Post-Election Political Bullet Point Post
I have been meaning to talk more politics now that it is all over. I said from day one of this election that I was 50/50 on these two candidates. Despite their various smear campaigns, these two candidates were both capable and potentially great presidential material. I think they both had positives and negatives. In the end, it appears that timing and the GW Bush effect made it impossible for anyone to compete with a charismatic, competent candidate like Barack Obama. It was handed to him on a silver platter in some respects, but he made a lot of great decisions along the way too, including not letting Joe Biden get overexposed.
Anyway, I write in bullet points a lot lately over on the sports site, so I am going to stick to bullets here too. I am just not thinking effectively in organized narratives lately. Maybe I am just being lazy. Sue me. It is a blog, people.
First, I am going to wear my Republican hat…
- Now that it is over can we stop saying that John McCain would have been GW Bush’s 3rd term? McCain has never liked Bush. Bush caused McCain more political harm in the 2000 election than Barack Obama ever dreamed of leveling on him. McCain may have voted in favor of some of Bush’s budgets, but that certainly doesn’t mean he cosigned for the complete and utter lack of execution on Bush’s part. Barack Obama sold this talking point, but after a few drinks I am guessing he wouldn’t try and tell you it was any more true than people saying he is Muslim.
- The media coverage of Sarah Palin was overwhelmingly biased. Yes, she was a bad candidate. Yes she was far from prepared. Still, the way Gibson and Couric took those interviews and plastered Palin was heavy handed. The message was sent easily without the unnecessary amounts of piling on. Palin’s lack of experience should have been enough. The negativity further shows how our newspeople are trying to be SNL or John Stewart rather than Walter Cronkite.
- The campaign finance situation is officially out of control. This was highlighted by the infomercial that Obama bought from the networks. I know it was all paid for out of money he raised fairly, but an election shouldn’t be decided based on who can run more commercials because they have more money. Obama probably wins anyway, but the disparity in funds seems wrong to me. It is ironic that Obama, the equality candidate, would opt out of federal funds and get a free pass from the media. Are there any democrats out there who will admit this?
- Speaking of the infomercial, how is it that it is legal for a network, that has a news department, to take money from one candidate to program a half hour in primetime on their station? The stations are supposed to be trusted sources for news as a part of their function. To take money from one of the candidates for programming is really a conflict of interest.
Now for the Democratic hat…
- The best thing about Obama getting elected is increased investment in Stem Cell research. The real reason to invest in that is so it can be this era’s version of NASA. It has the potential to not only help people, but be this nation’s next economic boom. Advancement in medical technology means coming up with new products, processes, professions and industries. As a generation of would-be laborers continues to get lots and lots of college degrees and masters degrees, they are going to continue to need new industries to get jobs in as the old guard continues to die.
- Speaking of which, the other half of this investment in an industry to be named later is new energy. I am convinced that we haven’t seen the replacement to gasoline yet. I think electric cars that plug into the house won’t really solve energy problems. I think there are lots of problems with ethanol. Hybrid seems like a stop-gap technology. The only way to find it is to continue to research it and Obama appears to be more than willing to do that. It could be the key to saving the auto industry and it could be the key to saving the economy as a whole.
- I think Obama could face some harsh realities from time to time when it comes to foreign relations. I think it is his area of least experience. The good news is that all indications are that he will be able to learn, react on the fly and make quick, high percentage decisions. Obama seems to have the wisdom to be able to realize when he doesn’t know something. This is a stark contrast with the arrogance that we have been dealing with over the last eight years.
- Obama definitely has a cultural impact on this country, but I am already finding the stories to be trite, overly dramatic and over-told. I really do hope that Obama continues to have a positive cultural impact on the nation, but those feel-good stories should be separated from those dealing with Obama the politician if the media hopes to do their job reporting and occasionally critiquing the President. Let’s hope the lessons they learned from Bush’s first four years and 9/11 will be carried over to President Obama’s term. I know this makes me sound cold, but this moment of pride is now over and Obama needs to be judged on his accomplishments from now on, at least in the media.
- Another really positive thing to expect from Obama is his take on Network Neutrality.
Said Obama… “I am a strong supporter of net neutrality,” said Obama. “What you’ve been seeing is some lobbying that says [Internet providers] should be able to be gatekeepers and able to charge different rates to different websites…so you could get much better quality from the Fox News site and you’d be getting rotten service from the mom and pop sites. And that I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet — which is that there is this incredible equality there…as president I’m going to make sure that is the principle that my FCC commissioners are applying as we move forward.” This makes me very happy.
As I said before, I was going to be happy with either McCain or Obama. I don’t know that Obama is going to come up with the right plan for health care, education, or the budget. Nobody ever knows those answers for sure. That being said, I think McCain and Obama both had pretty good priorities. Hopefully Obama’s plan works. I do have concerns that Obama’s tax plans and health plans will negatively affect small businesses’ ability to be competitive and continue to employ as many people as possible, but those are clearly outweighed for me by the potential for Obama’s lofty goals if he hits them.
He has certainly raised the bar high and it will be interesting to see what he ends up succeeding on and which ideas end up eluding him. I don’t have that same sense of negativity that I had during the last election. And don’t think that I am saying that just because of George W. Bush. One lesson we learned during this election cycle is just how bad a campaign John Kerry ran. Let’s hope Obama’s effectiveness at campaigning translates better to success in the Oval Office than it did for GW Bush.
Reducing Mortgage Values
During the Vice Presidential debates when Joe Biden said he wanted to enable courts to not only reduce the interest rates of mortgages, but also the amount of the loans I yelped. What the? Who the? We’re going to do wha? I thought for sure my head was going to explode. I understand that people were sucked into market prices on this whole thing, but how is it that we are going to reduce the value of the loans off the top? Last night, John McCain apparently has jumped on the mortgage value reduction bandwagon. ACK! Two parties. Two “choices.”
This is pure insanity. Who doesn’t want the value of their mortgage reduced? But how do you do it? You are going to have taxpayers buy a mortgage with $100,000 owed for 30 years, for example? Let’s say that interest rate is 7%. So that means the monthly payment is approximately $665 per month. So then, in order to reduce the monthly burden on someone, we are going to reduce the value off the top? So now we are going to basically give the person, what, 20% off the top? 20,000 bucks? That puts the value of the loan at $80k and reduces the monthly payment to about $532. That’s great and all, but guess who just gave away that $20,000 bucks? We all did.
How about increasing the number of years on the mortgage or lowering the interest rate? If you take that same $100,000 loan and reduce the interest rate to 5% the monthly payment becomes almost $537 per month. The difference? The taxpayers who are funding the rescue won’t lose 20,000 on paper, and will earn 5% on the 100,000 investment assuming the homeowner doesn’t default.
And if you really want to help out the homeowner even more, increase the number of years to 40 on the loan. Lower the interest rate to 5% and it takes the monthly payment all the way down to about $482 per month.
But please please please, let’s not reduce the amount of money owed on these houses. That really turns this thing into a bailout, rather than a rescue. If you give people free money, it is a bailout. If you help reduce their monthly burden by changing the terms it is a rescue.
But seriously, where are the choices? I know these candidates have some fundamental differences between them. The two of them point it out all the time. But, they also have a lot in common. Apparently they are feeling the same on the bailout / rescue plan. We know they have the same basic policy concerning gay couples and wanting them to have rights, but not the word “marriage.” Sure there are differences, but nowhere near the level of differences that were apparent between Gore and Bush and Kerry and Bush.
Change has been Obama’s mantra, and McCain tried to steal the change thunder a bit. One thing that is guaranteed in this election is a HUGE change from George W. Bush no matter which of these guys gets elected. And if they both want to change the value of mortgages, expect the market value of your house to change bigtime too, even if you aren’t fortunate enough to have your loan reduced.
I Approve This Message Moratorium
Unless you are a politician and you have to do so, nobody should end their commercials with “and I approve this message.” If you are a local car dealer, mattress salesperson, financial consultant, pool cleaner, landscaper, and yes, even an insurance person, you should not look to attempt to “cash in” on the comedy gold of the election season by pretending your advertisement is a political ad. It is right up there with Viagra jokes in terms of being fresh, interesting and funny.
Speaking of which, I had a friend who went to Chicago a couple weeks ago to see Robin Williams. It has been a hobby of mine to watch Robin Williams whenever he is on TV to see if he makes a five-years-too-late joke about Viagra, and when Robin goes into one of his irreverant ramblings, he can’t resist making a joke. Can’t resist.
So, I asked my friend to count the number of times that Robin referenced Viagra in his stand-up performance in Chicago and the answer came back even better than I ever could have hoped. Apparently, Robin Williams referenced Viagra a reported FOUR TIMES.
Can you get any more out of touch than that? What’s next? Jokes about airports and airline food?
Democrats vs. Republicans in a Mortgage Business Beatdown Competition
Well, it appears that a $700 billion dollar bailout deal has at least been struck in principal. What remains are the devilish details. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get this idea in print in time for it to be undertaken by the U.S. Government, but I feel it would have been perfect.
I think we should have had a Democrat vs. Republican competition. Turn it into a transparent reality show. Red vs. Blue.
On one side, the Republicans get to have their team and $350 billion. On the other side, the Democrats have their team and their $350 billion. They are competing to bail out the industry by buying assets and doing their best to turn a profit. On the line are bragging rights and lots and lots of dollars for the American public. Each side will always say that their ideas are the best. The only way to know for sure is to put them side by side and see how it all works out.
I won’t pretend to know all the intricate details of how this competition will work. I was a finance major in college, but I don’t work in the industry so the finite details are beyond my knowledge level currently. What I do know is that in a lot of cases, we have bad mortgages that are valued very very low. Probably even lower than the actual asset values. The supply and demand dictates that something is only worth what someone will pay for it, but if someone out there was capable of incurring the holding costs, say with $350 billion worth of bailout money on loan from the American people, I am convinced that there is money to be made.
So someone get Mark Burnett, Simon Fuller, The Ghost of Merv Griffin, and Howie Mandel on the phone, because I have an idea that is going to change the world. $700 billion dollars is going out, and we need to find out who can bring the most back! And any losses that are incurred will be supplemented by the TV revenue as we put our dirty laundry out there for all the world to see in fabulous HD. Let’s translate it into at least 25 languages to make sure we draw profits from around the world. I am predicting a home run.
Now this is what I call taking lemons and making lemonade.
Keith Olbermann for Worst Broadcaster Ever
I haven’t talked about politics on this site in a while. It bugs me. I am tired of it. But, I want to point something out to everyone. This year is an amazing year in politics. We have two of the most interesting and electable people in my lifetime of elections. Barack Obama is the inexperienced new guy on the block with fresh ideas, and McCain is the maverick who will certainly change things in Washington even at the expense of some traditional Republican ideals. No matter which one gets elected, there will be great change from the current administration. It is going to be huge. And the big point? It will be fine no matter which guy gets in. They both have good and bad qualities.
If you are like I am this political season, you like about 30-40% of what either of the candidates stand for. If you are 100% on board with either of the candidates then I can’t talk politics with you. I have yet to meet the human on earth who I agreed with on most things on a broad spectrum of topics. So if you are that far into either camp for either one of these guys, I don’t understand you. I seriously considered putting both of their signs in my yard this year, but then I moved to a cul de sac. Nobody drives by.
I have certainly come a long way since the days where I was more republican. I voted for lots of Democrats, including the current Democratic governor of the state of Ohio. But more than anything, I clamor for a third party that somehow breaks the red vs. blue, up vs. down, black vs. white, two category system we have now. I don’t know that it will ever happen, but the further I get into my life the less I am impressed by our current system and the lack of choice it provides. If you think about the amount of choice we have in every other phase of our lives, why is it that we settle for a system that allows Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, Al Franken, and Tim Robbins to all be somehow magically aligned opposite John McCain, GW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and Carly Fiorina?
Anyway, this post is really about that back-stabbing sycophant loser Keith Olbermann. Out of all the people in media that I hate, Keith Olbermann is the worst. He didn’t have the balls to criticize Imus until after he was fired, at which time he said how he wanted Imus gone. He caved, and subsequently buried his co-worker when the Hillary Clinton / Chelsea Clinton / “pimping” hubub came up. You will remember that a commentator said that Chelsea was out “pimping” Hillary. Obermann, the jackass that he is, allowed that comment to be taken literally as in the prostitution way. He didn’t stand up for his coworker in a clear message to try and keep Hillary from being mad at him.
Now, Olbermann has been removed as anchor from MSNBC’s political coverage because he can’t be trusted not to be a douchey commentator when he is supposed to be an impartial anchor, reporting the facts. He most recently went off on this self-important rant during the Republican National Convention. You can see him looking down, presumably reading, his self-centered prepared statement. He feels it necessary to put himself in the story by talking about his loss of people on 9/11. As an anchor, his personal opinion shouldn’t matter in the slightest. Just another entry on the resume of reasons that I can’t stand Keith Olbermann and think his appearances are to television what chlamydia is to the human body.
Sarah Palin Looks Like Tina Fey
I don’t have anything political to say about this yet, but this was my first instinct on the topic. By the way, I went to bed last night. Did Obama accept the nomination? Just wondering.
The End of An Over-Reaction
Well, folks, the Janet Jackson / Justin Timberlake nipple-gate-pasty-wardrobe-malfunctioning affair is finally over. The date Justin Timberlake attempted to but really didn’t make Janet Jackson “naked before the end of this song” was February 1st 2004. Yesterday, a Federal Court of Appeals struck down the fine against CBS stations nationwide that totaled $550,000, levied by the seemingly toothless FCC. It makes me happy that the legal process played out this way, but the effects have already been so sweeping that the $550,000 is really the least of the country’s problems. This Janet Jackson nipple has caused sweeping puritanical change in the last 4+ years since it all went down because the FCC was able to get the maximum penalty raised from $27,500 per incident to $500,000 per incident.
Let’s count the ways:
- Television had to institute delays in most live broadcasts
- Television producers stopped pushing the envelope on nudity and language in their programming, even after 10 PM
- Radio tightened up their rules about language. It is to the point now where lawyers for CBS have instructed the Opie and Anthony Show that they can’t say “douche bag,” or “scum bag,” but they are allowed to use the word “douche,” and “scum,” individually. The (over)thinking is that the addition of the word “bag” constitutes a “description of a bodily fluid” and thus potential for FCC fines.
- Howard Stern moved to Sirius Satellite Radio at least partially as a result of the climate created by the event. Within a month of “nipplegate” Clear Channel, a syndicator or Stern’s show, removed Stern from its stations, citing raunchy material.
And who knows how many more examples there are of “standards and practices” departments at networks getting out of control with censorship. And this all went down as the result of an event that was EVENTUALLY OVERRULED IN A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT!
That’s just awesome.
How many comedians, entertainers, writers, and other artists have been stifled in the last 4 years, unnecessarily. The people that live on forever generally push the limits of what we are used to seeing. How much farther have we been set back?
Luckily, I don’t think we have been set back. While these companies were overreacting to the FCC and all the mock outrage over this incident, it has caused other avenues to thrive. Today, some of the most popular shows in the country have existed on HBO, Showtime, FX and other cable outlets that don’t censor themselves. While the networks have spent time nitpicking show creators on their networks, we have had the pleasure of watching the final seasons of The Sopranos, The Wire, Weeds, Dexter, Lucky Louie, Big Love, Rescue Me and what is reportedly the only show that Comedy Central doesn’t censor, South Park.
While the satellite radio companies seem set to merge because of negative economic realities facing the two companies, it isn’t a referendum on the content that the companies tend to put out. It is more a statement about the delivery method that the companies bought into with satellites. Still, as the first “cable” networks for radio, XM and Sirius have thrived content-wise with Opie and Anthony, Howard Stern, Ron and Fez, and others who all do uncensored talk. In addition XM and Sirius have channels that play songs and comedy unaltered for language like terrestrial radio has to play them.
I would like to think that the tightening of rules has actually pushed people to these alternative outlets over the years. So while I think that the reaction to this event was stupid, maybe we will look back at it one day as the catalyst that the U.S. needed to push the boundaries in different directions to places outside of the ridiculous realm of “indecency” that is created and monitored by a governmental group that has almost no checks and balances.
It may have taken more than 4 years, but there is some sense of justice in seeing these fines overturned.
This is the Face of Career Suicide
So, how beautiful was the call girl that Eliot Spitzer ruined his career over? Well, she is a looker, that’s for sure. I wonder if he could go back in time if this pretty face was worth it.
Ashley Dupre, an aspiring (and bad) singer was “Kristen.” This was taken before her Myspace page disappeared. You can sample her (bad) music at AmieStreet by clicking here. As for Ashley, it is too bad that she got caught up in such a high profile case, but I guess those are the breaks when you can make thousands of dollars for hooking up with dudes for cash.How long until she gets the offer from Hugh Hefner to pose in Playboy? I am betting that he has people working on it already.
What a Happy Downfall for Eliot Spitzer
Somewhere along the line with Enron and Worldcom, the world stopped trusting big companies. It became a situation where a few bad apples really did spoil the bunch, to quote a trite phrase. What we are finding out is that not all companies are truly nefarious juggernauts, intent on bilking investors out of money and creating high stock prices on little more than vapor. The problem is, with Enron, Worldcom and others so fresh in the public’s mind, it opened the door for someone like Eliot Spitzer to smash and bash his way to political fortune on a popular sentiment, even if it was based on the same vapor that built stock prices for Worldcom.
Eliot Spitzer was wrong more often than he was right. For every bad person he took down with his reign of terror as Attorney General for the state of New York, there were more good people who paid dear prices and had no reasonable way to stay out of his path. I don’t want to get into all of the details of all the people that Spitzer smashed unfairly. Those stories are all over the place this week. But know this. Spitzer’s tactics were very similar to those of the RIAA who have been going around the country suing college students and file sharers with the intent of never giving them a day in court. It is a terrorizing campaign seeking to coerce people into settlements and statements admitting wrong-doing.
And while Spitzer’s political career won’t end because of those types of tactics, these tactics probably helped create enough enemies in the world where Spitzer couldn’t get away with something like ordering prostitutes in his personal life. It is really an unrelated situation to why people really hate Eliot Spitzer, but as the other old saying goes; “It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”
Also, I have been reading up on a lot of this business about Spitzer, and the one article that I found most fascinating was about the media and how they became complicit in Spitzer’s reign because he leaked info to them all the time. The key quotes from Kimberley A. Strassel’s article in the WSJ are the paragraphs below.
Update, Spitzer has now resigned. The rumors were that he was waiting to resign so that he could use it as a bargaining chip to keep from being prosecuted. Listen to the disingenuous jackass as he stands next to his wife. This is abuse to be sure.
Jeremy Scahill = Smug Prick
Word has it that I have avoided politics too much lately. Well, here you go.
You know the guy who is smarter than you are, who has no idea why you won’t acknowledge the fact that he is soooooooo much smarter than you? That is Jeremy Scahill. I just watched him derail an otherwise entertaining episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He came in and just gave a combative, exasperated testimony in douche-baggery. The show was full of disagreements and good points, and interesting opinions until he showed up and became the cancer of the panel. The whole tone of the show changed and soon everyone was screaming at each other, except Adam Goldberg. Goldberg was witty, intelligent and most of all funny throughout, and tagged it with, “Uhhh they told me in my pre-interview that there wouldn’t be any yelling.”
Back to Jeremy Scahill… Dude, we get it. You are smarter than we are. Or at least you have more knowledge in this one area than we do. Now take your condescending, smug attitude and go away, you inconsequential, intolerable douche.
