The Soccer Mom Vote

The Sputnik of our age

When Al Gore set down a challenge to the country that we find a way to derive 100% of our electricity from clean, non-carbon sources within the next ten years; a fair number of people, including the NYT, had visions of JFK and the old Soviet Sputnik dancing in their heads. Thankfully, you don't have to be President to lead on an issue, and in this day and age, it may be easier if you are not.

Critics were quick to fly the flag of Gore's hypocrisy - how dare a man who lives in such an enormous house and has been known drive SUVs lecture us about how to save energy? And those "carbon offsets" he buys are actually investments, from which he might make money.

But that's partly the point. Going green and clean is not about living in a yurt and milking your own goats. Sometimes it's about technology and innovation, spending our time and money wisely, creating jobs in new sectors, and getting ahead of the competition.

As it happens, some our competition in this area might still be from Russia, who has been using her natural resources to engineer a return to dominance in Eastern Europe. Russia has made an economic comeback on the strength of their natural resources and while the rising tide has not lifted all boats, there is a growing middle class that did not exist 15 years ago. Unfortunately, Russia is also using its resources to bully its neighbors - cutting off supplies to Ukraine and Belarus in an effort to keep them from getting too close to the West.

Now, what if some of the Eastern European countries had energy alternatives to fall back on? And what if those alternatives were based on American engineering, bought from American companies, or built by American engineering firms?

That's just one, oversimplified scenario. However, it shows that even if you are skeptical about global warming, there are other reasons to invest time, money, and effort into alternatives to oil and natural gas. If you are not convinced about global warming, what about combatting pollution, reducing the cost of all fuels, and reducing the burden on the local taxpayer?

Back in the early 80s, in the town of Hull, Massachusetts, a wind turbine was installed at the town's high school that lowered the school's energy cost to the taxpayers by 28%. When that turbine finally failed in 1997, it was replaced by more modern technology and is now providing energy to the entire municipality. Hull is now making money with the surplus generated energy that no doubt offsets costs in other areas, such as salaries for town employees, and lowers costs for the taxpayer.

Smart businesses are always looking for innovations that will save them money or improve the product they deliver to their customers. They look toward the future, identifying upcoming needs and trends and investing in research that will help them meet those needs when they arise. Companies that don't do this, but instead spend their time whining about change and trying to keep it from happening (read: Lobbying), get left behind. One has only to look at American car companies and the efforts they put into fighting stricter CAFE standards; insisting that "the technology isn't there yet" instead of working to create the technology. We see the results of this poor planning frequently these days in the form of layoffs and contractions in Big 3 operations.

Americans of all political stripes might agree that the United States needs to be leading rather than following or even obstructing this kind of innovation. So how do we encourage that to happen?

An article in the May issue of Fast Company discusses the role of contests and prize money in spurring innovation. Government and private funding of university research such as this solar storage solution at MIT aids in the development of technologies that eventually become saleable. And finally, some of those tax incentives lavished so heavily on oil and gas companies, could be either matched by or shifted to alternative energy companies.

In making the case for more drilling rights, more refineries, and the horribly misnamed "clean coal," Republicans often argue that we can't conserve our way out of this (oil) crisis. That may or may not be true, but we certainly can't solve a problem by continuing and expanding the behavior that created the problem in the first place.

Challenge tends to bring out the best in Americans, and this should be no exception, regardless of politics. If, as happened after Sputnik, we emphasize the study of science and technology, encourage young men and women to pursue engineering careers, and restore our drive to innovate, these efforts can only benefit our country, and maybe other parts of the world as well.

Governor Palin, I'm calling you out

When I first read about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, I was intrigued.  She's one of only eight women running a state government, mothers five children, runs marathons, and manages to have approval ratings in the 90's.  As if that weren't enough, her name continues to be mentioned on the short-list of people being considered as McCain's vice-presidential nominee.  Regardless of whether you agree with her politics, you'd be an idiot not to be impressed by Gov. Palin's rise up the Republican ranks.

The 44-year-old governor gave birth to her fifth child in April.  Trig Paxson Van Palin was born in Alaska right after the governor returned from Texas, where she gave a luncheon keynote for an energy conference.  He made his arrival a month early, weighing in at 6 lbs, 2 ounces.

He also has a diagnosis of Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by the presence of three -- rather than the typical two -- copies of chromosome 21.  By the family's report, Trig's condition was revealed during the fourth month of her pregnancy by prenatal genetic testing.  Both parents admit to being shocked and challenged by the news, but hold strong pro-life beliefs that made a termination of the pregnancy out of the question.  Like all parents, they view their son as precious and perfect and are willing to make whatever effort is necessary to help him reach his full potential.

Let me first say that I offer my sincere congratulations to the Palins on the birth of their son.  I am sure he is a joy and a blessing.

Further, I understand how this experience might have deepened the governor's pro-life convictions.  Her decision has not gone unnoticed -- the story has appeared on many pro-life websites and supportive comments from other parents of children with special needs have poured in.   While Gov. Palin's choice to continue her pregnancy was no doubt a personal one, it's given her incredible political power on this issue.  Vogue cover notwithstanding, say hello to the new poster child of pro-life politics.

Here's where I take issue with the governor: what about rallying around the health and educational needs of children with physical and cognitive disabilities? If there is going to be an issue that raising a son with special needs makes close to your heart, shouldn't it be more about the many years of his life, rather than the nine months of his prenatal development?

A recent study published by the Commonwealth Fund, a non-profit organization that specializes in health policy, ranked Alaska 42nd in measures of health care access, quality, costs, equity and health outcomes in children.  Included in the study were several indicators that related directly to children with special health care needs.  Of children aged 1-17 with an identified emotional, behavioral, or developmental problem, only 52% had received mental health care the last year (rank: 47).  For children with special health care needs needing referrals to specialty care, only 23% got them (rank: 32).  And while it doesn't apply specifically to children with special needs (but certainly affects their quality of care), only 38% of Alaskan children have a medical home (rank: 47).  Incidentally, all of these issues with access and quality of care exist despite the fact that Alaskans spend more out-of-pocket for health care than most Americans and have higher health insurance premiums.

Claiming the title of "pro-life" should obligate you to more than an end to abortion -- it should make you wish for and work for a high quality of life for the children who are already here.  By virtue of the family he was born to, Trig Palin will have access to high quality healthcare.  However, based on current data, his fellow generation of Alaskan children may not be so lucky.

Governor Palin, I have no doubt you'll take excellent care of your son.  Now, do what needs to be done for the rest of Alaska's kids.

[Photo: Jim Lavrakas, Anchorage Daily News]

   

The Pregnancy Pact

Time Magazine, this week, published a story about a community North of Boston where 17 girls in the local high school have been identified as pregnant. The high number has been news around the state for a while; tied, erroneously it turns out, to a political fight about the availability of birth control pills at the high school health center.

In the Time article, the principal of the school revealed that there had been a pact among several girls to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Suspicions were raised when several of the girls appeared at the health center for repeated pregnancy tests and were visibly disappointed in a negative result. Further investigation revealed that many of the fathers were not students at the high school and one was a 24 year-old homeless man.

Reaction in the community and on the web has ranged from head-shaking to finger-waggling. Some are waving the morality flag and others pointing to the availability of welfare as some kind of incentive for this behavior. Many, many are screaming "WHERE WERE THE PARENTS?" 

Indeed, the best answer to the "why" of this situation comes from am 18-year old mother, not part of the pact, who was quoted in the article:

But Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby. "They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland says. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."

Gloucester, Massachusetts may be best known for being the site of the film The Perfect Storm, and in earlier days, as the home of the Gorton's fisherman. Fishing is still its main industry, but as a result of environmental and regulatory constraints, as well as the factory trawling done by other countries, the propects for recent generations have shrunk. Tourism, the only alternative industry on the horizon, has progressed in fits and starts as the community struggles to maintain its fishing heritage.

Though the pact, and the sheer numbers involved, are unusual, this story raises questions about other communities around the country where factories have closed and jobs have gone overseas. Girls are raised without career aspirations because there are no careers to be had. College and skills training are only helpful if there are jobs available. The only dream left to them is to create a family of their very own, even if they can't really afford it.

Without resorting to protectionism, how do we create more opportunities in this country, especially in rural areas? Removing the corporate tax incentives for offshoring is a good start, but more must be done. Education for entrepreneurship, investment in rural communities, and incentives for new businesses to repurpose the abandoned facilities of old businesses are all initiatives worth investigation.

Accidents do happen, but girls with career aspirations typically don't want to get pregnant in high school. While many of the girls will inevitably hope for a better life for the children they are expecting, its hard to have hope without opportunity.

Why does this keep happening?

This is an example of the stuff that drives me so insane about the immigration question. Why is the INS/ICE wasting time trying to deport the spouse of someone who is serving our country in the Iraq war?

This is the second example I have seen of this here in Massachusetts so it's hard to tell how many examples of this occur all over the country.

Last year, it came to light the wife of a soldier who had been captured by al Qaeda was under threat of deportation. What I couldn't understand then, and I still have not found an adequate explanation for, is why marrying an American citizen doesn't still automatically make you a citzen yourself. What has changed?

I'm sorry too.

Where have all the good guys gone?

By now you've heard that New York Governor Elliot Spitzer issued an apology yesterday for behavior that "does not meet my or any standards of right and wrong."

I suppose we should be used to this. Getting caught in a sex scandal is becoming a rite of passage for the self-righteous. Somehow though, we believed that this guy was different. He presented himself as a crusader of sorts, pursuing Truth, Justice and the American Way. You know the drill. His manner, and of course his name, so invited comparisons with Elliot Ness that you could almost see the fedora.

It's not so much the sex, as it is the alleged hiding of money, disguising of transactions, and engaging in something he was prosecuting others for. It was the fact that this was so calculated. The irony is punishing. I'm not just disappointed, I feel like someone has died.

Having lived in both New Jersey and the Boston area, I'm no stranger to political corruption. I sort of accepted it as a way of life. Big Business would continue to have too much influence over our government and would continue to ride roughshod over its employees, its shareholders and in the case of the defense industry, a balanced budget. Writers like me would continue to point this out, try to effect some small change here and there, but that this was the way the world worked. Period.

Elliot Spitzer made me believe that it didn't have to be that way; that someone was really watching out for the little guy in a way that didn't involve protectionism, or socialism, or anything more drastic than enforcing existing laws. This was apparently too much for Big Business. It speaks volumes that a cheer went up on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the news of Spitzer's troubles.

But while Spitzer was making enemies, I was entertaining hopes that he might run for President someday; that there was still a good guy who could be a leader on the national stage. That there was someone to believe in.

I've been watching and participating in politics for a long time now, and I'm used to supporting and voting for flawed, multi-dimensional, candidates. I should have known that these expectations were too much to place on one man's shoulders. Yet, I hoped, until of course, it turned out to be too good to be true.

Just as Elliot Spitzer's public career has more than likely come to an end, so has my belief in good guys going into politics.

And that makes me very sorry.

Bye, Mitt!

There's a part of me that loves to say I told you so.

Long before Mitt Romney formally announced his Presidential bid, I was predicting he wouldn't make it to the final round.

Romney is the last in a series of GOP governors of Massachusetts who have tried to launch national careers from one of the most liberal states in the country. The only one who was even remotely successful was Paul Cellucci, the most doggedly punitive-minded of the bunch. For a short time he became Ambassador to Canada, leaving the likable, but hapless, Jane Swift in his place.

Fresh off the great Olympic Clean Up caper, Romney swept back into town, brushed Swift aside and became the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

I didn't vote for him, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. There's room in my politics for business-minded pragmatism. Of course, after all his pontificating about doing away with nepotism in state agencies, he installed all his own people wherever he could. They did the same power playing whole lotta nothing that the previous bunch had done. Ah, bureaucrats!

Romney's singular achievement, perhaps the only thing he really accomplished here, was the removal of former State Senate President Billy Bulger from his latest post as President of the University of Massachusetts. You see, Billy has a famous brother Whitey, and, for those of you not in New England, Whitey is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list based on his Irish Mafia connections. Whitey disappeared from Boston years ago, he pops up around the world from time to time like an Elvis sighting. Billy claims not to know where Whitey is, so Mitt punished him by going after his job. In so doing, he deprived UMASS of the best fund raiser the institution had ever had. Thanks, Mitt! There's a feather in your cap.

When a concrete ceiling tile from one of our infamous Big Dig tunnels fell and crushed a motorist to death, Romney blamed the unions, he blamed the government transportation agency he had not been able to take over, and said absolutely nothing about the private companies involved, two of which were later criminally charged by our Democratic Attorney General (one reached a settlement with the State).

Romney is the only one of this crop of Presidential candidates whom I've actually met. I heard him speak at a State House conference on education. While he didn't engage in the blatant teacher-bashing that Cellucci was famous for, he talked predictably about achievement and accountability without ever acknowledging what deep cuts in local aid from the state had done to the schools in non-wealthy communities, and how difficult that made it for struggling schools to provide additional services to those kids who most needed academic support. He was utterly unconcerned about the issues we had come to the State House to discuss.

Mitt Romney personifies many of the reasons that, even though I am a registered Independent, I am rarely able to vote for a Republican. Privileged beyond my wildest dreams, they seem to have little or no empathy for those with fewer opportunities in life. Their connection to the middle class seems to rely solely in stirring up antipathy for those even less fortunate. Their sympathies lie with big business and its wealthy CEOs and shareholders at expense of everything and everyone else. They'd rather invest in prisons than public schools and their "solutions" seem to be similarly punitive in nature, all stick and no carrot.They lecture about values with no evidence of a conscience. It doesn't work for me.

Thankfully, even Republicans are starting to say that it doesn't work for them either (that's not counting those in the Bible Belt who felt Romney wasn't a real Christian). And while I struggle to figure out what "not conservative enough" means when referring to McCain, I am thankful that Mitt Romney, who was so unresponsive to his constituents to the point of mocking us on the campaign trail, has proven himself quite out of touch with the rest of the country as well.

AMT - Caught in the middle

AMT, or Alternative Minimum Tax, was set to snag 23.4 million Americans in 2007, except for a last minute bill that passed Congress just last week.  And now, because of Congress's "eleventh-hour" vote for this one year freeze, at least 13.3 million refunds worth about $39 billion dollars will be delayed as the IRS scrambles to fix its forms, delaying the mid-January normal start of tax season to an estimated February 4 date instead (source).

Whoa! Back up there.  What is this AMT anyway and how does it affect me?  The AMT was introduced into law by the Tax Reform Act of 1969 and became effective in 1970 (source).   It's intent was to prevent the rich from using special tax benefits to pay little or no tax by putting into place what is effectively a separate tax system.  In theory these rules determine minimum amount of tax that you should be required to pay. If you're already paying at least that much because of the "regular" income tax, you don't have to pay AMT. But if your regular tax falls below this minimum, you have to make up the difference by paying alternative minimum tax (source). 

So what went wrong?  In a word, inflation.  The "regular" tax brackets, exemptions, and standard deductions are indexed each year for inflation.  The AMT brackets and exemptions are not.  So if you have income over $75,000 and have several children, interest deductions from second mortgages, capital gains, high state and local taxes and/or incentive stock options, you could be caught in the AMT web (view the Top Ten Things that Cause AMT Liability).

The 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts were actually designed to increase the amount of taxes paid through the AMT; the Tax Policy Center noted that Bush tax policy has "more than doubled the projected share of taxpayers who will face the AMT in 2010, from 16 percent to 33.6 percent" (source). Legislation to fix this nightmare was stalled over "partisan bickering over federal spending, President George W. Bush's tax cuts and the nation's $9 trillion debt" (source).  The main source of conflict was the Republicans arguing that there was no need to raise other taxes to make up for revenue losses from providing AMT relief.  This is directly against the Democrat's policy of "pay-as-you-go" which requires "that tax cuts and mandatory spending increases be covered by tax increases or spending cuts so as not to add to the deficit" - the Dems wanted the $50 billion* cost of this tax relief to be paid for by "closing a loophole on offshore tax havens" (source). Reluctantly, the Democratic majority, had to concede to the Republican form of the bill because of the certain White House veto of their version. 

The bill that passed imposes a temporary fix but doesn't pay for it.  And millions are going to be left waiting for their refunds.  Be sure to thank your Senator and Representative. 

*just for the one year AMT patch.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the price for full repeal of the AMT to be $1.2 trillion through 2015 (source).

    

want to really make a difference?

When I was eleven-years-old, I remember being in a car with my dad as he drove us down the 15 freeway. My father pointed to an unfinished off-ramp marked "Mercy Road" and told us how a young woman, Cara Knott, had just been killed there by a police officer named Craig Peyer. He then went on to try to explain that sometimes people who are supposed to be good are simply not. It wasn't an easy thing to understand at eleven. To be honest, I still don't fully understand it.     

When I was fifteen and my dad was teaching me how to drive, he taught me something that no father should have to share with his little girl. He instructed me, "If you ever get pulled over by a police officer, and they want you to stop somewhere remote or dark, I want you to refuse." He went on to say that I should drive to a well lit, populated area and if the officer gets mad, just tell him that I remember Cara Knott. He said that if it was a good officer, he would understand. I remember how afraid this made me feel.

When I grew up, I met John. An unassuming, warm, likable man, John easily fit into our circle of friends. After a year of poker games, late night music musings, dinners and laughter, I learned that his sister was Cara Knott. I met the rest of his family at holidays: Cara's mom Joyce, a woman who welcomed me and our new baby into her home and made us feel like we'd known her forever and a pair of sisters who laughed and joked with us like we we're part of the family. I never got to know Cara's father, who died of a heart attack and was a tireless champion of victim's rights.     

Today I got a letter from my friends, telling me that the man who brutally murdered their sister and daughter was up for parole again. That this man, who taught me at eleven that not even police officers are safe and made me fear getting pulled over by a CHP officer, could possibly walk free.

They need your help.     

Please help keep Craig Peyer where he belongs; where he can never put another family through such hell; where he can never again viciously strangle and bash in the skull of a beautiful, warm young woman or terrorize the hundreds that came forward after Cara's death. Help us keep this generation of little girls, girls like my own Lily and Anya, grow up without this man preying on them.

Here's what you can do:     

• View this letter from the Knott family.
   
• Peyer's parole hearing is at the end of January, 2008 and letters make a huge impact.  If you can, please write and mail a letter yourself.  Think about how this case affects you personally, whether you be a parent, love someone who has been lost to violence or simply are invested in a more peaceful planet.  Tell the parole board why you personally need this man to stay behind bars. 
   
• Link to this post or email those people who you feel can help, whether it be to someone who can pass on the message or someone who can write passionately on Cara's behalf. 
   
• Don't have the time or energy to write a letter of your own?  That's OK, volume still makes an impact.  Download this letter and modify before mailing it in.  Of course a personally written statement has more impact, but the form letter still expresses sentiment and adds volume to the public outcry, so please do that if nothing else!
 

Letters should be addressed and mailed to:    

John F. Monday
  Executive Director
  Board of Parole Hearings
  P.O. Box 4036
  Sacramento, CA 95812

 

Re: Craig Peyer, CDC# D-93018    

and to the prison where Peyer resides:   

California Men's Colony
  Highway 1
  P.O. Box 8101
  San Luis Obispo, CA 93409-8101
  Attn: C&PR

Re: Craig Peyer, CDC# D-93018

Please be sure to reference Peyer’s name and CDC identification number in your letter: D-93018 and mark the letter "CONFIDENTIAL."    

Let me know when you've mailed your letters as I'd like to let the Knott's know how many people are backing them up out there.  This is a good family who have suffered an impossible loss.  You can help.  Please choose to do so.

I Can't Believe I'm Defending Mitt Romney

This isn't what I was planning on writing about this month, not what I promised. That post is coming, but this topic is so timely I couldn't resist.

I'm no fan of Mitt Romney. He was governor of my state for longer than I would have liked and his was the kind of term that finally broke the 16-year string of Republican governors in Massachusetts. Not only was he pretty ineffective, but he added insult to injury by flying around the country mocking his constituents while he was still in office. I've had a "Top 10 Reasons why Mitt Should Not be President" post brewing in my head for months, waiting for the right time. I'm probably not going to do that now, because these people are doing a fine job of it themselves (Important caveat: I'm wary of just about anyone who feels the need to use the phrase "for truth" in their title. Can you say "swiftboating?").

Opponent Rudy Guiliani last week castigated Romney for appointing a judge who later released Daniel Tavares at the end of a 16-year prison sentence he served for killing his own mother. Tavares fled to Washington State where he is now being held in the murders of a young couple. The kicker in this case is that days before he was due to be released, Tavares allegedly assulted prison guards and sent a letter threatening the life of Romney and other state officials. Here is a guy who clearly never wanted to be released in the first place. Unfortunately, no one seems to have spoken to the judge, Kathe Tuttman, about the situation, though I can't imagine what she'd say. This was one case in hundreds.  Probably the best available explanation for Tuttman's actions can be found here.

No doubt the Giuliani campaign intended that this case be Romney's Willie Horton, but the "tough-on-crime" mayor's efforts have fallen short. A governor cannot be held responsible for every decision an appointee makes after being approved for the job. Romney is no more to blame for this than Reagan is for some Sandra Day O'Connor's less conservative swing votes. When judges are appointed (and I do believe they should be appointed rather than elected; removal should be difficult, but not impossible), there is a certain element of trust involved along with the vetting. Judges are human, they make mistakes, hopefully most of them do not end as tragically as this one, sometimes the law ties their hands.

This is not Romney's first judge problem. The big one is even less of his own making. Justice Margaret Marshall (a co-author of the link above) was appointed by Paul Cellucci and will forever be linked with "gay marriage" (see, no one is blaming Cellucci for this). Her decision found that the Massachusetts Constitution did not allow for discrimination in marriage, that it "forbids the creation of second class citizens," and is "less tolerant [than the Federal Constitution] of government intrusion into the protected spheres of private life."

Social conservatives running against Romney would like to pin this one on him as well, but as much as the governor might have liked Marshall to find discrimination in our Constitution, it simply wasn't there.

Giuliani meanwhile, seems to be redefining "law and order candidate" in ways that might evoke the names of Halliburton and Blackwater. Perhaps we should start asking serious questions about what security in Iraq, or anywhere else, might mean under a President Giuliani and how it might benefit his company and clients.

The squabbling between the two presumed front-runners has opened up the high road for Mike Huckabee who drove it with ease talking to George Stephanopolus on (video) ABC This Week. As of this writing, Huckabee leads the GOP in Iowa. I can only guess what this means, but I'm hoping that Iowa voters are looking at the shambles of the current administration, the antics of the two highest-profile candidates and thinking "What was that about honor and dignity, again?"

I take salt with my margarita and my news

For some unexplainable reason I woke up at 4:45am on the day after Thanksgiving. There was no child next to my bed asking me to help tuck them back in after a trip to the bathroom. There was no husband "quietly" getting ready for work. There was simply me. Awake. I listened to the still house. I stared at the red glare of the clock. And then I remembered - there were stores open already. Stores with things for me to buy.

Now, if we're being honest, on Black Friday I was already nearly done with my holiday shopping. I had, however, a few things left to purchase that I thought I might find marked down at one particular store that I knew had opened at 4am. I also knew I could buy the two birthday cards I had forgotten to buy - one of which was for my husband whose birthday was, yes, that very day.

Silly me, I thought I might find Kohl's with a relatively low level of hustle and bustle. I mean really, who gets out of bed before the crack of dawn to shop? Yeah. I know. Go ahead. Laugh.

I walked into that store to find a grandmother with a sleeping child on her lap sitting where the shopping baskets and carts used to be. I found a line that ran from the row of cash registers in the front all the way around the perimeter of the store - stopping only to meet up with the end of the other line that ran around to the back of the store from the second bank of registers. I also found everything I needed - including those two birthday cards. I waited on line for 20 minutes, saved roughly $30, and paid about $70 for my purchases.

Less than an hour later my parents left the cozy confines of their house for some early morning shopping at the big bulls-eye store. It wasn't open yet, but the line ran from the front door, down the length of the store's exterior and around the corner into the dark recesses between it and the mega-shopping mecca of home improvement enthusiasts. My parents left the line to shop elsewhere in the complex - finding the crowds too deep to be able to maneuver through when they got there. They returned to the big bulls-eye 20 minutes later only to find the store was sold out of both electronics purchases they had hoped to make.

Now, I'm no economist. I'm not conducting polls. But stories like my family's and my friends' lead me to believe that sales were pretty darn good on Black Friday - and I'm not just talking discounts. I'd be hard pressed to think Black Friday was anything but "black" on the books.

And according to leading search firms quoted in the Associated Press articles about the day, I'm a good guesser:

“This was a really good start. ... There seemed to be a lot of pent-up demand,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. ShopperTrak reported late Sunday that sales on Friday and Saturday combined rose 7.2 percent to $16.4 billion from the same two-day period a year ago.

Total sales on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, rose to $10.3 billion, up 8.3 percent from the same day a year ago. Martin had expected increases no greater than 5 percent.

Meanwhile, Internet research firm comScore Inc. reported a 22 percent gain in online sales on the day after Thanksgiving compared with the same day a year ago and estimated online sales would exceed $700 million online Monday, the official kickoff to the online shopping season.

Subsequent articles on "Cyber Monday" indicate the on-line cousin of Black Friday proved equally fruitful. We, my friends, are little shopping fiends.

And all that is good. All of that lends credence to the articles we see squashed in tiny corners - unemployment numbers are down. Consumer spending is up. Despite sticker shock at the gas pump and defaulting risky loans, our economy is doing well and deep down, apparently, we know it.

Except, when you read those articles or watch those short news snippets on TV, you stop and ask yourself if we're not all tossing our wallets around in denial. Articles on the kick-off to the holiday season are high on references to "bargain hunting" and repeatedly ask the big question "Will it last?" References to October's up-tick in consumer spending is wrapped in the gloom of "it wasn't as big an increase as the months just before it - yeah, we know, it's an increase, but it's not as big."

This, friends, is why I tend to ignore the media more often than not. I get dizzy rolling my eyes all the time.

Sometimes I consider the media a toxic friend. Someone that says they are here for me - to help me make informed decisions. Someone that is only looking out for me as they illuminate the truth. Yet, the truth is these 'so-called friends' seems to yearn for the dramatic. Perhaps it's because the bad news gets them higher ratings. Perhaps there's more illusion of meat to a sour story. Or perhaps it's just habit.

I don't have that answer.

What I do know is this - as we trudge through this seemingly endless election season, as we mull the issues that may play a major role in our lives and our children's lives, as we build upon our own ideas of what is good and what is not - we need to dig past the sound bytes and the pull-quotes. We're a fast food, full-service society. . .but the truth is, when it comes to our information gathering, we can't afford to be anything but proactive and interactive.