An Open Update Letter

Friends,
For some of you, I have only recently communicated with and for some others it has been quite a while since you last heard from me. My apologies to this last group of friends; time gets the better of all of us and truly is fleeting. In attempts to make up for this lost time and also for those among my more recent friends, I write this letter to try to organize my thoughts and also to take a retrospective look on where I’ve been.
I’ll start from roughly the time of law school. My last major event in my life had been the passing of Jack, my younger brother. All those phrases about how “you never get over it,” ring in my head and ring true in my head. His sudden death is still sad with me, and the grief is almost as fresh as the day I learned of his passing. We continue to raise funds in his memory for his scholarship fund at the University of Virginia. You can learn more and donate at http://www.aapaan.org/ .
I went into law school wanting to save the world; I just didn’t realize how hard it is to do so. With high goals and aspirations to work in international human rights, I was confronted with the reality of high law school loans and an impossible job field to work in the field. Working for the U.N. or NGOs or the State Department was clearly competitive by the time I was in the second year. I ended up working with the Department of Navy’s Office of General Counsel for the summer and enjoying that immensely. It was also great to be back in Washington for the summer after the cold school year in Cleveland.
Yes, I did go to school in Cleveland at Case Western Reserve. It was a decision that was difficult and in my weaker days I doubt. But for the most part, I do not regret the decision at all. I certainly was busy with school – the professors were excellent and I believe the legal education I received approaches the price that I paid monetarily. Working for three years at AMS, a federal contractor in Virginia paid off. That is, it paid some of the tuition bills and my rent right off.
As for the city, I truly enjoyed it after a little while. I met and dated a wonderful girl that made life in the city bearable and even enjoyable. Though that relationship regrettably did not outlast our time in school together, I still hold those memories fondly to my heart. The city itself was certainly not as cosmopolitan as Washington, but it had its charm, in the dirt and blue-collar bustle that post-industrial America has. The struggles that the City of Cleveland is undergoing is a not only a bellwether of what may come, but is a monument to the past. High crime, uncertain economics and changing demographics were daily news for the City, and though a high percentage of non-native Clevelanders in law school chose to ignore it, I tried to understand it and grasp what it all meant. I’m not sure if I ever understood it or ever can, but it put the city into perspective and only made me appreciate it more.
So, I graduated and went home to my suburban life of Fairfax, studying for the Virginia bar. Those weeks of studying and then taking it were painful. Though not as painful as doing it again, as I had to later this past February, as a consequence of failing in July. I found out on the second day on my internship on the Hill. Boy, when people say your heart stops when the online posting gets made, it really is true. You do a CTRL-F to find your name, and it stops another beat when you don’t see it. The people in the office were the nicest bunch, telling me their stories of friends (or in one case, a personal case) of eventual lawyers that failed. One quote that I heard (from the Congressman himself) was that failure was one of the best things that happened to him; you truly appreciate your situation more and it humbles you so that you will succeed eventually.
I truly was humbled and I put my head down and tried to figure out what my next steps were. I was also working part-time at a small patent law firm in downtown DC. The people were wonderful and I truly enjoyed my work there. But as time went on and my failure at the bar pushed in my mind, I wondered to myself – is this what I went to law school for? What of my goals to change the world? I eventually passed the patent bar and it seemed sealed that I would be doing patent prosecution. I was slowly sliding myself willingly into a role that I didn’t see myself in a mere few months before.
But life, as always takes strange turns. I sincerely believe in the power of prayer and hope. A clerkship I had interviewed for earlier in the fall came through. It was for a bankruptcy judge in Baltimore and would not only be part-time, but would only last six months. I was in a quandary. This was a job that I would certainly love and was in line with what I wanted to do. But should I leave the stable situation that I had worked to put myself in? What if I failed the bar again? For an agonizing weekend, I struggled with what to do. I talked to my family, my friends, former co-workers and came to what I think is characteristic of me – heart over head. My heart told me to go for the job and that things would work themselves out. It was to be my leap of faith.
So, I find myself now in Baltimore, living in the fun Federal Hill area with three nice guys, steps away from Camden Yards, a ten minute walk to work and three blocks to the famous Cross Street Market. It’s only been a week, but I am enjoying the new city tremendously. I’ve been meeting plenty of new people through just going out and my new kickball team. I’m still inclined to disagree with those that say that DC is simply a less friendly city than others, but I do find people more easy to talk to on a stranger-basis here.
I can say that I am happy where I am, but I am filled with a mix of apprehension and excitement about the future. Where will I be in another six months? There are some exciting opportunities and irons in the fire. I’m not sure where. But, I hope that for those I haven’t been in touch with, that we can reconnect. For those new friends I’ve made, I hope that we can develop our friendship. If any of you are in Baltimore in the coming months, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

James T. Tsai

70 Degree February DC Run Day

An End and a Beginning

I was not near any news source or computer for most of today, when one of my heroes ended his bid for the White House. After getting back to the office in the late afternoon, I got an IM from my friend asking if I was still for Edwards. "Of course," I wrote. I thought to myself, what's changed? And it occurred to me. It was possible, but I still held out some hope that maybe, no John Edwards had not decided to drop out of the presidential race.

But, there it was on the front page of The New York Times. His poverty talk in New Orleans, where he had started his bid for the 2008 Presidency was where he decided to end it.

I'll leave it to the media to spin this and to speculate how Edwards' supporters will go. For me, I have no idea who I'll be supporting now. Whichever choice it will be, it will certainly be historic.

But, his message about poverty will continue on I hope with the Final Two. The debates ahead will certainly not be the same. I feel sad and was a little angry too. Why couldn't he just hold out until at least the Super Tuesday races? Was he pressured by the DNC? Is there something else going on? Whatever the reason, I respect it, and I am thankful for the effect he has had at least on the discourse of the conversation surrounding the campaigns.

God Bless you John Edwards. Let's hope that this is the beginning of something more and better for the Democratic Party.

35 Years: Roe v. Wade

One of the things that I really appreciate about living and working in the DC-area is the fact that there's so much stuff, of national relevance happening every day around me. All I have to do is step outside during lunch to go to an exciting talk at the Brookings Institution, or hop on the metro to catch the Hopper art exhibit or as it was today, go out during lunch to check out the Roe v. Wade demonstrations at the Supreme Court.

I arrived a little bit later after the initial rally and the march, but there were still plenty of people around. A band played some born-again rock, with the refrain of "God save the babies," repeatedly over and over again.

What struck me was the youth at the event. There were plenty of people in their high school age or young college age, and there were remarkably a large number of women. Now, this is the first anti-abortion rally I've ever attended, so I admit I don't know what to expect. But, the stereotype I had in my head was it would be a even split between men and women and older evangelical-type looking people. (Okay, I'm not sure what that means either, but you get the broad point I'm trying to make.)

It was a little bit eerie to see the usually open steps leading up to the doors of the Court to be interspersed with Supreme Court police officers standing and watching the scene below. It wasn't really a demonstration -- it was more of a rally. High school girls gathered behind their "Right to life" picket signs for pictures and people laughed and talked.

Democracy and First Amendment in action. Another Washington day.

MLK III "endorses" Edwards

I got this in an email this morning, and I'm surprised that not more of the media is covering this. Edwards mentioned it last night during the final question. It's basically an endorsement from MLK III, whom Edwards met with prior to the debate.

You can read the letter at

http://www.johnedwards.com/news/headlines/20080121-mlk3/

Some Cool Nomination Tracking Toys

I am enjoying some of the Web toys that allow political junkies such as myself track and predict what's going on with the primary season this year. Here are a few that I've liked so far:

• Los Angeles Times -- Primary Tracker. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/primaries/ These folks have a very pretty sliding scale that allows you to see how "super-duper" Feb. 5 will be. It also allows the user to see the projected importance of states after the Feb. 5 date if there is still no clear winner at that point. (That's the Tsai prediction at this point. We'll be going out past the Feb. 5 date
  

• NPR -- Election 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1102 Similar to the LA Times idea, but just in "flat" form and color coded. (See Tufte for what "flat" means.)
• Washington Post -- Candidate Events. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/tracker/This is for the hardcore folks who really want to know where the candidates are and what they're doing at any given moment. Not for the weak-politicos.
• New York Times -- Election Guide 2008. http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/schedules/pastevents/index.html#candidate99. This site has just too many toys to mention. From an event scheduler to archives of the NH and Iowa results, its replete with data and pretty visualization.

If you have a favorite Web toy, feel free to send it my way.

Identity politics ... under the surface

Charlie Gibson, the moderator of the New Hampshire debates on Saturday commented how historic the Democratic party debates were with the individuals on stage. What he may have been hinting at was the fact that there was a woman, a hispanic, a black man and lastly, a white man on stage. Just a few short decades ago, the entire stage would have been filled with that last demographic. But, there has been little overt mentioning of the diversity that has taken the campaign trail this year; people just barely acknowledge it, like the way people simply stopped talking about the number of black coaches in the NBA after a while. (Admittedly, some people still talk about the appointment of a new black coach, but it certainly doesn't raise as many eyebrows or chatter as it may have once.)

Yet, under the surface, there is excitement about the Democratic debate not only because of the star power of the individuals, but because they just look different. And that of course creates discussion and some political weighing that goes on to take advantage of this.

As an interesting note, Obama's background isn't necessarily even "African-American." His heritage is a mixed one, like so many people's truly are. His mother is from Kansas and his father is Kenyan. So, is he African American, or African-American, mixed, or black, or something else? What has been interesting and appealing is that Obama has not directly addressed this except for maybe a few times in interviews, making himself not the black candidate, but the candidate that happens to be black. Oprah's presence as well as his claims of "historic moments" are below-the-surface tugs at his identity though. Some discomfit has arisen over this tension.

Hillary Clinton on the other hand has had the identity of becoming the first woman president. She effectively pointed that out, as a point of her being an agent of change, by simply being elected. She has only recently started to utilize this in her efforts, crying today at a small roundtable to show her human, and maybe her feminine side?

And where does this leave John Edwards, the white male from the South that does not have any special identity politics to tap in his campaign. It unfortunately creates a subconscious casting of Edwards as not as exciting as the rest of the diverse crowd. Why should this be a liability?

EDIT: My friend Dan sent me this link to Chris Hitchen's article on this topic on Slate.

Why I am supporting John Edwards

I had the opportunity to shake John Edwards’ hand only shortly after I had decided that I wanted to support the man. It was last summer and he had announced his candidacy as Hilary and Obama also had already. I met him after he drove up to a short Q&A at a conference of evangelical Progressives in Washington. He had his wife by his side and he gave a wide grin.

I don’t get star-struck usually, having grown up in Washington and been exposed from my early years on to Congress-people and other political celebrities that happen to walk by or around the nation’s capital. But, there was certainly something pleasant and warm in the few seconds that I got to shake the man’s hand. Compared to the Hilary and Obama groups that had well-orchestrated shouting and placard placement on the narrow street by the Lisner Auditorium in Foggy Bottom, the Edwards supporters were fewer in number. After the arrival of the other candidates, there were nice watching-parties of the Q&A on CNN with food and refreshments purchased by the campaigns. That is all of them except for the Edwards supporters. There was a bit of a badge of pride for the few of us that were there. We were the only ones that got to shake Edwards’ hand and talk to his wife and we didn’t have a fancy reserved room somewhere to rush off to.

This quality of simple respect and to put in the political term of “populist” is among the key reasons that I support Edwards. The other reasons are:

Ø He is the only candidate to have a clearly-defined and outlined agenda. The points of support are: (1) Global Warming (2) Iraq (3) Health Care and (4) Jobs and Poverty.

Ø For each of these agenda items, he has defined clear plans for achieving the goals. His 80-page PDF document is available on his website.

Ø He is the only candidate taking public federal matching funds, therefore subjecting himself to a substantially lower ceiling for raising funds and also subjecting himself to more transparency and accountability for his campaigning funds. He does not take funds from lobbyists or PACs.

Ø His message is one that represents change in not only Washington, but for this country. His agenda once again stresses what this country needs to focus on to move forward.

Edwards has a fight ahead, and the media has been covering him minimally compared to his competitors. If people were able to hear his message, they would certainly be drawn in if not at least influenced in their decisions.

We are choosing the next president here and now; not merely the next Democratic party nominee.

Pictorial representation of our nation's budget

My friend Dan sent me this link: http://thebudgetgraph.com/ . It's pretty neat as a nice condensed view of our nation's budget. It raises the immediate emotional observation however that 67% of the President's budget is going to military, national security spending. I thought it was useful and interesting for the casual political wannabes, but I pointed out to Dan that it was dangerous to completely rely on it in making decisions.

"Graphs and charts don't capture the rationale and policy underlying them all the time," I said. (or more accurately, wrote in an IM).
"How's that?" Dan asked. "James, the whole left side is the military."
"But someone from outerspace, if they looked at this, would say, 'a war-like culture.' And that is true. But why? The entire complicated series of events leading to the current Middle East Conflict is not captured."

I'm certainly not a fan of Middle East Conflict. (I think the acronym Global War on Terror is another successful naming convention of Pres. Bush's like "Clear Sky Initiative" or "Leave No Child Behind" which all reek of good brand-naming in an advertising sense, but fail miserably in practice because of the real underlying policies that are contrary to the surface brandname.") The lengthy and costly conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking up a large part of our resources now, but the policies and decisions in reaching the spending are complicated and not as clear-cut for most average citizens to say it is too much. We're in a mess and it's too hard to get out of it overnight, as seen in the Senate earlier this week with Sen. Webb's resolution.

So, the graph is good, but stories are more complicated than the thousands of words that the picture paints.

Media focus on the Petraeus/Crocker Hearings

It has been an exciting last two days here in Washington, D.C. Political junkies and other Hill people welcomed home two highly anticipated witnesses to sit in the hot seat yesterday and today. Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker returned from from Iraq to discuss the progress (and lack thereof) in Iraq pursuant to Congressional acts passed earlier this year, before authorizing more money for the occupation.

I'll let the news outlets handle most of the analysis, but I had a few comments:

First, I was disappointed by the video coverage on TV and the online news outlets by giving Sen. Obama video space in their coverage over other more salient and informed senators that talked today. The Washington Post for instance in its online article has prominent video links to Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). While there are insightful questions and comments from these two videos, there was a high degree of anticipation of the Senators from Virginia -- Jim Webb(D-Va.) and John Warner (R-Va.), both former Secretaries of the Dept. of Navy and with extensive experience on wartime strategy. The articles and the coverage for them were minimal, considering The Washington Post also claims that it covers local news as well; the piece would have been just as complete to throw in the discussion by these two senators.


Second, I realize that there is a lot of posturng during these hearings. Congresspeople don't actually have to ask questions in a fashion to try to elicit actual answers. Instead they are doing what lawyers do in a courtroom. Good lawyers in theory anyhow. The old adage is that a lawyer should never ask a question that he or she doesn't already know the answer to. So, politicians like their old lawyer-selves resorted to having commentary and asking damaging or helpful questions. This is not a big new insight for the political junkies that watch C-Span all day, but I thought I'd belabor it for those that get disgusted by the overtness of the posturing and not realize that it is really just the way it is done on the Hill.

Last point I want to make is that the complete transcripts are the best source to see what happened during the hearings. The talking heads and all give good summaries and may give an "In Touch" kind of quality to what happened, but the original sources are always the best. Politico.com has done a good job with keeping all the transcripts, slides and openings remarks on this page: Full text: Petraeus and Crocker testimony.

Counter culture

I don't know why this is so amusing to me, but it really is. The baristas at this well-known coffee shop in the DC-area are the quintessential hipsters. I've been studying at Murky Coffee (http://www.murkycoffee.com/) in Arlington, VA every day for my bar review class pretty much, and I'm amused by the antics of these guys, who I've been living through vicariously. They play funky music from TLC to the coffee shop archetypical "alternative" acoustic stuff. They just got into a circle behind the counter to take a shot -- of espresso! Haha. Again, I don't know why I'm so amused, but just another random stream of consciousness post.

We're all friends, right?

I can say definitively (well pretty close) that I will be supporting John Edwards for President for the Presidential Election of 2008. Well, 99.9% anyhow, barring anything that he says or do that will turn me off from him.

I went to George Washington University today to help out with the "photo op" rally, as it's called in the business. Basically, you want to make it look good for the candidate when he rolls up to attend a talk or a debate, making him look loved. I've attended such events before, but this was the first time it was all progressives. Well, mostly progressives anyhow. Other than the usual pro-life ralliers (who as usual had their disturbing pictures of fetuses blown up to huge sizes), we all were progressives and fairly similarly minded. I thought it would be nice and casual between the Hilary and Edwards folks (Obama's supporters were curiously absent.)

It mostly was nice and cordial, except for one unpleasant man who declined to identify himself, though he wore a Media badge for the event. (www.sojo.net). He had a nasty disposition about himself and continued to badger the Edwards supporters with questions of how we could support a man that voted for the war. When asked he would support, he mumbled Dennis Kucinich, which was nice of him, but he was still asinine in his questioning mode. C'mon, yes there's a First Amendment, and I'm almost as bad as Blackmun was in being an absolutist, but there's decency, which is a separate issue that is just expected.

It was nice to shake Edwards hand as well as his wife Elizabeth's. Hilary came by as well as Obama later, but they did not visit the crowd at all, rushing in to get makeup-ed and set for the discussion.

I was not lucky enough to get inside, but watched it across the street in the food court of the Marvin Center, the student union at GW. The funniest (and perhaps saddest for me) moment was when a crowd of Hilary supporters walked by with food, drinks and their rally signs to a private room to watch her talk and party a bit. Sigh, the big budget campaigns...

More later on why I support Edwards. (just for you, Joe.)

Goodbye Free Legal Research

Ugh. You know why Westlaw and Lexis are akin to drug dealers? They get you hooked on to their services during law school -- when you have access to just about anything imaginable, and then they take it away after you graduate. Here are some free resources I've been finding though that may make it easier to get by:

University Law Project (free law review access): http://www.lawreview.org/

Findlaw (cases, statutes): http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/

LII (Cornell's compendium of statutes, codes): http://www.law.cornell.edu/

Thomas (Current Bills, and Federal Registers): http://thomas.loc.gov/

ICRC's Treaties and Customary International Law: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList2/Humanitarian_law:Treaties_and_customary_law?OpenDocument

A New Chapter

Stream of Consciousness: So, I'm done with school now after three years. In a whirlwind of activities and events, I'm suddenly plopped down back where I was three years ago -- my parents' house here in northern Virginia. Things are certainly different now -- my sister's done with college, my older brother's moved back here and my friends and everything else around me are three years older. Some things are not different -- the traffic, the weather and my mother's nurturing and nagging character.

Today was the first day of bar review classes. There was no time wasted at all getting us in and going. It really is true that you can almost forget about everything you learned in law school and just review with the bar class. The books cover everything and though you may seriously want to question the gray areas of the law, like they made you do on law school exams, you end up not doing so, because the tests aren't about that now -- they just want the straight up answers in the common situations.

I'm a little bit worried about finding a job and seeing what happens after this -- is this how some people were after college when they were job-less as well? Not knowing the future and missing school (not the classes, but the idea of it)?

More later...

Day 6: misery of the road (nola to austin)

The day was simply miserable because of the late night before and the long drive from New Orleans to Austin. Also, a large storm came and reduced visibility on I-10 to a few dozen feet. The day was a travel day -- miserable but necessary.

> Stopped at a gas station to get gas. Went inside and noticed the cans of ice cold Natty Lite, presumably for immediate consumption while in the car.
> Drove through Atchafalaya Swamp, the largest swamp in North America. Neat little visitor center to show that off on I-10.
> When I finally got to the Texas border was struck by the 890 mile exit sign. Wow. Huge state.
> Was inundated by storms.
> Took nap outside of Houston. Nice to see HOV lanes again, a sign of congestion, I suppose and theoretically civilization, though again, I am in Texs. (sorry for the gab there, fellows.)
> Arrived in Austin late, and got confused by the road systems. Coming up Texas state road 71, you get a grat city lights view of the city. It's rewarding after 9 hours of driving.
> Met up with Julie and Dan to get food at Trudy's a favorite UT-Austin hangout apparently.
> Checked out the late night E-6th Street South by South West life. Amazing stuff. I can't wait for the real festival during the early evening.
> Slept like a baby.

Day 5: Tuscaloosa to New Orleans

Low-key morning.
After Dan's bbq the previous night, I slept in. I'm not sure if it's my age or just the general tiredness of travelling so much, but I was not inclined to go back out to drink. It's a sign of maturity, I suppose. My graying-hair self.

Dan wanted to check out the shooting range. At this point, I expressed my surprise that he had bought a gun. It's not that I dislike guns, but these destructive weapons put me at ill-ease, especially because they are not toys, though people may think that they are. "I'm from Texas," Dan said jokingly. "Yeah, I guess there are certain cultures that just like their toys," I said. I was thinking specifically of parts of Virginia where I knew that the first day of hunting season resulted in schools closing since most kids took off the day.

So, instead of shooting a gun, we decided to play some racquetball and have a restful gym-day. I'm terrible at the game, but Dan gave me a few pointers that I think will help my game in the future.

Counties to Parishes I left Dan and headed South on I-59. When I hit Louisiana, I noticed the roads changed a bit in quality. According to Dan, when Congress attached a string to its federal highway funds, requiring states to raise their drinking ages to 21 from 18, Louisiana held out as long as it could, and the roads deteriorated. So much for state sovereignty. The power of the purse speaks louder in the end, I guess.

The profuse number of swamps was perhaps the most interesting aspect of the drive down. But at one point, I saw the infamous FEMA trailers that had been purchased but now lay waiting in huge open fields miles from New Orleans.





I got plenty of traffic on I-10 and got into the city late. When I got in, I was surprised at how much the city had changed. There was now traffic and the city seemed more alive. It made me happy to see that the city was recovering. After dropping off my stuff at the hotel, we went out immediately. We did our usual shenanigans in the French Quarter, and Frenchman Street. IT's amazing how there's such good music on a Tuesday night. It was good to hang out with Frank, Emily, Carol and others. The neatest thing of the night was probably the random country-music themed club on Iberville and Bourbon at the end of the night. See the cowboys ride.

Day 4: Tuscaloosa News

The city of Tuscaloosa is perhaps the second or third largest city in all of Alabama. Birmingham is the largest and Montgomery is comparable in size to it as well. Named after an American Indian chief, the city’s name means black warrior, after the custom of the natives of painting themselves with dark soil. The best thing that the city is known for perhaps today is that it is the home of the Crimson Tide, the fighting name of the University of Alabama.

In the morning, once I had recovered from the long drive of yesterday, I decided to explore some of the area, since it had been too dark to appreciate everything the night before. Dan had to work in the morning, so he took off for the office leaving me with the hyperactive Pike. I managed to sneak out of the house and went for a run around the campus up to the river, which incidentally is known as Black Warrior River.

The campus was fairly empty because it also was Spring Break. But, as I jogged around, I was struck by the beauty of the campus and its similarities to the University of Virginia’s design. There were open spaces, plenty of brick and neo-classical style design. The Southern adornment of curved staircases was used prominently throughout the buildings. The jog continued up to the river, where a new River Walk had been built, complete with nice stone benches and a little pier to view and even fish from. Little did I know that the next morning, someone would drive off from the park and into the river, killing himself. That would draw large crowds onto the otherwise empty park that morning.

Dan came home later, and we proceeded to search for acceptable food. I wanted to have some Southern soul food, but Dan was skeptical. Though there were some places that he knew of, he thought it was anachronistic to eat such foods. “It’s all for show,” he said. He explained that people simply didn’t eat the unhealthy and overpriced foods in the town, and it was subject really to tourists. “Everyone’s moved on here.”

He finally gave in though and we went to a tiny little restaurant that was exactly what I wanted and pictured, from my perspective as a tourist. It was a little bit rundown looking over to some train tracks. The inside featured some kind-looking old black women who helped us with picking out our food. I tried “real” Southern sweetened tea for the first time and had a sugar shock almost instantly. The food was hearty though and I couldn’t finish it all. For some reason, during trips my appetite is decreased substantially.

I asked Dan how he was enjoying life in the South. I wondered how a guy from Northern Virginia, who went to high school with me in a county that has the population of one fifth of Alabama was doing. “I think I would have problems living in a place like this. There’s not the same diversity we have in DC,” I said. “Northern Virginia really unique in the world though,” Dan said. He argued that the number of different peoples from all over the world that lived in close quarters to each other on suburban, nicely manicured lawns was something people simply didn’t think about at all. “Right,” I said. “But, it doesn’t stop me from wanting it.”

I explained that I thought that DC was the best city in the world because of that reason partially. It had in addition, a small enough population that it didn’t have the crushing feeling of New York City or London or any megapolis, but had the amenities of fine arts in the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center as well as a raging nightlife.

“You have a bias,” Dan said simply. There was an implication he said in what I had just articulated – that somehow the “high art” was better than the local arts. I answered that that was not what I meant to suggest. I believe in cultural relativism and it particularly applicable to folk art versus higher bourgeouise art. But, I again was articulating my own sentiments. I grew up in such a world and that was what I was accustomed to. I wasn’t being snobby, though it seemed like it. In fact, I thought that anyone who thinks that folk art is better than fine arts, is exercising snobbery just as well in a reverse fashion.

Other things we did that day:

Ø Saw a mental asylum’s pauper grave.

Ø Took a look at the ruins of the original state capitol for Alabama

Ø Visited Dan’s workplace

Ø Got a drink at the local watering hole, the Downtown Pub

Ø Saw another cemetery, one of dozens of Confederate Soldiers in Gainesville, AL.

Ø Had a cookout and met Dan’s neighbors.

Days 2-3: Whitesburg and the Deep South

Partyin' in Whitesburg
After our hike, and a little respite, by running to the laundromat for Ginger and me to the local auto parts store for a new bulb, we finally went to The Party. Jamilia and Joel's house is in the town and it looks to be fairly modern with a nice kitchen as well as a great living room. It was a low-key affair, where people just chatted with one another and ate the food that was offered. Eventually, the birthday boy arrived and he expressed gratitude and eventually killed the pinata that the hosts had decided would be an appropriate and sweet gifts.

Late into the evening, Ginger decided it was time to call on her new Mexican friends. Ginger has this great quality, where she tries to bridge different cultures and groups. She had traveled to South America and had developed an appreciation of the Latin culture. When migrant workers came to Whitesburg looking for jobs, she reached out and befriended some, whom she invited to the party that night.

It was interesting to see the mix of people at the house, particularly the interactions between the different groups. This was an eclectic group that was by no means the typical group, but they certainly were influencing life in Appalachia.

Other things:
> after partying for a while, left the next morning and drove through Southwest Virginia on the way to Alabama.
> saw two confederate flags on the front lawns on US-23.
> Chatanooga's a big city. Never thought it would be.
> Checked out Birmingham's Five Points for dinner before arriving in Tuscaloosa.

Day 2: Whitesburg fun

Brunch and town divisions
The next morning, after a nice conversation with Ginger about life in Whitesburg, we got up to experience more of the town. Ginger asked, “Where do you want to eat this morning?” Normally this would probably be a complicated question when we were home in D.C. or Northern Virginia. But the options were extremely limited in Whitesburg, making the decision making easier, though still with a level of difficulty. The options in town for breakfast really are just the Pine Mountain Grill or to cook at home. Ginger insisted on checking out the Grill, which has remarkably cheap food that’s of pretty decent quality. Bethany wanted to wash her hair, so she stayed behind.


On the ride out, Ginger explained that the town of Whitesburg, like much of Appalachia is built along the creeks, in what are called “hollows.” The land is so mountainous and hilly, the flat lands along the banks of the creek are the places that are readily habitable. I thought about my drives through Appalachia, particularly down 119 the day before. The towns were all below the interstates as you drove by with incredible vistas. It made sense now that the towns were in these “hollow” areas that were basically carved out by the creeks and rivers.

Pine Mountain is the landmark mountain in town. The restaurant owner took the name of the town to create the successful business operation. Mr. Childers (though pronounced Childress by the natives apparently) is a wealthy oil and coal baron in the town. Some tensions have risen over the lack of any giving the potential beneficiary may have given but has not.
“Wow. That story sounds just like a typical small-town transformation story: big time baron controls the local economy but is a grouch and tensions arise,” I said to Ginger. “Um, yeah,” she replied with a shrug. “It’s just like It’s a Wonderful Life!” I said trying to get some sort of reaction. “Oh yeah. Isn’t that the movie with Jimmy . . . Jimmy something? Ginger’s swiss cheese knowledge of popular culture always surprised me. How is it that someone born in this country not know such a movie classic. After I elaborated on Mr. Potter versus the small town of Bedford Falls, we moved on to other topics of interest in Whitesburg.

Like any society or culture, divisions exist between groups of people. Coal miner verus the non-coal miners. The multi-generational Whitesburg people that were so proud of their history and culture versus the transplants in the form of first generation immigrants who were doctors on special visas to the United States to study, requiring them to work in the countryside upon completion of their degrees. These divisions exist in a tiny town of five thousand people. I wonder if everyone really knows everyone’s business.


Appalshop and the town, and a prisoner’s dilemma
After brunch, we went to the Food City, which I am discovering very quickly is the big southern food market chain. I saw them all the way from southern Ohio to Tennessee. There we ran into more of Ginger’s Appalshop friends. “Are you going to Jamila and Joel’s party tonight?” Ginger asked. Everyone we would run into that day that Ginger knew seemed to be aware of this party. It seemed like this was going to be a large bash with most of the town showing up. “Who isn’t coming to this party tonight?” I asked Ginger later as we were putting the spring water we had bought into the car. (Apparently the water has soft metals in it, causing anyone who has long term consumption of it to become sick, or so it is said. So, bottled water is the way to go.) “Um, I think pretty much everyone will be there. It’s really Sean’s surprise birthday party.” Sean was an Appalshop god-figure that had left a while back, but was still revered by the crew.

We went home and dropped off the groceries and grabbed Bethany. We walked over to the office and also checked out a fundraiser yard sale in the new building that will house the radio department of Appalshop. Bethany’s project is to direct the renovation of the building, which has received state and federal grant monies. At this point, I asked to clarify a bit more of what Appalshop is. The organization is one that attracts a wide variety of artists in the documentary film, radio, youth initiatives groups. The mission statement seems to be sprawling, trying to preserve the Appalachian culture while also serving the community. The radio station is one part of the mission and Ginger has a show – World Beat, Monday evenings.
Later in a tour of her office, she showed me the pile of letters she had been receiving from her various fans – all inmates from neighboring state and federal prisons. I expressed my surprise at the nature of these letters, but the explanation made sense. Ginger’s lead in show is “From the Holler to the Hood,” done by Jamila (who’s bigtime party we would be going to that night) which was a show that tried to act as a connection between the inmates and their families, who mostly live too far away to visit. Ginger’s show, which started just a few months ago plays international music including Latin music, which for some of the inmates is the only way they can listen to such music. Word spread quickly among the inmates when Ginger started playing her music and they flood her weekly with requests for songs from their hometowns.

I looked at the large pile of sheets and offered to sort them and read through them to better understand them all. After hole punching dozens of letters and reading and putting them into a binder, a strange and darkly humorous story emerged: lonely prisoners that had plenty of time on their hands were writing to Ginger. Some were simple – just requests and others sought romantic involvement with the DJ. I thought it was touching, her willingness to try to give some break from the lonliness, but she acknowledged that many of these people had done horrible things. It was a struggle that she had with herself. I held up a letter with a fancy ink-drawn picture with both Ginger and the inmate’s name. Ginger commented without any emotion that she often received art work from her listeners.


I finished Ginger’s binder and then we decided to walk up the mountain behind Appalshop to the communication tower. Along the way, Husky, as I named him appeared out of nowhere and decided to follow us up the trail. I was surprised at the company, and at first was worried that Husky would get lost if he went too far from his home. “You don’t have neighborhood dogs where you grew up?” Ginger asked. Apparently, leash laws are not in existence in rural Virginia, which seems to make sense.
We were unable to finish the climb, because Ginger was worried about the time as well as her being out of shape. Even living in slower-pace life of Appalachia, Ginger stays busy.

Day 1: Selected Pics

On the Road! Notice the lack of snow on the ground.
So, that's where the Hatfields and McCoys are from. There's what looks to be a nice trail in nearby West Virginia.
Random picture.

The friends.

Day 1: Coal Country and Preceptions

So, I couldn't stick to my schedule. I had planned on turning in my appellate brief for class early and leave straight from my internship with the FTC in downtown Cleveland Thursday, but I got caught up with the brief and ended up getting only a few hours of sleep the night before my big drive down. So, erring on the safe side, I decided to take the full time to edit the brief and also drink with Joe before sleeping many hours.

This morning, I woke up later than my nine o'clock time and rushed to shower, eat and pack before I headed out the door to turn in some overdue footnotes for Journal. Believe me, it's hard to think about footnote verification right before a long trip like this. Anyhow, getting out of Cleveland had a great and cathartic feeling for myself; the cold weather and the anxiety of finding a job and law school lifted from me as the temperatures also rose as I drove south on I-77.

The drive was mostly pleasant, except for a hitch in the middle (I'll describe that later). The geography of Ohio changes quite noticeably as you get out past Akron to Canton. (I also discovered how close by the National Pro Football Hall of Fame is. I'll have to make a visit at some point.) No longer is the land just flat after a certain point; it becomes rolling hills that is reminiscent of Charlottesville, VA for myself. As I drove farther down, I was impressed by the carving up of the mountains that I saw. The block-like marks in the mountains made it seem like they were constructed rom Lego pieces and the striations on them looked like they wept.

Eventually and finally I arrived in Charleston, WV. For a capital, I thought it would be much bigger, but the skyline only had a few "tall" buildings -- mostly bank buildings. The sun was approaching its setting point behind the mountains, and the city looked almost rustic, in that special mountain way as I drove through. Though it was rush hour at 5:00 pm on a Friday, there was no traffic at all as I zoomed through.

At this point, I called both Debi and Ginger. Debi was coming from Lebanon, VA, about 70 miles from Whitesburg to visit me. Ginger, my friend from college is working at Appalshop in Whitesburg. Read more about Appalshop here: http://www.appalshop.org/ . I told them that I would see them soon, but in my discussion with them on the phone, I must have missed the turn for South, Route 119. I had the impression, talking with Ginger that the road was supposed to be twisty and windy, but I was surprised at the one-lane nature of the road as well as the tight switchbacks I had to go through. Finally, after going 20 mph for a while, I was not in Pike County anymore and I had not arrived in Pikesville, which I thought was a large town. Turning around at the Floyd County line, I turned towards what seemed the closest thing to civilization. It turned out it was a coal mine. I tried to find a map that could help me locate where I was, but could not in the dark. I looked up in my wranglings to see a pair of headlights on a pickup truck come toward me. The truck slowed down and pulled up to me.

At this point, I was uncertain what to do. My instinct told me that I was in Appalachia and it was probably unwise to lower my window and talk to a total stranger. But two thoughts tugged at me: one emotional and the other rational. The first was that I was getting worried that I was lost and had no cell phone coverage. The second was that I shouldn't assume that a coal miner would take negatively to me, because I was an out of town minority. So, I rolled down my window and politely asked how to get to South 119. The gentleman was in this fifties and he looked at me kindly and said that I just needed to go the way I had come from; I would hit the intersection quickly enough. I thanked him profusely and got back on track. When I had cell phone reception eventually again, I told Ginger about the coal miner. "Was he mean to you?" I was surprised. "Um, was he supposed to be, or should he have?" I asked. "No, just get out of there!"

Later when I finally arrived in Whitesburg to have a late dinner at the new Mexican restaurant (there are only three restaurants in town) she explained that coal miners were unfriendly to people that they were suspicious. It made sense, I guess -- I could appear to be some lawyer snooping around the coal mine looking for work.

I'll write some more tomorrow about the town, since I'm tired now. Got to see Debi and catch up with Ginger as well as meet her housemate...

Spring Break 2007

It's my last Spring Break, or I think it is anyhow. In the next 11 days, I'll be road-tripping through the Deep South and into Texas, two places of this great country that I have not experienced yet. I'm excited to take the time and visit my friends from home and college in their new homes in Kentucky, Alabama and Texas. I'll also see fellow law students in New Orleans and Atlanta.

Come here periodically to check my progress and some pictures. My full itinerary is available pasted here:

Spring Break 2007 Itinerary

Thursday; March 8, 2007 –

2:00 pm; DEPART: Cleveland, OH.

9:00 pm; ARRIVE: Whitesburg, KY to visit Ginger and to learn how to barn dance.

410 miles

Stay in KY for 3 nights.

Sunday; March 11, 2007 –

11 am; DEPART: Whitesburg, KY

7:30 pm; ARRIVE: Tuscaloosa, AL to visit Dan and tour the true Deep South.

901 miles

Stay in AL for 2 nights

Tuesday; March 13, 2007 –

12 pm; DEPART: Tuscaloosa, AL

4:40 pm; ARRIVE: New Orleans, LA to visit the Case Law ACLU Spring Break trip.

1192 miles

Stay in LA for 1 night

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 --

11 am; DEPART: New Orleans, LA

8:00 pm; ARRIVE: Austin, TX for awesomeness with Julie, Megan, and the crew from Case.

1702 miles

Stay in Austin for 3-4 nights

Friday, March 16, 2007 --

4:00 am; DEPART Austin, TX

6:30 am; ARRIVE Houston, TX

7:15 am FLIGHT CO520: IAH à ATL

10:30 am ARRIVE, ATL, GA

1:15 pm ARRIVE: Albany, GA for a talk with a judge.

AFTERNOON: visit Chris C. Chan in Atlanta, GA

8:55 pm FLIGHT: CO3395: ATL à IAH

10:20 pm ARRIVE Houston, TX

Sunday, March 18, 2007 --

11:00 am, DEPART Austin, TX

11:00 pm, ARRIVE Nashville, TN

2560 miles

Monday, March 19, 2007

9:00 am, DEPART Nashville, TN

5:00 pm, ARRIVE Cleveland, OH

3084 miles

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11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19

Seeing Alito: the other story on the confirmation hearings

Though by Alito may have already been subject to his up or down vote by the time this story gets read, the tale of the behind the scenes things that only the political junkies care about still prevails. This is the fix for us DC-junkies that snatch up commentary from Nina Totenburg about the commerce clause, or listen to Tim Russert’s wailings with not-feigned interest.

It was an overcast day in Washington. It threatened rain all day, but the clouds seemed to vacillate on deciding what to do. It was also the third day in the Alito confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. Since I was home for the break and had nothing better to do, I decided to witness history in the making.

I had planned on hearing oral arguments at the neighboring Supreme Court that day anyhow, on my power tour of DC, but after a late start and delays on the metro, I missed the chance to see Justice O’Connor in the last of her days at court. So why not check on the potential replacement for her?

The Capitol Hill complex of buildings is actually quite massive; it’s a sprawling city of its own with its own underground tunnels, trains, not to mention its own closed road system. The hearings themselves were being held in the Hart building, which is the farthest from the Capitol itself, within sight of Union Station. The newest of the Congressional buildings, it has a polished look to it. Though architecturally blockish like many of its neighbors, the inside features a towering metal sculpture that reaches towards the top of the atrium. Room SH-216 was where the hearings have been held, but I first needed to get a ticket to get into the hearing.

At 2:30, I approached the white ticket distribution tent, which I affectionately (and creatively) named the Little White Tent. I walked up and asked the Congressional aide for a ticket. “The earliest I have for right now is 5:00,” he said. I had misjudged the interest in this; there were other political-junkies that had beat me to the punch today. I acquiesced in a tired way and shuffled off to do a walking tour of places in DC I hadn’t frequented yet.

There was the Library of Congress, which is actually spread out over three buildings. The Jefferson building, which is named after the donor of the first set of books that started the Library has a series of exhibits on Americana as well as a large giftshop, a truly American touch.

There also was the newest addition to the mall in the Smithsonian museums repertoire: the Museum of the American Indian. It’s a glorious form of architecture, complete with earth tone walls, fountains that add that great background sound as you walk by and a prism in the atrium that casts a lovely rainbow on the floor as you walk in; on this day, the constipated clouds above did not afford such a greeting on the floor.

After regaling in these lovely attractions, I came back to the Little White Tent. I stood behind an African-American woman and her children and someone who I later found out was her boyfriend. “So you for or against Alito?” she asked me, looking me straight in the eyes as I sidled up behind her. I admit I was a bit taken back by the directness of her question. Most people at least say hi, or comment on the weather before going straight to politics, even in DC.

I said that I wasn’t quite sure yet, but based on what I knew I didn’t think I would support him.

“Good. I don’t either. I’ve had some run-ins with him as well as some of my friends.” I nodded and before I could ponder or even ask what the nature of such run-ins were, she continued on.

“I’m down here with my family today. We’ve been handing out flyers all day and I’m glad we’ve finally had the chance to go and watch the hearing.” I mumbled something encouraging, asking why she didn’t like Judge Alito. Ms. Philadelphia, as I will call her, went on to describe three unpublished opinions. One regarding pro hac vice rules for appearing in court, another regarding pensions, and another she was not able to tell me about, as we were moved towards the Hart building.

Ms. Philadelphia proudly pointed at her children, saying it was important for them to see such an important part of our system at work. Her boyfriend made no comments as we moved up the steps and into the building. I thanked Ms. Philadelphia and went through the security checkpoint. I wanted to talk to her more. Ask her why she was so vehemently opposed to this man. Ask her about her life and what her dreams was. Though she had majored in education, why did she think that the only way to change society was by going to law school?

But, we got separated at the line and sat in different parts of the hearing room.

The room is impressive when you first walk in. CSPAN does it no justice at all. The entire wall behind the senators is made of marble, with the Senate seal displayed prominently high up. A block is missing from the wall though to make room for a camera that can fix upon the testifying parties and the audience. But beyond the fixtures of the room, there is most noticeably a buzz. It’s the media which outnumber the casual audience and the Senate aides even who are trying to talk to the senators or each other.

And there’s definitely the whispered conversations that people notice. What is Sen. Leahy saying to Sen. Specter and actually chuckling about? How are the two otherwise-rivals actually finding something funny to talk about?

We were lucky in walking in during a recess. So, it was a chance to get our bearings and look around and see the casual things like Sen. Kennedy blow his nose or the cameramen play with different shots. They have two large screen televisions in the room also, broadcasting CSPAN live with the closed caption on. I didn’t understand the reason until the hearings resumed later: the microphones are simply too soft. Though we could hear mostly what was said, the shuffling and moving about in the cavernous room caused some swiveling of the heads to the CSPAN screens, which blessedly were running a few seconds behind in their close caption production.

Us people in the back strained to see Alito, but we could at most times only see the back of his balding head. He courteously turned his body to face the senator that was addressing him as he was being asked questions though and spoke confidently as he was grilled about executive powers, the establishment clause and even a note he wrote in law school. If this tells you anything, it’s the high scrutiny that these nominees must endure on minutiae of their life that others would have normally dismissed or forgotten.

After about forty-five minutes, it was over. Various senators had been slipping out as the day grew longer. Most disappointingly, the Democratic half of the hearing table was empty; Sen. Feinstein had a doctors appointment apparently, and the other senators were not accounted for. The Republican side had most present to the very end.

I walked out of the room and back into the cool and now dark streets of Washington. Ms. Philadelphia trounced off with her entourage in tow, perhaps ready to do more flyering or ready to get back to Philadelphia. Though exciting to have been in the presence of such a talked-about event, I felt somewhat let down. I’m not saying I expected Alito or Sen. Specter to have come over to me and ask me about Youngstown, but I thought I would have gained some great insight into the political system.

And as I watched Ms. Philadelphia turn the corner ahead of me, I did have something come to mind. How could these people who believe so strongly about something spend the day in the rain and still walk away feeling like they had done something? The Republican confirmation is coming like a freight train, and barring something substantial to change things it will happen, and even Ms. Philadelphia feels that; but it was her opportunity to say something and most importantly show her children that she could that was special.

A few drops of rain started to fall; finally the heavens had decided what was going to happen; I was going to get drenched.

Independence Air to close down Fri, Jan 5 2006

I'm a big fan of Independence Air -- the low budget airline that opened 18 months ago -- that s based out of IAD (Dulles, Washington DC). It provided direct flights cheaply to a lot of places that I know people appreciated that normally didn't get too much press, like WV, CT and more.

The state of the airline industry continues to flounder; the same protections that existed for the railroads throughout the late 19th to early 20th century in the form of subsidies, tort reforms and liability protections, are being currently debated or are already even implemented. Unfortunately for the small budding I-Air, it's too late.

For more information, see: http://www.flyi.com/

Goodbye Independence Air!

Thoughts

This is my blog, where I will post my thoughts (if I have anything of interest that is). See my webpage at http://jtsai.freeshell.org . Feel free to also use this as a guestbook, forum for discussion.