NOW WHAT-FOR OBAMA-FOR REPUBLICANS

HOW ABOUT THE 2016 RACE?
ARE YOU READY?

     Heaven forbid!!!!

     Before we leave this most expensive presidential campaign in history, a few thoughts from a self avowed political junkie-who got paid to cover politics. (Talk about larceny!)

      WHAT NOW FOR THE GOP?

      Lot of people are saying the GOP needs to "reform" or change, to shift away from being a party dominated by whites, males, conservatives and the wealthy.  I'm not sure I buy those descriptions as being the complete sum total of the party.  But if it is true, the party ran a very close race as it is.  Charles Krauthammer says instead the GOP needs to look to a younger generation of itself, particularly to younger governors or members of the senate.

      Aside from Jon Huntsman the other GOP candidates were extremists, flawed, whackos or unqualified.  Romney won in a court of dunces.  In truth he was a north eastern moderate who had to play to a party that is in the grip of a right wing, some of whom border on zealots.  Old line republicans were not in evidence and frankly some held their heads down in shame.  

      The Republican party needs to do a few things.  Throw off the control of social issue, right wing, moralizing and/or tea party extremists.  It needs to move toward an historic moderate position where it could tolerate candidates as liberal as Nixon, Reagan, Dole and even Eisenhower. Many of the current crop of Republicans would dispute the policies of their own historic leadership. Just as Romney did with his own previous Massachusetts record. The GOP "base" is too far right. Let the right wing go start their own third party movement.  The GOP needs to come to grips with the changing demographic of America.  More about that in a moment.

WHAT NOW FOR THE DEMOCRATS & OBAMA

      The Obama machine and the Democratic leadership has been terribly shortsighted.  Yes re-electing the president was paramount, but should not have been their only interest.  The Democrats, and even the Republicans, should both begin to rebuild national parties.  Today the association is only nominal and temporary. National, grass roots based organizations should exist to hear local needs, respond to those issues, demand accountability, train and vet future candidates for state legislatures and federal office.  Think of how much better off Obama would be if the Democrats controlled the House.  Strong national parties, engaged in finding and funding strong candidates for the House are a lot healthier for this Republic than the big money of Super Pacs and special interests who now control who has the money and ultimately who gets elected.  Those interests are beholden only to themselves.  

     Parties worked historically.  But now if you've got enough money, a good organization and pollster you can declare yourself whatever you say you are and run, and may get elected. To a large extent Obama is a case in point. So, the newly reelected President should preside over helping his party to rebuild a true national party.  

     The President needs to bang Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid on the head, repeatedly, until they are ready to put partisan politics behind national need. (I mean the head banging figuratively, at least for Pelosi)

      The Democrats need to hear what millions of voters think.  People don't like taxes.  Some of us understand that taxes are in fact necessary, but with bullies and simple minded people like Howard Jarvis doing their stupid oath taking, there is a lot of work to be done before Americans understand the relationship between accountability, accounting, needs, revenue and strategic planning. This nation faces critical financial issues that need something more than we've seen in the past 12 years.

      The first trick Obama needs to clear is how to move forward-truly building a structure that will embrace the House Republicans and bring them to cooperation, or to bulldoze over them.  Here again, if his guru David Axlerod had been more forward thinking the campaign would have rolled in a flood of House Democrats. Instead he faces a Republican majority who spent the last two years doing a dance of insanity and obfuscation.  This nation needs genuine problem solving.  That would be problem solving ahead of political advantage.

      So someone needs to take Mitch McConnell to a heavy metal funk bar, dose him on some mind altering elixir and turn him into a roadie for 50 Cent until he cries uncle. The Senate filibuster rule needs to change.  

      John Boehner should be chained to a stake like a dog and spend a week in a Mississippi shack eating gruel and watching how people in poverty struggle to stay alive.

      I don't know how Obama is going to transverse the perils that led us to gridlock, but he is the Chief Executive and he needs to evince a leadership that will lead to a new way of doing the nation's business. But it takes the other side willing to help.

      The 2014 mid term could/should be a Democratic priority. They need to find a way to win the house and hold the Senate.

THE DEMOGRAPHICS QUESTION

       African American, Latino, women  and young voters are the apparent alliance that put Obama back into the White House.  Republicans-how does that picture jive with your party?  Truth is Latino voters will continue to play a powerful role in American politics.  There are pockets of the nation where the Asian voting patterns hold power.

        Many women have made it abundantly clear that their bodies, their health and their well being are theirs and that politicians who don't understand may not get their vote. I am not implying that women vote only on such issues, but some do.

      It is healthy for all Americans that more women will now serve in the Senate.  Again it is matter of perspective.

Don't be surprised to see the 2016 field fill with Latino faces of both parties.  

AND FINALLY VOTER SUPPRESSION IS WRONG

      Voter fraud and cheating is as old as the Republic. Still is wrong and this year we saw evidence of voter suppression.  A political operative pal sent this along to demonstrate. BEWARE-this might make you laugh. But it might also make you think.  Now there's a good start for the next cycle.  Thinking.

                                          

THE NEW AUDIENCE FOR ALL OF THOSE
CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS

   Well done complements to John King of CNN and Chuck Todd of NBC for their masterful work with touch screens that help crunch and illustrate the returns in last night's coverage. It was a great blend of interpretative journalism and technology.  

    See you down the trail.

ELECTION NIGHT INSIGHT & A PROPER RESPECT

EXERCISING THE FRANCHISE

THE LONGEST NIGHT

    Election night broadcasts were my favorite.  It was all "in the moment," unscripted, spontaneous and adrenalin ripped. 

      Starting out I covered campaign or party headquarters, grabbing interviews and reporting on the numbers as received by the partisans.  Later I would be at the anchor desk, cutting back and forth between field reporters, network feeds, interviewing candidates, moderating our analysts and reporting the numbers.  Hundreds of people worked behind the scenes in a kind of full court press involving satellites, trucks, remotes, control rooms, computers, results and always the story was changing.   

      Some good journalists faltered in that kind of rapid fire circus, but I loved it.  Ad libbing was no problem, and as long as the technology did what it was supposed to be, it was thrilling.  

       As a senior news executive I directed those hundreds of 

people in that army of journalists and technology.  I'd pace on the top tier of our multi leveled central control room, roam into the studios and work with our anchors and analysts or stand in my office watching 4 television sets and a computer screen.  It was an ultimate adrenaline pump.

      There was a time when I was brought back as the "senior analyst" meaning the old guy on the set who "had been there and done that."  Think Tom Brokaw, today.

       This evening I'll probably drive Lana crazy with my channel hopping, computer searching, texting, and phone calls with people around the country.  It will be fun, with

no pressure, but I think perhaps the greatest thrill was my very first election night, covering a mayors race.  At the end of a long night, our radio anchor had us all looped together in a "talk back" debrief where we shared our impressions.  I remember driving home that night thinking, "Man, I've arrived in the big time!"

    

A GREAT CITY 
AND HOTEL

Yesteday's post was a bit of slap dash, iphone based view 

of the Fairmont. Both it and San Francisco deserve a more deliberate treatment.

 GREAT VISUALS

creative window designs

See you down the trail.

CHASING HISTORY AT NIGHT

AT LARGE IN THE FAIRMONT

WITH AN IPHONE

     It is an icon of 20th Century history in San Francisco. Built after the turn of the century, it survived the 1906 earthquake and fire and prevailed as a symbol of the new San Francisco and evolved over the years to become one of the world's leading historic hotels.

    I roamed around with an iPhone breathing in the history of a place that hosted meetings that established the United Nations, where Tony Bennett first sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," where every president since Taft has stayed, where world leaders convene, where show business greats perform, and the setting for several movies and television series.

    These are just quick photo notes, dark, shaky, soft focus and all, that will go into my writing file "scene bank." Please consider these "working notes", shot on the quick simply to capture a mood or moment that I can later conjure in my writing. Here's a quick look, starting with a view of the Bay and Alcatraz from our room.

 The Grand Ball Room where history has been written.

 The roof garden where secrets have been shared.

 THEN, THERE IS THE TONGA

Opened in 1947, the Tonga Room is a premiere Tiki motif

that has entertained and fed generations for 65 years.

It remains a popular spot for tourists and devotees. 

This room is near capacity or with waiting lines most nights.

The Island Boys, the most recent of entertainers who perform on a moving boat on what was the hotel's original pool.  The evening is complete with several thunderstorms and rain showers each evening.  Here kitsch meets history.

THE WEEKENDER-GETS MY VOTE & WHAT A CLOUD

ADAPTABILITY & GRACE

      As we endure the final weekend of this campaign year we offer a video of a truly courageous man with real grace. 

ARCHIVE SNAPS

      

 REEL THOUGHTS

 CLOUD ATLAS

    Wachowski sibling films; Matrix-trilogy, V-for Vendetta and now Cloud Atlas have something more than an exotic locus, dynamic story arc, rich characters, tense drama and large action.  Their cinema realities, full of fantasy, have a coiling truth quest that make the films seem to be springboards for discussions of theology, spirituality, meaning and purpose.

    Cloud Atlas is many things, including a venue for extraordinary acting. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Bae Doo-na, Keith David, Ben Winshaw and Zhao Xun all play multiple roles and do so extraordinarily well augmented by mind-boggling make-up, wardrobe and special effects departments. 

     The film is a kind of cross between a Rorschack test and a Terrence Malick epic.  You can see many things in a directorial weave that requires you to pay attention. Fascinating, dazzling, intriguing, inspiring and just plain entertaining even if some leave confused while others believe they have been given one more clue to the purpose of life and the meaning of the universe. I leave wanting to talk with my philosophy major buddy and friends who are PhD's in theology. It would be great to have beer with 

Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. What were they trying to say?

     It is a stimulatingly great 164 minutes that seem to fly by. There are precious few film makers who can hold you there for almost 3 hours, without an awareness of the hours going by. 

A TRIBUTE NOW TO THE 

EFFECT OF THOSE POLITICAL ADS

See you down the trail.

HOW MUCH? FOR WHAT? & HANGING WITH HARD HEADS

IS THIS NAIVE?

   $350 million is serious money, even by government standards.  The AP reports at least that much has been dumped into political ads on California ballot propositions alone. 

     A couple of examples- AP says Molly Munger has spent $44.1 million in support of a prop to fund education and early childhood programs.  The California Teachers Association has dropped $31.4 supporting or opposing two props.

     $350 million to create ads that get junked, or that fly by on screens already jammed with political spots! 

     Instead couldn't that money be applied to programs, initiatives, foundations and the like that actually work to achieve the objectives of the propositions?  Munger's $44 million could go a long way to establishing early childhood programs.

    Simplistic? Common sense? Perhaps. But why not try it?

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS

     A volunteer for P E T A, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has asked Irvine California to put up this sign where about 16 hundred pounds of saltwater bass spilled from a truck as they were being hauled to market. 

     I'm an animal lover and supporter of wild life conservation, but...

     I wonder if anyone has explained to volunteer Dina Kourda the fish were on their way to market, not to dance as extras in a movie, but to find their way to dinner plates after a nap on ice.

      She argues the sign would remind drivers that fish value their lives and feel pain. An Irvine spokesman says there will be no fish memorial. 

      Is this an entertaining Republic or not?

HANGING WITH HARD HEADS

Shadow Bath
(from Lana's Feathered Head series)

King of Schnozola
(a garden sculpture by Lana)
See you down the trail.

LETTERMAN ROCKS & ANGLES AND LINES

LETTERMAN LEADS THROUGH SANDY

    It was the sort of thing you may see only once in a lifetime.  David Letterman filling an empty Ed Sullivan Theatre, and an untold number of American homes with his unique humor and personality as nature did its worst to the East coast.

     Only a skeleton crew made it through the hurricane, and there was obviously no audience so the rhythm was pure Dave with input from Paul Shaffer and live reports from outside by  "I'm no weatherman" Biff Henderson.

     Production lacked all the niceties and slickness of graphics, bumps, voice overs and the usual stuff, but the spareness of it and Dave's demeanor demonstrated a kind of resilience and toughness in the face of the super storm.

      Denzel Washington appeared as a guest, and entered wearing a yellow slicker and walking as though through a gale as Shaffer and the band played "Hurricane"- Bob Dylan's tune.

     There was something classic in the unusual show.  Maybe  a bit like Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of New York, reading the funny pages on the radio in the midst of a 1939 newspaper strike.  In those dark days, the funnies lifted people's spirits.  

     David makes people laugh as well and on a night when an unprecedented storm took aim at millions of Americans, he took up his place, and did what he does so well, made us laugh and lifted spirits.

     I've known Dave since our college days.  Those memories and his video tribute at my retirement, along with Biff's  "Hey Tom _ _ _ _ you!" are treasures.  But his personal and sparse performance last night is a moment that is exceedingly powerful and memorable. It was also courageous and encouraging. 

     Dave-as our old pals Bob and Don would say-"Here's a boy howdy for you!"  Well done!!! 

                                        day file

SHOOTING ANGLES

 Morning Drama

 Lots of Angles and Lines

A Spider's Patch

     See you down the trail.

REFILLING THE LAKE & SURVIVING SANDY

REFILLING THE LAKE

     An extraordinary story of our age is playing out in the vast expanse of the Mono Basin of the Owen Valley in

the Sierra Nevada range.

      It is a story of short-sighted decisions rescinded and precious resources repaired.  It underscores the effort of  conservation ideas prevailing over economic power in the courts.

   The satellite photo captures the lake basin's shrinkage.

     Like many, my first vision of Mono Lake was the exotic Tufa sculptures.  The otherworldly towers began to appear as the surface of Mono Lake began to recede. They are a limestone type of carbonate substance.

    Mono lake is a terminal lake- there is no outlet to the ocean and by its composition is a saline soda lake. It has high salt content.

     In 1941 the city of Los Angeles extended their aqueduct system hundreds of miles north into the Mono Basin where it began to drain the lake. 

 As the lake level dropped the Tufa Towers were increasingly exposed. 

     Big changes are underway at Mono Lake.  These frames 

   of exposed Tufa were shot on one of our first trips in 2008. 

    The frames that follow below were shot in early October this year.  You can see the towers are less prominent and that more grassland surrounds the lake. 

     In 1978 conservationists and environmentalists launched a battle to stop what would have been the eventual draining of Mono Lake.  Since 1941 the lake dropped by 50 vertical feet and shrank in volume by one half.  

         Court action ensued.  In 1990 LA was ordered to comply with Fish and Game Laws and in '94 the California courts ruled that Mono lake must be raised 19 feet.  25 feet less than where it was in 1941, it is enough to save the lake. 

    Recently this was exposed beach.  In the past it was under water, as it will again be. 

     The marker indicates the water level in 1963.

  This marks the 1941 water line when the draining began. 

   Negit, the black island to the right in the frame below was once separated from the shore by two miles of water.  You can see the vestige of a land bridge, created by the draining.  It was that bridge and the coyote and other predators who traveled it to nesting gull colonies that helped spur the fish and wildlife regulatory support which bolstered the efforts to force LA to stop killing the lake.

   

  Mono Lake may never get back to this level, but the water is rising and good sense prevails. 

    SURVIVING SANDY

     This may be THE monster storm in current history, at least it has that potential.  It is worrisome that unprecedented-at least in our modern historic records-weather events continue to accumulate.  In this case natural elements have combined to amplify the power and severity of the storm.  There should be full inquiry as to how human activity contributes or exacerbates, but there should also be a concerted global study of what can be done.  And, as the first concern now is safety and security of those in the storms path, we need to begin to address how we can effectively survive without casualties to humans and our lifestyle.  Are there better ways to transmit  power than by lines, hung on poles?  Can the grid go underground?  Can builders and architects design and construct with built-in emergency generation systems? Should we be more prudent about where home's are constructed and where populations settle? 

       These are tough questions, but ....

       And a final thought---can't we watch weather coverage

without people standing out in the wind, or wading in water or snow?  Just show the footage!  Allow photographers to execute their skill.  Watching someone hang on in a gale is just silly and maybe even stupid.

      See you down the trail.