Today on Mackenab.com I wish to announce my endorsement of Howard Dean for President of the United States. The first I heard of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign was a few months ago when Medley mentioned him. I took a look at his website and was suitably impressed, but I had no real basis for comparison as I had been doing my best to ignore a presidential election which is still 16 months away. After seeing everything else on offer this election cycle, though, I can say with confidence that I believe that Howard Dean is the best hope for America in 2004.

As I remind you from time to time, dear reader, until a few years ago I was a Republican. Even when I started to abandon some Republican “ideals,” I still clung to that label for one reason: I believed that the Republican party was the party of fiscal discipline. The current administration, with their reckless tax cuts, huge spending programs, balooning deficits, and accounting shenanigans have shown with complete clarity that they have no interest whatsoever in fiscal discipline.

Though his enemies would have you believe that Howard Dean is a left wing wacko, a liberal democrat from days gone by, Howard Dean is a fiscal conservative. As Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean cut taxes, balanced the budget, and created jobs. I believe that fiscal discipline is the single most important stand that a politician can take for insuring the future of our great nation, and I believe that Howard Dean is committed to sound management of the federal budget. Oh, and while you’re debunking the “liberal Howard” myth, take a look at his stance on gun control.

At the same time, I believe that Howard Dean will take important stands on many other issues. I believe that he will seek to protect the environment, rolling back some of the excesses of the Bush administration, which ran Christine Todd Whitman, perhaps this country’s most respected Republican environmental leader, out of a job. I believe that Governor Dean will continue the fight against terrorism while protecting the civil liberties that make this the greatest nation on earth and while nurturing and building, rather than destroying, our alliances with other nations of the world. And I believe that Howard Dean will support education by putting power in the hands of America’s communities and educators, rather than by foisting unfunded mandates on our schools.

With this announcement today, I am making a small donation to the Dean for America. As my means increase and the election cycle builds, I plan to donate more. I encourage you to visit Dean for America today, learn about Dean’s positions, and make an informed choice.

Dan Gillmor wrote a column of travel tips on Sunday, and has now posted some tips submitted to him by readers. I did quite a lot of traveling this Spring on the interview circuit, and I have to say that some of these tips would have been useful to me.

I actually planned to implement Dan’s bag scheme myself a couple of months ago, though I do not yet have the funds to do so. The basic idea is to buy a laptop sleve that fits easily in your rolling carry-on. You can check the rolling carry-on at planeside, when necessary, and still bring your laptop on board without having to deal with two bags all the time. You can also put your big carry-on in the overhead bin and put your laptop under the seat, and you have a small laptop bag to carry with you to meetings and whatnot.

After reading the suggestions that Dan collected, I have definitely added noise-cancelling headset to my wish list. I’ve definitely noticed the way that low frequency engine noise seems to drain my energy. Already on my list is an airplane power adapter.

I also liked the idea of a sleeping pill for red-eyes, as it tends to be very difficult to sleep, but I suspect that one would have to experiment to get the dosing right. (It is good to wakeup before the landing, you know.)