Cup of Coffee: September 5, 2008
Posted by SBG on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Well, that trip was ugly.
This entry was posted by SBG on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee. It is one of 2369 entries by the author. Feel free to write a letter to the editor if you are a registered SBG Nation Citizen. If you are not a Citizen, you can register here.
Watching the conventions wrap up, my wife and I decided to play the "who should play them on SNL" game.
We both came to the same conclusion: it's too bad Tina Fey is not on the show anymore.
Spinal Tap moment?
I'm watching McCain and I see him in front of a green screen again, just like his disastrous speech the night that Obama was in St. Paul. What was that green screen? Here's a little wider shot of McCain, and the WTFs keep coming.
What is that building? One of his houses? Turns out it is Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA. WTF? Why is he standing in front of a picture of a middle school located in Hollywood? One possible explanation: the guys in charge of the video were maybe charged with getting a picture of Walter Reed Medical Hospital, and got this instead.
Hello, Cleveland!
"We mock what we do not understand." - Spies Like Us
At least it wasn't a picture of Dr. Walter Reed.
hmmmm...that's avatar material.
McCain's speach was the McCain of old. Lots of ideas that angered his party. An awful lot of silence on clap lines. I guess the repubs don't want to "fight back against the pharmacuetical companies and big oil" and don't want him to "invite republican's, democrats and independents" for his cabinet. I really missed that guy.
Did he fight against the fat cats in the Savings & Loan business too?
What America needs as president is someone with experience exercising "poor judgment" in his duties.
Hmmm.
meh. While I don't think that what she did 20-25 years ago as an undergraduate is off-limits, I'm also not very disturbed by that record. Not every kid figures it out at ages 18-21.
Hey, did you know that the Republican presidential nominee was tortured by the North Vietnamese as a POW????
Drill, baby drill.
Some interesting analysis on whether drilling makes sense.
drilling makes economic sense if the loss of environmental amenities is valued at less than $1,141 a person (per American, not per Alaskan) and that was with a price of oil roughly half of today's price
I know and like Tyler, but that line...kind of leaves some things out of the welfare analysis.
He's suggesting a Kaldor-Hicks compensation test here: taking action X is economically justified if the winners can, in principle, compensate the losers for their economic losses and still remain winners.
that's a standard approach. But note that it doesn't in fact require that compensation be paid -- just that it could be done in principle.
Also worth noting from the cited paper:
The "Drill Now" mantra appears to have been pretty effective for McCain's campaign. But following it really wouldn't have much effect on gas prices, either in the short run or in the long run.
Still, you have to hand it to McCain's people for finding a phrase that seems to have struck a chord. I'm glad he's been so principled in his stance on the issue.
Let's put it this way. The fact that she was bouncing around from one college to the next isn't exactly a strong point. I can see one transfer, but four transfers?
I think that probably says more about her maturity than anything else. Especially when you see that the transfers also involved changes in majors.
I know that in this anti-intellectual country, it's high-falutin' to talk about educational experiences. But, what we have on the one ticket is a man who finished in the bottom 1% of his class and a woman who bounced around from one juco to another. Compare that with Obama and Biden, especially Obama. Neither came from money (Biden's dad was a car salesman), but both went right through college and into law school. Of course, Obama didn't just go to law school, he was the editor of the Harvard Law Review and he taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, a very prestigious law school. They are trained in government and the Constitution. That's a big plus, or it should be. There's more to life than college, I get that. But after eight years of rule under Mr. Incurious, one would think that we'd want to have someone in the oval office that has contemplated what the Constitution is all about and what it means as a directive for how we should be governed.
But McCain is just a regular guy (that can't remember how many houses he owns).
But McCain is just a regular guy (that can't remember how many houses he owns).
totally unfair. McCain's family is all about service to the country. Just remember, 21 means 21.
a man who finished in the bottom 1% of his class
This reminds me of the old
joakjoke.Q. What do you call the guy who graduates last in Med. school?
A. Doctor.
waitaminnit. Biden's dad was a car salesman and Neither came from money does not compute. Unless he was a used car salesman. Or a lousy car salesman. Back in the day, selling cars was a license to print money.
Perhaps not as lucrative as holding a monopoly beer distributorship (to pull a totally random example). But still lucrative.
If Biden's dad was a rich man, he must have cut Joe out of the will:
That's almost inconceivable. I mean, he's 65 years old with 36 years in the Senate and that's all he has? What's his house worth? He's got the Senate pension, so there's that, but it's like he doesn't have two nickels to rub together. Astounding.
I bet Biden's dad worked for an AMC dealership.
That would have given him access to own a Javelin, so that would have been cool.
ok, according to the multiple sources, Biden has a net worth in the $100,000-$150,000 range. Huh?
How is this possible for a man who has been in the Senate since 1972 and who earned almost $300K last year? His pension alone has to be worth a LOT more than that.
He doesn't own a house in Delaware? (see below)
Is he up to his gills in debt? (answer: no. He has modest debts, related to his kids' education)
so, WTF? I make less than a third of what he made last year and my net worth (home equity + investments, less debts, not including pension and Soc Sec present values) is higher than his. That is INSANE.
so I went to Open Secrets, the go-to source for political money issues. And this is what they have to say:
Note that Open Secrets reports Biden's estimated net worth as negative in 2006 (and 2005). And, it should be noted,
a lovely old du Pont family estate.
I know Biden has had more than his share of personal tragedies in his life, but this net worth number still is incredible. As in "not very credible".
I'm with you, it's hard to believe that that's all he has. But, I think it's fairly safe to say that he's not a rich man.
As in "not very credible".
He may have stolen that material, much like he steals speeches.
Pretty big talk for someone that attended NDSU...on purpose!
Actually, I have a fair number of concerns with Ms. Palin. Probably number one is the fact that her husband was, allegedly, a member of a political party that wanted Alaska to suceed (sp??) from the Union. That fact that she couldn't figure out what she "wanted to do when she grew up" just makes her like me. I still don't know.
wanting Alaska to succeed == good
wanting Alaska to secede == not so good
Thats how you spell it! Thanks. I really should have looked it up in my dictionary before typing...except I threw it away once I got spell check.
I'm not running for POTUS or VPOTUS.
I don't want someone like me as POTUS or VPOTUS. They should be more accomplished than me.
I find it ridiculous that Republicans have questioned Barack and Michelle Obama's patriotism and then they nominated someone who has addressed a secessionist party's convention and whose husband was a card carrying member of said organization for almost a decade.
You realize I was joking about the NDSU thing, right? I just can't seperate myself from my hostile and abusive UND heritage.
You also realize that I'm in agreement with you, right? I'm a far more of a rabid democrat than I care to admit. Being a Democrat Lawyer in ND does not make me a popular person amonst the locals...so I try very hard to supress my enthusiasm. Despite that, I still take up arms as a delegate to the Dem. state convention.
I expect the Repubs to attack the person...and ignore the substantive issues. It is standard warfare from the Rove crowd. Unfortunately, until it quits working they won't abandon the tactic. I don't think Palin's pick is just ridiculous, I think it is an embarrasment for McCain (a guy I used to genuinely like).
Oh ya, Go Fighting Sioux!
Yeah, I know you are with me. My Dad is a delegate as well. He also lobbies labor issues at the legislature. Of course, I also know that deep down, you realize that all good things in ND come from NDSU. The Herd is the Word!
If Moss had to pick a pool of professionals from whom to choose a POTUS, "law school professors" would be damn near last on the list.
yea, "fighter pilots" is a much more stable and dependable set.
You got it. The job calls for making decisions, not blathering on and on and missing the forest for the trees.
Ha! Just watched The Right Stuff again last weekend, and there is a nice little rant against President Ike for wanting to use fighter pilots for astronauts (at 5:20 below)
The job calls for making decisions, not blathering on and on and missing the forest for the trees.
if you napalm the trees, you get the forest too.
Did you miss my implicit
Moss? I couldn't tell whether you were actually in favor of fly boys as paragons of decision-making virtue.
you do know that airlines turn their noses up at fighter pilots, right? they want cool and steady bomber pilots, not testoterone-poisoned fighter pilots.
the same could be said for the POTUS. "Making decisions" is only good when they are good decisions. Pushing the button and "living with the consequences" is not what I want out of my president.
Look, Moss was making a legitimate point -- Moss thinks the vast VAST majority of law professors would make crappy executives. Moss sure as hell doesn't want one for POTUS, not this election, not any.
You tried to bait Moss. Moss doesn't take bait, so Moss threw you a bone. Of course Moss knew you weren't serious.
And, you should check the facts that you are at least implying. McCain flew a Skyhawk, which was a bomber -- not a fighter. Perhaps you should reconsider your ballot.
And, you should check the facts that you are at least implying. McCain flew a Skyhawk, which was a bomber -- not a fighter.
Point for Moss. The Skyhawk was indeed a "light bomber". But it's a pretty weak point, all things considered. To wit:
so, I'm taking most of that point back. If it's close enough to a fighter to serve as one for film purposes, its pretty damned close.
Not exactly your Flying Fortress there.
as for baiting Moss, well, uh, I didn't take the original potshot here re: law school professors.
I certainly wouldn't put law school professors near the bottom of the list of professions from which one might wish to draw presidents. I can think of a LOT of less qualifying vocations. Sadly, I can't think of many qualifying ones, however.
Tailor? Newspaper publisher? Mining engineer? That's a real list of successes.
Of course, there's a lot of people who would say actor, but I am not one of them.
Bass Traded to O's for a PTBNL. Eh.
This probably excited me more than it should have.
when does your story come out?
It has been pushed back to tomorrow. Apparently, some of the other contributors could not get their posts in on time. Looks like an auspicious launch to this new aspect of the Buffalo News. If I didn't know any better I would assume that it was written by some lazy blogger.
It sounds like he's going to move into the Orioles starting rotation. I swear, if he goes all Lavele Speigner on us when we go out to Baltimore, I'm going to cry.
Who? I remember a Jeremy Speigner...
+1 ubelmann tirade (hallowed be his name).
Politics aside, I really like Tim Pawlenty (well, his persona anyway...I don't know him of course). Not only did he laugh at all of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's jokes about Sarah Palin and missing out on the VP nomination, he asked Triumph to plant a big kiss on his face. He gave up more screen time for Triumph than did any other Republican at the convention.
I think Pawlenty is a dork and I like that about him. I have to agree that I like a lot of Pawlenty's persona.
I'm having a pretty good time in Chicago. I went to Wrigley on Wednesday night to see the Cubs vs. the Astros. The Cubs didn't look good and they lost their 5th straight at home. The weather was a bit chilly, getting ready for the rain that came down all day yesterday. With the crappy weather yesterday we went to see "Tropic Thunder". Additionally, the movie theater had "Time Crisis" which we prompty put about $5 into. Man, I love that game. Anyway, here is the view from my seat at Wrigley.
I think I've sat in that section. Did a young babe come down in mid-innings and take her shirt off for the crowd? That's what I remember most about Wrigley.
As I said, it was a bit chilly. Most of the girls were quite wrapped up, unfortunately. I need to hit a day game in July some day.
So now that the conventions are wrapped up, I'm pretty much decided which ticket I for which I could NEVER vote.
I'm the exact sort of person both parties need to win an election. I'm pretty moderate: fiscally conservative and socially liberal (or, I guess, more socially liberal than most Republicans).
When Palin was first introduced, I had my Michael Bluth moment ("Her?") for a few days, but was willing to give her a chance since I knew nothing about her. Now, however, after hearing her deliver a pandering, insulting speech written in a siege mentality ("They're out to get us!!!") and then, on top of that, having the cojones to still claim to be against the Bridge to Nowhere in spite of the public record, there's no way I'm voting for a McCain/Palin ticket. It insults my intelligence.
For every small-town, rugged vote she picked up on Wednesday, I guarantee you that she lost about 10 people like me. That's a pretty huge problem seeing how the people to which she was pandering are already going to vote Republican while the moderates in swing states are pretty much being given no choice but to go the other way.
I suppose people like me are the reason Obama was able to raise $10million the day after Palin's speech. While I'm not donating money (I think all of it is wasted and am pretty disappointed with both candidates for not following through and not running on the public campaign finance system), there's no way I can vote for McCain until he removes Palin from the ticket.
I'm pretty moderate: fiscally conservative and socially liberal (or, I guess, more socially liberal than most Republicans).
That's about how I would describe myself, but I came to the opposite conclusion after the conventions. Then again, I typically prefer a conservative in the executive position.
I'm trying to make time go fast at work by listening to KFAN. This is essentially this first time I have listened to it for an extended period of time, and paid attention to who the hosts were.
I kind of liked the PA and Dubay show, but holy crap is the Common Man show terrible. Not only is he a complete jackass, but he has absolutely no radio instincts. He stutters and blubbers, cuts himself off mid-word when taking a break, and apparently has mental lapses where he goes silent for like 15 seconds while trying to think of something to say. How did this guy even get into the industry?
Is there anyone on KFAN worth listening to?
No.
Aaron Gleeman for 10 minutes on Friday morning.
I think Bump is a hoot, as well.
Mike & Mike in the Morning is tolerable, 5 to 6 AM.
Moss for one loves Common Man. (Moss thinks SBG does too, but was afraid to admit it.) In reality, he's probably the furthest from "jackass" of anyone that is on the air for KFAN. (Moss has no first-hand knowledge, but that's the word on the street.) The "lapses" are probably times where he's actually reading listeners' email or the like.
At any rate, Moss likes Common's irreverence as well as the recognition that "sports" is really child's play that doesn't merit a whole lot of energy or emotion.
Looking ahead to the rest of the schedule for the Twins and White Sox. Both have identical home/away games except Sox have one more game overall and that's at home. The Twins have a real opportunity to make up some ground with those home games because while the Sox have the Angels (3), Jays (4), Tigers (3), and Indians (3); the Twins have the Tigers (3), Royals (6), and of course the showdown with the Sox (3). The Twins are 12-3 at home against their remaining opponents, which projected over 12 games would be 9.6 wins. The Sox have lost 2 of 3 at home to the Angels and were swept in a four-game series at Toronto (and have not played the Jays at home) and the Jays are 21-11 against the Central this year.
Both teams have a difficult four-game road series left. The Sox will be finishing up a series at New York when the Twins will be starting their series at Tampa Bay. The Twins will also face Cleveland (3) and Baltimore (3) on their 10-game trip. The Sox will be at KC, where they lost 2 of 3 the last time they visited, before both teams have an off day before their big three-game showdown at the Dome. The Sox will then head home for three with the Indians, who I'm hoping will do everything they can to get Cliff Lee one more start for Cy Young votes and/or one more chance at a win.
In the 16 games before The Showdown, I think it would be easy to see the Twins getting 4 or 5 wins in the upcoming homestand and 4 or 5 wins on the 10-game road trip. The Sox have 17 games ahead before The Showdown, and I really don't see them getting more than eight wins. So, if the Twins go 9-7 and the Sox 8-9, then the teams would be tied for The Showdown with the Twins having three at home vs. KC to finish the season. I like those odds. If the Twins go 8-8, then they would be a game back before The Showdown. Win 2 of 3, and everything is tied up with three games left.
BTW, has there been a coin flip to see who would host a one-game playoff, if necessary? Could there be a more important coin flip for the Twins (since 1987 anyways)?
I don't see the Sox road trip to NY being that difficult; the Yanks are out of it. It's September call-up time for them.
And I think you're getting ahead of yourself with your projections. The latest (gamelog) exit polls aren't that high on the Twins currently...
I'm sure the exit polls were just as low or even worse after the sweeps in Chicago, Boston, and New York. This team has had numerous low points but has bounced back well every time. And they haven't had a losing month since April when they were almost a completely different team (no Span, no Casilla, no Buscher, and Lamb and Everett playing every day). It would have taken very little for that 5-9 road trip to go 9-5, so I don't think 9-7 is that big of a projection. The Twins could easily go 6-0 on this homestand (it wouldn't be the first time this year they swept a six-gamer against AL Central teams). Then they would just need three wins on the homestand.
I could also just as easily see the Sox get swept by the Angels or Blue Jays. The Sox also haven't won a series from any team with a current winning record since sweeping the Cubs at the end of June. They haven't won a series from an AL team with a winning record since sweeping the Twins in Chicago in early June. The only other series they've won against a team with a winning record all season was winning 2 of 3 against the Twins in April. They also won 2 of 3 at the Dodgers, who are currently at .500, just before sweeping the Cubs. So, yeah, I would think the Sox would have to be very happy with a split at New York.
and the Jays are 21-11 against the Central this year
that would be 6-0 against the Twins, 4-0 against the ChiSox, 1-6 against Cleveland, 5-2 against KC, and 5-3 against Detroit. Crazy.
Reading that makes this recent road trip even more upsetting.
Darko to the Knicks? That would be delicious.
Darko and Marko for Randolph. A decent cap trade for the Knicks, as they would trade $48 million for $35 million.
looks like Adriana Lima will have to step up her game if Marko moves to the Big Apple.
Is it wrong to still be rooting for Darko?
Sad news: former big league infielder Todd Cruz passed away.
ChiSox's Quentin out indefinitely with broken wrist!