Am I A Bad Person For This?

CNN just ran an article announcing that Congress finally announced their resuce bill. From the article:

Lawmakers' goal is to shore up a deal before financial markets around the world open on Sunday evening.

By which they mean the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Naturally, the first thing I do is to look up the time in Japan, they are 14 hours ahead of CST (3:00pm here 5:00am there). Next I look up the hours for the TSE: trading starts at 9:00am.

Finally I have to smile, in kind of an evil way, at the thought of over 400 congress-persons running around (literally) trying to find the votes to get this to go through.

Guys, you have 3 hours and 39 minutes to find the votes, pass the bill, and get it signed.

Enjoy.

Up Too Late / The Bailout

First, I don't really know why I am up right now. I really need my sleep. Second, on a topic I wasn't going to blog about...

CNN has an article titled: Congressional Leaders Reach Tentative Deal On Bailout. By then end of this post it will have been updated in under 20 minutes and hence is scarce on details. But there is a single part of the three paragraphed article I want to quote and comment on:

The aim of the deal is to prevent credit from drying up and causing a meltdown of the U.S. economy.

• First, we are talking about the world economy. There is saying that when the U.S. sneezes (economically) the rest of the world catches cold. This is much bigger than the average joe understands.
• Second, when CNN says "meltdown" they mean it. The MSM (mainstream media) hasn't been completely truthful on the current crisis (and I will call it a crisis). The financial periodicals are comparing it to late 1929 -- the beginning of the Great Depression -- and for good reason.
• Third, damn near every American (or person on this planet for that matter) will be affected by this deal. You make think that New York is too far away to matter but odds are your mutual fund, 401k, or pension is tied up in this mess. Sorry, but it sucks for you.
• Fourth, CNN says "aim." The real point here is the people that understand the current situation (there are very few, a few dozen at most; some of us simply believe those people are right [and maybe understand why they are]) may or may not be fixed by a "Rescue Package." This is shooting from the hip, that is not secret, but there isn't a better plan. We are certainly damned if we don't pass this bill (and the global economy) and may be if we do. The only certainty is that not trying is sure to fail; the bill at least has a chance to help things.
• Fifth (I am almost done): don't blame your incumbents come election time, even though they will have almost certainly voted for a $700b bill that you don't like. Given the reasons above it is the most responsible thing to do even if their constituents do not like it.
• Finally: I won't say much more about this in future posts unless someone specifically asks me to in a comment. I am a finance/econ major, even if I lack a PhD. I can explain the broadest components of the crisis, the bill, and why it matters if anyone cares. (E.g., what drying up credit means [more than most people realize] and why this is so important [the aspects the MSM keeps missing.])
  

P.S. Rumor is that I have another reader. A 250% increase in a month isn't bad! (Ok, so that means 5 people...)

P.P.S.: For most of the people that read (meaning all five) who care very little about this type of post I have another coming up. I just have to actually type up half of it, the half that was written in pencil instead of typed. And I should have another Bethel University Commons Time Lapse Video up soon.

Ooops...

At least it's the first time, not again. I think I just annoyed (or at least really confused) a VP. It's a long story. Still, note to self: do not approach [VP] again unless it is with good news...

On a Musical Note

I just have to get this out: Bill Gaither is worse than Perry Como, by a lot. The songs in and of themselves are ok, but not the performance. Maybe he thought he was Frank Sinatra, because it sounds like he is trying to croon like him. And no one croons like Old Blue Eyes.

The Worst Time to Blog

Is when you are bored. Very. Bored.

The writing tends to lack any sense of spontaneity and often fails to attract any interest -- especially from the writer. Back in the day this was never a problem, or at least rarely. At least for me. There was always news. And I mean real news, you know, the stuff that is interesting.

Today the news is dominated by piddling topics such as presidential elections and a financial crisis or something on Wall Street. Wall Street is in New York and that is too far away for me to actually care about.

And the politics, the politics are quickly becoming incredibly boring. Seriously, when the best I can do is make fun of attack emails it is bad. When I was a youngster there was always a president, high ranking official, or congressperson having an affair, being charged with murder, starting the most absurd policy changes ever. Today the news centers around whether John McCain or Barack Obama is running a dirtier campaign, whether Palin is an angel or a demon, and what people think of either campaign. I don't care what other people think of the campaigns, I care about what I think.

In a completely separate event readers of my blog just went up by 50%; yup, I have one more reader.

If rather alarming events (and non-events) keep on happening at such an astounding rate I make have to take the unprecedented step of blogging on a regular basis and trying to make it interesting.

Firefox is the Safest Browser Because...

Recently the Firefox start page started advertising itself as the world's safest browser. For the record the merits of this are up for debate, no one has decisively claimed that title yet. (Also, the add-in's that have helped make FF so popular may increase or decrease security.)

Anyway, the best part of the whole thing is this:

Using [Firefox] is the safest way to surf the web because:

• We don’t try to tackle the problem alone. An international community of security experts is working around the clock to make your web browsing safer (thanks to our open source way of doing things). It’s like having your neighborhood watch led by a group of highly trained ninjas. [Emphasis Added]
  

[...]

Hmk, so that's what those Firefox developer's are up to...

@ Tubagirl: Not all of my posts that show up were written during work hours, but scheduled to show up during the morning. If I write several posts at once I generally schedule them out two or three days in a row.

The Things You Can't Blog About

I've always disliked the number of things I can't blog about because they usually are the most amusing. I can't blog about most things at work, except for the boring stuff, and even then I have to make sure I'm not disclosing any proprietary information.

I can't blog about half the stuff that happens at my house to protect the guilty (including myself at times).

I can blog about politics (and obviously do) but unless I make it particularly amusing neither of my two readers (seriously, both, that's it) care much. (Although over half my traffic comes from search engines almost all of them leave the page immediately).

Ditto about most geeky stuff.

Guess it will just be a boring blog unless I decide to start making up life stories. Actually, that could be fun...

"PC Load Letter"

It's either a great day or a horrible day at the office when half the morning conversation revovles around the movie Office Space. Stuff's going well so far so I'm going to take this as a good sign.

YOU Won't Get Anything From Me Either

I wanted a free Obama button (ironically, it might arrive after the election) and MoveOn.Org (MOO) started sending me emails, which I knew would happen.

I know that both of my readers are more interested in my personal life than my politics. But I still like writing about politics. I promise I'll put personal stuff in here soon as well. Soon.

Dear MoveOn member,

I'm not your monkey [member].

Did you watch Sarah Palin's speech last night?[Last night meaning at the RNC convention] [...]

No.

...The speech told us a lot about her.

That was the point.

It told us that she can distort the facts and deliver mean-spirited zingers with the best of them. It told us that if Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter ever need a stand-in, she'd be a great pick.

So, she's in politics. Like you! (And heh, Rush and Ann are entertaining, if vulgar in what they put out. That's kinda the point. Like you!)

It told us that she can be condescending and dismissive of the real work Barack Obama did helping real people on the South Side of Chicago...

If true this part is quite condemning.

...It told us that she can uphold the long Republican tradition of lying about Democratic tax cuts—even though Obama's plan would give Americans a bigger break than McCain's.

Read: Tax breaks aimed at the middle class, not the upper. Even though tax breaks virtually always benefit the upper class.* (See Obama's The Audacity of Hope to understand my point) 

But the speech—written by one of President Bush's speechwriters...

So what? Hope the speechwriterr is good at writing speeches. That is what they are supposed to do. Do you expect them to use Barack's speech writers?

...didn't tell us the truth about Sarah Palin's extremist positions...

Ah, she IS a conservative! NO WAY for a REPUBLICAN!

 ...And the more that people know her far-right views, the less they support her. (There's a partial list below.)

 Uhm, right. Aren't you just say she was mobilizing the Republican base?

One of the best ways to get the word out about Palin is to write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

Read: Write our talking points to your favorite paper (or all of them)!

Today's a great day to write because this is very relevant—it just happened last night. Plus, our online tool makes it easy and has great tips.

Read (great tips): Our talking points

 Please take a few minutes to write a quick letter to the editor now:

No.

http://pol.moveon.org/lte?campaign_id=95&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=3

Palin's speech and the reaction to it also made clear why McCain picked her. It wasn't a decision about who's most qualified to serve a heart-beat away from the presidency—it was a political decision about pleasing the far-right base of the Republican party...

I said it first! It is about mobilizing [see noted right below] the base and getting votes. The kind of things you need to do to get elected!

Note: First to say it when this was written, not posted (others have gotten to it; it's not like it isn't obvious...)

Writing a letter to your local paper is a great way to make sure voters understand that...

...Is a great way to get our talking points across (a normal tactic of all sides).

...The opinion pages are the most widely-read pages of the newspaper...

Really? (For seriously!)  I would have guessed weather followed by sports.

...Write today, and your letter's a lot more likely to get published because it's so topical..

Topical? "Palin is bad because she is a conservative?" (Like many Republicans...)

...It'll help sway the editorial board too.

Sad but true.

Here are a bunch of points you might want to include in your letter:

Read: The talking points I was talking about earlier.

Palin recently said that the war in Iraq is "God's task."

 

Always dangerous when leaders thing they are the tool that God uses. (Although Biblically this is true, but complicated.) Of course, if she actually means it's God's task, not ours, that is hard to argue with (and I would not).

She's even admitted she hasn't thought about the war much—just last year she was quoted saying, "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." ^{1, 2}

I wonder -- seriously -- if that is a bad thing for a state governor.

Palin has actively sought the support of the fringe Alaska Independence Party.Six months ago, Palin told members of the group—who advocate for a vote on secession from the union—to "keep up the good work" and "wished the party luck on what she called its 'inspiring convention.'" ³

This is politics...

Palin wants to teach creationism in public schools...

 Bad. Bad Bad Bad.

 She hasn't made clear whether she thinks evolution is a fact.⁴

Some of us call this an open mind. Especially for a conservative conservative.

Palin doesn't believe that humans contribute to global warming. Speaking about climate change, she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being manmade." ⁵

Her view is slightly (if only so) more nuanced than that.

Palin has close ties to Big Oil. Her inauguration was even sponsored by BP. ⁶

EVERY POLITICIAN HAS TIES TO OIL. IT POWERS THIS COUNTRY! You had better hope that they know big oil.

Palin is extremely anti-choice. She doesn't even support abortion in the case of rape or incest. ⁷

Not gonna support MO.o's example, but yes, it is pretty far right.

Palin opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools. She's said she will only support abstinence-only approaches. ⁸

As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the library.

Which books?

 Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them—shocking the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker. According to Time, "news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor." ⁹

She DID support the Bridge to Nowhere (before she opposed it). Palin claimed that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. But in 2006, Palin supported the project repeatedly, saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist." ¹⁰

[Bridge] Yup, pretty much more or less. She most definately was playing politics to her advantage there.

The plain fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin did a bang-up job delivering a Karl Rove-style political attack speech last night...

And Rove has done quite well. In 2004 all that was needed was a candidate that we thought could still breath and think!

...That makes her a skilled politician but it doesn't make her views any more palatable for voters...

It does make her more palatable for voters or she wouldn't have said it. This is POLITICS!!!

...Americans don't really want another far-right, anti-science ideologue in the White House.

Some do, actually.

Please help get the word out about where Sarah Palin really stands on the issues.

I think we all actually know, as you pointed out so eloquently throughout most of this letter.

http://pol.moveon.org/lte?campaign_id=95&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

Nothing for MO.o!

–Nita, Ilyse, Wes, Karin and the rest of the team

Hooray!

P.S. If you haven't seen it, check out the Daily Show clip on Palin. It's worth a watch

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24753&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=5

It's probably funy. That is what Comedy Central does. I haven't seen it yet though.

[MO.o] Sources

1. "Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'," Associated Press, September 3, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24701&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=6





2. "Palin wasn't 'really focused much' on the Iraq war," ThinkProgress, August 30, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24702&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=7





3. "The Sarah Palin Digest," ThinkProgress, September 4, 2008

http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/





4. "McCain and Palin differ on issues," Associated Press, September 3, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24703&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=8



5. Ibid



6. The Sarah Palin Digest," ThinkProgress, September 4, 2008

http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/



7. Ibid

8. Ibid.



9. "Mayor Palin: A Rough Record," Time, September 2, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=24704&id=13709-10483324-ww1oKlx&t=9





10. The Sarah Palin Digest," ThinkProgress, September 4, 2008

http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/
I do like sources part. Even if I haven't checked most of them out.

Want to support our work?..

Obama's? Probably. MoveOn.org's? No.

 We're entirely funded by our 3.5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

No. NO chipping in to MoveOn from madjon.


mj's notes:



*They have more money, so any tax break helps them. It skews the numbers a bit so that it looks like the breaks were "only" for the wealthy. BUT a 5% tax break will benefit the top 1% of income earners (in dollars) more than the rest of us. Simple math:


$100m * 105%[**] = $5m saved.
$30k * 105%[**] = $1,500 saved


Even though both sides get a 5% tax break.


**105% being a 5% tax break, completely made up by me.

Watching Bethel: Getting Close

It's getting more fun to watch the time lapse -- especially as I have posted one in over two months! It is getting really close to completion. I am still planning out perfecting my algorithm that picks out what pictures to use and what ones to throw away. I'll do it as soon as I have time. Work is sucking up a lot of that.

Anyway, enjoy. This was rendered fresh this morning!

Browser Crash... Go Boom

I've been playing with Google's new Chrome Browser, a browser that they call in Beta, but that is pushing it. Anyway, there was a bug loading a page so I found their bug reporting tool and found one of the best bug reporting options ever: "Browser crash... go boom".



The only other computer error message that comes close to beating this is the GIMP's out of memory message, "Out of memory. Bad things will happen soon!"

See? Geeks can be funny!

Breaks and Random Facts

Recently I've started getting some pretty severe pain in my lower right arm, a single tendon. I know because I can feel it. Almost no doubt from using my center mouse wheel too much. I use it navigating through records in MS Access, scrolling on webpages, etc.

So I did some research on computer ergonomics and found out that I am doing almost everything the wrong way. One of the best practices is to take 30 second "micro breaks" every ten minutes. There is no way I am ever going to hit every ten, but maybe I can do 20 or 30. So I go to take my first break, but start by navigating to http://time.gov because I know they have a clock with seconds there. And course, as I am "breaking" from typing everything I want to do is check out who is on IM, write blog posts, etc. Take me a far amount of discipline to sit in front of my computer doing nothing for 30 seconds.

While at time.gov I was reminded of an extremely random and amusing fact. Greenich/Zulu time is now called Coordinated Universal Time. Part of an international effort to get all the countries in the world (or all that have the capability) to be using the same time. The acronym for this is UTC, which obviously does not match Coordinatd Universal Time. Apparently this was a comprismise. The Powers That Be couldn't find an acronym that matched both French and English reprentations of their new name. So they went with one that didn't match anything.

Politics really can be funny.

A Thought on Attack Ads/Energy

P.S. (PRE-Script): There will be a few more political posts, especially as we get down to Novemeber, but I know my readers don't care a whole lot about my views on politics. This isn't a surprise, everyone has their views and very rarely are they nuanced enough to be worth reading. I'll try to get some more personal stuff up. Maybe "creative writing," if I can get around to it. At any rate...

I have no problem with attack ads. Not in theory at any rate. I don't want to know just why I should vote for a given candidate, I want to know why I should vote for him or her instead of the other candidate. Odds are they both have some pretty good ideas, and I want to see them fight over which ones are actually better.

Of course, the ads Al Franken has been running (at least on the radio) in Minnesota are pretty ridiculous. They go something like, "Norm Coleman is in bed with special interests because he [insert non-substantive routine political action here.]"

McCain's "Biggest Celebrity in the World" ad was no better -- but at least I got to see the entertaining backfire.

What would be really interesting is an attack ad that doesn't boil down to a 3 second soundbite, or is so easily dismissed. Everybody accuses everybody of being in bed with special interests, a term so vaguely defined I'm not sure what it means. Except that it is bad. Instead I would like to hear a 30 second ad that goes something like:

[Person]'s energy policy is going to drive [region and/or country] into further trouble by relying on more drilling. At best, digging into ANWAR and putting in more off-shore drilling rigs will increase the world's oil supply by about 1% -- after 10 years. Not nearly enough to affect gas or energy prices in a way you'll notice at home. Vote for [the other person] who doesn't support ineffective energy policies.

That's gotta be about 30 seconds. The next ad would explain why "alternative energy" (another vague term) is a better deal.

Bonus: Yes, my fake ad does support my own view on energy. Drilling anywhere around the U.S. isn't going to help us anytime soon and OPEC can respond by cutting production whenever it wants to. We even throw out the whole environment ruining thing because idea is almost as bad as E85 (sorry Iowa, Ohio) which may take as much energy to make as it produces -- or more.* McCain and Obama differ mostly in how much drilling we do and how much money we put into alternative energy.

*I'm sure I posted on this at some point in the past. Probably a long time ago. See Time's The Green Energy Scam for more details. But basically, E85 is the worst alternative energy idea anybody has put into practice yet. It's singular strength is that is in essence a subsidy for American farmers.

You Won't Get My Money From This Email

From my inbox:

[madjon]--

In the next 36 hours, the McCain campaign will be pouring millions of dollars -- if not tens of millions -- into negative attack ads against Barack Obama.

This is what political campaigns do.

Before John McCain accepts the Republican nomination on Thursday, his campaign has to spend every last dollar of primary funds they've raked in from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs.

Yours had to do the same thing.

Just yesterday, they aired a new negative ad in 14 swing states. His campaign manager even admitted that all McCain has to rely on is attacks, saying that for them, "This election is not about issues."

Full quote: "'This election is not about issues,' said Davis. 'This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.'"

 Read: This is about McCain vs. Obama, not what they platforms they stand on. And he is more right than wrong (read the article if you want, Davis isn't denying that people care about the issues, just not as much as personalities this time around. On the other hand, that's always been the case...)

He doesn't want Americans to notice that the Republican platform is the most extreme we've ever seen -- opposing stem cell research, denying a woman's right to choose no matter what the circumstance, and continuing to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq.

Generally both sides want at least the party base to know the platform...

With so much at stake, we can't allow another election to be determined by petty and divisive political tactics.

Including this damned email.

Make a donation of $5 or more to fight back against an unprecedented week of negativity from John McCain.

Not from this email.

The McCain campaign is trying to distract voters from the real issues -- so we're going to focus on what they're trying to hide.

They've come out against the life-saving possibilities of stem cell research.

For years now in fact.

They don't even mention protecting equal pay for equal work.

For years now in fact.

They support huge tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

For years now in fact.

They've almost completely ignored the $10 billion we're spending every month in Iraq.

For years now in fact.

And they make zero exceptions for a woman's right to choose -- even in cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother.

For years now in fact.

If that all sounds like more of the same, that's because it is.

For years now in fact.

John McCain is offering a third term of the disastrous Bush agenda...

Agreed.

...so it's no wonder his campaign would choose to focus on attacks instead of issues.

The next President is the issue of Presidential elections. Thus, an attack ad against Obama does constitute an ad concerning an issue.

Please make your donation of $5 or more today:

Again, not from this email.

https://donate.barackobama.com/fightback

I know we've asked a lot from supporters like you recently, and many of you contributed just last week.

I forgot.

But the stakes are high...

Yes, it's a Presidential election.

...and there are less than 9 weeks before Election Day. It's going to require unprecedented resources to defeat John McCain...

Like a breathing Democrat?

...and bring about the change America so desperately needs.

That's gonna be the hard part.

Thank you for all you do,

Including such a response to your emails?

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America