He was 85. He was a good man who lived a good life. He was alert and interested in the world right to his last day, when he collapsed with a heart attack. I am thankful for these blessings. I loved him and will miss him terribly.

He was very upset about the direction the United States is moving in. He was the product of the American Dream - the son of immigrants who started off as a factory worker, fought in WW II, went to college on the G.I. Bill, and made a success of his life. He was sometimes bitter in recent years, feeling that he'd fought in that war to give his children and grandchildren a better life, and then watched it all evaporate. We always talked politics when I visited, and were in total agreement.

I had been undecided who to vote for in the Massachusetts primary, and when I told him that I voted for Obama, he told me that was the right choice. He often bemoaned the lack of true leaders in recent years, but I was beginning to think that maybe Obama would be that leader he was looking for. I'm sorry he won't be around to see the beginning of an Obama presidency and a new beginning for our country. He deserved to live his last years in hope rather than despair.

He was a good man.

Please, whatever your views, please listen to what the candidates are actually saying, rather than what the pundits are saying that they're saying. Often there is no correlation between those two things. And for the love of all that's precious, stop listening to pundits whenever they start using horse race or boxing metaphors to characterize the candidates' positions. I don't want to know if Candidate X is "leading" or "coming on strong" or "faltering". I don't want to know if he/she is "hitting hard" or "attacking" or failing to attack. I just want to know what they believe and whether it makes sense, what they say and whether it's true, and what factors they will consider when making difficult decisions that will affect the future of everyone on this planet. All the rest is entertainment and should be banned from the airwaves.

I'm sorry I can't find more on this, but MSNBC is reporting that a female MIT student was arrested at Boston's Logan Airport this morning with a fake bomb strapped around her chest. They say that the situation almost turned tragic, as the police were prepared to respond with deadly force.

I can't imagine what would cause someone to do something like this in this day and age. Was she trying to make some sort of point? Anyone have more information about this incident?

Update: Here's a link to the very brief MSNBC story.

Did anyone see Chris Matthews cut off Naomi Wolf tonight when she tried to turn the discussion to something more important than Larry Craig?

Naomi started out by saying that she didn't think the Craig scandal would have a lasting impact - that it might end Craig's career, but would have no impact on Romney or the other Republicans running for president.

Then she tried to say that people realize that there are much more important issues at stake, such as Mitt Romney's refusal to sign the American Freedom Agenda's request to support the Constitution.

At that point, Tweety lost it.

Yesterday and today I spent many hours sitting on a committee at my local elder services agency interviewing agency applicants for Title III financial grants for 2008. I have virtually no background in social services; I got involved in this after spending a lot of volunteer time last year helping with Medicare Part D support. The agency liked the work I did and didn't want to lose me, so invited me to join their Advisory Council. I've been going to meetings for several months, but this is the first time I've gotten involved in the nitty-gritty.

I just wanted to write about a few of my impressions.

CNN is reporting that a Libby trial juror has been exposed to trial information outside of the courtroom. The judge is interviewing the jury foreman. I am totally bummed.

I really wish Daily Kos had a way to post short notes about breaking news, but since it doesn't I am padding this diary to get to 300 characters. I think it's pretty obvious that this is really depressing news.

Update from MSNBC: the juror involved has been dismissed and the trial will go forward with 11 jurors. Fitz asked to substitute one of the alternates, but the defense wanted to go forward with 11, which is what the judge decided. (It was a woman who was dismissed.)

I figure most of you don't read frivolous magazines like Entertainment Weekly, so I thought I'd share the news that Keith Olbermann and Stephen Colbert both turned up in some of their year-ending Top 10 lists.

Countdown With Keith Olbermann was listed as number 6 on Ken Tucker's "Second Opinion" Top 10 TV Shows list. It is really unusual to see a news show on this list along with the dramas and comedies.

Stephen Colbert was number 9 on their "The Entertainers" list, just after Daniel Craig. Complete with a two-page photo spread.

A few quotes below the fold.

I just heard an extraordinary comment on a radio call-in show in Massachusetts. I was driving home after spending the evening at a friend's house watching the national results, so didn't hear the Deval Patrick acceptance speech. But the caller had heard the speech, and was moved by it, even though he had voted for Patrick's Republican opponent.

"I voted out of fear, and I should have voted out of hope", he said, after hearing Patrick speak. "I am jaded, I haven't been moved by a political speech for many years, but in Patrick I see another Martin Luther King Jr. I feel sorry that I wasn't in on the movement from the start. I feel that history is happening here." (Of course, I am paraphrasing to the best of my memory, as I was listening to this as I was driving and couldn't take notes.)

I got a notice today from my health insurance. In honor of my 60th birthday, my non-group health insurance (with drug coverage) is going up to $1005/month next year (it previously was around $800).

ABC is running a follow-up show after Path to 9/11, and they say that in a few minutes they will be inviting your comments. So even those of you boycotting ABC might want to tune in long enough to try to send your comments.

Sorry for such a short diary, but I thought people might want to know about this.

Filling space here to try to reach the minimum word count. I don't publish many diaries so I'm not going to feel guilty about this.

I've mentioned in some of my comments on the CT-Sen primary that my father (83) registered as a Democrat for the first time to vote for Lamont. Yesterday I sent him a copy of Rusty1776's wonderful tribute to CT voters entitled We Will Never Know Their Names.

I thought you might be interested in seeing my Dad's reply (below the fold).

The Government Accounting Office has done an audit of how well the help lines operated by the various insurance providers (under government funding) answer customer's questions about Medicare Part D.

Their results shouldn't be too surprising. As the NY Times summarized the report:

Federal investigators said Monday that Medicare prescription drug plans generally provided incomplete and inaccurate information to callers who asked questions about the new benefit.

The findings, from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, are significant because the premise of the new program is that consumers will make informed choices among dozens of competing plans.

The second paragraph is key. Indeed, how can consumers be expected to make informed choices if they cannot get accurate information about the plans?

Links:
The New York Times article (Registration required)
The actual GAO report (PDF)

More details below the fold

I was walking back from dropping my car at the repair shop this morning, listening to my iPod in shuffle mode, when it served up am rhein, a piece which lifted my heart, at least briefly, from the sadness and despair which I'm sure we are all feeling. And I wondered why I never see any mention of Kos' music on this site. Perhaps many of you don't even realize that Kos is an accomplished musician, and that he has made two albums of his piano music available for free download. Just click on the About link and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

They are beautiful pieces and I am forever grateful to Kos for sharing them with us. I also wonder (Kos, can you speak on this?) if he continues to compose and whether any more music will be forthcoming. Or have politics and family totally consumed all of his energies?

Poll on the flip.

I haven't seen any coverage of this in the mainstream news, with the exception of this article, but in Olympia WA, demonstrators have attempted to block the loading of supplies onto ships bound for Iraq for the past week. The protests have been escalating and the police have used pepper spray to disperse the demonstrators. On Tuesday, 22 people were arrested. (Follow the link for some graphic pictures of the protest.)

Are there any Kossacks involved in this who could give a further report? An excerpt from the article is below the fold.

A story in Salon today (subscription or watching ad required) says that the Senate has added a provision to their version of the immigration reform bill to increase the number of H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000, with provision for further increases in subsequent years. H-1B visas are the visas used to admit technical workers to the U.S. According to the article, this increase is not based on any survey showing a shortage of technical workers available in the U.S., but mostly on lobbying efforts by Bill Gates and other high-tech companies who are looking to import a cheaper labor force. For as we all know, there are lots of high-tech workers in the U.S. who were laid off in recent years that are still looking for jobs.

A few quotes below the fold.

On Saturday, when that terrible accident happened to Barbaro, we had an interesting discussion of the ethics of horse racing and thoroughbred horse breeding.

I was very upset to see that glorious animal brought down in mid-flight, and have been following his progress as best I can in the news. (Latest report is that the surgery went well and Barbaro is walking, feeling frisky, and nickering at mares!) But I also ran across something today that I think adds a bit of irony to the discussion, so I'd like to share it with those of you who are interested in this topic.

Details after the break.

For fans of the old-style text-based Adventure computer game, someone has come up with a modern adaptation...

Oval Office
You are standing inside a White House, having just been elected to the presidency of the United States. You knew Scalia would pull through for you.

There is a large desk here, along with a few chairs and couches. The presidential seal is in the middle of the room and there is a full-length mirror upon the wall.

What do you want to do now?

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

Check it out - very funny!

We've had a lot of diaries recently about the mess that is Medicare Part D. Some have compared the confusion surrounding its implementation to the massive screwups by FEMA after Katrina. It is predicted that some will die or suffer harm due to not being able to get medications that were previously paid for.

Obviously, this plan needs to be fixed, but that's going to take time. And while we're working on that, there are things you can do to help right now.

One of the problems with this plan is that to make an informed selection between the myriad of drug plans requires computer access and internet skills. Many seniors just aren't able to do this, either because they don't have a computer, or because they just have never learned how to navigate the web. Pretty much everyone reading Daily Kos has the necessary skills to do this work, and many local senior service agencies are actively seeking out volunteers to help.