Am I a loser?

So I think John Edwards would make a fine president, yet he has no traction. I am a also a big fan of Wes Clarke, he probably will not get much traction. I am not a big a fan of either Hillary or Obamma ( Oh the liberal Blasphemy). Given my record with candidates, I am sure she will be president and he Secretary General of the UN.

From the Heritage Foundation's website. I want to puke

Kramer should have called Randall Kennedy.

WSJ

Last time I checked the government was running huge deficits. Not to mention that some our deficit calculations don't take into account Treasury IOUs to Social Security and the emergency spending for the war. The Wall street Journal editorial page is evil.
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Editorial in today's Wall Street Journal: Rubin's Tax Gambit: Raising Taxes in a Housing Slump Isn't the Smartest Policy:

[R]aising taxes amid a housing decline doesn't sound like brilliant policy to us. Depending on inflation signals in the coming weeks, the Federal Reserve may not be done raising interest rates. The best hope for avoiding a recession next year and into 2008 is that strong corporate profits and the tight job market will lift business investment and consumer spending enough to offset the impact of tighter monetary policy. The last thing the economy needs now is a tax increase, too.

And what are the urgent "fiscal problems" that justify a tax increase, anyway? As the nearby chart shows, federal revenues in fiscal 2006 were 18.4% of GDP, higher than the 18.2% post-1965 average. In October, the first month of fiscal 2007, revenues rose by 12% from a year earlier. Mr. Rubin thinks this windfall isn't enough; perhaps he wants to return to the late Clinton years, when the feds grabbed a record 20.9% of GDP and taxpayers demanded a refund by endorsing George W. Bush's tax cut proposal in the election of 2000.

I am SOOOOOO Tired...

The Below post is not mine; despite that failing, it is quite articulate. I also think Mr. Cohen is a Cambridge alum rather than an Oxford alum, but I am not sure and don't care enough to check.


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You do realize that Borat is not a real person, don't you? That he is actually (and ironically) the creation of an Oxford-educated British Jew, Sasha Baron Cohen?

Borat is intended to unmask latent anti-semitism, homophobia, misogynism and racism in people who would otherwise keep their mouths shut and judge people in silence. And he is brilliant at it. Perhaps if you see the footage of "Borat's" sucessful attempt to get a roomful of southerners to happily sing a song called "Throw the Jew Down the Well," you would understand.

That's pretty damn clever in my book. And it makes a poignant point about society and the human condition. The fact that he manages to make it strangely hilarious is just icing on the cake.

What do you mean, "15 minutes," anyway? That's the sort of comment you reserve for people with no apparent talent to speak of, like Paris Hilton. Do you say that about all entertainers you don't happen to like?

Lighten up.

California? I HATE California!

That's a quote from a movie. I don't know what movie. I just know the song that uses the clip of that quote from the movie (Good Riddance "Fire Engine Red"). It's a subtle/not so subtle reference, insomuchas you know it's a clip of something (because of the disparate audio quality), and, as such, a direct allusion, but you don't to what it is alluding unless you are familiar with the work in which the original quote appears. And, I'm assuming, few people are.

It's the equivalent of me writing "zeal for liberty." You know I'm quoting something, but aren't sure what it is, because it's referencing something so outside the popular realm that it's BEYOND esoteric. It's actually mega-esoteric or perhaps, more properly, ultra-esoteric (anyone know the difference between the two?). It's actually a disgustingly inside joke, and I can think of a total of THREE people who know to what it references (myself included) and ONE person who thinks it's funny (that's you, Red).

Anyways, to pickup from a topic I didn't even really broach, I ACTUALLY had a good time in California. If only every day culminated in a wedding celebration with an open bar, an AWESOME band, and 6 hours of dancing, I would be really tired. And happy. For about a week. And then it would get old.

But still, it was a blast.

On to new business:
New Esoteric Blog - Judges Are Funny

Haven't actually submitted a quote, yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Random Thoughts.....

1) Tom Kean Jr. has a really annoying voice.
2) Everyone should watch passenger 57. Wesley Snipes kicks someone right in the face. It looks really cool.
3) When does Republicans+correlation+tax cuts=caused economic growth
4)I don't do IR stuff anymore, but whoever gets control of the presidency in a few years is going to get a really complicated mess that everyone assumes has easy answers.
5) I WANT TO GO SKIING.

I'm Back, Baby

With a vengeance.

Technically I'm not back, back. I am still in California, where it's warm(ish).
Anyways, after spending some quality time with the fam and the fam's media systems, it has come to my attention that there is an election coming up soon. I had to stop watching TV and reading the newspaper, because they were making me angry.


Here's a fun fact:
The average household in California receives approximately 127 phone calls a day during the two weeks prior to an election (based upon an informal poll completed by me using information provided by me and the fam) . Of those 127 phones calls, approximately 125.8 are pre-recorded political advertisement. Of those 125.8 pre-recorded advertisements, approximately 98.6 of them are from Governor Schwarzeneggar [sic?]. Oh, and did you know that his Democratic challenger Phil Angelides [also sic] wants to raise taxes? By 18 billion dollars? Per Californian? To pay for money for the processing of babies into food?

That's what I've learned. I now consider myself well-informed--relatively speaking.

Here's my favorite set of statistics [I'm sure there's a term for that] from a poll:

• 70% of Americans think it's time to elect new members to Congress.
  
• However, 46% of Americans think their OWN member of Congress deserves to be reelected (vs. 44% who think it's time for a change).

From the Times.

This just in: 100% of people are dumb.