Members

[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]

Below are the 25 most recent friends journal entries:

September 8th, 2008
07:26 am schmengie [Link]	couple of pre work notes NYT publishes puff piece on Palin...wow. Of course Drudge touted this last night as something sinister generating 2 trillion page view. For the first time since I have watched the Intrade numbers (I respect prock's view that this is important) the spread between Obama and McCain is single digits 54.4-44.8. I am sure it will change but thats where it is now. I am pretty sure starting today we will see new State polls start to trickle out. Will be interesting to see whether the McCain bounce is just more people for him in already Red states or whether states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado and Wisconsin are turning colors. EDIT 52.1 Obama 47.5 McCain 4.6 spread I suppose that means money is pouring to McCain for it to drop so quick EDIT AGAIN 50-49.9 favoring McCain If this was a sporting event, I would think the fix was in and someone had inside info. For sure it would come off the board (9 comments \| Leave a comment)
September 7th, 2008
10:41 pm prock [Link]	And I'm out. Paulson came out with a plan for Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae. Exiting almost all of my shorts tomorrow morning. Maybe start back in later in the week depending on how things go. (8 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:45 pm rcfox [Link]	MSNBC Dropping Olbermann and Matthews?! The New York Times confirms a rumor from Drudge that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews have been dropped from the anchor chair for debates and election night. The Times called what MSNBC was doing a "bold experiment." Davidson Goldin, formerly editorial director of MSNBC and now a co-founder of a reputation management firm, is quoted by the Times: "The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming." Read the entire Times piece. Apparently NBC upper management wasn't appreciative of what was happening at MSNBC. An anonymous staffer is quoted: "MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict...They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week." Next week has apparently come. I'm guessing that the "Breaking News" roller of 'How Many Houses Does Palin add..." and the chants of "NBC, NBC" during Palin's speech might have been the last straws. David Gregory will replace Olbermann and Matthews for MSNBC as anchor for political coverage during the debates. Current Mood: amused (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
09:29 am rcfox [Link]	A Lot of Politics / Cubs & Bears ( First, the politics: ) Part 3 of the Baseball Gods is up. Speaking of baseball, the Cubs won, while the Brewers won and Philadelphia was rained out (as expected). The Cubs magic numbers fell by one to 17 for the division and 13 for a playoff spot. Today's action: Cubs @ Cincinnati Milwaukee vs. San Diego Philadelphia @ Mets, Day-Night Doubleheader Cal demolished Wazzu in Pullman yesterday, 66-3. Ouch! And football starts for real today. If the Bears beat the Colts..... Current Mood: good (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
09:32 am schmengie [Link]	Race and the Race I have mentioned the Bradley effect in comments and posts many times over the last 6 months. My gut tells me while America has come a long way, it hasnt yet come all the way to true color blindness where people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I just read a commentary that seems to give voice to my opinions. some snips "Union organizers in the key state of Michigan complain in the press that, as one puts it, "we're all struggling to some extent with the problem of white workers who will not vote for Obama because of his color." An aging mine electrician from Kentucky is quoted as saying, "I won't vote for a colored man. He'll put too many coloreds in jobs." An elderly woman in a New Jersey hair salon is overheard complaining about Barack and Michelle Obama the other day, about how blacks supposedly have larger bones than whites, and about how she's fleeing America if Obama wins." "Case in point, Pennsylvania. On the day of the Democratic presidential primary, 12 percent of the white Democratic voters told the exit pollsters that race mattered in their choice of candidate; of those whites, 76 percent chose Hillary Rodham Clinton over Obama. The same pattern surfaced in other states, including the key autumn state of Ohio." "This is worth pondering a moment longer. If 12 percent of Democratic voters are willing to tell exit pollsters, eye to eye, that race was an important factor, to Obama's detriment, isn't it fair to assume that the real percentage (including those who kept their sentiments private) was actually higher? And what might this portend for the general election, when the white electorate will be broader, and hence significantly less liberal, than in Democratic contests?" "Here's one hint. Last June, the Washington Post-ABC News poll devised a "racial sensitivity index," based on a series of nuanced questions that were designed to measure the varying levels of racial prejudice in the white electorate. The pollsters came up with three categories, ranging from most to least enlightened. The key finding: Whites in the least-enlightened category - roughly 30 percent of the white electorate - favored John McCain over Obama by a ratio of 2-1" I have not fact checked the author's assertions and I have no idea which side of the spectrum he lives on. A quick google check seems to show him pissing off GOP bloggers more but that doesn't mean anything. I have said it before and I stand behind my "feeling as opinion". If Obama is not up in the polls and especially in the Battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan by a not insignificant amount he is in trouble. (20 comments \| Leave a comment)
September 6th, 2008
05:14 pm prock [Link]	Fact Checking Obama's Convention Speech: Most egregious lie He said McCain would fail to lower taxes for 100 million Americans while his own plan would cut taxes for 95 percent of “working” families. But an independent analysis puts the number who would see no benefit from McCain’s plan at 66 million and finds that Obama’s plan would benefit 81 percent of all households when retirees and those without children are figured in. McCain's Convention Speech Most egregious lie He said Obama would "close" markets to trade. In fact, Obama, though he once said he wanted to "renegotiate" the North American Free Trade Agreement, now says he simply wants to try to strengthen environmental and labor provisions in it. Biggest issue missing from both speeches: How they will deal with the two trillion dollar housing bust/credit crunch. (20 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:01 pm gunga_galunga [Link]	Can I get a refund on my tickets to the ND-Purdue game? They lose this game and Charlie Weis is going to be fighting for his job the rest of the season. Three stellar recruiting classes should be enough to get it done at home against SDSU. Very disappointing start so far. JFC. Two stupid penalties, a missed field goal, two turnovers, a blown TD pass with a wide open receiver, and a blown snap. Yep. Looks a lot like last year. Update: Clausen is throwing some nice passes at least. Update 2: Total embarrassment averted. There were some positives: 0 sacks, Clausen looked good (the INT was the receiver's fault, the ball hit him in the hands), Golden Tate looks good, and with the exception of the botched field goals special teams looks better. Still, too many stupid mistakes and turnovers. The D didn't look that good. The running game was a mixed bag. The O line still needs to be able to blow people off the line. They outweighed the SDSU line by 30 lbs a man. (11 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:21 pm schmengie [Link]	tough decisions Last year was so much fun for Notre Dame High School haters like me. But has all the hate been exorcised? They start the 08 season in around 20 minutes vs horrible San Diego State. The question I have to ask myself is should I continue a lifetime of hating Notre Dame Community College or should I show my gentler side and root for a reawakening? Pro's of being kinder and gentler gunga_galunga will be my best friend and may get smart and vote McCain A second 3-9 season in a row might make rooting against Notre Dame JCC a hate crime in the new Obama socialist republic Golic's kid goes to Notre Dame Prep and I like Mike and Mike Charlie Weis seems like an ok guy It will be fun to hate again next year if they make a bowl game Seeing them make the BCS with a 7-4 record is almost worth the price of admission Cons of being kinder and gentler Seeing gunga_galunga's head explode for 12 weeks is really good clean fun What were once vices are now habits (sorry doobies) They are still Notre fucking Dame WE ARE AZ-TECS! (9 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:46 am rcfox [Link]	Politics / Cubs ( First the politics... ) The Cubs looked horrible last night. No change in the magic numbers (the Cubs lost, Milwaukee and Philadelphia won). Everyone plays the same opponents today, though it's likely that the Mets/Phillies game will be rained out in New York. Current Mood: busy Current Music: Creep -- Radiohead (20 comments \| Leave a comment)
09:11 am rcfox [Link]	Follow-Up: What To Do With 72 Binders Yesterday I noted that I ordered some legal supplies. Among the products I ordered were 3 Letter Size Top Bind Report Covers: I received three boxes rather than three binders. So I called the company I ordered them from. I told them that I received three boxes. The woman I spoke with put me on hold and called their warehouse. They said that they "had no record of them shipping three boxes of binders" and the warehouse can't issue an RMA (return materials authorization). She speculated that because the computer cut-off the last word of what I ordered (Report Cover, Top-Bind, Oxford, Pressboard/Tyvek, 2" Cap, Two-Prong 2-3/4" C-C,, LETTER Size, Black) to "Bk" the warehouse thought that I ordered boxes of the binders. She told me to keep them. Congratulations to dmorr and evwhore who correctly forecast the outcome. So does anyone need a Top Bind Report Cover??? Current Mood: amused (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
07:16 am adb_jaeger [Link]	I wonder if the FDIC tipped him off? McCain's son was (as is, was in the past, but not exactly when it failed) on board of failed bank. It's not like the guy wouldn't have known the bank was toast, being on the board and all. Of course, this from from the WSJ is pretty damning: "If Mr. McCain had remained on Silver State's board another four days, his position on the audit committee would have required him to sign off on the company's second-quarter financial statements." I'd like to make a joke about knowledge of economics (or lack thereof) being genetic, but I think the son is adopted. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
September 5th, 2008
10:23 pm schmengie [Link]	What do the ads mean? There is only one Obama ad running here in Florida that I have seen on TV. The entire ad..not exaggerating, is pictures and captions of McCain and Bush together. You dont see Obama until the obligatory I am Barack Obama and I approve of this message at the end. To me this is a sign Obama's internal numbers are are not as good as hoped. He has run an entire campaign based on Hope and Change. He has taken down the Nations biggest and baddest political family with that message. He is up against a 72 year old man who even to me appears out of touch with modern America. The VP candidate has no national experience and the MSM (CNN, NBC, CBS NYT etc) has been uniformly condescending. Yet despite all of those things in his favor, he has turned into John Kerry. Why? I have no proof...just instincts honed from being a political junkie since the early 80s. My gut tells me his internals say the Hope/Change mantra has run its course. Its one thing to win 50% (barely) of adoring Democrats. Its quite another to win 50% of the USA including D,R and I. The Hope/Change message isnt enough. He has to tie McCain to Bush because his agenda as outlined in Denver and since is just the basic D message we have heard for 25 years. Class warfare, rich vs poor, business vs workers, more power for teachers unions, choice for abortion, no choice for schools. All of these issues might poll well but people dont vote that way. Even Obama himself said the Surge was a raging success and Iraq is less of an issue. So what else is there for The One to do? Yep, McBush it is. I think its a mistake but wtf do I know? EDIT..more evidence..here is excerpt of CBS article "Obama spoke for about eight minutes before greeting guests individually. He vowed to fight Republican attacks on his character and background more fiercely than John Kerry did in his losing campaign four years ago. "We're not going to be bullied, we're not going to be smeared, we're not going to be lied about," Obama said. "I don't believe in coming in second." Obama has drawn the wrong message from Kerry's loss. It wasn't about being bullied whatever that means. It was running a aimless campaign based on Bush bashing. This is more good news for McCain. (15 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:04 pm adb_jaeger [Link]	Looks like all Americans will soon own a piece of FNM and FRE Story here They better zero out the equity holders, at the very least. BIll Gross should take a huge haircut too. (But he won't). (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:34 pm rcfox [Link]	McCain: 38.9MM, Obama 38.4MM The viewership numbers for the two acceptance speeches are in. Obama's acceptance in Denver drew 38.4 million. I wouldn't have believed this a week ago, but it did happen--John McCain outdrew him. Nielsen Media Research is reporting that John McCain's acceptance speech drew 38.9 million. (Note that both numbers exclude viewers on PBS & CSPAN. Assuming roughly equal numbers to last week, add 3 million viewers to each total). And the NFL lead-in is now discounted as helping McCain's viewership according to the linked story. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Us And Them -- Pink Floyd (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:26 pm rcfox [Link]	Good Customer Service Leads to an Ethics Question Yesterday I ordered some binders and legal dividers (each divider says "Exhibit A," "Exhibit B," etc.) from a legal supply company. I need them for an Estate Tax return I'm completing. I got great customer service--I placed the order online, and they called me to confirm regarding the dividers. (There are two styles in use, they wanted to see if I didn't mind getting the other style as the one I ordered was out of stock. I didn't mind.) Delivery was promised for today. And, indeed, they delivered. I was surprised when I received two boxes, one of which was quite heavy. I ordered three binders and three sets of dividers. The supply company sent me three boxes of binders. Each box contains 25 binders, so I received 75. I paid for three binders, not three boxes. (I double-checked my order.) So what should I do? Poll #1254370 What Should I Do With the 72 Binders? Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All What Should Russ Do With Those 72 Binders? View Answers Call the company, and offer to return them. 25 (96.2%) They're manna from Heaven. Keep them and use them...eventually. 1 (3.8%) Give them to friends/attorneys 0 (0.0%) Other (Please describe in comments) 0 (0.0%) I'll let you know what I actually did later. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Stairway To Heaven (Live) -- Led Zeppelin (9 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:59 am rcfox [Link]	TV Ratings: McCain Beat Obama!?! I just posted that the numbers for last night's McCain speech weren't out. Well, preliminary numbers are now out and it appears that McCain's address beat Barack Obama's. Across broadcast networks McCain averaged a 4.8 rating/7 share versus Obama's 4.3/7. Of course, those are preliminary numbers and don't include cable. The report I linked to notes that the first NFL game of the season may have increased the rating. Current Mood: busy (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
10:53 am rcfox [Link]	18 / Some Politics / Vandy Milwaukee lost last night to San Diego, so the Cubs magic number for the division has fallen to 18; it's 14 to clinch a playoff spot (versus Philadelphia). Tonight's action: Cubs @ Cincinnati Milwaukee vs. San Diego Philadelphia @ Mets ( politics under the cut ) Annoying: Vandy beat South Carolina last night in Nashville. I strongly considered taking the Commodores. On an email list I subscribe to several individuals bet against Vandy when they went to Miami (OH); Vandy won big. Carolina beat NC State at home, but had lots of turnovers. That game showed me that NC State is a bad team. I thought there was a good chance that Vandy would cover...all they did was win outright. Current Mood: busy (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:45 am gunga_galunga [Link]	Update on the green background During McCain's speech, I was really surprised that they had a green backgroung. It turns out that it was the lawn of some building. It turns out that the building was Walter Reed Middle School in California (people were initially speculating that it was one of his houses, which would have been really hilarious). There is speculation that it was supposed to be Walter Reed Medical Center. Seriously, did some staffer just google images of "Walter Reed" and make that their background? That said, I actually thought McCain had a decent speech. It was more like the old McCain when he talked about bipartisanship and changes the Republicans need to make. Of course it didn't jibe at all with the rest of the convention themes. I thought he handled the hecklers fairly well and his POW piece at the end was riveting. Unfortunately, in addition to being more like the old McCain, it also seemed to be a very old McCain. Rasmussen has McCain back to being just down 2 points. 45% without leaners is the highest he's been yet. Their poll is a 3 day moving average and would have just had one day post Palin's speech and none of McCain's, so we'll see if the trend continues. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
September 4th, 2008
08:13 pm prock [Link]	Illustrating class warfare [from http://econompicdata.blogspot.com/] (11 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:18 pm gunga_galunga [Link]	Seriously? A green background. Look for Colbert to have another awesome video contest. (With a green background you can put any video you want in, sort of like the newscasts due with weather maps. Colbert has a had a couple of contests with these). (Leave a comment)
03:58 pm prock [Link]	Yow Somewhere in flashland evwhore finds O'Reilly calling Palin a pinhead (by proxy of course). Bias-shmias. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
04:52 pm gunga_galunga [Link]	Obama can't speak off the cuff Or can he? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBv88rG608 Meanwhile, it sounds like the McCain campaign is only going to allow Sarah Palin to speak at scripted events. If this is true, it's outrageous. (Leave a comment)
03:16 pm prock [Link]	Palin nullifies some McCain issues One of the masterful aspects of the Palin selection is that it really mediates a lot of the age issues that McCain has. Now, instead of wondering what might happen if McCain doesn't serve out his full term, we know what will happen. Palin will become president. For a lot of the base, this is a double blessing. Not only does Palin represent core social conservatism important to so much of the base, she's also a strong gun advocate, and is financial conservative of some measure. But when you add to that the fact that she'll be replacing McCain, the ascention of Palin would be double-plus-good. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
10:28 am rcfox [Link]	Yesterday.... ...the Cubs lost. But so did Milwaukee and Philadelphia, so the Cubs now have a magic number of 15 to cinch a playoff spot and 19 to clinch the division. They have 23 games left. Cubs: Idle (@ Cincinnati on Friday) Milwaukee vs. San Diego Philadelphia: Idle (@ Mets on Friday) News from this morning: Corrupt Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit is resigning and will plead guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice. He will serve four months in prison, repay $1 million, surrender his law license, and be out of politics. "I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit ... I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury, to impede and obstruct the disposition of justice." He also faces two felony counts for allegedly assaulting deputies attempting to serve a subpoena at his sister's home. If you read the article you can play Guess the Political Party! As usual, when you can play that game the answer is Democratic. ( RNC Below ) Current Mood: busy (19 comments \| Leave a comment)
09:54 am rcfox [Link]	Palin, Pre-Speech I wrote everything below yesterday, before Palin's speech. It's all below the cut. ( Politics Below! ) Current Mood: busy (4 comments \| Leave a comment)

[<< Previous 25 entries]

Advertisement

Advertisement