Roger's Unorthodox Thoughts

Solving the Housing Mess

2010-10-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

There actually is a solution to the foreclosure mess which would go a long way to solving the underlying mortgage mess, increase consumer spending, cut tens of billions from the deficit and in all probability be the ultimate October Surprise that retains Democratic control of Congress and probably would reelect the President in 2012. It could be done with the combined power and authority of the Executive Branch in conjunction with the Federal Reserve.

It is the automatic refinancing of all outstanding mortgages to the currently available interest rates. The Fed has pushed down interest rates as low as they can – to almost zero between banks and to 4.25% for 30 year loans as of today. That should be resulting in a vast wave of refinancing – people bringing their 6%, 7% or 8% loans down to 4.25% -- unleashing a large effective increase in consumer spending. But the banks will not refinance because they require adequate collateral – house has to be well above water – and great credit history and employment prospects – which has become increasing rate in this economy. Those requirements would make perfect sense if we were talking about new customers coming in for new loans. But the bank is already on the hook for that borrower’s negative equity and ability to pay.
Decreasing the interest rates actually decreases the likelihood of default because the homeowner has a lower monthly “nut” to come up with.

At this point through the various existing loan guarantees and the government bail outs of Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac, the Treasury is already backstopping a vast number of these loans already. I wonder if part a driver of the foreclosure is that the banks need to foreclose to collect on the Federal guarantees. The Federal Reserve is practically giving the banks money by providing it at zero percent interest, so requiring some of those savings to trickle down to the consumers is perfectly fair.

Extending this lower interest rate to all homeowners overcomes the gut level moral objections to the helping those in trouble – “why should the deadbeats who can’t pay their mortgages and the people who bought houses beyond their means be bailed out?” But with this program, the evil “They” are only be helped to the exact same extent as the hardworking homeowners who have struggled to make every mortgage payment on time.

Doing this automatic mortgage interest rate reset would actually be a great help to the Federal Budget. The Mortgage Home Interest Deduction is by far the largest itemized deduction on personal income taxes. The Urban Institute calculates it as $131 billion in forgone revenue a year. So if home interest was suddenly 40% less overall, the Treasury would take in additional $40 billion per year.

The foreclosure document crisis could be used as the carrot and stick to get the banks to reduce these interest charges. Refinancing everyone would produce a set of good clean documents, that hopefully the financial institutions could keep track of going forward. The President could also use his Pardon Power to free those who agree to these terms from the threat of civil or criminal prosecution. Finally for those who don’t agree, in addition to the threat of criminal prosecution, they could be cut off from future sale of their mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, which puts them effectively out of the mortgage business. And if that isn’t enough, the Fed can shut their access to the zero percent money window.

All of this can be done without Congressional action. It simply requires the act of will on the part of the Administration and to a lesser extent the Bernanke and the Federal Reserve (which is looking for new ways to help the economy now that interest rates can’t decline any further.)

Although, of course, the jolt it would give the economy and the help on the deficit are the most important things. But consider the political impact – after a day of high level meetings with Bernanke and various agency heads and perhaps bank heads – Obama announces this program from the Oval Office in a prime time address. And with those words, every homeowner would know that this President had significantly reduced their mortgage payments. (Someone owing $400K with a 7.25% mortgage would save a thousand dollars a month). Let the Republicans rail against it and call it an Election stunt. This would be the change that we could believe in.

What Obama Could Have Learned From the Godfather

2010-10-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

(Published in Politico)

Barack Obama said during the 2008 campaign that his favorite movie was “The Godfather.” But the president apparently views “The Godfather” as a crime or family drama — not as the most important work on the use of power by an Italian since Machiavelli’s “The Prince.”
Lessons from Don Corleone would have helped Obama avoid many of the mistakes in his first year and a half in office.

Remember that the don has done you this favor.

As a powerful man, the don does many people many favors. But they know that something will be expected of them in return. When that moment comes, they had better be willing to return the favor. This favor bank is a great source of the don’s power.

Obama has been all quid, with no pro quo. With Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) down on his luck — no job in the McCain administration and the Democratic Caucus skeptical of his liberal credentials — Obama intervened. Because of that, Lieberman got the committee chairmanship he so desperately wanted. But, somehow, attached to that favor were no strings — for example, no condition that he could vote as he wanted on bills but would support the caucus on breaking filibusters.

Sometimes you need to leave a horse head in the bed.

The don knows that when the situation has reached an impasse, it’s time for the unexpected move that shows you can hurt your opponents in personal ways that they cannot expect, let alone imagine: a calculated overreaction that shows your opponents their actions have consequences.

Take, for example, the blocking of hundreds of administration appointments by Republicans. At one point, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby announced he was blocking all pending appointments to secure a few million dollars in Defense Department pork for his state.

That would have been the moment to strike: Call up Majority Leader Harry Reid and ask to recess for a day. Then recess-appoint all pending appointments. And give a Rose Garden address saying that our problems are too important for this kind of malarkey.

Of course, for good measure during recess, Obama could have appointed all those who would never have been confirmed by the Senate — and given Shelby a “Sicilian message” by appointing someone from the Southern Poverty Law Center as U.S. attorney for Alabama.

Go to the mattresses.

When a gangland war gets serious, the don has to “go to the mattresses.” That means he assembles all his forces, which stay ready 24 hours a day by sleeping in secret apartments.

Clearly, when the Republicans began filibustering everything, it was time to go to the mattresses — that is, keep the Senate in session continuously and make the Republicans filibuster “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” style. That would have shown the country where the obstruction really lay.

Whenever the possibility of real physical discomfort or even inconvenience has arisen, the Republicans have backed down.

Never tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking.

Note to Rahm Emanuel: This includes “on background” and “high administration official” leaks.

When Michael says that he will save the family by killing Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo and police Capt. McCluskey, Sonny laughs and says it’s not easy like the Army — “You blow their brains out all over your Ivy League suit.”

In the don’s world, Ivy Leaguers are a rarity, to say the least. Only a few of the men he depends on have been to college. But they do have knowledge useful to the don.

The administration should realize that true diversity of viewpoints does not come from hiring a rainbow coalition of appointees who all attended Harvard. A few people who attended a state college, or who had struggled a bit post-graduation, might have provided valuable insights.
At first glance, the Obama administration appears to be the least educationally diverse administration ever. At least the Bush administration hired people who attended both Harvard and Yale.

The Don knows how to return a favor.

When consigliere Tom Hagen asks the movie producer to put Johnny Fontane in the movie, he assures him that the don knows how to return a favor.

After the unions spent $100 million to elect him, the least Obama could have done was push through the Employee Free Choice Act. And since making unions larger adds strength to the Democratic Party, it would have been doing a favor that made the granter even more powerful. The don would appreciate that.

It’s business, not personal.

It doesn’t matter how much fun you and McCain had together at the debates or on the campaign trail or how many times you invite Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) over to watch the Super Bowl.

They will fight you tooth and nail on everything — no matter what.

You can regain all that is lost by wiping out your enemies in one massive, lethal attack.

In one day, Michael Corleone is able to completely restore his family’s fortunes by wiping out all their enemies. Everything the family had done that made them look weak and inept had lulled their enemies into complacency, so the family’s surprise and triumph were complete.

Well, Barack, we’re waiting ...

Mike Connell

2008-12-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

I am still at an age when where hearing of the death of a contemporary still seems shocking. Mike Connell has been around the political internet about as long as I have -- we've been to enough of the same conferences that we would certainly recognize each other at the cocktail parties at the Conferences we attended. He died this morning in the crash of the private plane he was piloting.

What I had no idea of, was that his death puts him at the center of conspiracy theory on the blogs. He had been forced to testify on the Monday before the election in a suit alleging he was a key player in fixing the 2004 Ohio vote. His "non-political" company was running the vote count website for the Ohio Sec. of State. As the returns were coming in and starting to show a Kerry lead, the site was switched from OH servers to ones in TN. According the allegations, after that was when the totals were changed as they came in in real time.

The lawyers pushing the case forward also alleged that Rove was putting pressure on Connell to take the fall or stonewall. They were even asking for court protection for Connell -- although it doesn't appear that Connell was asking for that protection. Another blog noted that Rove was predicting an upset until the day Connell testified -- the implication being that having to testify put the scare into Connell so he pulled the plug on fixing 2008 as he had in 2004.

So the speculation is that Connell was killed to keep him from testifying. Although if I accepted all that blogs alleged, I prefer the supposition that he was killed for refusing to the fix 2008 -- it's more Godfather.

Let me say that I have no first hand knowledge that would lead me to believe or disbelieve any of this. It just feels very weird to have this circulating around someone you shock hands with and would chat with until some more likely to give him business came into view.

Kids and Prop. 8

2008-12-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

This has radicalized my 8 year old daughter Edith -- whose uncle is gay and in a relationship that predates her birth. She says: "No 8 No Proposition 8" and made a poster. She wants to know what kids can do to have no Proposition 8s.

Children's Programing

2008-11-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

As a father to an eleven year old and an eight year old, I have watched a lot of children's programing over the last decade. And it does bring up some questions and thoughts:

Blues Clues: I imagine a finalepisode where Steve is finally given the right anti-psychotic drugs, the hallucinations go away and he wakes up -- in a locked phsyc ward.

Max and Ruby: Here you have what appears to be a three year old being taken care of by a ten year old or so. Where are their parents? Where is child protective services?

The Good Night Show: I'm sorry, but I think the woman who hosts that program is hot. (Of course, I also think the same about the weird woman in the Progressive Insurance commercials).

I'm sure I'll think of some more while I'm watching Noggin, Nickelodeon, Disney, Sprout, etc.

Palin Anti-Semitism

2008-09-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for this shoe to start to drop (oh no, is mentioning shoes sexist?): but we have the first evidence of Palin's being an anti-Semite. Her quote about people in small towns comes from a writer so anti-Semitic that the John Birch Society fired him. He believed that Eastern European Jews were inherently Communist. So we know that Palin was reading extensively in his works. I thought something like this would turn up -- we killed her Lord, you know.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Palins_source.html?showall

De Je Vou All over Again

2008-09-09T07:01:00.000-07:00

How many times have we come out of our Convention sure of victory and then watched as the Republicans in starting in their Convention and then in weeks after the steal our country from us. After watching them manipulate cultural symbols at their convention, white working class America seems to say to itself -- "at least they know enough to lie to us about things we care about in terms we can understand."

Finally, I worry that Marogolis is going to be this year's Shrum -- how can he take the Obama campaign and make boring ads?

A Winning Coalition vs. A Governing Coaliton

2008-09-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hinted at in the coverage of the Obama campaign but never made explicit is that they appear to have made the transition from trying to put together a winning coalition to putting together a governing coalition. A winning coalition strategy, perfected by Rove, is trying to put together 50%+1 votes in states with 271 electoral votes. With that strategy you essentially are able to win with 26% of the assuming they are exactly in the right places. It also means you focus like a laser beam on a few of the swing states and ignore the rest of the country.

The downside of the strategy is that it provides neither a mandate supported by the majority of the country nor a basis of power to then govern the country.

What Obama is doing is putting together a governing coalition. It has not only meant expanding the number of states in play and putting states in play through party building and registering voters -- but putting resources into states like Texas. Although Obama will never win Texas, taking a few state legislative seats will give the Democrats control of the legislature and redistricting. That means more Representatives voting on Obama's legislation in 2010. Also Members who's election Obama helped will have some reason for loyalty and sticking with him on tough votes. That is building a governing coalition.

But now comes the worry time for that strategy. It was implemented at a time when Obama's campaign thought it would be able to drown the McCain campaign with $. Now it is clear the Republicans have given up on the House and Senate and are putting everything into the Presidential. Although Obama should still be able to outspend McCain it is not going to be the blow out in spending it had looked like a few months ago. So our breaths are held.

Does Anyone Know the Books She Wanted to Ban

2008-09-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

The Post of the books Sarah Palin wanted to ban turns out to be a list of the most popular books to ban (or would that be the least popular?). But clearly from the visceral reaction to seeing the books, if we could find out what she wanted to ban so much she fired the librarian, it would be helpful. I can't feel too bad about the fact it is circulating, it is a teaspoon to ocean of "Obama is a Muslim" emails.

The Books Sarah Palin Wanted to Ban

2008-09-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

Below is a paragraph from this week's Time magazine article on Sarah Palin:

"[Former Wasilla mayor] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor."

Mary Ellen Baker resigned from her library director job in 1999.

Here is the list of books Palin tried to have banned. As many of you will notice it is a hit parade for book burners.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen KingCatch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald DahlScary
Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

Too bad it leaves out the Wizard of Oz -- wanting to ban that ended the candidacy of a Republican VA LT. Gov candidate.

Black McCain Supporters

2008-07-21T14:03:00.001-07:00

Recent Washington Post poll has Obama getting 94% of the African American vote and McCain getting 1%. This proves something I have suspected for a while -- ALL black McCain supporters are working as pundits.

Funny Passover Videos

2008-04-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Check them out. It all started because I figured that there had to be a Matzo Man video taking off of the Village People (although no one did the obvious and had the stetle people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL6Tim80g5A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Xiy5aK3AU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t6AD2A2WpM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMiXJV6HSiU&feature=related

Obama the Elititest

2008-04-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

Looking at the whole Obama elitist controversy, as usual the people are not adjusting to the new paradigm -- for Obama it is really basketball v. bowling. And even the people who still bowl, are following basketball and had their brackets in the NCAA tournament. Meanwhile Hillary is going all "Mitt Romney" as born again bowler and gun-nut. And of course, Obama's net worth is less than a tenth or fiftieth of Clinton's or McCain.

When it actually comes down to the election and the economic problems we will be facing, we should remember that FDR wasn't much of a bowler either.

John McCain's Rural Jobs Program

2008-04-14T16:54:00.001-07:00

John McCain's rural jobs program is called "Stop Loss".

End of the Primary Campaign

2008-04-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

It isn't over until the lady in the pantsuit sings!

Amazing Image

2008-04-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

From Petreus's testimony- we don't see a light at the end of the tunnel and we have pushed the champagne bottle to the back of the fridge. Amazing.

Charlton Heston

2008-04-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

I guess we can finally get his gun away from him.

Are we in a Pre-Colonial Situation?

2008-03-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

I did a lot of my academic work studying colonialism. In most colonies there was a "pre-colonial" period, in which forces external and internal reshaped society in way that lead to becoming controlled -- both economically and politically -- by an external western power. And in such a way that the colonial power could exert the control with an amazingly small number of its own people.

The key was the creation of a "mediating elite." These were folks who even while local manufacturing was being destroyed by factories in Manchester were making bundles and improving their economic and social positions by selling those products in the local markets. You could see them as economic traitors or of as free marketers. They often seamlessly became the local collaborators with the positions in the colonial administrations once the economic domination was supplemented with political control.

There just seems to be a parallel between this piece of history and people like Sam Walton and becoming rich with Walmart's role in replacing American manufacturing with made in China. There also is a deeper connection with many of the policies of the last eight years that I will explore in later posts.

Of course

2008-03-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a "by-product of the success of the surge."

Spitzer 24/7

2008-03-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

CNN broke into their non-stop Spitzer resignation coverage with the BREAKING NEWS that Spitzer had resigned. This was an hour after had happened and they were covering nothing but.

Also, at 11 their Showbiz show is covering "What can Spitzer learn from past Hollywood Sex Scandals", in other words this an excuse to re-cover every juicy star sex scandal for the last century.

Daily Shot To Cover the Political Consultants Convention

2008-03-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm going to the American Association of Political Consultants convention in Santa Monica and so is the Daily Show. Here is the e-mail from the AAPC about it (personally, I would love to be interviewed by John Stewart on the couch, but if any of those other guys come by with cameras -- RUN AWAY):

The Daily Show To Cover 2008 Pollie Awards and Conference
Hello Pollie Stars!

Well, the good news is you may get press on the Daily Show - yup the same one that's attracting young voters and the rest of us all over the world. The bad news is to remember that they tend to devise great humor at the cost of their subjects. Comedy Central's hugely popular The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart is planning to do a story on The Pollies and has indicated some interest in using your entry in the piece. We have provided The Daily Show a list of firms that have submitted entries. That list includes ONLY the name of the piece, the name of the firm who produced the piece, and the category that the piece was submitted in. We have instructed the producers of The Daily Show to directly contact the firms who have submitted entries in the categories in which they are interested and to ask permission to use a piece on the show. You may receive a phone call or email in the next couple of days from a producer at Comedy Central requesting your Pollie entry. The Daily Show is one of the most popular shows on TV and there is no doubt, this is an unmatched opportunity for free publicity for your work. However, as President of the AAPC it is important that I let you know a couple of things before you turn over your entry to the producers of The Daily Show:
If you are not familiar with The Daily Show, it is a comedy show specializing in satire of the news. The "bread and butter" of their program is to spoof a lot of things that our profession does.
If you are lucky enough to be interviewed by The Daily Show, do not try to "Out-Daily Show" The Daily Show. They are experts at what they do and can edit the piece. Just be yourself and represent your profession to the best of your ability.If you turn over an entry piece to The Daily Show, you do so at your own risk. The AAPC cannot offer any guarantee of how the piece might be used on the program.The AAPC takes a lot of pride in being an advocate for our profession and seeks to put the interests of our profession and membership first. While your entry on appearing on The Daily Show might be prestigious, there is a possibility your entry could be made fun of. That is why, rather than the AAPC turning over all of this year's Pollies entries to The Daily Show's producers, we thought we would give you the opportunity to choose whether to participate or opt out. Please note that the AAPC has not turned over ANY Pollie Awards entries to The Daily Show. Good luck and I look forward to seeing you at the 17th Annual Pollie Awards and Conference!Best Regards, Tony FazioPresident, AAPC

Settle it Now

2008-03-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

Here is my plan to settle it between Barack and Hilary:

-- They have both earned a place on the ticket, they agree that it will the two of them. Order will be decided by who has the most elected delegates when the primaries are over. That way they can still "let the voters decide" but no have the incentive not make this a mutual destruction situation where whoever wins gets a worthless nomination.

-- They also agree that they will switch off -- so Obama is President for 4 years, then Hilary, then Obama is young enough that he can run again. Whoever is VP has enhanced responsibilities -- so Hilary might have more National Security responsibilities in the first administration.

-- An Obama/Hilary ticket also plays to the traditional campaign roles of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. Obama is the ideal inspirational leader and Hilary can certainly fill the attack dog role we will need in going after McCain and the Republicans.

-- Florida and Michigan are re-run as caucuses. Just rerunning them favors Hilary, but having them be caucuses favors Obama. Also with caucuses you are building organizations that will be useful in the general elections while primaries encourage running of negative TV ads which end up hurting whoever the eventual nominee.

I think with that we have a system that will produce a strong ticket without damaging the eventual chances for victory.

1936

2008-03-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

All of the following happened in 1936:

Hitler invades the Rhineland
The Lindbergh Kidnapper is executed
Max Shenling Fights Joe Lewis
General Francisco Franco starts the Spanish Civil War
Jesse Owens stuns the Berlin Olympics
King Edward VIII abdicates for "the woman I love"
Roosevelt Beats Landon for a 2nd Term

And

John McCain is born.

The Other Roger Stone

2008-03-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post Sunday Magazine has a little section where they ask readers to send in their experiences. They asked for true tales of being mistaken for someone else. Here is what I wrote in (we'll see if they take it):

The Other Roger Stone

I happen to share my name with one of the more notorious (at least among my circle) Republican operatives. This has been particularly dicey because I am a Democratic consultant and have a listed number and he has tended not to, so I get his calls.

I first became aware of this when my phone rang at about 4:30 a.m. one morning in 1987.

“Roger?”
“Yes”
“This is mmmmm, we met at the Kemp Fundraiser.”
“Huh?”
“You heard that Congressman McKinney died.”
“Yeah”
Then the caller’s words came tumbling out. “Roger, I need your help. The Democrat is a nightmare, and no one else is conservative enough. We need State Senator XXXX to make the run. I want to go up to him at the funeral and say we have $200,000 lined up. I can’t raise that kind of money. I need your contacts. I need 100 people you can call and will do a $1,000 from them and a $1,000 from the wife. Can you help me?”
“You know there is more than one Roger Stone in DC.”
“Huh?
“I work for Senator Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota.”
“Oh Sh-t. They are going to be laughing at me in cloakroom tomorrow. You’re not going to go to the press with this?”

We got a good story in the Hartford Courant with the unfortunate headline: “Leaving the Wrong Stone Unturned.”

Roger Alan Stone is CEO of Advocacy, Inc. a pioneering political internet services and consulting firm.

Buyers Remorse Redux

2008-02-27T18:34:00.000-08:00

An amazing 51% think McCain is a moderate. http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20080225/pl_rasmussen/ideologyfeb20080225;_ylt=AhHG8N9mrp9PFuo_Bm0.0jKs0NUE Although he has his differences -- largely on personality and a few issues -- with some of the conservative leaders, his positions and beliefs are very very conservative. I worry that just as folks were surprised at how conservative Bush was when he got elected (thinking he was just a rerun of his dad), we will have a lot Independents and even Democrats voting for him and then being very surprised with what they end up with.

With Friends Like These

2008-02-27T07:34:00.000-08:00

As a rational human being, I am always amazed at how stupid the extremes can be in their determination to lose. According to an article in Politico, groups on the left want to recreate 1968 at the Democratic Convention with anti-war protests and civil disobedience. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8710.html

Perhaps their plan is to insure the future of the anti-war movement by electing McCain -- then the movement could last 100 years. Or perhaps it is sixties envy gone wrong by people who missed the decade.

Another article in this issue of Politico made the point that Nader did not lose the election for Gore -- the people who voted for him did. So that there are groups silly enough to call for recreating the 1968 protests is one thing, if they actually get people to show for it would be another.

McCain's Running Mate

2008-02-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

The New York Times had an article saying that McCain might try to balance his ticket by trying to pick a younger running mate. Of course he will -- how could he pick an older running mate? Strom Thurmond is dead and Senator Byrd is a Democrat.

How did she miss out on being a talking head?

2008-02-22T18:07:00.000-08:00

Another mystery of the Vicki Iseman story -- given how she looks, why has she never been featured as a Republican talking head on any of the cable shows? Or is that her future now that she has been noticed?

She was his mistress

2008-02-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

How else can you explain the Vicki's meteoric rise -- she comes to DC with a degree in primary education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She gets a job as receptionist at lobbying firm and with no Hill or other experience is a Partner at the firm (probably pulling down a half a million a year plus) before she is 30. That doesn't happen. Check out the profile of her in her alumni magazine -- she's probably their most accomplished or at least today most famous grad. http://old.www.iup.edu/publications/iupmag/backissues/Fall02/iseman.shtm

Of course the fact that she is the spitting imagine of a younger Cindy McCain is more damming evidence -- guys have types and clearly McCain has his.

Obama Luck

2008-02-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

Is history repeating itself? In 2004 Obama was able to waltz into the Senate because after he secured the nomination, his Republican opponent had a sex scandal and had to drop out. If that pattern holds then like in 2004, the Republicans will replace their presumptive nominee with Alan Keyes.

Cheeseheads at the Convention

2008-02-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Seeing a clip of Hilary saying she loved Cheeseheads in a speach in WI, in which you could see some Wisconsinites wearing cheesehats reminded me of Democratic Convention in 1988. Wisconsin had been a key state in Dukakis's nomination battle and was going to be a key battleground in the general election so they gave the WI delegation a prime location. It was right down in front of the poduim. They were in literally every shot of a speaker and they wore those damn cheesehead hats.

Dukakis lost, and not one blames the cheesehats, but in 1992 the WI delegation was in the nose bleed seats next to American Samoa.

Intelligent Design

2008-02-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Edith, my seven year old asked me why God created mosquitoes. (We really need to take her religious education in hand; I think right now most of it is coming through her West African nanny.)

Since I don't know why God created mosquitoes, but do have the answer to how mosquitoes evolved to fill an ecological niche -- which is much simpler to explain -- I went with that. I threw in Darwin's visit to the Galapagos Island's and his finches.

I guess the best answer to the intelligent design folks that I have heard lately is that the design is hardly intelligent. If it were, then we wouldn't have bad lower backs, too many wisdom teeth for the space in our jaws and appendixes. Not to mention the Platypus (unless it shows that God has a sense of humor).

What we really need is a foundation that would pay for putting a copy of the Origin of Species into every hotel room along with the Bible (and in the case of Marriott, the Book of Mormon).

Someone at CNN is losing their job

2008-02-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

The deli I was eating in had CNN. The announcer said "Turning to Politics, Obama has a huge lead ..." and proceeded to do a few minutes of political coverage. When that wrapped up he said, "Turning to Politics, Obama has a huge lead . . . I just read this. Could we turn to something else, this isn't how we do things."

I think the guy who loads stories into the teleprompter is getting let go.

Form over Function

2008-02-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

A Capitol Hill cop accused of setting fires is trying to get her statements through out because she wasn't advised of her Miranda Rights. I'm a huge civil libertarian, but since her job involved advising people of their rights, shouldn't she know them? http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/latest_news/22157-1.html Actually as one of my law professor's pointed out, everyone with a TV knows them.

Let's wrap it up -- NOT

2008-02-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

The commentators all seem to think that it is some horrible thing for the Democrats that they are still fighting it out while the Republicans have it wrapped up. This is just wrong. In 2004 the Democrats wrapped it up much to soon -- while the primaries were being contested there were all the candidates beating up on Bush and being covered. Once Kerry had it wrapped up, it was quiet until the convention and Bush was rebounding.

Everything is so front loaded that we forget that we are still fairly early in when candidates have their nomination wrapped up. Usually most primaries wouldn't have happened by now. The period from whenever the nomination is decided until the election will be plenty long.

Finally, having the eventual candidate have to campaign in all these states and build organizations and generate the level of excitement this generating is going to a huge help going into November.

Sea Change on Sexism in Public Discourse?

2008-02-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

With MSNBC suspending a commentator for making an offensive sexist comment -- saying the Clinton Campaign was "pimping out" Chelsea -- may represent a cultural milestone in ending polite acceptance of sexism. With Hilary Clinton's campaign and the commentary on the commentary their is now an awareness of the issue. In fact, the reaction to what Mathews and others said probably put Clinton back into the race in New Hampshire.

In the middle of all of this, Earl Butz died. As a precousious child in the mid-seventies, I remember Earl Butz (how could any adoloscent male not be amused by that name). For those who don't remember the aply named Butz, he was Ford's Secretary of Agriculture and he had to be fired in the middle of Ford's relecation campaign for telling an incredibley offensive joke about colored people. That in the mid-seventies someone as high as a cabinate offical could be fired for telling that kind of joke forever made those sorts of racist comments taboo in the workplace and polite society. It just isn't done anymore.

It will be interesting if this election ends up marking the same sort of moment.

Will Bush be featured at the Republican Convention?

2008-02-08T20:05:00.001-08:00

One interesting thing to watch will be what role they give Bush at the Republican Convention. I remember in 2000 they had "Clinton" Day and then turned focus to Gore. But that was with a realitively popular President, so I wonder how they will play out.

Long Memories Strike Again

2008-01-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

According to reports from people closed to Ted Kennedy one of the things that pushed him over the edge into coming out against the Clintons was actually Hilary's comment about Martin Luther King and LBJ. Not for the obvious reasons that everyone else objected but because Ted took it as a devaluation of JFK's role in introducing the bill before his assisination. So undoubtably without meaning to, the Clinton's were taking a side in the feud between the Kennedy's and LBJ. Amazing.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/01/post_11.html

Mormon Bumpersticker

2008-01-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

Mormonism: The Scientology of the Nineteenth Century.

Why Judaism Is So Popular

2008-01-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

I was sitting around with my in-laws comparing Jewish views on the after-life with Christians. They asked me if we had Heaven and also Resurrection. I told them that the Orthodox believed that when the Messiah came that your body would rise up. That was the reason that cremation is an abomination to them. Not only would the body come up, as is, but the Jews would come together in Israel. Orthodox aspire to be buried in Israel, because otherwise they would have to burrow through the Earth to get there.

I had to assure Jeneva that I wasn't making this up. (So I had to find it online in the Jewish Encyclopedia http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=233&letter=R " Those that are buried elsewhere will therefore be compelled to creep through cavities in the earth until they reach the Holy Land (Pesiḳ. R. l.c., with reference to Ezek. xxxvii. 13; Ket. 111a).")

So in short, the Jewish view of the after life is a whole bunch of naked old Jews crowded into Israel for all eternity. The Christians have heaven, the Muslims have the virgins for Martyrs and we have Miami nude Beach -- I now see why over the last 2,000 years we have had so much success getting converts -- who wouldn't want to join?

Vietnam Veterans Last Chance

2008-01-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

John McCain represents the last chance for a Vietnam Veteran to be elected President. Every other war has had one or more veterans become president. The usual pattern was set with our first President, where the over-all commanding General succeeds to the Presidency, this seems to be especially true for our big wars -- Grant from the Civil War and Eisenhower from WWII. The war of 1812 gave us Andrew Jackson and the First Harrison. The Mexican American war gave us Zachary Taylor and Spanish American War gave us its one hero -- Teddy Roosevelt. WWI gave Truman as its vet that served (that's counting Ike as a WWI vet, although he was also WWI) Both the Civil War and the Second World War were long tail conflicts as far as vets becoming President -- from Grant to McKinley we were electing Civil War Vets and WWII vets were getting in until 1992 when Bush the first finished up his term.

Korea may or may not be an exception -- Carter was a Korean War era vet, but studying nuclear subs did not see action.

So McCain is the last hope for the Vietnam vets.

No Comment

2008-01-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

While I was growing up, my mom used to get MS. Magazine. It had a section called "No Comment" the simply reprinted the most amazing sexist documents or other things they found. It was the most interesting part of the magazine.

Here is something that I am just not going to comment on:

At one of the precinct caucus in Nevada they have break a tie in dividing up 5 delegates. So they drew cards. The Obama person drew the ten of Spades. He was beaten by the Clinton supporter who drew the Queen of Hearts.

Even I didn't think they could go lower

2008-01-16T14:29:00.001-08:00

I really thought some kind of bottom had been hit in 2000 in the SC primary when McCain was attacked for having a "black" daughter -- he had adopted a girl from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh.

But now a hit piece is circulating accusing him of cooperating with the North Vietnamese and being a bad pilot! http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/slime-time-begi.html I guess it is the ultimate blame the victim.

(I admit I had pledged to not blog on politics, but somethings just call for it).

Causation v. Correlation

2008-01-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

Here are three of my favorites -- I think they have shaped how I view the world.

1. In the fifties a series of studies showed that children who grew up with nightlights in their rooms tended to need glasses when they got older. So parenting advice was to avoid putting nightlights into children's rooms. But later studies re-crunched the data and what they found was that parents with bad eyes had trouble seeing in the dark and had a greater tendency to put nightlights in their kid's rooms. So the kids needed glasses not because of the nightlights, but because of genetics.

2. I remember in my psych text book's discussion of suicide they had a long discussion of the symbolism of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the furthest point West, the end of the line, etc. Then the book noted the supreme irony that every one who jumped off the bridge jumped looking back at the city, not out towards the ocean.

Years later when I lived in San Francisco, I would walk across the bridge. I noticed that the walkway was only the city side -- so if you wanted to jump, as opposed to being hit by a car -- you had to jump facing the city.

3. There was a doctoral dissertation about the vast vast majority of American barns being painted red. It looked at the symbolism of the color red, it examined the barn colors in the various countries that emigrants came from. Finally, it concluded that barns were painted red because red paint is made from iron oxide -- in other words -- you can make it from rusty nails and it is the cheapest paint to make to cover large areas.

Here's a real stretch

2008-01-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

While eating lunch, they had on MSNBC and they were talking about the politics of the recession we appear to be heading into. One commentator said the Republican strategy could be to say this actually a continuation of the Clinton recession, only with a hiatus because of Bush's wonderful tax cuts.

Just amazing that they would even think of trying to blame this on Clinton after 8 years of Bush.

Staying away from Politics

2008-01-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

I think I will stay away from political posts for a little while -- until I can't resist it. After writing a very perceptive obit for Hilary Clinton's Presidential career right before NH, I should probably give it a rest.

Pregnant Women in Bars

2008-01-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

In Slates Dear Prudence column, she gives advice to a woman who had asked an eight months pregnant woman to meet her at a bar -- the pregnant woman thought that was insensitive, even though her friend made clear that she was expected to only order soft drinks. Prudence said she could understand why an 8 months pregnant woman would not want to try to perch on a narrow bar stool.

I comment because this answer leaves out 2 more important and likely reasons she might not want to go to a bar. The first in most jurisdictions would be 2nd hand smoke. But even more uncomfortable is the high likelihood that just being in a bar while that visibly pregnant would generate a long loud lecture on fetal alcohol syndrome from a stranger. For some reason, the normal social constraints are not felt regarding the conduct of pregnant women -- their seems to be some societal proprietary interest in fetuses that over rules it. I think this must have something to do with the choice vs. right to life debate, but I am not sure what.

Hell has offically frozen over

2008-01-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

It snowed in Baghdad.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jW3GxloIao_SDQfJaOPCdr4CD0AAD8U3S3681

I'm not sure if that means we will now elect a woman or an African American President --- but surely this is a predicate for something.

My Hope for Hillary

2008-01-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

Hillary may end up as the new Ted Kennedy. After his brother Robert's assicination, he was the heir apparent to the Presidency and spent the time from 1968 to 1980 either running or not-yet-running for the Presidency. But after his disatourous run in 1980 it was apparant that he would never be President.

But rather than sulk, he settled into what he has been for the last almost three decades -- one of the nation's truly great Senators.

Hillary has that potential. Imagine her, for the first time in her life free from running for the Presidency. She will also, like Kennedy, have a safe Senate seat. She can be free from being poll and advisor driven.

In her first few years in the Senate -- as part of establishing herself as a candidate independent and capable apart from her husband -- she made a tremendous effort to show what an adept Senator she could be. And showed a real talent for it. She was able to work effectively even with those who made their careers opposing her and her husband. She reveled in the detail work that many lesser Senators neglect.

So assuming she is not the nominee this time, check back here in 30 years to see if she has in fact become one of history's great Senators.

I do not want to contemplate her taking the other option that her loss would present to her -- thinking campaigns mistakes were tactical ones that she could correct the next time -- ending up running less successful race after race. So her choice would be between becoming Ted Kennedy or Harold Stassen.

Fun Obama Quote

2008-01-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

"This feels good. It's just like I imagined it when I was talking to my kindergarten teacher."--

Sen. Barack Obama, quoted by the New York Observer, on his new status as Democratic frontrunner. Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign has claimed that Obama has been plotting a presidential run since he was in kindergarten.

Ron Paul Experiment Continues

2008-01-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Now it has generated hits from Texas (I've been expecting that) Canada and Qatar. Amazing.

Ron Paul

Notes to New Parents

2008-01-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has worked in Politics should understand parenting -- as soon as the baby is born -- remember they are the candidate and you are the staff. You should be used to unreasonable, self-centered demands at all hours of day or night --- catering to their every need, paying no attention to your own. And of course the sleep deprivation.

But remember that the election isn't going to be for another 18 years at least!

Ron Paul Experiment Update

2008-01-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Ron Paul Experiment is working! So far it has generated random visits from Arizona, Massachusetts and Greece! So let's give it another try -- Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul.

And if you have found this blog through looking for Ron Paul, let us know with a comment. Did you look at anything else?

Ron Paul Test

2007-12-30T16:14:00.000-08:00

My friend Tom told me that a post on Ron Paul, any post, will attract traffic to a blog. So I'm seeing if it is true. If I do get any random hits, I will post where they have come from -- I can track locality from Goggle which is cool feature.

The Godfather and Mike Huckabee

2007-12-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is from the ABC News Note:

"The Weekly Standard's Dean Barnett takes apart Huckabee's Foreign Affairs treatise. "In one part of the essay, Huckabee somberly intoned that 'Sun-tzu's ancient wisdom is relevant today: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
The only problem with citing this ancient piece of wisdom is that it comes not from Sun Tzu, but Michael Corleone."

Of course Michael was quoting his father, Don Corleone.

Interesting that it would be the Huck quoting the Real Don.

This is too sureal

2007-12-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

I couldn't possibly make something like this up.

Blackwater shot the NY Times dog in Iraq.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1819755220071218?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

If you know me, you have to look at this

2007-12-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

You can take the boy out of Santa Cruz, but you can't take Santa Cruz out of the boy. Here is an e-card I received on my birthday.

http://www.bluemountain.com/view.pd?i=178331912&m=2439&rr=y&source=bma997

Check it out.

The Boogie Nights Rule

2007-12-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

Seeing the preview for Charlie Wilson's War, co-staring Phillip Seymor Hoffman after seeing I'm Not Here, which had a cameo from Julianne Moore as the Joan Baez character -- I am constantly reminded of the "Boogie Nights Rule." (I think I may be the discover of this rule, if not please tell me where you have seen it.) But the rule is that you can't have a major (or even minor) Hollywood picture that does not include one of the actors from Boogie Nights. In case you forgot, here is a list:

Mark Wahlberg
Burt Reynolds
John C. Reilly
Julianne Moore
Heather Graham
Don Cheadle
Luis Guzmán
Philip Seymour Hoffman
William H. Macy
Thomas Jane

Santa and the NAACP

2007-12-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Edith was watching an episode of Higgly Town Heroes where the problem is that they are in a cabin with no chimney on Christmas eve, so Santa has no way to get in. They solve this by having a bricklayer show up and build a chimney. Edith says, "that's stupid, they don't have to do that. Santa has keys to everyone's house."

That reminded me of a story that my con law professor, Charlie Black told us. He had been the only white lawyer working with Thurgood Marshall on the briefs for Brown v. Board of Education. He said they were working late one night and Thurgood looks around the room at all the faces of the black lawyers and came to him and said --"Charlie, what are you doing here?"

And he said, "well, Thurgood, even in the small town in rural east Texas I grew up in, we'd heard about the N-A-A-C-P. And we knew that they had a big office in New York City. And in that office, they had a big vault. And in that vault, they had the key to the bedroom of every white woman in the South."

"And I vowed that I had to become a part of that organization!"

Bollywood Obama

2007-12-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

You must see this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-451XMsuY

9th Night of Hanukkah

2007-12-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

When she was 3 or 4 my Daughter Edith was traumatized my the 9th night of Hanukkah. By then she had gotten the routine down -- candles, presents. So as soon as it got dark on the 9th night, she started chanting "Candles! Presents!". It was a rude awakening.

Red Sox Poltics

2007-11-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

Is it that everyone loves a winner, or that New Hampshire gets Boston media and has lots of Sox fans.

This was in a political newsletter I get:

"Jumping on the Red Sox Bandwagon

First we had Gov. Bill Richardson claiming to like the Red Sox and Yankees -- something any baseball fan knows is impossible.

Then, while stomping for votes in New England, Yankee fan Rudy Giuliani was mocked for saying he would actually root for the Red Sox in the World Series. Now, we have "lifelong Red Sox fan" Mitt Romney not knowing how long it had been since the Red Sox won a World Series when they finally got there in 2004. As ABC News notes, "It is a number that millions of Red Sox fans know by heart. It is a number that many kids in Massachusetts know before they can even count." With my beloved Red Sox the World champs again this year, it's funny watching so many politicians trying to become citizens of Red Sox Nation. "

These People Are Crazy

2007-11-30T08:44:00.000-08:00

Calls in Sudan for execution of Briton

News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071130/ap_on_re_af/sudan_british_teacher

What kind of people would think there religion would be endangered by a teddy bear?

My Putin Dream

2007-11-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

I don't usually remember my dreams and I have no idea what this one means. As you may know, one of the ways Putin is thinking about maintaining power -- he is term limited as President -- is to get a stand in to be President while he exercises real control. In my dream, I was that stand-in. I remember thinking that one of the reasons he had picked me was that because I wasn't Russian and didn't even speak the language I would never be able to develop an independent power base to challenge him.

I was supposed to give my first speech and my friend Dave (who teaches Russian History and speaks Russian) was transliterating it so I could give it.

Again, no idea what this means and I certainly have no desire to move to Moscow. In fact, everything that is happening there makes me so glad that my ancestors left when they did.

Fired for Being Funny

2007-11-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

The announcer on the London Tube (their Metro) was fired for including funny stuff in her announcements:

*We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly."

* "Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman's chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert."

* "Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."

* "Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage ... If you're female smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He's probably not had sex for months."

All the recordings are at: www.emmaclarke.com/fun/mind-the-gap/spoof-london-underground-announcements.

NGO v. Non-Profit

2007-11-24T14:08:00.000-08:00

I was presenting in Berlin last week about what we are doing in Internet politics here. I realized that one of the concepts I was translating was that what we referred to as non-profit organizations they called NGOs -- non-governmental organizations. In many cases -- Greenpeace, etc, it is actually the same organization. As I pondered it, it is interesting that the assumed actor in our society is a profit making corporation, while over there it is government.

Borat Endorses Obama -- Sort of

2007-11-07T11:55:00.001-08:00

http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSIndia-30365920071106

Corruption in Iraq now basis of Nigerian Scam Spam

2007-10-29T08:20:00.001-07:00

I just got my first e-mail using the corruption in Iraq as the basis of the Nigerian Scam. As everyone knows, in the Nigerian Scam someone as some ill-gotten gain they need to move out of a country and they want to use your bank account to do it. To work, the ill-gotten gain has to be so notorious that they assume any e-mail recipient will have hear of it, so it marks a milestone in the notoriety of U.S. Government corruption in Iraq that these are now circulating (this is not a particularly good one, as it makes grammatical mistakes of a non-native speaker, although the link to a news article is a good touch -- although no real American in Iraq would link to the BBC):

Greetings,
I am a Civil Staff working under United States Marine Corps operating with the Engineering military Dept unit in Baghdad, Iraq, we discover about $65 Million US dollars that we want to move out but we need a good partner we can trust. This fund is oil money and legal. Click on the link bellow for more information
http://exchange.advocacyinc.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
We will be moving these funds out of Iraq through the assistance of UN diplomatic officer. But the question is can we trust you when the funds get to you? You will take your 30% for the assistance and keep the remaining for us in a safe custody. Your role is to find a safe place for the funds while our own part is sending it to you. Wait Your Reply Michael Joseph

Food Network Thoughts 3 -- Rachel Ray eats a Turd

2007-10-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe how unrelentingly cheery Rachel Ray is. No matter what is put in front of her, it is always so so so very wonderful. I imagine her being presented with a steaming turd on a plate. "Oh this is so fresh! You can see the steam still rising from it." And then her trademarked smile as she takes her first bite. "And so economical, this is the best turd in San Antonio, I get one whenever I come here."

On thing I do give her credit for, is she is willing to include having a drink with her meals.

Food Network Thoughts 2 -- Iron Chef

2007-10-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, I love the American version of Iron Chef. But I do miss the original Japanese version. You would watch it in wonderment at how weird the Japanese could be. On the American version, they will reveal the secret ingredient --- "onions!" or "Parmesan Cheese!" but with the Japanese it would be "Sea Urchin Snot!". And then everyone would go, "oh sea urchin snot, that's good."

Food Network Thoughts 1

2007-10-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

I think like most of America we have been watching the Food Network more and more. I think of it is as "Food Porn". We've been through the same cycle of cable watching as the rest of the country -- first it was "Financial Porn" of watching the stock reports, a phase that ended when it became depressing with the end of the tech bubble. (Was working for Juno and watched the stock go from $87 to 87 cents). Then it was HG TV and "House Porn", with shows like house hunters and flip this house and trading spaces. Now that is pretty depressing.

At least we still have food! It's like in the depression when chocolate sales went up, because no matter how bad things got, people could still get a 5 cent Hersey bar. If that ever goes, people will be reduced to watching "Porn Porn".

Comments

2007-10-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

I changed the settings so now anyone can comment. I did not realize that it was set to only allow registered users to comment. So go for it!

A Man came on the Radio

2007-10-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Edith, my seven year old, was sitting in her car seat listening to the radio. Suddenly she says, "What that man is saying, is TRUE. You can't always get what you want."

Watering the Roof

2007-10-24T14:36:00.001-07:00

Seeing all the coverage of the fires in S.Cal I remember when we used to have to water the roof in Calabasas. We came close to being evacuated a couple of times, and we once had to put up someone who was evacuated. But this seems worse than anything we used to see 30 years ago (I feel so old writing that).

Growing up there you were just used to it. I have told people S.Cal has seasons -- Green, brown and Fire.

We also have another weather phenomenon -- the First Rain of the Season. It is a truism that people in S.Cal can't drive in the rain. Well, there is a reason for that -- The First Rain of the Season. You see, it doesn't rain for 10 months of the year and during those 10 months whenever some tops off their tank and spills some gas on the ground -- it evaporates. Then comes the first rain and 10 months of petrochemical products comes down with it. Every puddle is an oil slick. I remember being in the car with my brother when he hit the breaks and did a 360 because he hit a puddle on the on ramp.

I was talking to someone in Boston today about the fires and she said that S.Cal scared her. It's funny. Earthquakes and brush fires don't scare me. Earthquakes are land surfing. But snow has almost killed me a couple of times. I still have nightmares about driving in blizzards in SD.

World Series -- 2004 v. 2008

2007-10-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

No one seems to be pointing out that this World Series is pitting the 2004 Convention city -- Boston v. the 2008 Convention city -- Denver. Especially as this is the last Series before the Convention.

Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein

2007-10-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070302/ap_on_fe_st/mistaken_invasion

What else can anyone say. It has to be one of the greatest headlines ever. Read the article.

Although it makes the points that the soldiers had no bullets in their guns -- it doesn't mention that everyone of them had a knife. And every one of those knives had not only a can opener and tweezers, but also a plastic tooth pick that could put someone's eye out at close range.

Feminists have more fun

2007-10-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071018/sc_livescience/feministshavemorefun

The Kurds: A People Who Never Got Their Way

2007-10-20T16:07:00.000-07:00