Open enrollment is here under the Affordable Care Act. That means we’re in “get ready for crap” mode, where anything and everything that is wrong with healthcare gets blamed on the ACA aka Obamacare. Think Benghazi, only local!

I take the health care thing personally. Pre-ACA, I was uninsurable in the private market, dependent for coverage on AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System), which had a plan for self-employed individuals. (AHCCCS is Medicaid in Arizona because, well, we’re Arizona. My state was the last state to adopt Medicaid, and we go our own way!) Our insurance program depended on the good graces of the Arizona legislature, a dependency no one should have, ever. (We covered our daughter separately, just

I ran across Why Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Are So Successful, in One Word earlier today. It’s a short piece by Greg McKeown, and it’s worth a look-see.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are close. Very close, in fact! The Buffett money ends up, mostly, in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the two men are bridge and burger buddies. (Bill Gates’ late mother introduced her son to Warren Buffett.)

So what’s the word? Focus, both as a noun—having one—and as a verb, i.e., to focus. Mr. McKeown provides examples of focus in both ways, and even offers a four-square grid. Fine and dandy, and a couple of Gates/Buffett stories are fine, too, but for me the

“Lame duck” in politics refers to an office-holder after his or her last election, and to a legislative session after an election and before the winners have been sworn in. (The link, to a delightful 2009 article from the Denver Post by Ed Quillen about the origins of the term, uses a narrower definition, referring only to “an office-holder whose replacement has been elected but not sworn in.”)

Favorite gasbag Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has been erupting, of late, about lame ducks. Here he is, on Breitbart News Sunday:

I don’t think Congress should come back for a lame duck. I think the idea of having a bunch of Senators who have just been thrown out of

Rotten! Just rotten!!! That’s my short take on Tuesday. More thoughts:

1. Talk About the Good Stuff. You’re a Democrat in 2014. You’re tied to President Obama, whether you like it or not, so tell people we’re better off than we were six years ago. Two years ago, too! Lots of stats show this, from unemployment to the stock market to the deficit, yada, yada, yada! And when people say “my life isn’t better,” ask them why they think that’s the case. Are Republicans concerned about the wealth gap? Do they support higher wages? Are they concerned about you, Mr. and Ms. Regular Person? No, no, and no! And what have Republicans in Congress done for you lately?

2. Be Courageous

Election Day is upon us. Many readers have voted already. Good, and that is “good” however you voted. Voting is an extraordinary right, and one that far too many people ignore.

Before I make some highly partisan comments about the election—my blog; my perspective, but comments are certainly welcomed—I want to stay with voting for a moment. Paul Hogarth wrote We Want Everybody to Vote, but Republicans Explicitly Don’t for Daily Kos on October 31. It dovetails with Crazy Tea Party Congressman Suggests Only Property Owners Should Be Allowed to Vote, written by Justin Baragona for Politics USA on May 20, 2014, featuring Congressman Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), and The Conservative Case to Limit Voting by Zachary Roth for MSNBC,

Where’s the suit? (A long, long time ago, 30 years ago, an old lady a sweet older woman named Clara Peller did advertisements for Wendy’s restaurants, asking “where’s the beef?” Ms. Peller was looking for substance—red meat, not buns—from Wendy’s competitors, and the theme was picked up by former Vice President Walter Mondale in his primary fight with Senator Gary Hart.)

I’ve written about the suit on July 11, August 2, and on August 10 in Where’s the Lawsuit? For those with short memories, the suit is the lawsuit the House Republicans made all kinds of noise about all the way back in the summer of 2014. Well, it snowed in Chicago on October 31. (My daughter, who

I was at my desk on Monday at 11:52. I eat out most days, but on this day I had a lecture on my calendar and my workout bag in the car. Lunch, lecture, or workout? After some teetering and the slightest of nudges, the lecture won!

Khalil Shikaki spoke for about an hour at UA Hillel on “The Gaza War and the Future of Palestinian-Israeli Relations.” Dr. Shikaki is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, and a Senior Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. He reported on polling his organization has done in Gaza. (Pollsters in Gaza? Who knew!) And the

I’ve been watching and listening as the 2014 campaign unfolds. It’s not pretty, to the eyes or the ears.

If you’re a liberal like me and you’ve written checks from time to time to candidates and groups like Act Blue and MoveOn, your inbox gets a deluge of emails every day. Once in a while an email brags about success; mostly, though, they share “sky is falling” imagery, with a $1,000,000 this and $7,000,000 that (being spent against one of the good ones), plenty of mentions of Boehner and the Kochs, etc. Apparently, it’s working, for the Democrats have raised lots of money off their direct “mail” efforts.

On the other side, we have Ebola-fear. Best example? Congressman Peter King