The Trip.....Day III

Day III





Tuesday was a travel day. We awoke to the cell phone alarm and my wife stated she did not sleep well for worry that it would not work. We went downstairs to call the cab and upon opening the door of the TV room were confronted by a rodent. A reasonably large rodent. It seems that my son’s housemates (geniuses all) had elected the night before to take a hedge hog in as a pet. Although this one seemed fairly docile (it ladi by the door as of dead), it was still a disconcerting thing to confron at 6:45 A.M. in Cambridge England. We got a cab. The hedgehog stayed.

The train ride out from London to Cambridge was very uneventful and pleasant and we were looking forward to a ride in with a newspaper and a croissant and perhaps a sausage roll for a leisurely hour long poke into King’s Cross at 7:30 in the morning. We are of course...idiots. I believe I have mentioned that fact before. &:30 on a Tuesday is rush hour. We got to the train station in plenty of time an I bought a sausage roll and she a croissant and then we stood towards the wall keeping our bags out of the way as the platform in front of us filled 8 deep. The train was delayed by a few minutes and when it came there was a crushing press and rush for the few available seats. We barely managed to squeeze on with our bags, standing by the door in a press.

That was bad because it was so unexpected, yet so foreseeable. We were traveling into one of the biggest cities in the world during rush hour. The hour long trip became more nightmarish when at every stop (5 in all) more and more people pressed into our little space. No one moved down the rows to create more space and the people who were seated were careful never to make eye contact with the rest of the crush in much the same manner as I imagine the German guards did not make eye contact with the prisoner loaded onto rail boxcars. It was also hot, and got hotter with each new stop. It was also eerily quiet. I have never commuted on mass transit in a big city and the lack of communication among the masses was disquieting and depressing.

We made King’s Cross and got off the train with our bags once again stupidly attempting to get out of the way of the crowd and let the commuters pass. We stood there for a solid 5 minutes as they thronged by before rolling our eyes and giving up and dragging our bags into the terminal with many “excuse me’s” along the way. It was at best a nightmare as we eventually found the Picadilly Line for Heathrow 123 and 5. No one ever explains what happened to Heathrow 4 and one imagines it is the dark secret of the Picadilly Line. I am thinking it might be the terminal which jets people off to Hogworts Academy. That train too was packed and we could not sit. Standing in the sweltering mass I watched one man get bonked on the head by the closing door in a manner that seemed violent.

We eventually made Heathrow terminal 5 which is obviously some modernist’s cruel joke on London, England and the traveling public. A nice lady at British Airways (very nice airline and it is hard to believe they have anything to do with American Airlines but they are part of the “one world” evil alliance) got us checked in. We went to the security gate and were stopped as the first ones to not get through and told they were closing that checkpoint, and we were directed to the other end of the terminal (about 1/2 mile walk).

We negotiated security fairly easily. There is something about post 9-11 security I have always found vaguely disquieting. It is the sense that I am guilty of something that they are tasked to find out, or perhaps that they presume such guilt and as such are entitled to ex-ray my bags, swipe them for bomb detritus and anally probe me if they deem me a threat. Anyway, we made it through though I did have to take off my belt, but I did not have to take my computer out of it’s bag. This Terminal 5 is a garish, sense offending place of bright lights, loud noises and useless eateries. Again a Starbucks with no iced tea and a duty free shop the size of Macys. I picked up a couple of papers to learn that the U.S. Congress in an act of political spinelessness which should no longer be surprising had voted against the 700 Billion Dollar Bailout Plan.

This plan might not be a good idea. But if these institutions fail we will all be poorer, quicker then if they are not propped up. I do not care what the terms are, they need to be harsh and draconian but to cow tow to the angry voters back home 5 weeks before an election when the world economy is dancing on the brink seems pathetic on so many levels. It is as I said kind of an embarrassing time to be an American. Every paper which discusses their own nations bank problems sites the “toxic debt” sold by the American banks. I do not know if it is true or not but our investment bankers were given way too much money and when they got a “historical model” of making their points with loaded dice, they thought they could rely on that model and then borrowed everyone’s money to make their bets. But who are the “winners” here. The casino analogy seems to fall because where indeed is the house? No one has been able to answer that question for me.

We boarded the plane and once again, other then a crappy sandwich BA is an excellent airline giving us a pleasant flight to Geneva. On the ground we were ushered through customs not being able to be stereotyped as drug dealers or fugitive investment bankers. here is where the day falls to shit. We believe we need to be in another train terminal (there is one hooked up to the Geneva airport) and we get on a train to the main terminal 5 minutes away. We get off and look for out train to Aneccy but cannot find it and conclude it leaves out of another terminal. No one speaks english and the train people are not remotely helpful. Finally a ticketing agent (who was trying to explain that we were in the correct terminal) acceded to our demands and handed us a card for “tram 16” to get us to that terminal.

In the mean time the clock is ticking down as we have 25 minutes till that train departs. Sandy is convinced that there is only one train to Aneccy and if missed we will be staying in Genva for a night. She is frantically looking on maps inside the bus for the hint of a train station. She picks a stop and we hop off and begin frantically asking directions of people who speak no english and... miraculaousy, we find a train stattion 3 blocks away. Miraculously it is the one my wife was looking for. Miraculously... our train was supposed to leave from the main terminal and we were missing it as we spoke to the agent. Miraculously...he could get us on another train which with one stop, would get us to Aneccy 1/2 hour earlier. We sat for a 1/2 hour. I bought a bad sandwich and admired the grafity of the somewhat sketchy area the train was in.

The ride and swithching trains was uneventful accept for the unrelenting beauty of the Alps. We got into the station, Sandy got her bearings and we headed to the Hotel Dejun, checked in and rode a tiny elevator to our room which was significantly better then the Cambridge dorm accomodations. We walked around. We had Fondu. We argued about tipping. We went to bed. Not a bad day to have survived.

The Trip....Day II

Cambridge evidently was founded as a bridge over the river Cam. Who knew? Not quite a “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” but certainly a bridge over dirty, somewhat pretentious (or at least well educated) British waters.

All in all let me say it. A lovely town. And we had great weather. Two nice days of weather after what they said had been a miserably wet summer and early fall. We closed out night one after like 40 straight hours awake at a little French place that was lovely. I had to explain to Jon that the French restaurants generally use crappy cuts of beef and then hide them in sauce and this place was no different but it was still good. Then we went back to Valpo’s Cambridge residence and crashed.
I was worried I would wake up too early but when I finally cam to my wife told me it was 10:30. We were sleeping in little single things that felt like monks beds. The bathroom and shower were both down the hall but we got moving and walked about a mile to an open air market that had intrigued us.

I of course am obsessed by iced tea. I did not really comprehend that England, land of tea would not accommodate me but evidently in a tea culture, iced tea is an abomination. Once again, who knew? Still hope reigns eternal and I walked into a Starbucks and confidently ordered a Vente Black Iced Tea and the girl (American) said “I am sorry, we do not do iced tea”. I asked plaintively whether there was any place in England to get iced tea and she told me sadly, and with utter confidence...”no”. Still I persevered and walked down to Mc Donald's but did not even ask. On the board of drinks they had tea but it was away from soft drinks and next to coffee and they had no urns saying “sweet” and unsweet” I did not let this despair overtake me however.

We ate some meat pies which were pastries with a some cheese and sausage and “swede”. Swede i came to find out is turnip and rather then refusing to eat (the Becker natural reaction to anything different) I muscled through it and found it tasty. We bought some fresh squeezed orange juice at the market. It was delightful. We toured the market (boring) and then took our own walking tour of the town trying to find a noodle bar that had grabbed Sandy’s eye. We found it, “The Dojo” and decided we could live without it. We looked in a bunch of stores and bought Laura a puzzle.

We then bought tickets and went into The King’s College Cathedral. That was pretty awesome but could not figure out how to turn my flash off so could not take pictures inside. It was interesting listening tot he tour guides however and read the stuff on the construction. It was started in the 1400’s by Henry the 6th, one of the first Tudor Monarchs who was trying to legitimize himself through such spending. It has a lot of dragons in it in homage to St. George. It was an awesome church and it would have been nice to take some pictures of.

I went to a cheese monger (high point of trip) and bought some gruyere and some cheddar. They were life changing. We went back and got Jon who was now done with class and went down to the river Cam. They have these flat bottomed boats and they move along the river like gondolas but they pole them. We took a nice trip (having bought several beers to drink along the way, and then the Punter told us all about the history of the various colleges on the Cam including St. Johns, Trinity, King’s College and Queen’s College etc... They have all been there a very long time. All in all it was very cool with all the history and all the intellectual snobbery. If you go to Cambridge, go when it is warm and go Punting.

We then went to the grocery store and stocked our boy up with necessities and then went to a Spanish tapas place which seemed average to me but which he and my wife liked. We then went to a pub called Sir Issac Newton’s and I stood a drink for he and all his housemates. We came home and Sandy did the whole houses dishes and then we sat in bed an read and were kept awake for quite sometime by one of the young ladies in the group Skyping with her parents and then her boyfriend till all hours of the night. Then I passed out.

25th Anniversary Trip

D-Day...Stage 2









As you all might or might not know Obama has sent me to Europe to lay
the groundwork with the heads of State and the Papacy to bring back the
title of Holy Roman Emperor, which he will assume after his elected in
November, It is... quite and honor and as you might guess I am kind of a
really big deal.

We flew out of St. Louis at 5:00 on Saturday, hit Chicago for a short
layover and then flew all night arriving in at 9:10. Although my wife
slept, rather then talk to me I stayed awake all night watching "The
Incredible Hulk" and "Baby Mama" and literally feeling my waning
intelligence ebb yet again.

We took a train to the Kings Cross Station where we ran into our son Jon
who was just going to kill 4 hours in Piccadilly till he was supposed to
meet us.  This was the cause of much celebration as "running into"
someone you know in London is highly unlikely and the Kings Cross Train
Station has slightly more people who are passing through there at any
one time then the State of Alaska (sorry Sarah).

We had a shitty lunch at The Black Bear in Leicester.  I at least ate
bad Fish and Chips but Jon was stupid enough to order the Sunday Roast
Dinner which was a smallish (thankfully) piece of "top round", about 6
new potatoes, some bad vegetables and some bread curling all around it.
What the meat lacked in flavor it more then made up for in toughness.
The fish was just not that good but it was not toxic.  I did think that
someone had puked on my plate but before I sent it back my wife told me
that the pukishly green stuff were "smashed peas".

It makes it very, very easy to understand why every quality person has
left this somewhat god Forsaken country.  I was totally exhausted and so
Sandy decided we should do a blitzkrieg of London "since we are only
here for a day".  That meant that we saw, Trafalgar Square 10 Downing
Street Changing of the Horse Guard Westminster Abbey Buckingham Palace
The Tower Bridge And about 8 other places.  We saw them all through the
auspices of the "underground" but still managed to walk about 10 miles.
We then when back to King's Cross Station and took the hour long train
to Cambridge.  Jon is living in a house with 6 girls and two boys and it
looks... like he has fallen into something good again. When he found us
he was just coming back from a weekend in Ireland... not that I am
bitter.

I think the plan is to see how long I can go without sleep.  I think my
wife's ancestors did a similar "interesting" experiment with the Jews.

Pray for me

Lehman Sisters

Soooooo... what a week. As a bankruptcy lawyer I should have been really excited about what was happening. After all I make my living off of distress. Peoples distress, businesses distress, economic distress. Turmoil, diving markets, skittish people and a more skittish press leading the charge. I should be full of energy and verve but... I found it hard to work on Monday.
Now to be fair my Niece had gotten married over the weekend and my brothers office flooded badly on Sunday but I was in no way prepared for Lehman Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch all being threatened with extinction. It was mind numbing. On so many different levels.

Lehman Brother is in Chapter 11 and is selling off it’s good assets so that the rest can be picked over. No one knows what that means for people who had accounts with them and or investments or bonds in the company itself. Everyone knows it is not good but for all practical purposes Lehman Brothers is gone. Likely someone will buy the name and attempt to put it to work somewhere down the line as people keep trying to do with the ghost of the Napster franchise. But gone, over a weekend! Why... because they were so highly leveraged. But we will get to that later.

Merrill Lynch is gone. Swallowed up by Bank of America (which ate Countrywide earlier in the crisis) leaving what would appear to be a monolith but I am thinking it might be the case of a monster swallowing all it can, only to find it was sick to start with (see the rising credit card default rates to get a feeling for how sick). It is almost like BOA is trying to get to the “too big to let fail” status. Which brings us to AIG.

Before I got involved with and insurance defense firm, i had no idea who AIG was. i knew that they were run by one of the notorious Greenbergs (Hank I think). I say notorious because the family has had an eye for a buck and such great instincts throughout the years so as to be legendary. Hank Greenberg probably is thanking his lucky stars (and Elliot Spitzer) that he was forced out but anyway, I knew about AIG. They insure everyone. And when you say, “well they do not insure me, All State insures me”, I need to tell you, that AIG insures ALl State. They insured EVERYTHING. No risk was too big or too nuanced for them to earn a fee on. It would be like if I took out an insurance policy to cover my loses at the craps table. And they were brilliant at it, until they got to insuring the bad bets of people like Lehman and Merrill. They had been backing the shooter at the table for a number of years and the shooter was hot.

The shooter was in course everyone from the investment banks to small timers in town flipping houses and the bet was not a craps bet (which at least has ascertainable odds) but instead was real estate. Because one of the truisms of life thus far has been that real estate always goes up. Right? Well for fans of dollar cost averaging and history, real estate does always go up, they are not making any more of it. The stock market has also historically always gone up but the key is that you have to be in for the long run. My financial advisor is one of my best friends and he trained my wife and I a long time that you do not try and time the market and you have to have an excellent understanding of your own appetite for risk. This has been very good and valuable advise.

So, if these people all bet on real estate, then what is the problem? All they need to do is hunker down and the price of real estate will rise again and all those bad bets they made on the pass line will become good. Right? Well wrong. Very wrong. VERY, VERY WRONG! I see two reasons that the logic is wrong even though it is very logical. They are:

1. Leverage (which is brought on by)

2. The pressure for profits NOW.

I have represented a lot of real estate developers over the past few years. they were bright, intelligent and entrepreneurial and somehow, several years ago we got to a point where if you were not fully invested, meaning if all your assets were not at work then you were a dummy. That is not by itself a bad premise. I have a good German Lutheran disposition which favors this type of industry. No, where it got screwed up was because in order to maximize those working assets, everyone borrowed every cent that they good. That is leverage. Going back to the craps analogy, what these developers did, and what a lot of Americans did on their homes, and Lehman certainly did, well, these craps players visited the loan sharks and gambled on the bet that real estate prices would continue to go up. And up. And up.

Now a good shooter keeps some chips below the table so he can ride out a few sevens, but what our economy was doing was winning bets and then rolling everything forward on the next roll of the dice. None of these developers or investors had any spare powder dry, and when the seven s started coming, they found a way to borrow more and double down. THAT is leverage. But why take this leveraged risk?? It had to be scary. I know it was scary for the real estate developers and many (most) have paid a price with business and personal bankruptcies. But if your the head of Lehman, or Merrill or AIG... not so scary.

1. The money is not yours

2. Your bonus is tied to your stock price, your short term stock price.

3. There is an excellent chance you will be gone before the chickens come home to roost; and (this is everyone’s favorite part of the story)

4. If the 7’s keep coming up, you get fired and get a huge severance package (See Fanny and Freddy CEO’s).
What a Country!

I do love my country and I have a healthy respect (if not a love) for free market capitalism. I know that Obama and Mc Cain are going to fix the system, regulate it better, get back the bonus money, blah blah blah. The problem is not the system and the answer unfortunately is not going to be more regulation. The answer needs to come from a lot deeper in our country. We need to redefine what being a success is. It is not a new Mercedes, although I would love one. if our leaders are going to help us they are going to rally us to redefine our American Values, our Christian values.
But that is a lot to expect. Too much to expect in fact. And in the mean time there is going to be financial turmoil and pain and loses of savings and changes in life style and... all manner of other painful shit. I do not have any answers but this is... more then a little frightening.

STEPFORD VEEP?

Sooooo... I have been pretty good about this Sarah Palin thing. Between work, family, a little school and...oh the apparent collapse of our monetary system I have had plenty going on. Too much to add much needed comment on this dire, dire threat to...well to be fair to everything.

Sarah Palin is, I have decided, the Stepford Veep. She at any point might be capable of talking about cookie recipes and how much she loves the “first dude” her husband, “the world champion snow machine racer”. We have not seen her family since the beginning which is fine but they have kept a tight, tight lid on her and for good reason. She is a VERY limited talent and very limited intellect.

She would rock a school board and clearly rocked a small town and then amidst the moral collapse of Alaska rocked “The Largest State In The Union” (population about 670,000. She has appeared with Mc Cain supposedly because he “likes the crowds she draws” but really because she cannot hack it alone. her two solo appearances with fairly kind hosts have been embarrassing between her not knowing answers on one hand and not answering questions on the other. They have tried to school her but it is a lot to be brought up to date about your lifetime of American history and politics in a week or two.
She does not play that well among anyone but the solid, Christian Democratic base that Mc Cain used to so enjoy fighting and made people like me like him. This sidling up to them has “energized” that base but seriously, where would they go. And she will alienate almost everyone else. She cannot do anything else. I saw her on Fox and she just kept babbling that she and Mc Cain as a team would be ready to serve and ready and they were ready and would be ready and I thought she was going to short circuit and her head was going to explode. Which frankly was as good as she got.

She looks ill prepared. She seems preachy, judgmental and mean. She looks like she will be a massive divider of our country which is already massively divided by the Bush administration. All in all, she seems like my perfect nightmare. the good news is that unless America cannot elect a black man, she is the death nell of the Mc Cain ticket. Imagine a 72 year old president with her being a heartbeat, his cancerous old heartbeat, away from ultimate power.

The problem she has among others is that the way she has carried herself and carried the attack and stuck to her guns despite of the facts (Bridge to nowhere) and promised to cooperate with an investigation she is now stonewalling (troopergate) it is too easy to see her as an angry, vengeful, hateful chief executive. Who DO we want answering the phone at 3:00 A.M. when there is an emergency? Not her. She would nuke them in a heartbeat and have no understanding what it even meant. And her husband. Who is he anyway? The first dude? I get the feeling he will not be going to the Alaska Oil fields for 6 months and i also guess he will not be the primary care giver for Trig and the girls. Where is he?

So ask yourself, why won’t they let her out of the box? they say it is because the media, the liberal media, the mainstream media, the devils tool media will not treat her with the correct deference and respect. Every person needs respect but we expect the media to tell us about this person and to show her to us. That is what the media does. And do you think they are going to deferential like Putin might be. They should show us what she has got if she is “ready to lead”.

While the economy thrashes and they try and make this personal, the American public is going to start truly suffering. And the republicans are on their way out, unless all those nice liberal white folks cannot really vote for a black man. In that case I will be truly, truly scared and i will say a prayer for John Mc Cain’s health every night. because if they are keeping this tight a lid on her, she must be much worse then even I imagine.

Our old friends at the Onion had this.

http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/rumors_swirl_around_palin

I do believe she will be the butt of every joke. If they love her so much in Alaska, then help me. Send her back.

et tu Palin?

So I originally thought Sarah Palin was an interesting if kind of boring and pandering choice for V.P. Before Cheney V.P.’s did not matter at all and were window dressing at best. The daughter thing should not be an issue. It has nothing to do with her ability to lead but after thinking about it most of the day...

I am thinking she is going to be turned into a bad joke. Seriously, what is a mother of 5 doing running for President? How does that represent traditional conservative American values? I know she is a gun toting, moose hunting former hockey mom but how does that represent traditional American values? Seriously, if I had a 6 month old baby at home, moreover one with Down Syndrome, I would evaluate what my need was to reform Alaska in light of the needs of my family. The Evangelical conservatives which hijacked my old Republican Party have been touting that family matters MOST and family values matter MOST and here is a beauty queen, who left her family to become a career politician. Her husband is supposedly busy in either the oil fields or his commercial fishing business so who is taking care of the home?

She has kind of a squeaky voice. She was runner up for Ms. Alaska. And lets talk about Alaska. It is not even a real State. They have 639,000 or so people there. There are about 387,000 people in the City of St. Louis. The City itself. Not the surrounding counties and municipal area but just the City. Would we like Mayor Slay to be President on the basis of his command of the City of St. Louis Police? There are 2.8 million people in the metropolitan area of St. Louis. Over four times more people live in our metropolitan area then the whole State of Alaska. 670,000 people with a shit-load of oil money. How hard can it be? The Mc Cain spin that she is prepared to lead because of her time as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard is laughable. I am not saying Obama has such experience but he did not define the argument and then go out and pick up a good looking young mother of 5 from a State that should be part of Canada. She has five children. Perfect for V.P. She has named them Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. That is what most people would name their five kids here in the midwest. It stinks of our values and makes us relate to her in the same way my wife, a conservative, Republican Christian could relate to any moose hunting, hockey mom with 5 kids and a pregnant 17 year old spending all her time away from her family running for office and having kids. And perhaps she will have some more.

Sooooo... I am thinking this could Mc Cain, or at least his candidacy.

The “trooper-gate” thing does not bother me. if my sister was in an ugly custody battle I would not hesitate to try and get her husband fired if i thought it was best for my sister and her kids. That is human nature. But nominating the former Miss Alaska with 5 kids and an infant with down syndrome does raise a question of where her traditional family values are. Her husband owns a commercial fishing business. Shouldn't someone be at home with 4 minor children? Perhaps...a parent.

She was a Catholic, then a Pentecostal, now non denominational. So that at least is stable. While switching her religious affiliations 3 times she has at least been able to remain a life long member of the NRA.

I would assume we have heard all the problems she has and to be fair, these are not real problems. It is only the Vice Presidential nominee but seriously, if her choices make some conservative people uncomfortable and if we question her judgment.

I am going to leave her alone at this point but, I do not think other people will. Perhaps she will give a brilliant speech at the convention and have everyone rally around her. I noticed that for the last two days she has disappeared and hired a team of lawyers for trooper-gate. Not encouraging.

LABOR DAY!

Labor Day? Who would of thunk that I would even live to see another Labor Day. In theory it is a really good idea. A three day weekend to commemorate the end of summer but seriously, sometime in the last 10 years or so summer started to end at the end of July. Why is that? I do not know but kids started to go back to school earlier and earlier. I think they did it so the semester could end before Christmas break but... that seems like a really crappy reason. I miss summer running from the first of June to the end of August. So Labor day is just... kind of odd.

The kids have been back at college or at high school for 2-3 weeks already. I have been working (though based on my hours my partners do not think I am working) like summer was never here. It was not a bad summer. I had two weeks away from work up in Michigan (lovely) but as the summer officially wraps up I cannot help but think of missed opportunities and personal and... national disappointments.

*****

I watched Obama’s speech and it served yet another purpose for me. It was a fine speech but I fell asleep less then half way through. I feel stupid about it but I really did have some unbelievably messianic (small m) hopes for him. I was disappointed by the Biden choice but really thought that he would light it up in front of 80,000 people and give e a speech for the ages. That is not what he did. It was a great speech but... it will not be remembered and it did not transcend anything....again. I am still going to vote for him. I still want to have someone who might be able to replace judges with some that are not young, smart, Nazis.

****

Mc Cain appoints a woman Governor from Alaska. She too is as far to the right as you can get and will play well to the base that Mc Cain has been pandering to since he sold his soul to the Bushies. It is a brave play and bold. She is young, she is pretty, and likely will appeal to some of Hillary’s hard core followers who did not embrace Obama...right? Wrong. Very wrong. Just like abortion is the ONLY issue for that Bush coalition it is the ONLY issue running the other way for Hillary’s gals. They could not even hold their nose and vote for her and the idea that a 40 something women will be President if Mc Cain croaks will frighten a lot of people too.

On that note, it will not frighten me. This EXPERIENCE issue has been bogus one from the start. you do not train to be President. The job is too massive and you either can lead and surround yourself with quality people to help govern, or as we have seen you can grab your dads craziest old friends and let them run your government, your economy and your war. That worked out well. At least Obama will not be bringing his dad’s tribal chief buddies from Kenya in as his cabinet... at least I think he won’t.

****

So we get a day off on Monday. I will go to work anyway. Laboring on Labor Day. Does that make any sense?

****

Wow. A little late breaking news. Sarah Palin’s 17 year old daughter Bristol... 5 months pregnant. This should be a huge non story and obama did the right thing and said it had nothing to do with the election and reminded everyone that his mom had him when he was 18. It is hard to believe that Mc Cain new about it. Was he waiting for the right time to disclose? This is going to be distracting. The idea that somehow it is great news and she is brave to let her daughter have the baby is troubling. It is just a sad story all around but if your not a conservative and you you do not personalize it... it is kind of funny. I do not know anything about “trooper-gate” but where does Mc Cain find all these good looking, energetic young female supporters?