Chicken Fried McCain

The clairvoyant blog shakesville posted today's photo on December 31, 2007.

Having discovered the disaster excuse for avoiding unpleasant events, when a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico provided cover for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's RNC vanishing act, McCain's at it again.

From the day McCain announced Sarah Palin's place on the ticket, to the last day of the "lipstick on a pig" debate, the red line was increasing, and the blue line was slumping. Then, suddenly, Wall Street started to sink beneath the alligators in Manhattan's sewers. We forgot about the sideshows, and started talking about a real live national issue, and the trend line took a sharp turn back to blue.


John McCain looked ahead in the schedule, and saw a debate on the horizon. Recognizing that a debate would likely focus on issues, and any discussion of issues makes the little red line on the chart head south, he is now attempting to use the "hurricane ate my homework" excuse to avoid the whole thing.

Come to think about it, the mere act of campaigning has been problematic for the McCain campaign. If you go out among the people and campaign, and the act of campaigning depresses your polling numbers, suspending all campaigning would seem to be an excellent strategy.

But why stop there? Why just suspend the campaign? We could suspend the election, too. I mean, if the Republicans want four more years just like the last eight years, suspending the entire political process is just the ticket.

Palin's porky $26 million Gravina road to nowhere

Sarah Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere (linking Gravina Island to Ketchikan) before she was against it. The access road is another story. According to the LA Times, the death of the bridge had no impact on the health of a 3.2 mile access road.

The road to nowhere, which is still being built, was originally intended to connect the airport on Gravina Island to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. This dead-end highway is being built on an island with a population of 50, and sans-bridge it will end at a cul-de-sac across the Tongass Narrows from Ketchickan.

The mayor (of Ketchikan, Bob Weinstein) said he was considering posting a sign on the road for the rest of the world to see. He said it would read: "Built Under Gov. Sarah Palin, Paid for With Federal Earmarks."

The road to nowhere, under construction.

Massachusetts needs new license plates

There is only one state in the union with older license plates on the street than Massachusetts. Our green license plates date back to 1977, which means there are cars on the street with 31 year old plates.

This presents a problem that goes beyond the wear and tear that fades and cracks a 31-year-old piece of aluminum in harsh New England weather. If you don't retire the old plates, and restart a new series of plates, you exhaust many millions of available letter-number combinations.


Consider the math. The first series of license plates had three letters and three numbers, and the first digit was never a 0. The letters I, O, and Q were never used.

For math geeks, these rules create 12,167 different letter combinations. Each three digit number can generate 900 plates (numbers 100-999), so the 12,167 letter combinations generate 10,950,300 possible plates.

When Massachusetts exhausted the three-letter three-number combinations, they simply reversed the order, generating another 10,950,300 possibilities. In 1987 the Registry started manufacturing the red "Spirit of Massachusetts plates, and they stopped issuing the green plates in the early 1990s.


Soon after the red plates began to appear, the NNNLLL combinations were exhasted, and the state went to a series of two letter - four number plates. Given the same rules, four number-two letter plates generate 4,761,000 combinations. Reversing the order generates another 4,761,000 plates. Those combinations were exhausted, and the state then placed the two letters in the middle of the number combination. That generates another 4,761,000 plates.


This numbering scheme is now exhausted, and we appear to be going to a scheme of three digits, two letters, followed by another number.


This now results in a combination where a plate can now be 123 LD0, where the last character is the number zero. (Someone familiar with the Massachusetts registration scheme can tell the last digit is a zero and not the letter O because the plate expires in October, not January.) This creates confusion in 10% of the plates distributed under this new scheme. In addition, having multiple (and increasingly complicated) schemes makes it more difficult to remember a plate number in an emergency.


Plus, as an extra bonus, the first generation of red plates is aging to the point where they are fading like the old greenies.

So, here we are in a state of 6.4 million people, and we have exhausted more than 37 million possible plate combinations (including the 900,000 number-only plates from 100000 to 999999).


Massachusetts issued new plates every year prior to 1949, when the state issued new plates every two years. In 1967, the state went to undated plates (blue on white), then red on white (around 1972), replaced by the current green on white starting in March, 1977.

What should new plates look like?

Given that we need to retire the red and the green plates to reuse the 37 million combinations that are exhausted in the current scheme, we need to change the color of the plate and possibly devise a new design. The state police have already converted to new plates with blue characters.


Some states have incorporated art into their plates, and that's not a bad thing. Massachusetts was one of the first, incorporating our sacred cod into the 1928 plate. Perhaps it is a time for it to return, now that the technology for artistic enhancements has improved.




The Spirit of Massachusetts is the Spirit of America?
It was a state tourism promotion that dates back to the Dukakis administration, but half of this slogan lurks on our license plates today. I doubt it does little to promote tourism. Maybe we don't need a slogan on the plates, but if we place something on our plates it should be something that actually sells the state. I'll happily leave that to the imagination of BMG readers.

Being a Progressive (in 1912)

It seems that the Republican convention is looking to invoke Teddy Roosevelt in support of the McCain-Palin ticket. Historians will note, however, that Teddy Roosevelt was a 1912 Progressive, and judging from the 1912 Progressive Party platform, it's strange that McCain and Palin are trying to abandon the Republican label for the Teddy Roosevelt Bull Moose Progressives.

The 1912 Progressive Party platform is posted here. Below the bull moose, you will find three planks. 96 years later, do you think either McCain or Palin are on board for the beliefs of Teddy Roosevelt and his breakaway party?

Don't let McCain-Palin turn a Progressive hero into moose stew!


SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE

The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for:

Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurous effects incident to modern industry;

The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and Nation, including the Federal Control over interstate commerce, and the taxing power, to maintain such standards;

The prohibition of child labor;

Minimum wage standards for working women, to provide a "living wage" in all industrial occupations;

The general prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of an eight hour day for women and young persons;

One day’s rest in seven for all wage workers;

The eight hour day in continuous twenty-four hour industries;

The abolition of the convict contract labor system; substituting a system of prison production for governmental consumption only; and the application of prisoners’ earnings to the support of their dependent families;

Publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases, and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products;

Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community;

The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use;

The development of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last load of illiteracy from American youth and establishing continuation schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools;

The establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods and discoveries of science at the service of American producers;

We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress.

THE IMMIGRANT

Through the establishment of industrial standards we propose to secure to the able-bodied immigrant and to his native fellow workers a larger share of American opportunity.

We denounce the fatal policy of indifference and neglect which has left our enormous immigrant population to become the prey of chance and cupidity.

We favor Governmental action to encourage the distribution of immigrants away from the congested cities, to rigidly supervise all private agencies dealing with them and to promote their assimilation, education and advancement.

INHERITANCE AND INCOME TAX

We believe in a graduated inheritance tax as a National means of equalizing the obligations of holders of property to Government, and we hereby pledge our party to enact such a Federal law as will tax large inheritances, returning to the States an equitable percentage of all amounts collected.

We favor the ratification of the pending amendment to the Constitution giving the Government power to levy an income tax.