Support Carol Shea-Porter

Contempt for politicians is part of a rich American tradition - especially around election time. But here in southern New Hampshire, in the 1st congressional district, we are represented by someone we can be proud of. It would be a shame to give that up.

For the last four years Rep. Carol Shea-Porter has served us faithfully- supporting health care reform, voting for efforts to get the economy back on track, and fighting for New Hampshire residents.

Carol’s smart and reliable advocacy on the issues that matter are the best reasons to support her.

But there are plenty of other reasons. When she scored her come-from-nowhere, upset victory in 2006, Carol Shea-Porter became the first woman to represent New Hampshire in national office. Before her election Carol was best know for getting kicked out of a George W. Bush rally for wearing the wrong t-shirt. Our representative is not some vat-grown politician. Her background is one of noisy citizen turned public servant - something I can certainly get behind.

I’ve witnessed Carol performing ‘live’ in two different settings that could not have been more different. I’ve seen her facing down a cranky mob at a health care town hall. I’ve seen her rallying a crowd of Democratic supporters. On both occasions I’ve been impressed by her intelligence, commitment, and good humor. I’ve seen her stand up and take the tough questions. She comes off as open, principled, informed, and inspiring.

We are fortunate. Our representative is someone worthy of our respect and worthy of our vote. Vote for Carol Shea-Porter on November 2nd.

Paul Hodes for NH Senator

Here is a letter I wrote that ran today in the local newspaper, The Portsmouth Herald:

We know Paul Hodes will fight for us in Washington. Working for us in the House of Representatives, Paul Hodes has fought to improve access, reduce costs and make affordable health care a reality for all. He has extended essential support for unemployed men and women in New Hampshire. Hodes voted for economic recovery bills that have put our state back on track. Paul Hodes fought for the financial reforms we desperately needed and an end to taxpayer-funded bailouts.

New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg helped get us into the mess. Then Senator Gregg spent the last two years doing everything in his power to insure nothing improves. Gregg opposed the economic stimulus. Gregg refused to help us address our crumbling health care system. Senator Gregg refused to extend benefits to unemployed New Hampshire citizens. In the wake of the massive financial collapse that had a devastating impact on New Hampshire businesses -- Judd Gregg opposed essential, overdue financial reforms.

Whenever there was a chance to help the people of New Hampshire Judd Gregg said “no”. Now that Gregg is retiring, we don’t have to take “no” for an answer any more. We don’t want more of the same. We have a chance to replace the Republican Senator who has been working against us with a Democratic Senator who will work for us. We need a US Senator who cares about the people of New Hampshire. We need Paul Hodes. Vote on November 2nd. Vote for Paul Hodes.

The Twenty Percent Solution

How is this possible? The Republican party was cast out of office in disgrace only two years ago. Since then they’ve merged with the even-more-irresponsible Tea Party. How can the Republicans be making a comeback? How could the majority of Americans be falling for this? Again.

Here is the silver lining. The majority of Americans are not falling for it. Not even close.

Mid-term elections in America have very low voter turn out. In recent years about 37% of eligible voters showed up to vote. Those votes are split between two parties. Getting 19% of voting-age Americans to show up and mark the ballot for you means a whole bunch of big victories.

Can they get the majority of Americans to believe the President of the United States is a secret socialist bent on enslaving them? They can not. Can they get a much smaller number of Americans to believe that government is coming to take their guns, their money, their freedom and then issue a summons to appear before a deal panel? Yes. Yes, they can. Once people buy into that story, those people are going to show up and vote. And they are going to vote for people that “share their values”.

It’s a problem. But there is a solution.

• Do you believe the government works best when it’s run by people trying to make it work for us instead of being “part of the problem”?
• Do you think all Americans should have access to health insurance they can afford? Would you like to try that out, see how it goes, rather than see it taken away?
• Do you believe that the separation of church and state is a pretty good idea?
• Do you think “science” might not be cruel hoax invented by Al Gore to sell books?
• Do you believe the solutions to the problems of the 21st century won’t all be found in texts from the 18th century?
• Would you like to be represented by someone actually working to solve our nations problems?

These ideas are pretty radical. I don’t expect all Americans to agree with me. But. We only need 20%. There must be at least one American out of five who believes as we do. Surely 20% of Americans are willing to stand up and vote for what’s right.

 

Maybe you could join us. Maybe you know other people who would be willing to vote on November 2nd. You could talk to them. You could join us. The few. The patriotic. The citizens who give a shit. The elite. The people who don’t sneer when they say elite. The 20%.

What is the Tea Party?

What is the Tea Party? The movement has been evolving rapidly over the last 18 months. It was a potent force in the Republican primaries, and gets lot of coverage and commentary. But what is it? And where did it come from?

It’s not a party. That’s the first thing Tea Party members and sympathisers will tell you. You may think that with a name like Tea Party that they are, or aspire to be a political party. But they aren’t and don’t. It’s more of an advocacy group (think NRA or MoveOn.org - but less structured) that is loud, vague, and angry and doesn’t actually advocate for any particular polices (other than “not taking it anymore” - which they support).

An early invocation of the term “Tea Party” came from Rick Santelli’s bizarre rant from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Unless you’re setting it on fire, the CME seems a particularly inappropriate place to start a populist movement. But somehow the image of a bunch of post-bailout financial traders (which Santelli calls “a pretty good statistical cross-section of America”) railing against the injustice of federal intervention struck a nerve. Santelli’s complaint was that the government was bailing out homeowners. As millions of former-homeowners learned during their foreclosure, no such program existed. But a movement was born, and with it the rich Tea Party tradition of being incensed over purely imaginary federal programs.

Sensing another opportunity to rally gullible people angry at Democrats, Fox News quickly got in on the act and put its stamp on the young movement. The network sponsored and promoted Glen Beck’s 9/12 project, giving the Tea Party national exposure. The nation was not impressed. The obvious extremism on display gave rise to the impression that Tea Party members tend to be racist or insane.

Since those early outings, the movement has controlled its message a little better. Local groups appear to be somewhat more reasonable. The Tea Party has gained strength an pulled together a powerful coalition.

The Tea Party has been effective at re-branding of the Republican Party. They’ve got all the energy in the party and have had an impressive show of force. Even establishment candidates like John McCain have had to dance to their tune in order to win the primary. They’ve been able to bring back a lot of conservative voters that bailed after the Bush years. Being a ‘Tea Party Patriot’ running as a Republican is much cooler than being a ‘Bush Republican’. And they can rope in and energize the independent conservatives and libertarians.

Andrew Sullivan has described the difference between how the Tea Party members see themselves and conventional Republicans:

I think what the tea-partiers would say is that they are for real - that, unlike Bush, they won't spend the country into oblivion, that they won't bail out the banks, that they won't pass unpaid-for entitlements, that they actually will make sure that abortion is illegal, that they will round up illegal immigrants and enforce the border, and will not pretend that we are not fighting Islam in a civilizational war. And that they will refuse to raise taxes even if it means the most radical dismantlement of the entitlement state since the New Deal. 

This attitude has swept through the Republican party. The question remains whether it will be popular with the rest of America. As much as they’ve been a force in the Republican primaries, it’s not clear they are going to be so helpful in the general election. Any group that thinks the likes of Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann are to be taken seriously is going have hard time getting themselves taken seriously by the American people. In the 2010 mid-term, where energy and base turn-out trump, they’ll be about a wash. After that, it’s not clear what the Tea Party does for a second act.

I would like to hope the Tea Party will pull the Republicans away from meddling in social issues and towards some actual fiscal conservatism. But real deficit reduction means taking on tax policy (and not just cutting taxes), controlling health care costs, and reducing defense. The Tea Party doesn’t offer serious proposals on any of that.

Actually, the Tea Party doesn’t really offer any policy proposals. They mainly like to complain about Democrats, say “freedom” a lot, and talk about the Founding Fathers. It is telling that the few members who seem to have policy ideas got very quiet about those ideas very fast after winning their primary. This suggests they are well aware that their actual plans may not be so popular with the general public.

The issues that motivate the Tea Party- health care reform, TARP, economic stimulus - are not the issues that will be confronting newly elected Tea Party members when they take office in 2011. TARP and the stimulus funds are spent and there seems to be little appetite in either party for more. Health care reform will continue and there may a fight over funding and implementaion. But full repeal will be unpopular and impossible.

The actual battles of the next congress will over deficit reduction, tax policy, immigration, the Defense of Marriage Act, Afghanistan, and corporate campaign disclosure. In theory, a libertarian-aligned Tea Party would be more sympathetic to the President’s positions on these issues than the conventional Republicans. In practice, we’re likely to find that the movement’s contempt for President Obama overrides any (as yet unseen) pragmatic impulse. Gridlock will get worse, even on issues when there is general agreement.

Once a few Tea Party members are elected they’ll have to take votes and support legislation. They won’t be able to stay in the realm of dreamy platitudes. If they want to remain relevant in 2012 they’ll have to do something to improves the lives of the American people. Since they’ve pledged not work with the President on any issue, it’s hard to see how they’ll do that. Unless Democratic voters get energized and vote this November, we’re about to find out.

You Are What You Eat

Over on Slate John Dickerson is considering a strange phenomenon. Voters prefer Democrats and Democratic policies to Republicans and Republican policies. But a majority are planning to vote for Republicans anyhow. Groping for an explanation Dickerson comes up with this analogy:

You're a long-haul trucker on the highway, and you're hungry. You wish you'd eaten a good healthy meal, but those are time-consuming and expensive. You see a choice at the next exit: McDonald's or Burger King. You're not thrilled about either, but in general you prefer McDonald's to Burger King and, if asked, you'd probably agree that you like every comparable menu item (fries, burger, drink, Happy Meal toy) better at McDonald's than at Burger King. But you've eaten at McDonald's for eight straight days. So, you go to Burger King.

That’s not bad. But Obama’s only been in office for a year and half. So I think we need to modify it a bit to really capture the national moment:

You're a long-haul trucker on the highway, and you're hungry. You wish you'd eaten a good healthy meal, but those are time-consuming and expensive. You see a choice at the next exit: McDonald's or Burger King.

You used to eat at this Burger King all the time. For year after year you had nothing but Burger King. It was terrible. It didn’t taste good. It wasn’t good for you. The service is terrible. But they have a big flag out front and they keep their prices low. As it turns out, the owner was philosophically opposed to meddling “food safety regulations”. The last time you ate there you got E. Coli and it nearly killed you. “That’s it!” you swore. No more Burger King for you.

You were pretty hopeful that McDonald’s would be better. And it is. You suppose. Can’t complain really. The food is better and the staff seems to be trying really hard. The problems is you’ve still got that stomach infection from the E. Coli you got at Burger King. All this gastrointestinal pain and massive diarrhea is kind of ruining your dining experience (not to mention all the long-haul trucking). Where did you get this stomach bug again? You forgot. But McDonald’s just isn’t quite what you hoped it would be.

Oh, look. Burger King got an even bigger flag!

Story of the Storyline

Vampire: the Eternal Struggle Storyline events have traveled down some dark and dangerous roads. They have explored sinister conspiracies, infernal pacts, desperate power struggles and terrible secrets. Only now can I tell the deepest and darkest tale: the story of the storyline itself.

Well, maybe it’s not that dark. Or deep.

The story of my path to VTES storyline coordinator starts with my work on the Player’s Guide. Robert Goudie was coordinating that effort. I was asked to edit a version of an article I had written on strategic postures for the guide. I said the article could be included on the condition I was allowed to submit ideas for other pieces. Robert agreed and my persistence was rewarded with more assignments. I was also willing to pitch in with whatever was needed. So, I received a variety of assignments like: write 300 words on strategy for the True Brujah (Step 1: Make a good deck. Step 2: Add a True Brujah).

By the time the manuscript was complete The Powers That Be were generous enough to bestow me with a co-author credit. I was able gaze proudly at my name on the cover of that fine volume, search for myself on Amazon.com, and check out our Amazon Best Sellers Rank at any time (#2,183,000!).

After the book, Robert and I exchanged a few emails where I pitched some storyline theme and plot suggestions. When a request came along for someone to write up the Millennium Cultist aftermath fiction, I was happy to pitch in and take that on. When it came time to prepare and design the next event, the torch was passed to me.

I was excited to take on the VTES Storyline. It’s a great, unique format - a series of design and narrative experiments that bring together the strategic depth of VTES with the rich World of Darkness source materials. Robert deserves a lot credit for conceiving of the series, making it real, his great designs, and running all those events in the early years.

When I took over as coordinator my lofty goals were:

• Make storyline events a more frequent, predictable, integrated supplement to VTES
• Coordinate the themes and timing of the storyline with the core sets
• Establish the setting for VTES and it’s relationship to the (defunct) old World of Darkness
• Create some character and story continuity between the events (and include prior events in that continuity)
• Raise the stakes and explain how the events of the storyline are important to the game setting

My tenure as storyline coordinator got off to a slow start. I got my first sense of the long lead times involved in game production. By the summer of 2008 I had been coordinator for a year and still hadn’t run my first event. I did learn the set themes for 2009. So, before Anarchs & Alastors started I had a road-map in place that would take the storyline through to Battle Lines.

Searching for a common meta-plot that might run through the storylines, I settled early on the legend of Lilith a useful theme. In the source materials Lilith is presented as a powerful, counterpoint to Caine - sometimes an equal sometimes and enemy. Her role was significant enough to serve as a useful foundation and vague enough to suite a wide variety of my purposes. The Bahari proved to be useful device- versatile enough to applied to event themes including anarchs, Montreal, and Africa. Initially those purposes would be mysterious and in the background - the shadowy cult sought by the anarch gang or the force motivating the power struggle in for the Kaymakli Fragment. In Battle Lines the Lilith followers stepped to the forefront. I was especially pleased to come up with an event concept that could encompass all (and only) the diverse bloodlines.

The peculiar structure of the storyline means that the coordinator writes the introduction to the story. Then players around the world play the middle. Then we have to take all those results and produce an outcome. The aftermath fiction should reflect the actions of the players, and be the story of their games. But it also needs to make sense in the story. No matter what the players chose, the ending should read like that was the plan all along.

In terms of sticking to the script, storyline players were remarkably generous. Infernal Helena reunited with her lover and rival Menele and claimed victory in the Montreal event. A Black Hand Seraph lead the anarchs to their destination, lending the series a bit of intrigue. I had no expectation that Count Germaine would return to play a prominent role in the Imperator. And it was a pleasant surprise to find the source materials implying Germaine’s rival Karsh was also a pawn of the infernalists. We established Dmitra Illyanova as a key Germaine supporter (and thus a likely Bahari). She conveniently reappeared to lead the Brujah in an effort to ignite Gehenna in Eden’s Legacy.

In Battle Lines, a new set of characters came forward. The dilemma facing the Kiasyd had been in the introduction. The rise of the Baali within the Bahari conformed to the overall storyline arc. This provided a reason to revisit the ideas introduced in the Infernal Plague and an excuse to bring back Nergal. With each event, member of the Lilith cult claimed victory. The faction grew in power as the storyline progressed. For continuity purposes, this was a happy outcome.

While I was deeply involved in the overall story, I recognized that VTES is at heart a strategy game. I have always loved the narrative aspect of VTES game - they way the card interactions lend themselves to storytelling. But ultimately it’s card game, not an RPG, and many players care more about the mechanics than the “fluff”. Storylines are also about introducing strategic experimentation and mechanical variety. In that regard, I thought the storyline designs worked well.

I was most worried about the Anarchs & Alastors event. That was my first storyline event. And I wanted to start off on a solid footing. White Wolf had requested a sealed league format. My design focused on the anarch and trophy mechanics. Each of these could fall under the heading of “things VTES players think suck”. I added in some Assamites to complete the set. But the auction mechanics were an interesting addition to the format. Among the players willing to try a draft league at all, the event went over well.

The original plan for Rise of the Imperator was to sell a fixed Imperator deck as part of the kit. But, for art-rights reasons I couldn’t get permission to reprint most of the cards I wanted. No one seemed overly upset that organizers were asked to construct their own decks for the event. And the the mixture of decks added variety. In the rules you could use a master phase action or a discard phase action to cycle a card out the deck. Players focused on getting rid of cards that hurt them over finding cards to play. If I were to do it again, I would still say you can do a discard during either phase. But I would add a rule that a player can’t do both in the same turn.

I was pleased with the Eden’s Legacy rules. The Laibon had enough of a boost to encourage their use, but didn’t dominate the event. The four motivations were well balanced in the standings. I expected the Jyhad-bleed boosting motivation to be the strongest, but it came it last, far behind a dead-heat of the others.

Battle Lines ended up as the least well balanced of the events. I was pleased by the outcomes of the bloodlines-only rules. And the relaxing of the slave and scarce mechanics allowed for some novel deck opportunities. I was surprised by the strong showing of the Baali given their general lack of defense. Maybe removing the infernal cost only after they because Bahari would have been a better rule.

A greater source of the imbalance was difference in the relative strengths of Lilith’s Blessing and Guide and Mentor. Earlier versions of Lilith’s Blessing were used during the untap phase and cost a pool for each use. I didn’t fully comprehend the changes until they were pointed out to me during the second round of the event I played in (“Why are you paying a pool?”). I should have been more observant. At the very least, the printed pool cost of Lilith’s Blessing should have been maintained and paid for at the start of the event - which might have encouraged players to choose loyalist by default.

Overall I was pleased with the events and their reception. I was glad to be able to complete the initial arc I had envisioned. At this point, it is not clear if the storyline can or will continue. But I hope it does. The storylines played an important role in establishing the VTES setting after the RPG ceased its run. With White Wolf ceasing production the need for something new will be stronger than ever. Being storyline coordinator was a lot work and a lot of fun. It was a great experience for me. But all great things end.

Perhaps it is time for the storyline torch to be passed once again.

Lost Secrets of the Storyline

During my time as VTES Storyline coordinator I designed a few events that never made it off the drawing board. I thought I might share them now. Interested groups can take them for a spin or just gaze at them longingly - imagining the storylines that might have been...


Wars of Ascendancy: This was my first pitch when I became storyline coordinator. The idea was to start things off with a bang and a global war. And it wouldn’t have required any new cards to be printed. But White Wolf wanted a sealed league so I pitched...

Secrets of the Mazzeri: I was trying come come with a sealed league to go with the Lords of the Night set. The independent clans don’t have much in common. Their origins do have share a rough geographical proximity around the Mediterranean. That was the genesis for this theme.
Then I found out that Lords of the Night had already been printed and next set would be Twilight Rebellion and so my focus went to the Anarchs & Alastors event.

Siege of Mexico City: This is an event design I had waiting in the wings as a possible next event after Battle Lines.