Obama-rama: The Speech

Primary Schmimary Part Deux

I am happy Hillary pulled off a win last night in New Hampshire. This is not because I am a big supporter, but because I wanted to humble the mainstream media for unfairly manipulating the race. I am not sure if humbling is possible, but at least it pops the bubble and forces all candidates to not get giddy with confidence. My feelings stem from an annoyance of so-called front-runners because they tend to feel confident enough to not show up to debates or not do any real campaigning to earn votes. I want all the candidates to feel that it is not over until its over.

I want an open campaign on Super Tuesday. I want them to earn my vote.

My greatest ire is over the media. Olbermann, who has been a hero in my book for his commentary over the years has disappointed me for jumping into the Obama-love-fest manipulation. He and the rest of the media stooges said it was all over for Hillary before 99 percent of Americans even voted. You guys don't get to decide that, we get to decide who is going to be president. I am thinking that New Hampshire voters were making this point last night more than it was a statement about any of the candidates. If the media keeps doing this to Hillary, I may even start working for her -- just to spite them all.

It will be cool if Edwards wins South Carolina. Then everyone enters California without any sense of mandate.

Primary Schmimary

Following the Ohio and New Hampshire primaries has gotten me in an unexpected funk. It is not a new phenomenom that the press becomes kingmakers and breakers for ratings, but this year it seems more pronounced. For months now, the media has built up Clinton as some sort of unassailable front-runner without her being tested in one primary. She fails to get second place by a percentage point and her campaign is on morphine drip. Any slight show of composed emotion is seen as a weakness for those who have always disliked her to judge her unfit. Any argument that Obama is not the most experienced or as sparkly as the media makes him out to be is characterized as desperation.

Obama isn't as great as the media makes him out to be and eventually the media will go after him as inexperienced and too young to be president -- especially if they succeed in knocking Clinton out of the race. If the media doesn't do it the republicans will. Obama may want to reach across the aisle and start a bipartisan revolution, but republicans will go for the throat and will do the street fighting they have proven themselves capable of. They play nasty on their own people (ie McCain in 2000 in SC), so dems have no chance.

I don't dislike Obama and I am not very thrilled about Clinton. My feeling is that any democrat is better than Bush and any republican out there. We need a democratic president to appoint Supreme Court justices who will preserve Greenwald vs. Connecticut and Roe vs. Wade. I believe that the media wants a republican or is on a druggie-trip of the Obama-charisma. Obama would be better suited in peace-time or after more time being groomed for the role. I thought that Dodd or Biden were far better choices, but they were not given a chance. Where the hell is Gore? We need Gore Stat.

So everyone! Wake up! You are being manipulated by the media. Turn the television off. Take a deep breath. Think about what qualities are needed for president. Who has the qualifications to be a world leader and deal with the economy.

Think about it. The Clintons oversaw the greatest peacetime economic expansion in history after a tough recession. We are moving into a recession.

My birthdad is a republican, but he is voting for Clinton because of Bill Clinton. Under Bill Clinton a lot of people made a lot of money. It was a broad prosperity that reached many people.

This illogical fanatism over Obama and reports of people crying at his rallies just worries me.
Hillary is right that Obama isn't another JFK, because JFK had far more accomplishments by the time he was running for president and if we are really honest his presidential record was mediocre. JFK died young elevated his record far more than what was his real record. He is sort of a democratic version of Bush with intellectual curiosity. I am not sure we want another president that lacks experience.

I want an african-american president. I want a person of color as president. I worked for the Mondale-Ferraro campaign in 1984 because I was ready to have a woman being a heartbeat away from the presidency -- not because I was excited by Mondale. Yet, I do not want just any person of color or woman for the sake of having a person of color or a woman -- otherwise why not elect Condolesa Rice? The content of character and skill sets that I look for.

Buy Everything

I haven't been around lately because I have been working at an undisclosed mid-to-upper tier retail establishment as Christmas help. The fact that my job is not only to enable consumption, but to make you consume more has challenged my values. I know consumption leads to container ships crashing into bridges and killing wildlife. I know consumption fills up landfills, off-gasses, and leads to a cycle of debt that threatens the health of our economy. I comfort myself with the notion that is only a month and while I work there I can help people think through their purchases.

The ironic thing is that as much as I hate consumerism I am very good at convincing people to buy stuff. It scares and facinates me. I think that I am good at it because I am honestly interested in helping people and I like the stuff I am selling (stemware, flatware, china, crystal, christmas stuff, and homewares). I like pretty, shiny stuff and that comes across as an endorsement that they should buy it. Yet, it makes me feel guilty.

C-Notes, Euros, and Liberty Dollars!

Back in the Summer of 84, life was wonderful traveling Europe with a strong dollar. WTF happened? You have serious whack-job goofballs printing their own inflation-proof currency. The rest of the world is wondering if the world belongs to European currency. Even rap stars are dissing our once illustrious currency.

C-Notes and P-Notes: Wonkette reports that a group of Ron Paul supporters were raided because they were creating illegal currency, Liberty Dollars, featuring Paul. How are liberty dollars any different than Camel Cash? Save up enough liberty dollars and you can get Ron Paul lighters, shot glasses, ash trays, and a Ron Paul Members Only Jacket.

When surfing the net about camel cash, there was an old article from Bob from Accounting that our Dollar has been collapsing against the old C-note. A fact noted in an April 1997 Onion issue.

Show me the Euros: Jay-Z in his video, Blue Magic, flashes Euros as the new bling-bling bankroll. The International Herald Tribune reports:
"Shortly after Angola and Iraq announced they may consider shifting their currency reserves away from the dollar and into the euro and other currencies, Nigeria's Finance Minister Shamsuddeen Usman said he was considering the same thing."

In related news, there was an OPEC oops today. OPEC accidentally broadcast Saudi Arabia rebuffing efforts of Iran and Venezuela to price oil in other currencies other than the US dollar. Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal because it didn't want to collapse the Dollar. It turns out that some oil producing countries will de-peg and diversify away from the US Dollar.

Teevee Maven

Teevee Watching Maven
Our teevee watching is rarely done live anymore as the commercial vs. entertainment ratio just eats up time we can never get back. Between the old PVR and DVDs we are pretty set with our entertainment. It takes patience to wait and not read any spoilers until series getson DVD, but the quality of sound and picture is worth it. We do make a slight exception for Heroes, which we watch live for the High Definition broadcast.

The Sopranos DVD Season Six Part 2
We finally watched the final half of the last season of The Sopranos. Last night we watched the final, final episode. We could see why fans who watched it when it broadcast were disappointed. The first half of the last season was the strongest and reminded us of themagic of the first two seasons.

Popping in the second half revealed a dark turn of Tony Soprano's self-destructive spiral. We kept telling each other thatthis was going to end badly for Tony and family. We were expecting an almost epic Greek tragedy ending -- a logical ending a socio-path's life. It really didn't end that way and we were disappointed.

Tony's character needed to be punished for his behavior. He needed to lose both families and have real consequences for his actions.He needed to be arrested, in jail, and facing a long time in jail with the knowledge of his wife and daughter being killed and his son committing suicide. We needed him to call Malfi to the Jail where she finally tells him that she couldn't help him, and in fact, she may have been enabling him. It would have been a more impactful scene if it would happend after he lost his freedom and more members of both of his families.

It could have ended in the prison yard and you could have ducks flying referencing the first episode'sduck symbolism. Except the ducks would symbolize freedom as well as symbolizing that his family is slipping away.

It felt more like a season ender (a mediocre one at that) than a series ending episode.

Heroes
The first season of Heroes was clearly the best series we have seen in a long time. This season is being carried by our admiration of the first season and that we actually care what happens to our characters.While nothing really happened until the very end of last week's episode, we expect things may start hitting the fan for our heroes.I have heard some interesting spoilers/theories about the identity of Adam, which make pretty good sense, but I will let you google that information on your own.

Flip This House
HGTV is known for its home improvement porn, and I recently discovered a show that was born during the real estate boom. People buy property, set a budget and schedule to fix it up, fall out of budget and behind schedule, and hope to make money on their "flip".My opinion of flipping is it contributes to the unaffordability of housing these days. Homes should be for shelter, not speculation. I do like when they take a house that is blighted and unliveable and fixes it up so it is liveable. At least, you are creating more housing that wayand helping turn neighborhoods into places where the working class feels a sense of pride.

From watching this show, I found that you should be skilled in contracting and have lots of family who are too to keep labor costs down. Plus, you need to make sure you don't make improvements that are more pricey than the neighborhood will bear.

The Next American Band

This music competition reality show is by the same folks you brought you the next American idol. We are and always will be a non-voting fans of American Idol, and so we decided to give this show a try.The Next American Band is even more enjoyable because you get people who can actually play instruments and writemusic. I think you get a better caliber of contestant than you get in American Idol.

I think my favorite band is Franklin Bridge, who are a funky jam musicians that remind me of a little Prince and Jimi Hendrix mixed with hip-hop. They may not last if they keep jamming and do not fit into the commercial packaging of songs that the judges are looking for.
I also like Dot Dot Dot, a band that has the 80s sound down to a science and an art form. Their sound could easily be a soundtrack for a John Hughes movie. I like this band because they don't take themselves so seriously and really embrace who they are in and entertaining way.
I think some of the most talented bands play genres I normally do not care much for -- country and bluegrass.The Clark Brothers are an all-string old school country, roots trio who just cook on their instruments and truly belong in the competition.

Cliff Wagner and The Ol' #7 are an incredibly tight bluegrass band, who visibly have fun and are comfortable with what they do. These guys were asked by the judges in their tryout toplay Madonna and went into "Like A Virgin" like pros. You cannot hate these guys. They make me smile.

Light of Doom is what happens when you cross metal with the Hansons. They are extremely talented and it is crazy to think what they will be like if they stay together when they are adults.

My secret favorite band is Rocket, the all-girl bandwho are a cross between the Go-Gos and The Ramones. Like Dot Dot Dot, they appeal to my own sense of musical nostalgia of living my formative years in High School and College in the 1980s. The problem with Rocket is that the lead singer does need to strengthen her vocals. She did a better job with the original song this week but butchered the Elton John cover. To be fair to her, Elton John is a tremendous vocalist and it will be very difficult to outsing Elton.

There is also a swing band called Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Denver, thelead singer is pretty much a drag on a very talented and tight big band orchestra. With a different front man, they would be real contenders even though they have no chance to actually win.Big Bands are not pop bands and haven't been for 60 years.

The Muggs are this deep 70s motown rock band where all three musicians are incredibly talented. The lead singers gravel voice sometimes suits the material, butlike Rocket the vocalizations often fall short. He is an awesom guitar player, but not so strong at singing. The Muggs appeal to us old folk who remember the 1970s.

There is a pop-Country band, Sixwire, that is very professional but I personally do not like them. I prefer more old school country, roots, and bluegrass to the bland corporate crossover-country that they serve out.

Of all the bands, the Sixties-nostalgia band, Tres Bien, is fun, but feels too novelty to last in the competition.

The bands that were eliminated so far have deserved it and there are still a few more to go. We will see how it goes.

One thing I do not care for is that this show has an austrailian host and an aussie judge. You would figure that a show called, "The Next American Band" would at least have an all-american host and judge panel. I am getting tired of the accents already. I love Sheila E. I think she is better suited than Paula Abdul to be a music critic. I actually have seen her in concert with Prince and she really rocks. She carries herself really well, where Paula often acts a bit loopy. There is also a judge from the Goo-Goo Dolls who does okay. I would have prefered Tommy Lee, because he was highly entertaining in his stint on Rockstar: Supernova.

Strong Economy? Not!

Yesterday, the Dow has plunged 362 points just a day after the Fed lowered interest rates. The Dow is trying to recover today based on Job numbers. The economy added 166,000 jobs in October, the fastest pace in five months. Good news, right? Whenever I hear news like this, I ask the crucial question: What Kind of Jobs? I always want to see the numbers behind the headlines.
From Shaffers Research:

- of 278 industries, 53.4% were adding jobs in October, down slightly from 55.6% in September
- Of 84 manufacturing industries, 43.5% were hiring in October, which is the strongest figure since July.
- Jobs in goods-producing industries fell by 24,000.
- jobs were also lost at banks and mortgage brokers, where employment fell by 5,000 in October, bringing the cumulative loss to 56,000 since February
- the services industry saw strong jobs growth, where employment rose by 190,000, the most since May
- Food services added 37,000 positions
- health care added 34,000
- employment services added 34,000

So it appears that job growth is fueled by the healthcare industry that has become a drain on the pocketbooks of the average american and small businesses because no one wants to control health care costs. We have created jobs in the field of finding jobs, which is kind of messed up if you think about it. Finally, we have created burger-flipping jobs! Is this really good news? I hardly doubt any of these jobs can keep up with the real inflation in this country.

We are also told that inflation is holding steady. How could that be when costs for food, fuel, and health care are rising beyond our incomes? What do you know, Core inflation figures exclude volatile food and energy prices. The Christan Science Monitor reports that "overall inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures deflator, is up 2.4 percent for the year, above the Fed’s so-called comfort zone of 1 percent to 2 percent. That rise, compared with 1.8 percent in August, most likely reflected the surging cost of crude oil, which pushes up gasoline and energy prices."

There are signs that inflation is really higher given the rise in the cost of fuel, food, health care combined with the declining value of the dollar, which effects our buying power. Another thing to keep in mind is that the cost of renting or buying a home due to the bubble and its aftermath, bites into the American wallet. The financial picture is excellent if you factor out all the basic necessities of living for the average american. Don't forget to factor in the rising costs of child care, education, and services and products.

We are also told that personal spending is still holding up, which is good news since personal spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the gross domestic product.
How long will Americans be able to keep spending? If you take a look at the New York Housing Bubble Blog, they have some very interesting news items including Bloomberg's report that US Home foreclosures Doubled in the 3rd Quarter of 2007 and that Realtytrac Inc reports there were 635,159 forclosure filings in the 3q or 1 in 196 households including default notices, auction notices,and bank repossessions.

Who is going to want to go Christmas shopping when they have just lost their home?

Keep in mind that we are at the beginning of the fallout of the real estate bubble.
Mortgage resets for the notorius subprime loans will end up spiking in the latter half of
2008. Then in 2010 and 2011, we will start seeing resets on option adjustable rate loans and Alt-A loans (or "Liars Loans"). Unless these people can refinance in fixed loans with monthly payments they can actually afford, a lot of people will lose their homes and there will be tough times ahead for all of us.

One of my favorite bloggers is Marinite from the Marin Real Estate Bubble website. He writes that the American people are being lied to when it comes to the economy. He quotes Peter Schiff's November 1st editorial about how bogus all these financial numbers are that are bolstering the belief that our economy is strong, when the average joe feels something is wrong. I have actually heard someone on CNBC boggle at that disconnect between what the "experts" are telling us and the reality Americans experience.

We have all heard about the decline of the Dollar and how good it is for our exports.
The US Dollar Index has declined from 92 to 78 in less than two years - a 15% depreciation
in value. This effects American buying power not just when they travel abroad, but what we
purchase in this country.

Interest rate cuts only make the situation worse. Rate cuts may make it easier to borrow
and provide relief for those who have already borrowed (especially those attached to Adjustible Rate Mortgages) but it punishes people who save and invest in safe investments and reduces overall purchasing power.

If one steps back, we can begin to realize that our consumer economy is broken. What buttresses our economy is the consumer's ability to spend. The consumer's ability to spend has a lot to do with their ability to borrow to buy beyond what they have on hand. Can you imagine our economy if people gave up their credit cards and didn't buy anything until they saved up for it? Where would our economy be if people scrimped and saved or just realized one day that the consumer appetite was unsustainable? Jobs would be lost and our economic system could collapse.