HorsesAss.Org

There were several votes in Olympia last week that clearly illustrate the philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans on election reform: Democrats are focused on fixing the problems we know exist, whereas Republicans are focused on fixing the problems they fear might exist.

I’m not going into the details of what the various bills do, except to say that they standardize and streamline registration, elections, and canvassing procedures statewide, while enabling the secretary of state to better screen for felons and non-citizens. What interests me are the most contentious points of disagreement between the two parties.

Republicans are angry that a voter registration and record-keeping bill did not include two provisions they consider the heart of their election reform proposals: 1) require picture ID at the polling place, and 2) completely purge the current rolls, forcing all voters to re-register. Meanwhile, Democrats are struggling to get a bill through the Senate that would move the September primary date back three weeks, to August.

The primary date proposal was the number one priority for Secretary of State Sam Reed, as well as every county auditor to whom I have talked. All of the Republican bluff and bluster over military ballots during the early days of the contest (Rossi has since quietly dropped the issue from his lawsuit) will prove to be just that, unless they get on board and support the only reform that assures these ballots are mailed on time. Moving the date is also the only way to avoid the catastrophic electoral meltdown that will occur in the inevitable event of a razor thin primary contest.

Ironically, while Republicans block the one reform elections experts say we need most desperately, they stubbornly cling to the one reform the experts say would be most counterproductive: purging the rolls. Forcing 3.5 million voters to suddenly re-register would be a logistical nightmare that our state and local elections departments simply don’t have the resources to handle; if you want to introduce errors and illegal voters into the system, this is exactly the way to do it.

Likewise, requiring a picture ID to vote, places an unreasonable burden on the six percent of voters without a drivers license or passport — predominately seniors and the very poor — adding little upfront security in return. The Democratic measure does require identification at the polls, but allows a utility bill or voter registration card to suffice. Last time I checked, it was a helluva lot easier to get a fake ID in your name than an account with a local utility.

But such arguments miss the point, for the most outrageous part about the Republicans’ feigned outrage that the Democratic measures don’t go far enough to stop the illegal voter problem, is that they have presented absolutely no evidence that we have an illegal voter problem in the first place. With all the time, money and effort that Republicans have put into uncovering illegal votes in the 2004 election, the only substantial numbers found were that of felons who have not had their voting rights restored… and this problem would be largely solved without further legislation, once the statewide voter database (two years in the making) goes live in 2006.

The first-ever computerized state voter database will replace 39 separate county lists, some meticulously kept on file cards.

Once it comes on line in January, it will enable election officials to make sure that felons, dead people and non-citizens aren’t allowed to vote and that people aren’t registered in more than one locale or voting more than once per election.

Secretary of State Sam Reed and state and local election officials are optimistic that the move will purge and protect the voting lists and guard against illegal votes.

By merging voter registration and drivers license data with felons lists and data on deaths from Social Security and the Department of Health, this database would have eliminated nearly every illegal voter uncovered thus far. The Secretary of State is also trying to get access to federal databases on non-citizens… both legal and illegal aliens.

But even in this last election, the number of illegally registered voters was statistically tiny… the SOS estimates maybe 2,000 out of 3.5 million registered voters… about 0.05 percent. And the vast majority of these were the felons the database will be most capable of purging.

Republican rhetoric about polling-place vote fraud is not only unsupported by the evidence, it is implausible. A picture ID at the polls is intended to stop an individual from casting a ballot under another voter’s name — a crime for which there was not a single allegation from the last election — and which in any case, would be a logistically impossible means for individuals to skew a typical election.

That Republicans would focus on imagined problems while ignoring the known ones, suggests an unfortunate willingness to continue to politicize what should be a bipartisan issue. Clearly, purging the rolls is intended to wipe out years of Democratic voter registration efforts, while a picture ID requirement would mostly inhibit voting by the very poor and the very old… a predominately Democratic constituency.

But of course the Republican’s main motivation for harping on voter fraud, is that it fits so neatly with their ongoing PR campaign, painting Gov. Christine Gregoire as the illegitimate beneficiary of a stolen election. To view the Republican focus on fixing non-existent problems in any other light, would be naive.

UPDATE:
Actually, the state Democrats do a pretty good job of explaining their stance on election reform.

I didn’t really feel like doing much blogging today, so I started scanning Daily Kos, looking for a quick link to fill some space. It didn’t take me very long: UPDATE: It’s the Jews.”

That’s how close we are.

Watching Frist join the “religious persecution” bandwagon brings to mind the Nazis.

I’m sorry if some of you may think I’m overstating the case. But I see it all to clearly…

Hollywood is evil.

Hollywood? That’s the Jews.

The liberal media is evil.

The liberal media? That’s the Jews.

Folks, we are at a critical turning point in our nation’s history. Make no mistake about it.

Oh, I wish I could just leave it that, and spend the day tending my much neglected garden. But recent events have left me with a head full of dark thoughts, just aching to spill out through my fingertips and onto the screen. Yes, it would be counterproductive hyperbole to call the Republican leadership and their Dominionist backers “Nazis”… and I’m not sure if our nation is quite at the critical turning point that DKos diarist Bob Johnson fears.

But clearly, something is happening in America, reminiscent of the early days of McCarthyism, and we would be foolish to shy away from discussing it for fear of appearing alarmist or paranoid. Something is happening in America, that has given a strange confidence to mainstream politicians to publicly ape the hateful and divisive rhetoric of right-wing Christian extremism. Something is happening in America, where emboldened by Bush’s reelection, and inflamed by the Schiavo case, the Dominionist forces are suddenly willing to openly flex their theocratic ambitions.

It is thus ironic that respectable pundits and editorialists so cautiously and carefully avoid the use of the word “fascism” at the same time the ascendant political elite so callously embraces its tenets.

Still, I take issue with Johnson on one point: it is not the Jews, per se, for the antisemitism has always been there, lurking just beneath the surface. Antisemitism is not an end in itself, but rather the canary in the coal mine of political discourse… an early warning system that tells us that something is happening in America.

When Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist steps to the national pulpit and declares that Democrats are “against people of faith,” he gives aide, comfort, and political legitimacy to religious extremists who preach that people like me are less moral, less human, less worthy in the eyes of God than they. These are people with a devout, unshakeable faith that I am going to Hell (a subject I’ve also touched upon here, here, and here.) These are people who believe that their political opponents are doomed to burn in the eternal flames of Hell… so is it really so alarmist to wonder what stops them from preheating the oven here, in the Kingdom of God on earth?

Yes, something is happening in America, where even my non-Jewish friends nervously joke about their “exit strategy”… imagining what nation they might seek refuge in, should the worst case scenario occur at home. And that worst case scenario is not nearly as far-fetched as we might want to imagine.

A few months back, a former high-level Clinton administration official told me that it was the consensus of analysts he respected — people with higher security clearance than his — that some time over the next five to ten years, there is a fifty-fifty chance that a small nuclear device will be set off in a major American city. In its wake, he suggests that in exchange for a promise of increased security, the American people will be more than willing to surrender their civil liberties. And who can argue that the current administration wouldn’t be more than willing to take them?

Something is happening in America that sets the stage for something much worse… and now is the time to discuss it. Just like we should have imagined terrorists flying jetliners full of fuel and people into buildings, we must imagine an extreme right-wing — un-American and anti-Constitutional — seizing the reigns of government, imposing their theocratic dictatorship, and silencing the opposition through whatever means.

I’m not saying it is imminent. I’m not saying it is likely. But if the genocidal history of the 20th Century teaches us anything… it is possible.

No… really…

VOA says the move could save at least $300,000 in salaries and benefits each year.

I’m not really a chain-letter type of guy, but since Carla asked so nicely, I suppose I’ll take part in that Book Meme thing that’s been going around. I hope she’s not too disappointed with my answers.

You are stuck inside “Fahrenheit 451.” Which book would you be?

For very pragmatic reasons I think I’ll have to choose Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. There is a lyrical quality to the prose that should make it easier to memorize (though all those weird Indian names might pose a problem,) and… it’s mercifully short. While Steppenwolf may be the Hesse classic more appropriate to our times, if I’m going to have one book stuck inside my head for the rest of my life, I don’t want anything that’s going to drive me nuts, and the couple times I’ve read Siddhartha, I found the experience rather peaceful.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Every woman I have ever had a crush on was fictional, in the sense that we always imbue the objects of our desire with our own romanticized ideal of “true love.” Is that not the nature of infatuation?

What is the last book you bought?

Um… I’m more of a library person. I just reserved a copy of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America… does that count? Other than that, I think, maybe, my last personal purchase may have been a paperback of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

What are you currently reading?

I’m guessing “these words as I type them” wouldn’t be an original answer, huh?

I’m finally reading Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities as part of my futile, life-long quest to eventually read all of the books I didn’t read in school when I was supposed to. To that end, I also occasionally pick up a copy of Hannah Arendt’s Totalitarianism, but I keep forgetting which parts I’ve read and which parts I haven’t, so I’ll never finish.

Other recent books have been Gary Hart’s The Fourth Power, and Darwin’s Cathedral by David Sloan Wilson. Oh… and as a joint venture, my daughter and I are currently enjoying Lemony Snicket’s The Miserable Mill.

Other than that, it’s the usual array of way-too-many online blogs, newspapers and magazines.

Five books you would take to a deserted island.

Assuming this is a long term, Castaway-like situation, I’m going to cheat and take along some anthologies: The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll, Plato’s Socratic Dialogues (not illustrated,) The Complete Prose of Woody Allen… and to really pass the time, Will & Ariel Durant’s eleven-volume The Story of Civilization.

Finally, while great literature may feed the soul, it doesn’t fill the belly, so I’m going to throw in a copy of the U.S. Army’s Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants.

Tag, your it…

As I understand it, now I have to pass the curse of the Book Meme on to three fellow bloggers. Hmmm… well how could I not be curious in seeing how The General might answer? And using the term “fellow” loosely, wouldn’t it also be fascinating to see what our friends Stefan and Marsha are reading?

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking.
But now, God knows….

The time will come for the men responsible to answer for their behavior.

So spoke Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) after state and federal judges failed to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case. To read this merely as a veiled threat would be naive, for there was nothing veiled about it. Nor was the judiciary its only target. That DeLay left both the implied retribution and its intended target unspecified, comes as yet another example of the extreme right-wing’s increasing willingness to threaten the lives and livelihoods of all those it perceives as the opposition. And as this threat comes from the House Majority Leader, it should be taken seriously by all Americans, for it demonstrates how disturbingly comfortable the Republican leadership has become in adopting a rhetorical tone that can only be described as fascistic.

And as the Seattle P-I’s Joel Connelly pointed out today (“Religious rightists using scary tactics to pad courts“), DeLay is not the only Republican embracing “ugly extremism” in the wake of the Schiavo case. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) raised the specter of recent courthouse shootings, warning in a speech before the Senate that the judges’ decisions could lead people to “engage in violence.”

Well… it was not really a warning was it? It was more like a threat. And that is how it was understood.

And now the New York Times reports that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is joining the chorus of Dominionist voices intent on reframing the battle over judicial confirmations into a religious war: “Frist Set to Use Religious Stage on Judicial Issue.”

As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as “against people of faith” for blocking President Bush’s nominees.

The event takes place as Frist is threatening the “nuclear option”… changing the Senate rules to eliminate the use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees. But as Connelly points out, Frist’s feigned outrage is nothing more than “rank hypocrisy.” Ninety-five percent of federal court seats are filled… the lowest vacancy rate in 13 years. But while Democrats have blocked only 10 of President Bush’s 215 nominees, Republicans blocked as many as 50 of President Clinton’s.

But that hasn’t stopped Frist, DeLay and the rest of the leadership from converting a political contest into a supposed holy war between the enemies of faith and God-fearing Republicans.

The telecast also signals an escalation of the campaign for the rule change by Christian conservatives who see the current court battle as the climax of a 30-year culture war, a chance to reverse decades of legal decisions about abortion, religion in public life, gay rights and marriage.

“As the liberal, anti-Christian dogma of the left has been repudiated in almost every recent election, the courts have become the last great bastion for liberalism,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and organizer of the telecast, wrote in a message on the group’s Web site. “For years activist courts, aided by liberal interest groups like the A.C.L.U., have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms.”

What a load of hateful, manipulative crap. Apparently the “thieves in the night” now include such well-known enemies of faith as conservative Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee and devout Catholic, who was the target of calls for impeachment from a conservative conference titled “Remedies to Judicial Tyranny.” Let that be a warning to other Republicans who fail to strictly toe the party line… as the extreme right continues to consolidate its power, you too could become the victim of the latest putsch.

I understand why the MSM is hesitant to raise the specter of fascism… it is an emotionally loaded word, used more often as a political smear than a description of a political philosophy. Connelly avoids the word himself, but comes awfully damn close in his poignant and frightening conclusion:

During the recent Lenten season, this writer read the great pro-life sermons of Clemens von Galen, the Catholic Bishop (later Cardinal) of Muenster. Galen used his pulpit in 1941 to reveal the Nazis’ euthanasia program, and detail human rights abuses by the Gestapo.

Along with the Ten Commandments, Galen cited statute after statute of Germany’s penal code in assailing Nazi abuses.

“Our brothers and sisters, all these things cause me today to recall the old truth, ‘Justitia est fundamentum regnorum,’ justice is the only secure foundation of every form of government,” Galen declared.

Bishop Galen was calling for a totalitarian society to return to the rule of law.

Our religious rightists would subject an independent judiciary, in a free society, to mob intimidation and tyranny of the majority.

We must resist these people.

We must resist fascism.

The New York Times reports on Merry Stephens, a successful girls basketball coach at a rural, East Texas school, where townsfolk rumored she was a lesbian.

Though it was true, Stephens denied it for five years while she was the coach of a championship high school basketball team in Bloomburg, afraid the truth would cost her a job.

It did cost her a job. As it did the job of Stephens’ partner, the school’s bus driver.

And thanks to Senators Hargrove and Sheldon and the entire WA state Senate Republican caucus, this kind of employment discrimination is perfectly legal in Washington state. Makes you proud, huh?

You righty trolls are going to love this one. You know how I’m always promoting a state income tax? Well… today’s my birthday!

Yes:

“I blame Congress over the last 50 to 100 years for not standing up and taking its responsibility given to it by the Constitution. The reason the judiciary has been able to impose a separation of church and state that’s nowhere in the Constitution is that Congress didn’t stop them. The reason we had judicial review is because Congress didn’t stop them. The reason we had a right to privacy is because Congress didn’t stop them.”

That’s not some lefty twisting his words… that’s a direct quote from an interview he gave to the ultra-right-wing Looney-Moony Washington Times. (Via Daily Kos.)

I hate to say it, but honesty impels me… whether he embraces the label himself or not, Tom DeLay is, quite technically, a fascist.

The Seattle Times reports today that the Rossi camp is complaining about a number of rejected provisional ballots that were found to have had their envelopes opened. Interesting. But I actually chuckled at the article’s lead:

Republicans yesterday found what they say is a new reason to question King County’s handling of ballots cast in the November election.

Come on… we all know the Republicans have only one reason to question King County Elections… it’s good politics.

This is a particularly stupid issue, and shows how desperately they are grasping at rhetorical straws. Generally, provisional ballots are left sealed in their security envelopes unless they are verified. But KC Elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan explained that the envelopes in question were opened under standard procedure, to determine whether voters had used ballots appropriate to their home precincts. Most provisional ballots don’t have to be opened, because the outside envelope includes enough notation to indicate the type of ballot.

“Procedures were followed,” Egan said. “We’re not hiding anything. This is no smoking gun. This is something that both parties had full knowledge of during the 15-day window after Election Day.”

She said the process “was highly scrutinized by party observers during this time, and it is absolutely ridiculous that they waited to politicize this process five months after the election. There were no requests by the dozens of party observers to change procedures during the time these ballots were handled.”

Sheryl Moss, certification-and-training-program manager for the secretary of state, said neither state nor federal law prohibits opening provisional-ballot envelopes before voters’ eligibility is determined.

Provisional ballots have less secrecy than other ballots, Moss said, because election workers are required to verify that the voter’s votes are counted only for candidates or issues he or she is eligible to vote on.

Of course, GOPolitburo Chair Chris Vance isn’t mollified:

“There’s no good possible explanation for it,” Vance said.

Um… there is a good explanation for it, and both Egan and Moss gave it. The envelopes were opened according to procedure and law, under the scrutiny of observers from both parties. For Vance to imply that there is something shady about this, is to imply fraud… and that is exactly what that shameless, lying bastard is implying.

Well… prove it.

But then, while Republicans have quite skillfully hurled allegations, actually proving things isn’t exactly their strong suit. No wonder Dino Rossi’s attorneys filed a brief yesterday in Chelan County, in which they make the absurd contention that when it comes to their suspect list of alleged felons, the burden should fall on the Democrats to prove that they are not illegal voters… an argument so outrageous, you’d think Stefan was leading their legal team. (And why not… he’s a self-proclaimed expert at everything else.)

In any case, such a contention is wholly unsupported by RCW 29.A.08.810, which clearly states:

Registration of a person as a voter is presumptive evidence of his or her right to vote at any primary or election, general or special.

And Judge Bridges further enunciated this basic principle — that the burden of proof falls on the challengers — when he stated:

Our Supreme Court has observed that election officers are presumed to have complied with the duties required of them in an honest and careful manner. That was the Quigley case. And also in Quigley the Court noted that the returns of any election official are entitled to the presumption of regularity….

Perhaps his attorneys and party officials misled Rossi into believing he actually stood a chance of prevailing in court, but whatever his personal motivation, his surrogates have clearly been more focused on the public relations battle than the legal one.

Anybody who has ever worked on the giving or receiving end of a well-planned PR campaign can see that the steady stream of GOP allegations and photo ops are part of an ambitious strategy to consistently hit a weekly news cycle. Sometimes they are fortunate to have real news fill the gap — like the 94 uncounted absentee ballots — but most of the media flaps have been entirely manufactured. Slade Gorton making an ass out of himself demanding a criminal investigation… accusations that Cheryl Scott can’t be trusted because she’s (gasp) contributed to Democrats in a heavily Democratic state… mock outrage over provisional ballot envelopes Republican observers quietly watched being opened five months ago… these have all been neatly penciled in on a media calendar pinned to the cubicle wall of some Rossi PR consultant.

I have no doubt that early on, blinded by an irrational fear and hatred of “the other,” some GOP operatives actually believed that if they looked hard enough, they would surely find conclusive evidence of a stolen election. But that hope has long since faded for all but the most faithful rank and file. What started as specific charges of Democratic corruption and disenfranchised military voters has gradually morphed into the vague and inchoate message that the election was a “total mess.”

The Republican propaganda machine attempts to paint this Jackson Pollock like image of an election gone awry, by splattering allegations here, or revealing them in dribs and drabs there. But to have a complete and accurate picture of this election, it must be remembered that no matter how many errors are discovered, on however many different occasions — and no matter how torturously long and twisted is the public narrative revealing these errors — they all occurred during the same 15-day period, under the intense scrutiny of the media, and observers from both parties.

It may fuel the Republican PR campaign to focus on when the errors were discovered or revealed to the public. But the only questions that really matter are: How many errors occurred? Did they change the outcome of the election? How did they happen? And how can we prevent them in the future?

Everything else is bullshit.

It’s refreshing to see at least one business group that doesn’t take the responsibility of being an upstanding corporate citizen, lying down. The Nevada Brothel Association has asked lawmakers for the “privilege of participating” in the state tax system.

George Flint, a lobbyist for the state’s 28 legal bordellos is pushing hard for a bill that would impose a 10 percent tax on food and drink served in the brothels, plus a $2-per-customer fee. The bill would add about $1.6 million a year to state coffers.

”I know there are some of you that have philosophical problems, and maybe moral problems (with prostitution). I hope you can look beyond that and see the overall good that can be accomplished.”

I apologize if I have in the past unfairly maligned corporate whores.

As the Washington Legislature continues to debate election reform in the wake of the our gubernatorial hoo-hah, they should keep in mind this cautionary tale from yesterday’s Miami Herald:

Three years after spending $24.5 million to install a controversial touch-screen voting system, Miami-Dade County elections officials have been asked to study scrapping the system in favor of paper-based balloting.

The request from County Manager George Burgess follows the recent resignation of Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan and the revelation that hundreds of votes in recent elections hadn’t been counted.

What was it Slippery Slade said about King County clearly having “the worst election administration” in the nation?

Miami-Dade is considering whether optical scan technology — like that used in King County — might produce more accurate results at a lower cost. (Caltech/MIT concludes optical scan is more accurate.) County officials say the electronic machines have tripled election day costs.

”It’s a confluence of bad facts,” said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, head of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition and a longtime critic of the elections department. “You have lousy technology that doesn’t inspire voter confidence combined with outrageous costs for that lousy technology.”

Burgess’ April 4 directive came just days after Kaplan resigned amid revelations that a coding glitch in the county’s iVotronic touch-screen machines tossed out hundreds of votes in six recent elections.

A “coding glitch,” huh. While the word “glitch” implies that these errors were unintentional, the St. Petersburg Times reported last week that a computer programmer who claims he developed software to alter the results on electronic voting machines, has passed a lie detector test, administered by the retired chief polygraph operator for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Clint Curtis swore in an affidavit, and testified before a congressional sub-committee, that he developed the software at the request of U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Florida).

The Times reporter is clearly skeptical, but the allegations are taken much more seriously by a local blog that has been covering the story in great detail. (Sound familiar?) I don’t have an opinion one way or the other, but the allegations of fraud and conspiracy sound at least as plausible as those coming from the aluminum hat boys over on (u)SP. And they certainly deserve being looked into in light of the allegations of illegal vote shifting on Snohomish County’s electronic voting machines.

Anyway, what we do know is that electronic voting machines have been proven to be error prone, and none in Washington state currently provide a voter verifiable paper trail.

Republicans want to ram election reforms through now, while the politics are hot, but I hope we take the time to learn not only from our own mistakes during the last election, but also from the mistakes of election officials in other states. In the words of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson: “Sometimes, lessons are expensive.”

One of the more encouraging recent developments in Washington politics was the opening of a state chapter of Progressive Majority, an organization dedicated to developing a local “farm team” of liberal candidates. It’s great to see a progressive group with such a pragmatic mission… and the money to back it up.

In the current issue of the Seattle Weekly, George Howland Jr. profiles Progressive Majority, and it’s Washington state director, Dean Nielsen. Nielsen argues that Democrats have to get busy, even in this off-election year.

“If we have any hope of taking back congressional seats,” says Nielsen, “we have to start at the local level.” Seventy-five percent of the members of Congress were once locally elected officials

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I get a lot of nasty comments and emails accusing me of a lot of nasty things. So a big thanks to John for passing along this link to a diary on Daily Kos that pretty much sums up my response: “Message to any winger trolls.”

Liberals do not, DO NOT, NOT hate America. Fuck you if you think that. Fuck you if you think we should all be deported to Russia, or France, or even Canada. Nothing against Canada, or, hey, even France or Russia, but this is my home, just like it’s the home of millions and millions of other progressives who are not traitors, who aren’t America-haters.

Progressives and liberals DO NOT want the terrorists to win.

We DO NOT hate the troops.

We DO NOT hate the rich.

We DO NOT hate life.

We DO NOT want to turn you gay, or wipe out your religion, or make you have an abortion.

So stop saying it. And fuck you if you do, fuckers.

(Okay, maybe I wouldn’t mind turning JCH or Cynical gay… that’d be kind of funny.)

Read the whole thing.

Just a reminder, the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets again tonight (and every Tuesday,) 8pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue East. I’m going to try to stop by early for beer and conversation.