There's a great quote (from a woman I used to work with, who is AWESOME) in the recent New Yorker profile, where she says Rudy was surrounded by such yes-men in City Hall that if he said, "Let's kill thirteen-year-olds," someone at the table would be, "Great idea! And have you thought about killing twelve-year-olds?"

I have a credit guide somewhere I can send to you if you'd like, and offer any help I can. I've just seen far too many people get into credit counseling and it takes them much longer to repair it.

I'd appreciate that--profile address works.

I'm supposed to call the credit union back in a couple of hours to see if we were approved for a smaller amount than my original request. I asked about getting enough to cover any or all of the three of our five cards that have the highest interest rate, all of which come from a place I'll call Evil Bank, because that's how I feel about them right now. Of the other two cards, one comes from Not-So-Evil Bank and has a slightly lower rate, and the last one is a new Discover Card that's currently in its 0% on the first year on balance transfers and is set to have the lowest rate of all, actually a bit lower than the credit union's loan rate, once that expires this fall.

Anyway, regardless of how the revised application turns out, I've decided to treat this as if I'd been given a loan. I'm going to figure out what it would take to pay off the debt in five or six years if we don't incur any new debt, and I'm going to pay that amount every month. (Though, given the number of different interest rates involved, the idea of that calculation makes my head hurt.) Whatever money we have left each month after paying our bills and that amount is going to go into a savings account until we build up a cash reserve of $2500. Once we've done that, extra money can go toward paying the debt faster.

Needless to say, I'll adjust as circumstances warrant, seeking lower interest rates, increasing the monthly debt payment amount if our salaries increase or other expenses drop, etc. And I know we might have to use the cards if something drastic happened (like emergency expensive car repair or needing to travel for a family emergency) before we build up the cash reserve. But that way I can create for myself what I wanted from the loan--a sense of control, and a date where this will be over.

Do you have the name of the person the FYI is attached to? Do you need the info long term? Do you have Outlook?

What I do, if I need info for a specific person is put it in the notes section in their contact card in outlook.

New Yorker piece: [link]

Yeah, loyalty is Rudy's big thing. If you need a two-word reason not to vote for Giuliani, those words are Bernard Kerik.

Susan, insent.

I'd like to see instant runoff elections where you can vote for at least a second choice.

Absolutely. There are lots of problems with the electoral college, but there are just as many problems with plurality. I wouldn't advocate getting rid of the electoral college unless the system we were going to was one of the ones that allowed preferences. (Of course, there are potential issues with all voting systems, but plurality is worse than most, and electoral college is really just a weird sort of iterated plurality.)

So how many Bay Area folks still have power? Mine has flickered, but is still on, so far.

So where is the birthday girl? ER?

Susan! I thought of you reading the comments to a dieting blogger at epicurious.com. There are a number of really great healthy snacking suggestions in response to her post today:

[link]