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Contributing RP Jeff Smith researches the amazing but untapped (and capitalist) potential in prisons in his audition for the TED speaking program. If you are unfamiliar with TED, click here. They select a winner based on reader feedback, so PLEASE go here and vote!
An exhilarating roller coaster ride encompassing 40 hours of mind-thumping boredom. A liberal former politician succeeding by playing with an über-conservative game plan. A victory of steadfast patience, the absence of which has been my defining character flaw. The long distance coaching of one of my better friends, whom I’ve only met twice in person. A game legendary for its macho bravado that’s dominated by pasty-faced math geeks. And the most striking contrast of all: I’ve lived a life of painstaking diligence — some might say monomaniacal zeal — toward building a career centered around moral values; and one of my life’s highlights — indeed one of its most truly spiritual moments — came playing a card game that I’d hardly practiced and that’s banned in my home state because of its purportedly immoral implications. ===
Months earlier, when we learned the schedule of my youngest daughter‘s summer in Israel program, my wife, who had a trip planned already to Mexico, suggested that after I dropped Abby off at JFK airport, I should make it a long weekend playing poker in Vegas. She knew how much I loved no limit Texas hold ’em — a game that both rewarded my high school math skills and stoked my innate competitive fires — and that I so rarely got chance to play since online poker was made illegal. Read the rest of…
Even assuming that at least some of the conservative sentiment is the desire to find comfort in defeat, and that some liberals are engaging in the intellectual version of being graceful winners, there is some core of truth here: upholding the mandate on commerce clause grounds would have linked the power to regulate a market with the power to compel participation in it. Justice Ginsburg’s concession that the power’s only limitation is practicality and political modesty is much less dangerous in a concurrence than a majority opinion.
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Out of the field of 4260 in the World Series of Poker’s $1000 no limit hold’em tournament, there were 95 of us left. And I was the shortest stack of all. Only 16,000 chips. And the big blind was coming to me the next hand — that meant I’d have to post 6000 chips from my dwindling stack. I was toast. Despite my imminent elimination, despite the extraordinary fatigue of the late/early hour and having spent over 20 mind-numbing hours watching grown men (and a few women) play cards, I was beaming. Not only was I checking off my longtime bucket list moment of playing in the World Series of Poker; not only had I fulfilled the goal I set of playing to Day 2; not only had I passed my revised goal of making a little money; not only had I cracked the top 100 players left; I felt the unique zen of playing a perfect game — for me, of course — I had not make a single stupid decision; I hadn’t lost my cool and gone on “tilt”; I hadn’t lost my attention and failed to assess the circumstances correctly; I had done my best. And now, as the Poker Gods had demanded, it was time to go home. I looked down at my two cards and smiled. A Jack and a five. Known among in poker parlance as “Jackson Five,” it’s a pretty lousy starting hand. 99% of the time, I would have folded. But I had no choice — if I folded now, I’d have such a small stack that I’d be leaving soon anyway. I went all-in. The player on the button called. He turned over an eight and a four. Read the rest of… Today, at 1 PM PDT (4 PM EDT), Day 2 of the World Series of Poker $1000 non-limit Texas hold-em tourney begins, with the RP holding onto to 27,925 chips, placing him in 151st place among the 726 players still remaining from an original field of 4,620. With a total prize pool of $1,566,000, the winner would receive more than $654,000. The RP’s immediate goal — being among the 468 survivors who win a cash prize. We should know that by Midnight PDT tonight. The final table will take place on Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned to these pages, and if you are really a poker geek, you can head to this link to follow all of the action, including chip counts and commentary. Good luck RP!  I hadn’t received my No Labels hat yet, so I was representing my two favorite basketball teams: Tel Aviv Maccabeans (shirt), and some semi-professional unit in the upper South (hat)  I’ve always dreamed of standing out in a crowd. Little known fact: The Lady Gaga song, “Poker Face” is NOT about me. The Carly Simon song, “You’re so Vain” is, however. At least I probably think so. Check out Friend of RP Greg Coker’s new video on employee engagement:
I’ll offer two quick cautionary notes, though, on the politics,and on the arguably more significant trend signified by the outcome. First, a rebuttal to Democratic wishfulness that healthcare is now a politica lwinner for Barack Obama: the better evidence is that it will be a media inflated victory that is worth no votes. Just as Democrats miscalculated in 2010 by assuming that the passage of the healthcare law would prove that they could get things done, they are probably drawing th ewrong lesson today if they assume the Court’s rescue of a deeply unpopular law somehow validates the Obama term.
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Appetizer: It was actually around 2:00 PM Wednesday that I first stopped by the Court to see if the mayhem had begun. No protestors, no supporters, no media in sight…and there were only 3 people in line at that point. It was less electric than an LA Clippers game in the 90’s and 00’s. The third woman in line was kind enough to inform me that the Court reserves about 60 spots for the general public on oral argument and opinion days. While she wouldn’t hold a place for me, she gave me her phone number and suggested I call her later in the evening to gauge the crowd. Sure enough, when I called her at 11:30 PM, she let me know the line had grown to roughly 40. So, in khakis and a button-down, with only a half-full bottle of water, I took a cab to the Court and got in line. If you didn’t recognize the building behind us, you could easily have mistaken the group for college freshmen on move-in day. The average age was 25 or 26 at most. They brought foam egg crates and yoga mats to sleep on, blankets and sleeping bags to sleep under. Some wore sandals and shorts, others wore suits and suspenders. Justice truly knows no dress code. There were over-eager undergraduates and case-citing law students, with some Masters in Public Health candidates sprinkled in. And even though all sides of the aisle were represented and the Capitol Building shone illuminated across the street, there wasn’t one political argument all night. Main Course: By the time 5:00 AM rolled around, I learned that a lone Crystal Geyser water bottle does not make for a good pillow. People were stirring and the media circus was arriving. While the mood was still surprisingly relaxed at that time, 8:00 AM was another story. The Court security lined us up single-file and handed out a numbered gold card to each person. I got #36, and could breathe a quick sigh of relief that I’d make it into the courtroom. The guards moved us along 10 at a time, left, right, left, right. Walking up the first few stairs and heading to the side of the Court, I got a different feeling than I do when I enter the Capitol or White House. For me, at least, I didn’t feel the same sense of patriotism, but more of a feeling of permeating purpose. Finally moving toward and into the Court reminded me how monumental a moment this could be in the course of defining the parameters of American government, determining the next President, and shaping the political conversation for years to come. And when you pass CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin in the hall of the Supreme Court, you know there’s no better place to be if law and policy is your bag. As we lined up once again and prepare to head upstairs, a rosy Michelle Bachmann appeared out of nowhere to join the front of the line. She hadn’t looked that cheerful since she won the Ames straw poll last August. Eventually, after we make our way upstairs and check cell-phones and bags in a locker room, I am led to a seat directly behind Bachmann. She’s not the only congressional Republican on hand: Reps. Tom Price and Catch McMorris-Rogers are a few rows ahead. Senators Hatch and Barrasso found good seats in the middle, too. Paul Clement, attorney for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, was already seated in the back section when Donald Verrilli and others from the Solicitor General’s Office arrived to take their seats only a few rows from the bench. Read the rest of…
The first provisions include barring insurers from discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions, allowing parents to opt to keep their own children covered on their plans until they turn 26, and fixing the Medicare reimbursement gap (the “doughnut hole”) that costs seniors several hundred dollars each year. Will the GOP fight to continue medical discrimination against children? Will they kill legislation to reimburse seniors? Will they stop parents from keeping their children covered until age 26? The law has also required states to create high-risk pools that cover individuals denied private insurance due to pre-existing conditions. Will they now ask the adult with multiple sclerosis to give up that coverage?
The GOP laments the effects of Obamacare (modeled after RomneyCare) on the economy, especially small business. But the only small businesses impacted by healthcare legislation are those that employ over 50 people. About 96% of all small businesses do not employ over 50 people, and so will not be effected. As for those that do employ over 50 people, most of them already provide healthcare. They will now be getting tax credits to make their coverage of employees far more affordable. Will they take these small business tax credits away? So in the coming days, I look forward to hearing from GOP leadership, specifically, whose health care will you be killing?
I’m #42 in line to get in and hear the opinions read in the morning — as you know, the healthcare decisions are expected. First 60 are reserved for public…so I lucked out. But, I am so ill-prepared. One water bottle, and the same button down and khakis I wore since Tuesday morning and through a red-eye flight. Everyone has sleeping bags and pillows, foam egg crates and blankets. And 95% of us are under 25 years old! |
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