Party with Good Morning Buenos Aires!

Our friends at Good Morning BsAs are throwing a party and that means this is your chance to meet anybody who's anybody in this 500 year-old pirate town!

Samuel Warde is hosting the festivities and he's inviting everyone! Good Democrat that he is, he wants to make sure that if there are any US citizens out there that have not yet requested their absentee ballot can meet representatives from Democrats Abroad Argentina and take care of that little formality. In fact, Sam is calling for a real membership drive for DAA!

You'll also mingle with the staff of BA Insider magazine and the lovely people from www.internations.org

Expect a huge crowd. Sam can really call out the troops ...and because of that he can negotiate great prices on drinks and food. Unlike a lot of "professional party-throwers" in the city, he doesn't pocket the difference. There are a lot more extras and fun that you can read about at his site: www.goodmorningba.com This Wednesday at 9pm. See you there.

DAA Film Series #1

Primarily through the tremendous efforts of our own Alicia Blumencweig, Democrats Abroad Argentina has inked the deal on using the lovely and prestigious Recoleta Cultural Center as the showcase for the first in our long planned DAA Film Series!

An Afternoon at the Movies with DAA
This coming Saturday, July 26th at 4:00pm
DAA Film Series is Open to the Public and Free

You, no doubt, know the place well even if you've never been inside. It's just steps away from Café La Biela, practically next door to the main gate of Recoleta Cemetery, and in front of the big craft fair held each weekend in Recoleta's Plaza Francia. It's a no-brainer to find. Inside, among all the ever-present exhibitions, is the Micro-Cine ...the best 100 seat theater in town. That's where we'll be!

As the kick-off for our series, we have Argentine film director Sebastian Córdoba's latest documentary, "Through Thick and Thin" (75 minutes), which follows the stories of 7 bi-national couples as the navigate their way through the vagaries of the US immigration laws.

I'm sure a LOT of you have been there, done that. I know my wife and I had our full measure of it!

Except this film has a twist ...all these couples are gay, some with children. If you think it's difficult for straight individuals to jump through the hoops ...you ain't seen nothin' yet.

The film is an award-winner all over the world, including the LGBT "Big Three": Frameline, The San Francisco Film Festival, and New York's NewFest. It comes to us highly recommended by Democrats Abroad Spain.

For those interested, the showing will be immediately followed by a panel discussion headed by Osvaldo Bazán, a prominent journalist, writer and entertainment critic who will moderate the rest of the panel and all the audience participation...

...all in English and Spanish!

The room is less than a year old and is spiffy and comfortable and with great audio and visuals. Take a few hours out of your Saturday, take a cafecito at La Biela, visit the craft fair in Plaza Francia, and take in a great film with your fellow Democrats.

Retraction / Correction

In Wednesday's issue of Yanqui Mike, I erroneously attributed Mrs. John McCain's fortune to Budweiser brewing. Mrs. McCain is chair of Hensley & Co., one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the US.

I regret the error.

As regards globalism, free trade, arms length transactions, and beer, I leave you with the words of Frank Vincent Zappa:

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

Not a word from Mrs. John "W" McSame

...and the $50 billion sale of one of the last pieces of American manufacturing, Budweiser beer.

Mrs. John McCain, is the heir to the Budweiser fortune and owns a huge piece of the company.

Budweiser is the biggest brewer in the US. But no more. It, like Quilmes in Argentina, is now owned by InBev.

Does that bother you? Maybe. But it sure as hell doesn't bother the wife of John "W" McSame who continues to sell the US down the river.

Manufacturing doesn't mean anything to these people. A REAL job at a real wage doing a real thing is the furthest from the mind of the richest Senator of all the senators.

Is that the man that you want for your President?

Vote from abroad. Get your absentee ballot now.

Wake up and realize that you don't mean anything to these people.

Expat Survival Kit

This is not a blatant shill ...nor a shill of anykind! Just a testimonial from somebody (me) who's been here in Buenos Aires Argentina for a long time now.

There are a lot of VoIP services that you can choose from and I'll be sure to entertain all of your comments regarding the myriad choices available, free and otherwise, in the Comments (please, just don't flame each other.)

But for me, there is nothing that compares to Vonage. And it's cheap ...not free, but cheap.

By itself, being cheap would not cut it for me. Personally, I gotta have a US phone number that people all over the world can simply pick up their landlines and dial and get me.

Secondly, the voice quality has got to be at least "very good" and the service has to be completely reliable.

Coming in a distant third, I'd rather not install any phone-specific software on my computer. That's not a really big deal but I have found that I am one of those 4% to 6% of people all over the world that for some unknown reason can't get Skype to work on my rig due to some sort of conflict that even Skype can't explain.

I'm not knockin' Skype and I never will. If it wasn't for Skype, expats in general would be in bad shape. Skype is a big network and is easy to use for, like I said, 94% to 96% of everybody.

I will say, however, that Skype just won't do for the Yanq because I can't get a real xxx-xxx-xxxx type of number for people to call... unless I pay for Skype-Out. Something, apparently, very few people do.

Further, I am always bummed-out about the quality of the voice that comes over to me from Skype and other service users. They don't sound like a real phone. There one big exception in my experience, however: my boss in Canada uses Skype with a fiber-optic hook-up ...and he sounds very good, not as good as vonage or a landline ...but very good. All I have is an ordinary cable-modem and I don't plan on upgrading to fiber-optics in Buenos Aires for any part of the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, my voice quality, in and out, is so good that many people do not believe that I'm call from the other side of the world. Crystal clear and never drops off. I get used to people thinking that I'm calling from the next room as some sort of gag.

Cheap? I pay $23.29 a month, including tax and everything, for 500 minutes of outbound calling to non-vonage customers (my brother uses it in the US in place of a landline and I can talk to him for unlimited numbers of minutes free.) I get toll-free numbers ...for unlimited "free" minutes (great for lingering on hold with some of your vendors.) Inbound callers to my number don't count against my 500 minutes either.

Within my 500 minutes, I can talk to anywhere in the US, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc. and Canada.

International calls are also dirt cheap. I can even call across town in Buenos Aires for 1¢ a minute. If I wanted to sign up for the "unlimited plan" I could even call the UK, Italy, France, Spain and Ireland for free. That costs more but if you wanna pay by the year... they'll even throw that in with your 500 minutes.

It's not for everybody, though.

You need to get a little gizmo/telephone converter device to hook in between your cable modem and computer. You can get that for free in the US.

You also need a United States credit card or a United States bank account for them to directly debit every month.

Otherwise, they won't give you the service.

Every time I use it I realize that I've never owned an electronic device that served me so well. That's why I decided to tell you about it.

So if you're thinking about VoIP and need something "bonafide!", you should at least think about vonage.

They've also got something where if you refer a friend, they'll give you 2 months free. So if you've know some other people that will sign up, you can knock your cost down even further.

nuttin' ta say

It ain't easy during our antipodal winter here to keep in synch with all of the summertime attitudes of the much more populated Northern Hemisphere. Well, you could ...but it would require living in more of a bubble than the yanq would prefer. Our winter here is my winter. Perhaps, my tone is a source of joy for those who live north of the Equator during that time when the snow is up to yer kiester around the Great Lakes! Right now, I want my hibernation. I look at my pet "monkey-rat" all curled up in a warm spot and my cows slowly munching on winter hay as they huddle comfortably together for warmth ...and I get to thinking pretty easy that my animal world has the right idea for the right place and the right time.

But there is no escape! Resistance is, truly, futile when confronted by the cultural dominance of the North and their cohorts. Maybe that's a tiny bit of insight as to the differences in Southern Hemisphere attitudes. I believe that I am graduating to Argentine status.

Light, rather than heat, I think, governs this circadian conundrum. Global warming is giving us quite mild temperatures in Buenos Aires this year ...but I feel surrounded in gray as I rise often before full-daylight and begin to think about bed at a surprisingly early, dark hour. Don't even mention that ain't none of us gettin' any younger!

There is an old tale among Argentines that, during the Golden Age, the well-to-do would sometimes steam toward Europe for their de rigueur Grand Tour during our fine weather of November and December ...only to find that they had neglected to bring anything warmer to wear than a sweater. I always joined in the laughter at that ...but nowadays my giggles at that old joke are tinged with a bit more empathy.

It becomes an effort, after several years here, to stay aware of the environment in which things occur on the other side of the world. The events are easy to remember: the 4th of July will remain forever etched in my brain but it's so different to celebrate it en pleno invierno! I have a Denver convention this August to constantly plan for. The US presidential election will come in our Spring ...although the date was clearly, intentionally invented for AFTER the harvest and BEFORE we settle into our long winter's nap!

Maybe more than that, a long hot continental summer does things to the attitude that the coastal foggy chill of our Winter does not. Discontent! The North is discontented with everything, it seems! Summer driving is curtailed by high gas prices. Houses usually sell better in Summer but this year ...well, you know about that. Republicans are in the run-up to an election in which they cannot comfortably consider safe any of the seats that they hold. The Democratic candidate is under fire (ahh... fire. A good blazer from my new cast iron stove in the campo...) for his support of the FISA bill. A group is forming to make sure that his primary challenger gets a real "up or down" vote at the convention. I fear that I'm going to get off that plane after more than 3 years between visits ...in hot August ...as unprepared as a Martian ...if not a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court ...for the general mentality that I will encounter.

Not only unprepared for the mentality of simmering confrontation but also for the unavoidable push into the deep-end of the pool of US culture. My mind, heart and soul tell me, "Junk Food". Hmm... maybe there's a reason for all the... aaah, forget it.

Don't get me wrong, Winter here is far from being exactly gloomy. The biggest responsibility I have, outside of feeding my family, is cutting through not only my own torpor but getting through to other yanquis that the time to make sure that they can vote from abroad IS NOW!

Please register to vote in November ...right now. If you have any difficulties at all, write me immediately, please.

I also wonder how I can best write about the concerns of US citizens outside the United States and its territories during Convention Week. I have my own ideas, of course ...but I'd love to have yours, as well ...and I need to anticipate your concerns even if you don't tell me what you want to know from the convention floor. letters@yanquimike.com.ar is a great place for you to clue me in as to whatever you would like me to use my unbelievable access to the proceedings ...toward representing you better.

Like I said, I got nothing to say.

Le Merval, Viamonte 852..

... El Clarin will be there at 4:30 with a film crew to help us along in our 4th of July celebrations!

Drinking Liberally in Buenos Aires...

...wouldn't it be great if there was a place where liberals could meet in harmony, in an environment that is conducive, constructive to "coming together", with partnering! and respect where everyone can contribute???
.Aaaaa! Let's just have a Beer!
Drinking Liberally, every Thursday, always at 7:00pm, always at Sir Will's Pub, San Martín 678, in the heart of microcentro. See you tonight. Come together!