On the train back to dc.
_John
30 September 2008
Picture of the Day -- 29 September
PennDot for a new license. Faster than I thought, but still a rather depressing building after the last time I was there...16 years ago.
_John
Picture of the Day -- 28 September 2008
The magic of children, uninhibited curiosity, and science.
_John
Experiencing technical difficulities
I was away for the weekend and my laptop decided it was time to become craptacular. Even better the fine folks at Apple had if for almost 24 hours and misdiagnosed it. So I spent ~$150 getting a new hard drive put in while I was in PA, and upon returning home I was still SOL with the same fun problem. Took it over to the Apple store here in NOVA and I won't see it again for 5-7 days. Now I am forced to use my Windows XP computer, which has been limping for 5 years now. Let's hope it can take regular use for a week...
I think the Apple support people will be getting a call from me tomorrow.
_John
27 September 2008
RIP Weekend edition
This week it's my favorite actor. Paul Newman, may you rest in peace.
_John
image: from The Verdict (Perhaps Newman's best and most under appreciated role.
25 September 2008
Biggest Bank Failure EVER
WaMu is toast as the US government seized it and in an emergency sale, sold it to J.P. Morgan Chase. Ahhh the free market working well again. Deposits up to $100,000 are safe and backed by the FDIC (that is you and me), but the shareholders and bondholders of what near the end of nearly worthless stock and bonds are shit out of luck. If it makes you feel any better the brand new CEO and his hugh salary is also shit out of luck, though he did get a $7.5 million dollar signing bonus. Then again the previous CEO, Kerry Killinger, walked away with an exit package worth as much as $23.5 million earlier this month. (Since the stock became worthless, I am sure the actual number ended up being much lower.)
_John
image: from Bloomberg
Palin in 12 minutes
If her interview on CBS aired over the last two days didn't convince you that Sarah Palin is not ready to be John McCain's (or anyone else's) vice president, please spend 12 minutes and watch the above video. Logic does not equal elitism.
_John
24 September 2008
It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday
The A/V edition
Wonder what Naked Short Selling is? Well I was wondering too until I heard this piece on This American Life. (The whole episode is here.) I mention naked short selling because the SEC just banned short selling for some companies. Interesting times.
The Daily Show on the $700 billion plan and McDonald's apple pies:
And The Word on the Colbert Report:
Something I was always wondering about that I hadn't heard much about is the ridiculous AAA ratings that were being handed out to these awful securitized mortages. Bloomberg is on the case with part 1 today. Make sure you check their site on Thursday for part 2. Banks would not have bought up these securities if they were given the crappy rating the deserved. An important and much overlooked piece of this economic puzzle.
_John
Wonder what Naked Short Selling is? Well I was wondering too until I heard this piece on This American Life. (The whole episode is here.) I mention naked short selling because the SEC just banned short selling for some companies. Interesting times.
The Daily Show on the $700 billion plan and McDonald's apple pies:
And The Word on the Colbert Report:
Something I was always wondering about that I hadn't heard much about is the ridiculous AAA ratings that were being handed out to these awful securitized mortages. Bloomberg is on the case with part 1 today. Make sure you check their site on Thursday for part 2. Banks would not have bought up these securities if they were given the crappy rating the deserved. An important and much overlooked piece of this economic puzzle.
_John
Picture of the Day -- 23 September 2008
In dc for a concert. See an above post for a review, and don't ask me any questions tomorrow because my ears already hurt enough.
_John
23 September 2008
No Soup for you
And it is a wonder why Detroit is falling so far behind...
If they come to Congress for a hand out, every Congressman should watch this interview. It it wasn't so depressingly bad it would have been hilarious.
And if you thought that the electric car was a novel idea, go out and rent Who Killed the Electric Car.
I bet the Chevy Volt is only mildly successful because Detroit can market well (the Volt is well behind its expected release date), and it will be difficult for people who don't own a house with an easily accessible electrical outlet (maybe even a special outlet) to plug their cars in. If you live in an apartment or condo you are SOL unless the buildings decide to retrofit. This is an ugly car for single family homes. I only hope that the reviews of how the car drives goes well for the company, but again it's a Detroit product so I am not holding my breath.
_John
If they come to Congress for a hand out, every Congressman should watch this interview. It it wasn't so depressingly bad it would have been hilarious.
And if you thought that the electric car was a novel idea, go out and rent Who Killed the Electric Car.
I bet the Chevy Volt is only mildly successful because Detroit can market well (the Volt is well behind its expected release date), and it will be difficult for people who don't own a house with an easily accessible electrical outlet (maybe even a special outlet) to plug their cars in. If you live in an apartment or condo you are SOL unless the buildings decide to retrofit. This is an ugly car for single family homes. I only hope that the reviews of how the car drives goes well for the company, but again it's a Detroit product so I am not holding my breath.
_John
By the Numbers
What do the numbers 40 and 25 have in common? That is the number of days it has been since either John McCain or Sara Palin last held a press conference. (Palin has had zero either in her position as vice presidential nominee or as governor since she was selected by the McCain campaign. It has had a paralyzing effect on Alaskan governance, and look how CBS is reporting the attempt to manhandle the press corps following Palin.)
Fucking disgraceful. I think the press should just pull out and ignore them at this point. And judging by what CNN did today, I think it is starting to happen.
Sully has more here.
_John
image: "numbers" from flickr konomiho
The Great American Mockolate Bar?
Okay, I have to admit that expensive chocolates do not really do it for me. I much prefer a good old Hershey's chocolate bar. Well they used to be chocolate. This article is a bit disturbing on so many different levels.
“Blind taste tests revealed that consumers also didn’t notice a difference in taste between the chocolate and the “mockolate.” So, I thought I would try it for myself. I went down to my trusty neighborhood convenience store and bought a Whatchamacallit – the package read, “rich chocolatey coating.” Honestly, I can’t taste the difference, but still – where are the antioxidants? And why doesn’t it melt in my mouth as smoothly? I feel betrayed...At least Hersheys kept the cocoa in their Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Still, I think it’s time for a brand change – back to M&Ms and Snickers for me.." |
Hooray for food chemistry and the Bush economy?
_John
image: from Hershey's
21 September 2008
Picture of the Day -- 21 September 2008
On the way home from a late afternoon soccer game. Villagers win! Villagers win!
_John
19 September 2008
18 September 2008
17 September 2008
Happy Constitution Day
I will argue until I am blue in the face that the Constitution an exponentially more significant document than the Declaration of Independence. And as such we should have had a federal holiday today. Since I am not going to win the latter argument, please check out the National Constitution Center's interactive Constitution and interactive history, and then spend some time thinking about who and why it was crafted and how it has been amended, abused, and persevered for it's 221 years.
Also please read a recent survey that the Constitution Center released this week. Turns out we really don't like the idea of having a more powerful president. So Bush and his underlings can that unitary executive theory and smoke on it!
_John
image: "High-Resolution Constitution Page 1" from the National Archives
It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday
AIG
We own it! Well 80% of it, but hell that is well beyond full control. I think this will be an good deal in the end for the American taxpayer. It sounds like a really bad deal right now, but the history of the Fed is that just about everything they take over the eventually make a profit. Yes, yes, eventually is the key word, but the Fed runs a tight ship and beyond the political appointments there are some really good and smart people working for them. I also think that it was good that the CEO and the rotten/supine management of AIG was summarily fired and that moral hazard was returned the the market as the stock greatly reduced.
In Fed I trust.
The Market
They are skittish/scared. The market is still unsettled because they worry about people pulling out of money market funds, and there is still work what will happen the two remaining Investment houses, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. And finally the federal government still has not given a clear model as to how, when, and for whom they will intervene.
The campaign
I will get to this later when old man McCain decides what he is going to really stand behind. He isn't so much flip flopping and twisting in the wind. All I know is that I will never be able to trust Sen. Deregulation with any regulations he proposes. That and his ahistoric (and irresistible dig at FDR) to call the regulatory agencies as an alphabet soup. I know I don't really understand exactly what happened, but McCain (and Palin) seem clueless and less than honest.
Barry's funny elementary description of the situation.
Here is the Daily Show's take on it. The first minute is classic.
_John
image: Spencer Platt/Getty
16 September 2008
Picture of the Day -- 16 September 2008
It's hard to see the squirrel in the tree above me, but rest assure it is there. It also dropped an acorn on my head. (Okay maybe it just knocked an acorn loose, but either way I took one off the noggin.) Fall is definitely in the air.
_John
It's the Economy Stupid Tuesday
I thought with what was going on The Street this week that I should bump up my post a day. I will update it tomorrow probably with what impact this is having on campaign 2008.
I don't know what I could possibly add to what has been going on Wall Street other than the people on CNBC are very bullish and always seem to never ask a tough question, especially of CEOs. (Why should we trust anything out of the mouth of the CEO of Bank of America, who is still sticking by his assertion that BofA's buy out of Countrywide was a fantastic move for his company?) I am still waiting to hear back from a friend in Manhattan when he has a chance to come up for air for some expert analysis, but for now here is what we know a day after everything went down on Monday morning.
Lehman Brothers, which had survived the the railroad meltdowns of the 1880s, two world wars, and a little thing called the Great Depression, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after this couldn't find a buyer over the weekend.
Merrill Lynch was purchased by BofA in what will probably be a great deal for both companies. (I bet Merrill will spun off within the next decade. If John Thain gets a golden parachute it will show how tone deaf Wall Street is to the rest of the country. I would double down that he will get a giant package if he isn't kept on at BofA. With his adept management skills, though, I bet BofA will keep him on board. My friends, that's sarcasm I can believe in.)
AIG is an important worldwide institution, but is teetering on the edge of filing for bankruptcy unless Godlman Sachs and J.P. Morgan can come up with $70-75 billion safety net to keep AIG afloat. The Fed isn't going to directly infuse cash, but is broadening lending practices enabling its subsidiaries to use their equities as collateral.
Goldman's earning came in way below expectations this morning. The Street is not happy with this, though I hope that the company is not severely punished.
Wachovia and Washington Mutual banks are green around the gills.
While we are letting the market forces work, can we let some of Detroit fail as well? Let's just rip this band-aid off in one hard pull. I bet a foreign company would love to come in a buy their plants in this country and build cars here instead of importing them.
The Fed is meeting this week to discuss interest rates. I hope they stand firm and keep them at 2%.
In a bit of good news, crude oil prices are now hovering just about $90 a barrel. Not sure exactly what market forces are bring down prices at the moment, but even though I don't own a car or drive very much I hope that this is helps to keep commodity prices down.
If you need a little levity for all this bad news from Wall Street check out this video:
_John
image: "Domino Theory At Work" from flickr rosendahl
14 September 2008
Apologies
For those of you who have been pissed about one of the embeds starting automatically, leading to constant noise on the site, I apologize. There was a problem with the embed code (or the code didn't play well with blogger) for this post, and I had no idea that it was automatically playing until I logged onto the site this afternoon with my sounds actually on. This post should push the offending post to the next page, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore on the front page. I did try to figure out the problem, but I don't really understand flash well enough to fix the problem. And since I think the interview is historically important for this campaign, I didn't want to take the post completely down. Again my humble apologies.
_John
_John
Picture of the Day -- 14 September 2008
Glowing mushrooms? No, just effed up white balance on the cellphone. I forgot this in my previous e-mail: Villagers win, Villagers win.
_John
Picture of the Day -- 13 September 2008
Day late and dollar short again. Soccer game this morning prevented me from getting this up in the AM hours. The farmers market yesterday was short a few stalls, a couple of which braved Hanna last week. Coincidence? Who knows.
_John
13 September 2008
Deadwood Diaspora – Part 1
Deadwood was (and still is) my favorite tv show, despite its abbreviated three season run. Since its unfortunate abrupt end, it has made it hard for me to see Deadwood characters in any other role than the characters they played on the show. I will bring you infrequent updates on the Deadwood diaspora as I bump into them on other tv shows and/or movies.
In this edition I bring you Charlie Utter, who was one of my favorite characters on Deadwood. His Deadwood profile is here, and a couple of historical pieces on the actual life of Charlie Utter (Deadwood the show was based firmly on the actual historical people and events in the town of Deadwood) here and here. The actor, Dayton Callie, who portrayed Utter had a starring role in the only season David Milch's next project – the controversial "John from Cincinnati."
Callie seems to have found a home on the new F/X show "Sons of Anarchy," which is pretty good after only two episodes. He plays Chief Wayne Unser, who at this point seems to have an important role on the show, but who may also be written out at a moment's notice as Unser is slated to retire when we first meet him in episode two. The role as a gruff police captain with conflicts between right and wrong and peace and violence seems at this point to be pitch perfect niche that Callie has created for himself late in his career.
_John
image: from HBO
Picture of the Day -- 12 September 2008
Yesterday was overcast, rainy, and humid...not too much fun. (Yes, yes, late post again.)
_John
Weekend funny
If you have been depressed by all the McCain/Palin lies and hurricane Ike, behold Trash Heaven. It is one of the funniest sites I have visited in a long time. Give them some love, you will be glad you did.
ATHF!
Best line: "But look, I mean, is he going to be able to chase us? Cause if I woke up lookin' like that, I would just run towards the nearest living thing and kill it."
_John
image: from Trash Heaven
12 September 2008
Uncomfortable interview, not Palin edition
The Strait Talk Express seems to have blown a tire in Maine two days ago.
_John
This isn't going to be good
Ike is going to hammer Texas. My thoughts and prayers are with the coastal communities, especially Galveston. Let's hope this isn't a repeat of Issac's storm.
_John
image: IR Rainbow image via NOAA
11 September 2008
Take Two: Still not funny
Bill and Jerry, so unfunny together. Is this trying to sell anything or is it some kind of vanity thing at this point?
_John
10 September 2008
Picture of the Day -- 10 September 2008
A sunny and mild September day. Could you ask for anything more?
_John
It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday
Fannie, Freddie, and Lehman (Brothers) Oh My! I have nothing really to add that hasn't already been said, though today's news on Lehman Brothers does not look good for health of the company. (Yes, that is what is called an understatement.)
Behold the power of a bad google search can have on the markets.
Um...Microsoft you are wasting your money if this is your ad with Jerry Seinfeld (he was big in the 90s, right?). And just a little piece of advice from me. If you spend that much on an ad, you won't look like an old dinosaur if you actually allow people to embed it. It always looks crappy when I have to get it off of YouTube. And other thing, don't force people to use your products to watch it on your site. Silverlight, really? [For shits and giggles, a couple of reviews here and here.]
Check out our taxpayer money hard at work, courtesy of the Department of the Interior. Gives a new angle to the "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant at the RNC, huh?
_John
image: Reuters
When Honor Dies
I meant to post a "maverickiness" post when the McCain campaign hired Tucker Eskew, the South Carolina political operative who was responsible for those sickening lies about McCain in South Carolina during the 2000 primary campaign. (The whisper rumor was that McCain had an illegitimate black daughter, which he didn't, but it worked to a degree because he has an adopted daughter from Bangladesh. The veiled reference was aimed at lowest common denominators: bigots. And it isn't just a southern thing, take a look at a respectable young Republican leader from my home state. A little home grown racism warms the heart, especially when claims that he had no idea that what he wrote was racists. And to echo McCainabout Eskew in 2000, "There is a special place in hell" for people like him.) I was hoping that the McCain's duty and honor would be enough to provide a bulwark from the bottom of barrel politicking that Steven Schmidt and Eskew have proven capable in the past. I was proven wrong tonight, and am now some where between hurt, angry, and disappoint in McCain.
The first volley was Obama's ad on education essentially locking McCain into the typical republican line on education and tying his policy to Bush's. Respectful pictures and stayed on the facts about McCain's record with little to no distortions. An issue ad, pure and simple.
McCain's response is beyond a low blow about and has the racial overtones of the Willie Horton ad from 1988. It completely distorts a law Obama supported – he didn't author or even sponsor it – in committee sex education law while in the Illinois legislature, and this exact attack was used by Alan Keyes in the 2004 Senate campaign. It was debunked at the time, but yet the McCain campaign brings it back covered in everything that is unholy with current political attack ads.
For Obama this should signal that McCain doesn't care about issues other than the most base cultural issues, and even won't have a respectful debate about those. The current ad is a Republican campaign ad trifecta in that regard: sex, race, and out-right distortion. The truth is the truth, and if the McCain campaign is going to feed the public lies, Obama has the choice of staying above the fray or making this campaign really ugly.
I could not sum up McCain's ad or the state of the McCain any better than the Obama campaign did this evening in their response to the new ad:
“It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls – a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why,” says Obama spokesman Bill Burton in an emailed statement." |
I personally have a couple of questions for McCain: Has winning become so important that you will do it at any cost? Is a scorched earth policy the best way to unite the country? Is this the type of change we can believe in?
Media: The ball is in your court, though I am sure you will let me down again. Remember you can remain unbiased by calling someone on a lie.
_John
*I am not linking to the ads and giving either campaign free ad space, they are easy enough to find.
image: "The Eternal Flame" from flickr starfish235
09 September 2008
Kim Jong-il, Ill?
It appears so. He sure missed one hell of a parade/celebration for the nation's 60th anniversary. Man, communist countries can do pageantry to the nth degree. Then again, as a citizen you don't really have a choice as the threat of detention or death is omnipresent.
_John
image: from AFP/Getty Images
Ike Update: Next is South Texas
BBC reports that there were only a few deaths and some infrastructure damage, but nothing crippling. It is predicted that Ike will make landfall in south Texas by Friday or Saturday as a Category 3 storm. If the predicted path holds that means that it will not blow through the off shore oil infrastructure, which is why we saw oil prices drop a bit today.
If anything changes, I will update accordingly.
_John
image: from NASA
08 September 2008
Ike
I only wish it was this Ike that was a problem.
Unfortunately it is this one that we all need to be worried about. Since we can't have anything to do with Cuba in this country, I headed over to the BBC to get the news on Ike's impact on in Cuba, and the pictures are both spectacular and frightening. I will keep updating the storm because it is going to hit the Gulf region later this week.
BCC video in Cuba here. [Embeds soon please Beeb]
MSNBC's cool hurricane tracker here.
_John
image: from BBC
The American people are stupid
As much as Obama and Biden are correct in their portrayal of the Palin record on earmarks and pork barrel spending (she really really loved it in AK), the US public seem to want to believe in the Original Mavericks. I am afraid that with the injection of Palin into this campaign means that policy doesn't matter anymore, apparently neither does experience, but it is again a return to who would you like to have dinner with rather than who is competent enough to lead this country through the end of our overseas adventures, return the rule of law, and help fix the flagging economy. I think the original maverick has taken us back to people voting on social issues. That is what he wanted for our political discourse in 2000, right?
I just hope the press doesn't back off of looking at Palin's record because they afraid of being tut-tutted by the McCain campaign.
_John
07 September 2008
Picture of the Day -- 06 September 2008
Tropical storms and farmers markets don't exactly play well together.
_John
06 September 2008
The real McCain video
I caught up on my Tivo list today thanks to Hanna rocking the mid-Atlantic states, which thankfully spared me any flooding this time. Anyway, The Daily Show, who did the best coverage of the RNC that I have seen with their humor was devastating. made their own McCain introductory video. If you missed the coverage of The Best F#&king News Team Ever this week, please go to the site and watch the highlights. I might post some later, but for now this particular video cracked me up. And as an added bonus, the voice over is by Al Swearengen from Deadwood (aka Ian McShane). If you watched Deadwood, it makes this video all the sweeter, and makes you feel like you are on the inside of an extra joke. If you don't know Deadwood, you are really missing out on one of the best TV shows to ever air. It is a shame David Milch could never finish it properly.
_John
Picture of the Day -- 05 September 2008
In Clarendon, after finding out the concert I was planning on going to was sold out. Opps. I still don't care for this area of Arlington as it has become more and more homogeneous with pristine new chain stores and restaurants. The area is indeed becoming a display of excess young money. Not that the change is bad per se, but the area has less and less of a soul every time I go back as I see old buildings torn down and the new ones that rise lack any sense of place.
_John
04 September 2008
Thoughts on Community Organizers
The crude, crass, and let's face it mean-spirited mocking of Obama for becoming a community organizer after graduating from Harvard Law School at the RNC was one of the more odious notes that was sounded at the divisive convention of personal destruction...er I should have written the RNC 2008.
Steve Bennen fires back here and here.
A Politico reader makes a fantastic point.
Joe Klein has thankfully awoken from his long slumber and throws down.
Tapper's on the case too.
Atrios has some video of a near instant reaction at the RNC on night two.
C&L doesn't care for this garbage either.
Howard Fineman chimes in via TMP, and he sounds like he's got an abundance of piss and vinegar.
Muflats from Alaska hits the nail on the head.
And finally, do you smell what Barak is cooking? (Note to Charlie Gibson: in Pennsylvania it is Lanc-aster, not Lan-caster. It is a major pet-peeve of mine, and we have been saying it that way for over 200 years thank you very much.)
_John
image: "Community Organizer" from flickr p373
RNC final night thoughts
When they rolled the Cindy McCain video tonight, did I miss the part where they said: "John wasn't just lying about his age when he met and started to date Cindy, he lied about his marital status too!" Was it my imagination or did I hear the following during the beginning of the John McCain video: "Some call him an adulterer. Some call him Keating number Five." The jokes just write themselves folks, and truth is the best antidote for any myth.
They weren't really troops! Imagine what the reaction would be if the DNC pulled this stunt. Shameless. Vet voice has more.
What's up whities? And Ken Silverstein piles on the only way he knows how.
And what's with the Republicans using identity politics all of a sudden? They have been bludgeoning and poo-pooing the Democrats over identity politics for decades. My friends, that is change we can believe in.
Why didn't McCain say he was tortured? And where was his flag pin???
Oh and the 9-11 taboo was killed tonight. They really have no shame. (I knew something would happen on that screen. Guess I am mildly surprised that if they were going to use it that they didn't have it running on a loop behind Guiliani.)
All of the U-S-A chants coupled with the US flag flapping on the screen behind McCain reminded me of an Emerson quote: "When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart."
_John
image: from AP
Maverickiness -- Girl Power edition
Cindy McCain, just might have bigger balls than her husband. $300,000? Are you f-ing kidding me? No wonder they didn't talk too much about economy at the convention. Imagine if Michelle Obama wore an outfit that cost that much.
And check out the reaction by the McCain campaign to any attack on Palin. At the end Tapper points out that Palin's running mate really knows how to attack a candidate's child.
_John
image: from Vanity Fair
Palin the daytime after update
Seems the independents out there did not care for Palin's speech much beyond the delivery. Two focus groups in potential swings states give their reaction.
The Detroit Free Press had a focus group last night, and the remarks by the independents are not helping McCain make any in roads with them.
Female Hillary supporters in Nevada were also put into a focus group. If McCain was trying to make a serious play of them, he seems to have failed.
I wonder what is going to happen with independent voters when we all really get to know what an ideologue she truly is. Let's also be honest, currently the Democratic base is much larger than the Republican base, so if McCain is only gaining traction in his base he is going to lose the election.
Jake Tapper is all over the inconsistencies with the McCain camp today including the photo-ops of McCain with Bristol's baby daddy. Guess it's now a way to set up the press so that you can berate them later. Pitiful and shameless.
_John
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