Drill Now, Drive Later. Much Later.

Some regions of the Outer Continental Shelf are protected from oil and gas drilling. Some people think we ought to be drilling away in these regions. Slate notes this 2007 government study on the market impact of increased drilling.

First, timeliness. Assuming that leasing begins in 2012, the study says that expanded drilling "would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030." Eighteen years.

Next, price. Even in 2030, when significantly more oil is flowing, "any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant."

So, if we start today, we can have no effect on prices as early as 2026. Let's do it!

Virginia, The Swing Commonwealth

It's early, but a poll shows McCain and Obama in a dead heat in Virginia. The state is very much in play, and it may go to the Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since LBJ. McCain is going to have to spend time and money here if he wants to hold this traditionally red state.

Not that this is a surprise. Northern Virginia skews liberal, the state is 20% black, and the odds are very good that Virginia will soon have two Democratic senators.

Francis Bacon on Derek Jeter

"[W]hat would Sir Francis Bacon, the English philosopher and statesman, have thought of Jeter's defense?"

Delightful question. According to this article, the answer is "Not much." And he'd be in good company.

Sette

About a year ago, we had pizza at Sette, and it was terrific. Classic New York-style pizza. The service was erratic, but the pizza more than compensated.

Last night, we went back, and things have changed. The pizza was just okay. We had two pies, and both came out of the oven too soon, with limp, undercooked crusts. The toppings were good quality, but they hadn't had time to blend.

We started with bruschetta and a salad, which were fine, but it's all about the pizza. The only real beer on the list was Sierra Nevada, and they were out of it. On the plus side, the service was good, but we won't be going back.

But fear not, Richmonders, you still have two choices for great pizza:

• Ariana's in the Museum District. We get our delivery pies from Ariana's. They're consistently good, and occasionally perfect;


• Tarrantino's, the pizzeria annex at Tarrant's Cafe, Broad and Foushee. Abundant cheese and toppings, and the crust is outstanding. You can order off the regular menu, too - try the world-class cheesecake.
  

High Gas Prices - More, More!

Years of blather about foreign oil and environmental damage did little to change the driving habits of the typical American motorist. The Prius was for Hollywood liberals; real patriots drove Hummers.

Now we know the price of change. When gas gets up around $4 a gallon, Americans start acting rationally. They stop buying monstrous trucks and SUV's. And they drive less.

The next step? Bump up the federal gas tax a dollar, and use every dime of the money to subsidize alternative energy technologies - wind, solar, electric cars.

Of course, it'll take a real leader in the White House to pull this off - someone who has the guts, and the political capital, to ram through a good-for-you tax increase. Someone who's willing to talk honestly about gas and taxes. Maybe someone who first brings the troops home, then positions the program as a JFK-style moon landing challenge...maybe.

Obama/Warner

Mark Warner is the perfect VP choice for Obama. He's a phenomenally popular white Southern Democrat. When his term as governor of Virginia ended, he left office with approval ratings near 80%. He's done the "real change" thing - he had to, to put up those MVP numbers as the blue leader of a red state.

Warner should also meet with the approval of the business community, because he's been there, done that, too. Before he went into politics, he was a telecom entrepreneur, and he made a few hundred million. And he has some stature on the national scene. A couple of years ago, he was on the cover of the Sunday Times Magazine as a potential presidential candidate.

The downside? Warner is running for the Senate against Jim Gilmore. Odds are Warner will trounce Gilmore, so any Warner change in plans is very much to Gilmore's benefit. And "Senator Jim Gilmore" sounds very scary - he has Bush's skills coupled with a mean, nasty vision. But a Warner vice-presidency might cement 16 years of Democratic control of the White House. That would be almost enough time to repair the damage.

Moderate Republicans For Obama?

I was at a party last night. The host, a middle-aged white Southerner and moderate Republican, is leaning towards Obama. He likes Obama's message of change. He likes Obama's willingness to talk to the other side, both in Washington and around the world. And he's afraid McCain is too much like Bush.

Is he an anomaly, or is this a trend? Is McCain's base an illusion?

Obama Gets It

American politics these days comes down to three things: attack, attack, attack, and be brisk about it. And when someone attacks you, don't bother defending yourself - just counterattack, counterattack, counterattack. Save the well-reasoned point-by-point rebuttals for the News Hour.

The Republicans get this. John Kerry didn't get it, and he got swiftboated.

Obama gets it. His "appalling attack" response to Bush's appeasement canard is top-notch political jiu-jitsu. He leaves Bush bloodied and dazed (granted, not hard). He also drops McCain in the Bush mess, so that any McCain response becomes a defense of failed Bush policies. Sweet.

School's Out Forever!

I just finished the Fall 2006 issue of the Bellevue Literary Review. That's "Bellevue" as in New York's Bellevue Hospital. The writing is excellent, consistently New Yorker-quality.

But what's up with a hospital literary review? Little magazines used to come out of college English departments, or some guy's basement.

Are there other workplace magazines? Is this a trend? Should we all go talk to HR about positions on the editorial board?

On Meritocracies

The open source world is a meritocracy. Write a tool, put it on the web, and you can compete head-on with Microsoft and IBM. David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails, came out of nowhere to change the way many of us approach web development, because his tool is better than the old ones. It's all about talent.

Then there's the music business. I don't know how it works, but it doesn't seem to have much to do with talent. I was reminded of that, yet again, when we saw MoDeBree last night. The lead singer, Kelli Moss, has a great voice. She moves effortlessly from jazz to blues to rock to soul. But she's at Shenanigans, singing her butt off for seventy people, while half the world discusses Britney Spears' panties.

Brunswick Screwed

We went to the Brunswick Stew Festival yesterday. It was supposed to run till 4 P.M. We got there a little before 3, and everybody was out of stew.

Blame it on the beautiful weather, I guess. But it's poor planning for a food festival to turn away hungry people. Better by far to finish the day with too much stew than not enough.

Fortunately, we were able to recover from this FEMA-like debacle at Bottoms Up Pizza.

It's Filibuster Time

Judge Alito is an outside-the-mainstream radical. If ever there was a time for Senate Democrats to filibuster, this is it.

If the Democrats are reluctant to filibuster because the Republicans may use the nuclear option to take filibuster away, then the Republicans have already taken it away. Senate Democrats should filibuster because it's the right thing to do, and because judicial filibuster is part of Senate tradition. If the Republicans choose to destroy the Senate in response, that's their call.

My hope is that sane moderate Republicans, like our own Senator John Warner, will not let this happen. No one nomination, or administration, is more important than the Senate and its traditions.

Pesto Is My Butter

We do most of our grocery shopping at Costco. These days, Costco isn't just suitcase-size boxes of breakfast cereal. They also sell foods more typical of a cutesy gourment shoppe. For example: Cibo Naturals Pesto. The label assures me that the Parmesan cheese is "non-GMO and rBGH-free." Okay, good, and, more important, the stuff tastes great.

A jar of pesto sauce in the frig changes everything. Pesto used to be a rare treat, once in a while in a good restaurant, once in a long while when my wife was feeling really ambitious. Now, it's the universal answer. Fish? Chicken? Broccoli? Pesto. The morning bagel? Hold the butter, slap on the pesto.

Harriet, We Hardly Knew Ye

So that's it for Harriet Miers. Remember those indignant commercials demanding up-or-down votes for all judicial nominees? Something about fairness, wasn't it? Well, the people who paid for those commercials have changed their minds. They didn't really mean all judicial nominees - just their judicial nominees. That's fair.

We Have All Been Here Before

I got the strangest feeling the other night when I heard that the Valerie Plame mess may reach all the way up to Screamin' Dick Cheney. It took me a few minutes to sort it out: I was having a Watergate flashback. Revelation after revelation, bigger and bigger names, a scandal that grows, and grows, and grows, till the mighty are fallen - it's all there. Cool.

Love Songs

Just got in from "When Harry Met Buzzy" at the Commercial Taphouse. Wow. Harry and Buzzy both play in other bands, and they get together once a month or so for a wonderful, free-wheeling night of classics. Two guitars, two voices, two human jukeboxes. And they take requests. Where else can you hear A World Without Love followed immediately by Waiting For The Man?

Bad Day At Target

We bought a TV at Target yesterday. When we got it home and opened it, we discovered it was missing both the manual and the remote.

How can something like this happen? Well, one possibility is that Target puts returned, opened merchandise back out on the shelf as new. Another possibility is that the TV really was factory-fresh, and that the factory messed up when it put the package together.

The Target manager preferred the blame-the-factory theory. She said she would have to check the box, to see if it was sealed with "original factory tape."

A helpful tip: you can slice right through "original factory tape" with Occam's Razor.

White Sox Win World Series!

Well, okay, just the first game. But Fox and Major League Baseball, in the face of dismal ratings and massive national uninterest, have declared that this year's fall classic will be just one game. Congratulations, Chicago!

"Classic Rock" Is A Good Thing. Really.

Loose Gravel at Magoo's last night. Another solid show. And when "classic" means everything from Buddy Holly to Jonathan Richman's "Pablo Picasso", I'm happy.

Man With A Hat

We saw Junior Brown at the Canal Club last night. Disappointing. Junior never settled into a groove, and the show plodded along. Too many nights playing the same riffs, maybe. A few years ago, we saw Junior at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. A free concert, outdoors in a steady drizzle, and he was amazing. And you gotta love the guit-steel.