anyone bill their state for travel by their kids lately?

The Associated Press has moved a story tonight documenting dozens of instances where Alaska Governor Sarah Palin billed Alaska taxpayers for the costs of travelling her family to events where the kids had not been invited.

Here's the headline: AP INVESTIGATION: Alaska funded Palin kids' travel

Check out the article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_el_pr/palin_family_travel_12. It seems that Governor Palin's concern for the taxpayer stops at the snowmachine's edge, or is it the 1000 thread sheets at a fancy NYC hotel, or just any old Alaska hootenanany that she could squeeze one, two, or three of her uninvited children into.

Governor Palin may have read some funny cue cards this past weekend while visiting 30 Rockefeller Center. But her presence on SNL still does not advance her beyond her status as a not ready for prime time player.

Who knew?

OK, the Veep debate was civil. Wasn't expecting that. Well, wasn't expecting it to be so civil, so staid, so polite. Well, there was the cuteness, the wink to dad Palin, the shout out to 3rd graders somewhere in Alaska, and humanity, the cracked voice when Biden talked about the loss of his first wife and daughter. But there was no drama, there was no one particular moment, with a great high, or a horrible low. As far as things go, this was measured. Each candidate did much better than expected, though as different instant polls show, Biden seemed to earn a decent victory. Perhaps it was the fact that he answered the questions asked, including what he and Obama might drop given the economic situation we are facing. Palin hung tough, suggesting there's nothing to be cut from a McCain-Palin plan, as they're not affected by the ongoing economic climate. Sure, there were differences on global warming, and on energy issues, but, surprisingly, there was absolutely none on gay rights, which might be a surprise to the McCain staff. All said, a debate that had huge billing, but will become a footnote, probably for 2012 when we next see Palin on a national stage, lights overhead, talking straight to camera with folksy cliches.

Vice Presidential debate viewing tips

Funs things to do during tonight's Vice Presidential debate:

Part I
Take a shot (alcohol or firearm) every time Governor Palin uses the word 'Gwen'
Take a shot each time Senator Biden says 'let me tell you'

Part II
Keep tabs of the total number of references Palin makes to her family. First Dude reference counts as a double score. Down's Syndrome is a triple score, and if she references Bristol's pregnancy, that's a quadruple score.
Count Biden's reference to his children, with double score for son Beau's scheduled departure for National Guard duty in Iraq.
Most references to family does not win, at least right now. That's for America to decide.

Part III
Count references to moose and Amtrak, and see which receives greater mention from each candidate.

Part IV
Listen carefully for the following words or phrases:

inexperienced
out of touch
unfamiliar
false
partisan

Treat it like bingo, marking off each one on a sheet. The first viewer to mark all five boxes gets to turn off the debate and watch the Cubs/Dodgers game from Wrigley.

Part V
See if Palin makes a point about Ifill's race. See if Biden makes a point about Ifill's gender. If any one candidate raises either point, game is over, and you must consume any alcohol not already consumed during part I of this game.

Tag, you're it

Barack Obama said he won't ask the Commission on Presidential Debates to postpone Friday's planned debate. This seems to check John McCain's request for a postponement, and pull it from the table.

Will the voting public follow this as closely as pundits, bloggers, and the political elites, or is this but one curve on the road each man is taking towards the White House?

You're suspended

In case you haven't been following the 2008 Presidential race, this would be a good time to start.

Now it's getting interesting. Just more than 48 hours before the first debate, scheduled for Friday evening in Oxford, Mississippi, on foreign affairs, John McCain has said he is suspending his campaign, returning to Washington, rolling up his sleeves, and jumping in to help work out a solution to the financial crisis and the bailout legislation being addressed by Congress.

Oh, one more thing, McCain has asked that the debate be postponed, and he has asked both the debate Commission and Barack Obama to join along with him on the call for postponing the debate.

Smart, gutsy move by a leader, or cynical, political ploy by someone losing ground to his opponent?

You can make the call.

At this point, Obama has not publicly responded, though his campaign has said it intends to go ahead with the debate at this time.

Is that the smart move, or should each candidate join together as one to help remedy this challenging financial situation? Can they? What if they start out as one, but diverge at some point?

Remember, the campaigns reached agreement on the debates just this past weekend, AFTER the financial crisis broke, and we learned of plans for the massive government capital infusion. So is this new, is it a ploy, is it meant to bring urgency to the situation, or solely to respond to poll numbers showing McCain losing ground among likely voters, particularly on economic issues.

Lots to discuss. Will be back soon on this one!

It's noon in Iowa, do you know where your children are?

Most of us are probably too young to remember the PSA from the '70's, or was it the '60's, that asked, 'it's 10pm, do you know where your children are?'

It was pretty effective, though it did seem to distinguish those who knew where their kids were, or at least thought they did, and let's refer to these people as the good parents, and those who handn't a clue as to what junior or juniorette was doing at that hour, the people we'll refer to as the bad parents.

Cue to the noon rally in Iowa for the McCain-Palin ticket. We have begun to recognize the gild is coming off Sarah Palin's lilly. Her interview with Charlie Gibson last week over at ABC News showed her to be stretching in a number of areas, her use of the McCain's high powered lawyers to seek dismissal of on ongoing investigation into Palin's firing of Alaska's top cop show her to be as political as any other elected official, and her placement at the butt of jokes across the media landscape show her to be truly a deer in the headlights.

So I'm going to take on both yesterday's news, and the politically correct position of not questioning someone else's parenting skills. And here's why.

At every event I've seen Sarah Palin attend these past 3 weeks, her husband Todd has been by her side. Good move, shows family values, shows a family together, shows a team to the public.

Here's the politically incorrect part. When Sarah Palin says it's inappropriate to ask a female candidate for office, one with five children, two of whom are under 10, and three of whom ostensibly should be in school, who's taking care of the children, I tend to agree. Raising a family is a family matter. It's a responsibility often shared by parents, in those families fortunate enough to have two parents. And in this case two working parents, reportedly home each night with the children, helping them with schoolwork, assignments, taking them to hockey practice, etc.

But wait. If Todd Palin is alongside wife Sarah in Iowa, who's watching the kids. Don't they have school in Alaska in September? We can give Trig a pass this time, as he's probably too busy breastfeeding to worry about elementary education these days. But what about the other Palins, the girls with the hippie names, the ones who should be in school, home in Alaska. Who's taking care of them while mom and dad are away.

How does this work with family values.

Or does it take a village, after all.

First dude, or first dud. Dunno, but something's not adding up right here.

And I'm waiting for someone in the travelling press to ask about it. That is, presuming anyone with a press card can get anywhere near the VP team.

Let's stay tuned, and keep those impertinent questions coming. Free press is a basic right. Doesn't the first amendment actually precede the others in order?

Larry David is the true god (first of a series)

Curb your Enthusiasm is among the most original shows that has ever been developed and brought to television. If you've seen it, you know it. If you're not a viewer, or find David's humor, or sense of humor, lacking, then this post will not be worth your time.

For quite some time I have been experiencing moments that could be tweaked slightly enough to become the spine for a Curb episode. At some point I may go back and post these moments, but at this time I am going to post an incident that occured this morning, and I hope to let it be the first what I suspect will be a series that documents Larry David like moments that I have.

The story.

I work out regularly at a gym near my suburban DC home. It's a relatively upscale gym, with a demanding, middle-aged clientele. Lots of folks there work with personal trainers, seem to have the leisure time and lifestyle to utilize this facility, and seem to make it a part of their lives.

Mostly I ride a stationary bike, sometimes I use one of the ellipticals, and on rare occasion I'll dig into a rowing machine, and numb myself with that form of repetitive exercise.

This gym has a small but decent looking pool, with 4 lap lanes of 25 yards each. Not too bad for an indoor facility on the east coast. I'm not one to swim for a workout, but I thought I would give it a shot this morning, providing some variety from the standards of this machine or that machine.

So I bring the right equipment, which is basically a swimsuit, and head on in to the pool. When I get there, there are swimmers in each of the lanes, one per, with one woman standing on the deck at the other end of the pool, hovering over one of the middle lanes. Within a minute the lane in front of the hovering woman opens up, and she jumps in.

The person who left this lane seemed to have a conversation with the person in the end lane, the one next to her, and it's not clear if they're both leaving the pool, or just chatting for a moment. So I decide to jump in to this lane, the end lane, on the opposite end from the chatting women. I've got my goggles on, and I'm in the first lap, heading towards the other end at a pace that would make Michael Phelps' mother double over in laughter.

Halfway through this lap I sense a body coming down the other half of the lane, on the other side, and I realize that the other chatting woman had not left the water with her friend, but had just taken a break. No big deal. These lanes are wide enough to accomodate two, particularly if we keep the the pace that has us passing roughly in mid-lap. Again, there are five of us using four lanes, which I suspect is nothing unusual. Frankly, I suspect there's often 8 or 10 or even more people in the pool at the same time.

I get to the wall at the end of the first lap (or half lap, if it's counted that way, as I don't know the way swimmer's count), and move over to the other half of this lane, and proceed to swim my second lap (or complete my first lap, depending on how you're scoring at home). About halfway through this lap I sense something ahead of me in my lane. Since we're not out in open water, and since I counted five of us in the water before I started this lap, and since I didn't hear any noise from the lifeguard, or hear anything that would suggest something big fell in the pool, I suspected it was the woman with whom I was sharing the lane.

Turns out she had stopped her stroke, and launched into a series of questions regarding lanes and sides and swimming etiquette and the like.

On the street, in the subway, when driving, when biking on trails, in crowded corridors, we're taught and often follow the rule 'to the right.'

When swimming, why would this be any different?

Well, apparently the speedo clad suburban mom I encountered had a different approach to swimming, one that has her swim her little half of the lane the whole way up and back. Not my idea of a smart way to go about this, but apparently her way, and apparently to her, her way is the right way.

Her questions literally stopped me in my tracks. It's kind of hard to swim past an animated object standing directly ahead of you, attempting to berate you for something they're doing incorrectly, so I was compelled to address them.

And in response I told her to take the entire lane, and that I would leave the pool. Which I did. Gladly.

It's enough to have to see some people in swimsuits. Those of images you often don't want to maintain. It's quite another to have to wallow in water with them.

I'll be back on the bike tomorrow morning, and hope the person next to me doesn't decide to move their stationary bike into a non-existent lane.