I Totally Got Wasted to You In College! : )

Cute little story from NPR about how Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers is going to study music as a USC undergrad.

What I find funny about the usually very hands off/ not personal NPR interview was that Andrea Seabrook who was interviewing Flea gushed about how Blood Sugar Love Sex Magic was like the soundtrack to her college days. It also makes me feel old because I assumed that every soft mature voice on NPR is way older than me and even if some of them are close to my age, I assume they are serious scholarly people who listened to opera in college. Even though I liked the Chili Peppers (Skinny Sweaty Man In a Green Suit), if I were Andrea, I think I would refrain from the public swooning since they are not all that hip and are now too mainstream for the intelligent music appreciation rock fan crowd.

Bill Clinton Should Zip It

People look up to and respect Bill Clinton and if he is not going to be more supportive of Obama he should take a low profile for a while. Ugggh. It seems quite clear he does not want him to win.

They even lick each other on TV

This is too funny, Julie Brown brought her new song to Stephine Miller, The Ex Beauty Queen has Got a Gun

worthless

After reading this article from the New Republic about the large number of people who refuse to do public opinion election surveys on the phone (they usually get only about a 25% response rate) and the good comments on this on Althouse it seems that the results from public opinion surveys must be totally worthless and so far off from predicting the outcome of an election. There are so many flaws with this process and a big one is any bias of the non-response rate. I don't believe that they can show it is universally distributed. In reading the mostly conservative readers of Althouse comments it seems that GOP supporters may be less likely to answer the poller for various reasons. I know there many scientific techniques that academic survey groups like the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) uses to try to get more accurate surveys but these approaches take a lot of time and money. I am not even sure I believe it is only 25% because of caller ID, if the home doesn't answer, then is that a non-response or not?

I'd rather work than have someone open my head and someone put some money in it

Why don't they do this type of comedy anymore?

In the tradition of Candid Camera and The Jerky Boys is this great set of recordings by Coyle and Sharpe. You can get the podcast of them on iTunes and here is there website. These guys dressed in suits and walked around San Francisco in the 1960s and went up to regular people and asked them obsurd questions and recorded the discussions. Brilliant off-beat comedy.

The More I Hear About the Bailout.....

the more I do not like it. I really do not see the urgency and do not understand what will happen if nothing is done. I also do not understand how buying these distressed assets, mortgage backed securities, and they trying to resell them makes any sense. Even if some more major companies were to fall into bankruptcy, how bad would that be. Do these companies really not have enough real profit making business in them to not come out of a major loss they need to take on this bad gamble? I don't see how people who want loans would not be able to get them in the future, there are lots of banks out there, even local ones and credit unions who could loan someone money for a car or house if you can show you'd pay it back even if BoA or Citi goes under. Most folks have diverse portfolios and would see some loss in their investments but that is life with the stock market. How would the crisis lead to more foreclosures? An individual mortgage foreclosure is based on that mortgage and the income of that family. I think something should be done about the shitty loans that they should not have gotten that some people have that balloon that they can't afford to help the refinance but that is not what this is about.

Franken Flap

It is totally stupid for the right to freak out about Al Franken contributing an idea for the SNL skit about the McCain ads. The skit, which was pretty funny by the way, supposedly came from an idea that Franken had and gave to Loren Michaels and Franken discussed it with SNL's Seth Myers too. What is possibly illegal about this. SNL is a comedy entertainment show that can get ideas and inspiration from wherever they want. The can even make fun of one candidate and not the other if they want. They did not need to take Frankin's ideas and McCain can call up Michaels with an idea. Frankin is a funny guy who had a funny idea. The entertainment world does have a bit of influence on the public and their feelings about candidates and entertainers can have their political views. It is very sick to see the slop that they are throwing at Frankin.

weird

I was just sitting in a meeting looking at 4 pennies in my pocket thinking about how dumb it is for us to mint them and use them given that I can't imagine that it costs less than a penny to manufacture them. Not a topic I frequently think about. When I studied in the Netherlands, they did not have the equivant and they just rounded when you bought something. Then 20 minutes later reading Freakonomics - Pennies! some strange cosmic mind wave thing going on.

economic stimulus

On NPR today, there was discussion about the modifications that McCain and Obama are calling for regarding the big government bailout of the Wall Street/ mortgage security fiasco. One point really caught my attention. The cost per American for this - $10,000. One big question that people are asking is what would happen if nothing was done? Few people can really answer this because of the complex web of banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, insurance companies, etc. That number does seem striking. If the poorer half of Americas could just get that amount of money, think of the benefits. Pay of credit card debit that is killing people, pay for medical care that people can't afford, allow folks to say home with kids for a little while and not work 3rd shift overtime. Look at all the payday loan places and pawn shops, the number of people living pay check to pay check is huge. Who do we care about, them or the folks with large investment portfolios? Also, I don't understand how the package would help the thousands of people who have lost their homes as part of the subprime mortgage problem. While not everyone fits this profile, but there are normal folks, with good jobs who got into loans with big balloon ARMs that had to abandon their homes and move into some crappy appartment, ruin their credit rating, lose any equity they had saved. Will this help them? $10,000 would go a long way to help them.

Why Are We Marching? WE ARE ANTS!

I can't get Ralph's World out of my head. Saw him on Sunday at he High Noon. I like the songs and think it is a nice addition to the Dan Zane tradition of former rock artists making music that the parents like just as much or more than the kids. There is something somewhat depressing about the whole thing. This is the third time I think I've seen him. How can a grown man - a cynical generation X guy keep up the happy fun kids performer thing for years. Alternative Rock is not about smiley happy kids dancing and it seems that he must have some internal bitter feeling about the whole rock star for kids thing. How could you smile that much, he does this weird thing with his eyes which seems a bit creepy. I like the Coffee song but he seemed a bit annoyed that he could not hear people laughing. He also seems to be a bit of a egomaniac, I did not hear him say anything about the band, it is all about him. He could have showcased them a bit, "here is Bob on the drums, say hi to Bob", etc. Also one more rant, I looked on-line a bit at the website and Disney stuff (we don't get cable). It is one thing to see him and the band play but to see him with a cartoon background on a fake stage, seems really odd. He is a real cool rock musician and to put this music in Barney Disney Land world seems sureal and odd.

That said, he is great. La la la la La la la la lemonaid

Obama Cares About Failing Urban Schools!!!!!

The Wall Street Journal had a long opinion essay from STANLEY KURTZ from the Ethics and Public Policy Center about the big Bill Ayres - Obama connection. This guy made a bit of a stink because he could not get access to some dusty old files from the educational foundation that Obama and Ayres were on the board of.

While I did not see a big announcement of it, it seems that Mr. Kurtz got into the files and this essay is supposed to tell us the big shocking news that he discovered. Even though there is no big find, he keeps milking the non-story. He apparently did not even find one piece of evidence that Ayres and Obama even talked about these innovative educations ideas.

Bill Ayres is not a guy with a secret agenda, he has written books that are read by education students around the country, speaks often and he is someone who has worked for and really cares about helping inner city schools. Mr. Kurtz and the Right is trying to make this story into some big thing and the Wall Street Journal should not push it along futher. I could just imagine these Wall Street crooks reading this article over a non-fat latte, do they even have a clue about the "issues of inequity, war, and violence" that the kids in the inner-city are dealing with each day.

Michelle Obama In Madison

Michelle Obama had a rally today in Madison.

Photo from Cap Times

Get me to the church on time....

One of Obama's problems is that he has been scared to play towards one of his strengths. He is a religious guy and has deep theological ideas. Unfortunately the whole Rev. Wright thing has made him back of that side of himself. I was really excited early on when we got the feeling he could attached religious people because he was more a serious christian than McCain. The Right has done a good job of making the church folks feel that they can't support Mr. Obama when in fact he is really a man of faith who is working to make the world a better place. I suggest he run some ads with some priests and ministers who are supporting him.

Dewey Cox Rocks!

See more Judd Apatow videos at Funny or Die

This is a great mocumentery, I give it 2 thumbs up. John Reilly was great but I also really liked Tim Meadows and Jenna Fisher. It was sweet how they made his life and music so much like many of the great musicians of the last 50 years; Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Brian Wilson, and more.

Great scenes: interview with the actress from 40 Year Old Virgin about his TV show, how is Walk Hard song gets popular because of rap version done by Lil' Nutzzak and the scene with all the kids and the Partridge family bus.

Dems should stop yelling about Troopergate

While the facts of the troopergate thing are not that clear, I think that it does seem to me that she has legitimate concerns about her ex-brother in-law and I would not want a guy like this being a state policeman. I just don't think the story seems strong enough for voters to say, oh yea, she did something wrong. If she wants to remove someone from her cabinet, she can do that. If she thinks a state employee is threatening people and a potential harmful person to others, it seems reasonable for her to try to get the guy fired.



How weak is it for them to give the next interview to Sean Hannity. Will she ever do another real interview?

Michelle is Looking Tired

I love Michelle Obama but in this interview she looks rough. Can you imagine the toll that this campaign would take on a family?

I don't mind bats but .....

A rapid bat was found at a park where I often go to play with the kids and where we caught the bus to camp all summer.

YOUR CHILD WILL DIE!!!!!!!!!

The top emailed story from NPR is about these recalled soccer goals. The whole story is so intense and dramatic; a total overreaction. They story said that one child died and that 200,000 of these products have been sold. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that a soccer net like this could be a little dangerous. Kids do dangerous things, toddlers do dangerous things if not watched. Playgrounds are dangerous. My guess is that there are toddlers are climbing on these things thousands of times each a day for years (some families don't even have toddlers and it snows and rains sometimes). While we should fix the product for the future, maybe we should also ban cars, pools and stairs and we would save thousands of real lives.

Parents who feed kids - must read

check out this article about common mistakes that parents make with getting their kids to eat. What kills me about this is that I have heard this stuff before, have seen in work with my kids and I still fall into the bad habits listed here.

An all chocolate diet - sounds good to me, what is the problem with that?

Personal Essay

A very emotional personal essay from a parent of a kid with autism. I know how she feels.

Wall Street is on the Road to the White House

I don't think the Obama folks should keep pushing this "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" attack on McCain. It is one line and a leader wants to balance suggesting ideas to improve the economy and assuring the American people and countries across the world that they should not freak out about that the markets will collapse and make a run at the bank, etc. If there is a financial crisis, the first thing a president should say is exactly that. The Obama attack should be more that McCain and Palin and their advisers do not have any experience or solid ideas on how to improve the economy.

I think that the McCain stance on the latest Wall Street problem is not going to be good for them and seems missing and understanding of the complexity of the situation. I heard McCain on the Today Show (here is part of what he said) and he was very vague and said the workers are great but that the problem on Wall Street is all about the greed of executives who are taking home huge pay checks and that the US Government should not bail them out. Here is the problem with that approach, it doesn't say anything supportive to the thousands workers at these companies who work hard and many of them will be laid off, and it doesn't do anything to assure the businesses and government organizations impacted by this crisis. The consequences if these companies go under would be huge and would impact millions of people. Maybe McCain saw the movie Wall Street.

LOVE and PAIN (with laughter)

Check out this AWESOME This American Life - "Break Up" (the first part if great - acts 2 and 3 are pretty good). At first the Starlee Kine story about her breakup seemed a bit boring, she sounds so young and the breakup sounded so cliche common but then.....with no big intro, she calls up a friend for advice. So real. So intersting. You also learn a lot about what inspires great art.

As part of her story, Starlee writes some sad torch songs and gets help to put them to music. The original version of "The Three of Us" is pretty good, sad but a bit funny too. But then the fun TAL folks had a contest for others to remix and remake the song differenty, some real creative people. They are all pretty good but I like this one from We Were Pirates the best.

Thanks Sarah

One good thing about Palin is that it has started a complex national conversation about important issue. Special needs children, feminism, whether parents should work and how much they should/ can work with young kids, stay at home dads, what type of support families need to be successful, and much more.

This muddled essay Why Feminists Hate Sarah Palin from Cathy Young from the Wall Street Journal tries to ridicule what she calls feminists who have problems with Palin. The problem with the essay is the diverse views are varied and not uniform.

Part of the discussion I hope the right is having is about a woman's role. Should an ideal christian mother try to be home with the kids? While many on the right are cheering on this successful mother and professional, others who promote traditional family values are not thrilled about this type of parent.

One issue this essay points out that I did not think about what that it may make some think that a woman could easily raise five kids and have a demanding job. How could real parents live up to super-mom. What does this do to the cause trying to promote better working conditions and policies for parents? Sarah will probably not promote of government programs to support families.

Stephanie Should Lay Off Palin

I guess women can be sexist. I LOVE Stephanie Miller but I have to say that I am getting tired of her making fun of Sarah Palin. While there is still some vetting to do, and there are legitimate questions about her experience, the tone and jokes about her seem very low and mean. While it is valuable to point out the inconsistency between the way people talk about her experience and family issues vs Democrats or black people but overall it is not fun to listen to.

Ike Slaughters Texas

oh man- this sounds completely terrible but it doesn't seem like the media is really focusing on the tragedy.

I hope for the best for everyone impacted by this storm. I hope the response is better than Katrenia and I hope that Obama and McCain focus on this now. Check out these photos.

I'm getting ready to panic

Uggggggghhhh ..... read this story, "For Working Moms, 'Flawed' Palin Is the Perfect Choice" by Mark Fisher from the Washington Post, about how working mom's are really excited about Palin! I hope most of them were going to vote for McCain anyway but if some were not and now are, we are in trouble. She is all everyone is talking about. McCain was a boring old candidate who got few excited and this has really put more energy into the campaign. Shit.

Many voters apparently do not care what she did as Mayor or Governor and what her positions are, her personal story is enough for them.

Purple Libertarian Feminism

"A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn't worth a warm bucket of spit." from Camille Paglia's long piece on the election and Sarah Palin.

She never takes a standard left vs right view on events and issues and this complex piece is no exception, and makes you think.
One good point is that no one really knows how radically conservative she is and how much her values and religous beliefs would impact how she would govern (I am sure Charlie Gibson will find out). I generally like this type of rare person who can see the good and bad in people who we support and who we don't support. Can you admire things about Palin and disagree with others and still be respectful about it?

I Am Voting Republican

punchline please?

1. What is the difference between Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin?

2. What is the difference between Obama and a Hockey Mom?

3. What is the difference between Todd Palin and Michelle Obama?

(I am sure a good answer would involve lipstick)

Obama vs O'Reilly

I have watched part 1 and part 2 of the Obama interviews on O'Reilly. I think Obama did very well and O'Reilly seemed more respectful than I expected him to be. This has got to be very hard for any candidate. Unless Obama got the questions in advance, how could he be prepared to counter every statistic and attack on the fly, you can prepare for some things but not everything. O'Reilly was slamming him without letting Obama answer or explain himself. All the economic issues are complicated and hard to explain. I expect Obama will do well on the Rev. Wright thing since it is more clear and focused.

After this article, I am sure it will be illegal in no time

NY Times Profile of Salvia divinorum, one of the last few drugs in America which is not illegal under federal law. The headline "Hallucinogen’s Popularity May Thwart Medical Use" is odd in that the medical potential is not really the focus of the article. It almost seems to suggest that the NYT wants to leave the door open on this one. A headline like "Lawmakers Outraged that DEA has Taken No Action to Regulate Hugely Popular Untested Dangerous Hallucinogenic Drug" would certainly put a nail in the coffin on this one.

From a public policy perspective, it seems like some explanation of how drugs are regulated is missing from the article. Most people like myself would ask, why is it not illegal, every other recreational drug is. DEA has been studying it for a long time?

The article does not do the best sales job for the drug, it sounds somewhat more appealing than LSD or schrooms which have an effect which lasts for a long time but the high sounds like it is not that pleasurable. Some readers may think, this will increase interest in the drug and others may say that the article may have made it sound worse than it is and scared people away with false information. YouTube videos of users are one of the key ways that lawmakers and the public has learned about the drugs effects - this is a weird world.

After reading this it seems more wrong that pot is illegal.

The Palin Move Was Masterstroke

grrrrrrr....

She is picked and immediately attacked and made fun of (completely expected by McCain camp)

Palin story dominates the media and takes focus off McCain's bad speech, weak support and bad ideas. Media also does little reporting on anything going on with Obama campaign.

McCain supporters claim to be victims and defend attacks, some of which are fair and others are mean and sexist.

Also, as I said before, she somehow is able to appeal to both far right and to moderate (clueless) soccer mom/ Hillary supporters. Any man with her positions would seem like a right wing freak and turn off women but she is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Cheeseheads (Heart) McCain and Palin (some of them do)

First stop after the convention - Cedarberg Wisconsin

I like how it says Carmel Apples and Hand Dipped Belgian Chocolates next to Palin and Cindy. Which one is which?


Photo from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online: check out the whole album

I can't stop singing and listening to this tune

not as good as the live album version I have but it is great!

WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST ONE MORE TIME!!!!

Saw Doctors Rock!

Why McCain Can't Win

McCain's speech was painful and bad. If he wins, we will have to listen to years of his bad boring talking. Unlike W, there is not even the comic value. Because part of his problem is his arms and his age, it is really more sad that funny. I aways get a kick out of listening to W because it is pretty funny watching how clueless he seems.

McCain's Speech

Random observations before I read or listen to anyone. I did not hear every word but much of it.

- did not mention Bush or what has been accompished under him much at all
- he is not a good speaker, ackward smiles and pauses, did not seem to expect applause when he got it
- did not want to allign himself with the Republican's at all. Did not talk about what his party has accomplished, by not mentioning names of people it seemed very vague. Would have been stronger with stories of his legislative work.
- ideas bounced around a lot and did not seem to say much during the first half, some many vague statements
- I liked the efforts to reach across to people in other parties, he did not slam the dems much
- could not really tell what he stood for besides the USA, the health care stuff seemed weak
- while he talked about specific people he was fighting for, it was not clear how his agenda would help them
- there were a few hecklers/ protestors who got in and got a little attention and this threw McCain off.

Sorry Sarah

Great "apology" from Politico Rodger Simon.

Are you sure Palin is not from Chicago?

So we have realized that it is probably not best for democrats to criticize Palin's experience, many are looking at her questionable fierce management practices/ abuse of power. We are looking into troopergate and what she did as mayor. While it does come across a bit harsh to hear about her firing lots of folks, including some for family reasons, this political approach of bringing in your own people and taking out people supportive of your opposition is the status quo in Cook County and Chicago. Daley and his like have been doing this for years. When I worked in IL, it was hard to get any job for the state, County or City without having political clout. This is the same game across the country. Some naive clean government liberals think that is not how things should work and we do have civil service rules and unions but I don't think it is the scandal some are hoping it is.

I don't want to show this video to my kids

Cheesehead Tree House

I can see the future

I have two predictions:

1. Palin will stay as the VP candidate. I hate to say it but I think this was actually a good move for them. The American people are idiots. This pick was aimed at the clueless 10% of Americans who still have not decided who to vote for. They will see a successful attractive woman, a mother and say, ok. It balances the old grandpa image of McCain. There are still lots of 50 old women out there who don't know to vote for.

They will play up the Washington outsider thing like Fred Thompson did last night. This will also attract some of the Ron Paul/ Bob Barr crowd.

2. After Obama wins, WI Gov. Doyle will get a job with the Obama admin. Maybe Attorney General. He is safe, has not had many serious scandals, was an early Obama supporter, is from a swing state, and he doesn't really have too much else going on as governor here, he could easily exit gracefully.

Listening to some of the pundit talk last night on PBS covering the GOP party in St. Paul, it seems that every politician has skeletons in their closet on both sides. The reason it was hard to find a great candidate from either party and an good VP from either party is that there are few experienced leaders without major warts and baggage.

One good thing about McCain from the convension, the way they talked up his refusing to pass spending bills without reading them came across as a very good part of his political image.

Also, I think the GOP convention will give McCain a bump because of the Gustav thing and because the expectations are the opposite than the dems. The Democrats had no where to go but down but people did not expect anything that great from the GOP convention but if they give some good speeches and tug at some heart strings, they will get some people to believe the whole independent, caring, maverick image.

Mommy Wars: Special Campaign Edition

Well done article discusses the debate about whether a mom with young kids should take the job of VP. Some people want to avoid the whole mommy wars topic and just say things like everyone has to do what is best for themselves and who am I to judge. I think we should have discussions like this and it is healthy to debate these issues.

St Paul Welcomes Visitors for GOP Convention

St Paul Welcomes Visitors for GOP Convention

Palin Experience

Democrats should really drop the experience thing with Sarah Palin. After listening to Stephanie Miller and the mooks and the callers make wise cracks about her experience, I think we should all cut it out. I have always thought that being governor is a better position to be president than a Senator and I actually really like someone who has local government experience. Also, while she has not been in long a couple of the democratic VP hopefuls were also governors with little experience in that job (Tim Kaine). While Alaska has a small population, it is larger that where Howard Dean was governor and larger that Delaware where Biden represents. The challenges of governing Alaska are huge and she probably did learn a lot in that job.

To make jokes about being a small town mayor is not a good call. Being a mayor is more direct government and important to our lives than any office. It is not an easy job to do well and demands a lot of work and is thankless. While her town was small, she was not the Mayor of Vernon Hills, IL, she was Mayor of a community with more unique and challenging natural resources, transportation, and economic issues that most places.

Also, I feel that many Palin jokes and criticisms are sexist. Something has to be said for the fact that she has the experience she has AND was a mother of 5. If you are an attractive successful woman, people always find a way to put your accomplishments down.

The problem with her is that she is from the far right and would govern from the GOP playbook.

"She threw her daughter under the bus"

I love this southern caller on Stephanie Miller this AM

I may not have this exact quote but......

"She threw her daughter under the bus....She brought out her daughter holding her baby to cover up her baby bump" and "what about her health, she should not be travelling around the country she should be resting at home with her feet up"

People love this human interst family crap, what is this a presidential election or the Jerry Springer.