a reputation as being rebellious and difficult: she smoked cigarettes and had a mouth like a sailor, which of course only endeared her to me.

She had ankle problems, and weight issues, and sometimes lacked a commitment in her training. In the course of her career, she hired and fired a dozen coaches in a sport where a coach is regarded much like a marriage partner: one you stick by through thick and thin.

However, in 1995, 16 year old Bobek, despite herself and against all odds, won the U.S. Senior Ladies Nationals. She later went on that year to place third in Worlds. You might not remember Bobek because, despite her gold at Nationals and a bronze at Worlds, subsequent performances were not as good: she placed third in 1997 and 1998, earning her a berth on the 1998 Olympic team, where nerves and injuries got the better of her, and placed a disappointing 17th place.

Sadly, Bobek did not get the storybook ending that she very likely wished for. A few days ago Bobek was arrested as part of a large drug ring that sold and distributed methamphetamine.

You can't help but wonder what happened to Bobek. If you look at her MySpace page, you see a girl whose hero is her mom, enjoys doing charity work, and who hopes to be a mother “someday”. Three years ago, she even made her acting debut acting alongside Oscar winner Sean Penn.

Bobek’s self-declared hero, her mother, is standing by her daughter’s side, posting the $100,000 bail and saying she will help her in whatever way she can. She still has faith in her daughter, saying that she is a good girl and got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Bobek is only 31, and it breaks my heart that someone so young with so much going for them becomes seduced by drugs. I hope that she doesn't see herself as a has-been, but a smart, funny, intelligent girl that made some bad choices. I hope that her mom continues to stand by her, to help her daughter make some better choices, so she can get clean, take accountability at the charges in front of her, so she can have another chance at the fairytale ending that she--and everyone else--deserves.

150 Years

That was the sentence recently handed down to Bernard Madoff, proprietor of the now-infamous Ponzi scheme that bilked scores of people, trusts, and nonprofits out of their retirements, pensions, and endowments.

While Ira Sorkin, Madoff's attorney (shown with Madoff), asked for leniency and suggested a sentence of 12 years, Judge Chin (my new hero) disagreed and gave Madoff the maximum permitted by law.

"Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil," Chin said in his remarks, which brought with it applause and cheers from the gallery, many of whom were Madoff's victims. "I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all that he could or told all that he knows," Chin added, a sentiment shared with many, including this blogger.

Those in the courtroom reported that Madoff sat or stood impassively while victim after victim took the stand and told their stories of money and trust lost. When it came time for him to make a statement, Madoff said that he was sorry: ""I will live with this pain, with this torment, for the rest of my life. I live in a tormented state knowing the pain and suffering I have created," but his statements left most victims unmoved.

In the courtroom, Madoff literally and figuratively stood alone, with the absence of any family members in the gallery. Moreover, Judge Chin stated that the court received not even a single letter of support, testifying to any good deeds or charitable works. "The absence of such support is telling," Chin said. I'll say. Even serial killers can count on their mothers or someone to provide a statement, or ask for leniency, but Madoff only had his hired hand, attorney Sorkin, at his side.

Madoff's wife finally broke her silence in a statement on the day of sentencing claiming that she had no knowledge of the true nature of Madoff's business. "From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts--first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and, second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over." Anyone else find her ignorance hard to believe?

While Madoff and his wife have agreed to sell their assets (including a Manhattan penthouse, Long Island estate, villa in France, Palm Beach mansion, and other valuables), Mrs. Madoff will still be left with $2.5 million. I can't strongly enough express how wrong I think that is. She should be left with nothing, just like all of the people who invested and are now left penniless.

It has also been reported that Madoff's two sons, Andrew and Mark, borrowed a combined $31.5 million from their father. I think these loans should be paid in full, with the proceeds paid as restitution to swindled investors.

And in fact, while I'm thinking about it, I think that any money, any pathetic earnings that Madoff makes while working in prison should be garnished and distributed to his victims. It might just mean a few cents every year for each victim, but the satisfaction in receiving this sort of compensation might just be priceless.

When No News Isn't Necessarily Good News

This story broke a little over a week ago, but it's an important one that I wanted to share. The Archives of Internal Medicine (a JAMA--Journal of the American Medical Association--publication) reported on a study completed at Weill Cornell (New York) Medical College regarding notifying patients of test results.

The news, in short, is not good: the study showed that an average of 7% of the time, patients whose test results were abnormal were not notified by their doctor, with some failure rates as high as 26%. Practices whose record keeping was part paper, part electronic fared the worst over those practices that were completely paper or completely electronic.

The study also surveyed doctors about in-house procedures for notifying patients of their medical test results. The findings of this survey were equally alarming: the average process score was 3.8 out of 6, with most medical practices not using all five of the basic processes suggested in literature. Further, most practices did not even have in place explicit guidelines for notifying patients of results.

Doctors say that the volume of patients and lack of time make it difficult to contact patients. But if practices don't even have a protocol in place about patients' medical tests results, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for anyone in the practice to notify patients, let alone the doctor.

Doctors are busy, there's no doubt about it. And given the decreasing amounts of money medical practices receive through health insurance reimbursement, doctors are only going to get busier and this situation is likely to get proportionately worse.

You'd think that doctors would be more mindful of this negligence, given that we live in such a litigious culture. Failing to provide a patient abnormal test results could certainly have disastrous results. But apparently this is happening, sometimes as many as one in four times.

This is clearly an example where you need to be the advocate for yourself, and badger the doctor's office for the results. Because just because you don't get the "all clear" from the doctor doesn't necessary mean everything is okay.

Hello and...Buh-Bye

In what has to be the longest contested race ever, the Minnesota State Supreme Court unanimously ruled what many of us have known for a long time: that Al Franken is indeed U.S. Senator. With this senatorial race now finally concluded, the number of Democrats in the Senate now total 60, giving them a majority and making them filibuster-proof. In theory, anyway.

Franken gave a very nice victory speech in which he praised Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has, in many respects been doing the work of two senators in the wake of not declaring the Franken/Coleman race. "But she’s only one Senator," Franken said. "And it’s time that Minnesota, like every other state, had two."

Many pundits wonder if Franken, an outspoken author and critic of everything from Rush Limbaugh to Beltway Bandits, can play nice with others now that he himself will be one of those inside the beltway guys. Franken is nothing if not stupid and I believe he will approach the job with humility and an eagerness to learn. Franken will be serving on the judicial committee, and might I suggest he use his time in committee meetings learning at the knee of Pennsylvania's senior Senator, the newly-Democratic Arlen Spector.

The usual blustery Norm Coleman, the now former Senator from Minnesota was unusually nonblustery in his concession speech, which is just about the nicest thing I can say about the man. Now that the race has been decided, all kinds of rumors are buzzing about as to what his future holds. Might I suggest running for Governor...of Alaska!

It seems a vacancy has recently become available, as Sarah Palin abruptly announced in today's press conference (reported in an excellent article by the Associated Press) that she is stepping down as the 49th state's governor. Nut Bar and I caught an excerpt of her speech, and we both turned to each other and went, "Huh?". She rambled about the "millions of dollars down the drain" but never said what millions of dollars she meant. She has mastered the ability of speaking a great deal, but saying absolutely nothing.

In her speech, Palin made no statement about her future, short or long-term, but is apparently not ruling out a (God help us) presidential bid for 2012. 2012 is a long ways away, but I think, I hope, in this case, Americans will have a long memory when it comes to Sarah Palin. By the end of the race, she managed to alienate most people (Democrats and Republicans alike), and her post-campaign PR has maintained a steady downward path. Between the continued sniping between her camp, the Republican National Committee and the McCain camp, to the arrest of Bristol Palin's almost mother-in-law on a multitude of drug charges, to the swirl of talk of ethics violations, she was, in many ways, painted into the proverbial corner with no way out. Or quitting to take a rest while she plans her 2012 comeback, if one believes the Palin-philes.

However, not surprisingly, Palin has plans for writing her memoirs, and has inked a deal with HarperCollins that most guess is in the mid-six figures. So perhaps this will shed some light regarding her sudden resignation. Or maybe it will be 400 pages of dribble drabble. I'm voting for the latter...