Happy Panda Shoots Himself

This website is too funny, mixed up translations into english from asian countries. EngrishFunny.com Thanks to MP who put a link to one on her facebook page. I can't stop laughing.

Did you shovel the poem?

Cool idea to put poems in the sidewalk in St. Paul.
Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk by Marcus Young, Saint Paul Public Works, and Public Art Saint Paul (With GIS)

CSM article about project.

CNN just made him another $100,000

Programmer made $250,000 creating a iPhone game.

Meet Steve Demeter, developer of the popular puzzle game "Trism."

A former ATM software designer for a large bank, Demeter created "Trism" in his spare time and pitched it to Apple last spring. The company made the game available for download with the July launch of its App Store, an online provider of applications for its iPods and iPhones.

Priced at $5, "Trism" earned Demeter $250,000 in profits the first two months.

Lizard People for US Senate!!!

For those who loved watching the dude with the big nose in FL in 2000 look for hanging chads, some MN disputed ballots are on display on the web on the Minnesota Public Webpage. Decide for yourself who should get the vote. My favoite is the write in vote for Lizard People.

REM Green

Why did pure REM fans think that this album was such a bad sell-out pop album?

Nebraska Law Should be Wake Up Call

Nebraska legislators are set to change their safe haven law so that only babies under 30 days can be dropped off. The problem for those who did not follow this issue is that they passed a law which allowed any parent to drop of children of any age that they could not take care of at a hospital and they would not face any legal penalties. They problem was that some parents of older children used this law. The stories of these families are truly heart breaking. Obviously it is not a good thing if a parent feels they need to abandoned their children. While I agree with this quote, many children are in harm now.

"The abandonment of these children -- and the harm it is causing them -- is an immediate concern," said Jen Rae Hein, communications director for the governor.

No one would do this flippantly. Parents are very very stressed and the environment for some children may be worse where they are now. If you don't have money and you have health problems or children with special needs or health problems or are single without a support system, I would imagine it could be hell for many children. They can't expect to change this law and expect the problem to go away. The public policy problem in this country is that there are thousands of parents who are really struggling to take care of their children for various reasons and need help. When I heard about the few families they found that used this law, I thought of all the others who did not take this step, or live in other states and just struggle each day.

"What you've seen is an extraordinary cry for help from people all across the country," he said. "Nebraska can't afford to take care of all of them. Nebraska would like to be able to, but they know that we can't so we are going to have to change the law."

Five of the 35 abandoned children were brought to Nebraska from out of state. Parents have traveled to Nebraska from Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Florida and Georgia.

"We didn't think [the law] would be used to the extent it [has been]," state Sen. Brad Ashford said. "We didn't anticipate children coming from other states."

Tysheema Brown drove from Georgia to leave her teenage son at an Omaha hospital.

"Do not judge me as a parent. I love my son and my son knows that," Brown said. "There is just no help. There hasn't been any help."

Safe-haven laws allow distraught parents who fear their children are in imminent danger to drop them off at hospitals without being charged with abandonment. Nebraska was the last state in the country to pass such a law. But every other state included an age limit.

As the economy continues to fall, this will get worse and I don't get the feeling that lawmakers really care about the struggle of many families, they need more than tax cuts.

Reaches Near and Far

I am very sad to hear that the director of Camp Thunderbird Allen 'Moe' Sigoloff has died. He was a great man who really helped me and my family. I began my many many years at T-Bird after my dad died and Moe was always very kind and supportive of my situation and I would not be the man and father I am today if it was not for Moe and the rest of the T-Bird family.

Many years after I stopped going to camp, he was supportive to me when I talked with him after I started my current job and he told me about his personal efforts to work for environmental protection in Missouri.

Use It Tonight

I love this song and I love this video.



The New Pornographers - Use It

features the great David Cross (Arrested Development)

I am so smart

I made the same point in a comment on Althouse on Nov. 14 that was made yesterday by Thomas Friedman in his column Madam Secretary?

Althouse had a post about Hillary being possible pick for Secretary of State. My comment:

This is not just a figure head photo-op job after the 8 years of Bush. The S of S will need to work very closely with Obama and world leaders on many difficult issues. It would be a big problem if HRC and Obama did not see eye to eye and we got into some huge diplomatic crisis. I don't like this idea.

Monty Python Crew Takes Matters Into Their Own Hands

Watch out YouTube posters.

Bill and Hillary Should Just Pay Up

It seems crazy that Hillary Clinton's campaign still owes $7 million to various parties and that she expects to hit up donors to pay for those debits. If they could not raise enough money during the campaign, they should use their own money to pay of the debit. What donor would help them with this given that they are very rich and Bill will continue to rake in the cash with his speaking and other work for years to come. Yes, she loaned herself money and is not going to get that back but come on....

Save Detroit and Fight Climate Change

One idea I heard on the radio to help out the automakers was to offer tax incentives for folks to buy a new car. If the incentive were large enough it could really help the public and the car makers and help fight global warming.

One of the biggest sources of green house gas emissions are cars, but not just any cars the old polluting gas guzzers clunkers really cause a huge amount of the pollution. Many people are driving these old clunkers and the environmental benefit would be huge if they got those things off the road, not only in CO2 but local smog pollunants.

How about a targeted incentive, if you drive a car that is more than 15 years old or that gets worse than 18 MPG and you by any new car (from an American company?) that gets over 25 MPG then you get a $5000 tax credit. I am not sure if it would be necessary to retire the old car or not. The American car companies make plenty of cars that get good milage and can give Detroit a big boost without giving them any money.

Hey, the NY Times ran a piece about a similar idea from Alan S. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Capitol Hill and Wall Street Meet in Summit

In an unprecedented move, top leaders from the nation's top banks and investment firms are meeting with leaders from Congress and the President's cabinet in a two day summit to craft the appropriate implementation strategy of the financial bail out bill passed 3 weeks ago. Issues to be discussed include how the US Government can get a equity interest in the firms that are being helped by the package and future regulatory actions that can prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.

Liberal Idiots

I listen to progressive radio and listen to our Air America local station, the Mic 92.1 and I love Stephanie Miller and the other hosts (Thom Hartman, Ed Schultz, etc.) for the most part. One thing I think they should all stop doing is these dumb ads for a company where you can buy gold as an investment.

While the stock market has obviously been tanking lately, I don't think it adds any credibility to these folks for them to be encouraging there listeners to buy gold. Even if it was a smart investment move at certain times for some share of your money (which I doubt), it sounds stupid, and makes the listener think that these hosts are either just saying what ever ad wants to pay the bills or really believe this silly stuff. How to invest your money is one of the most important decision in your life and it is not something that should be done in 30 second ad.

Many probably think, if they are promoting this radical investment strategy then they can't be that smart and it makes me question everything else they say on the air. I have always thought it is somewhat troublesome for radio show hosts to do ads in their own voice promoting something because it sounds honest but I am not sure it is. This own gold message is certainly not something that professors or economics or any main stream financial planners are recommending and I wish they would stop.

Savage Speaks The Truth

I really enjoy listening to the Savage Lovecast - Dan Savage's weekly sex advice column podcast. If you have not listened, check it out! Because it is a podcast and not radio he can say whatever he wants. I was eager to hear his reaction to the election (episode #108) and despite being thrilled about the election he was understandably upset about the anti-gay marriage votes. He gave a big direct Fuck You to all the FL, CA and AZ voters who voted to deny this human right. When you listen to the radio and read political analysis you don't hear the clear direct feelings expressed by Dan. refreshing

OMG! Look at what Clinton Did!

This is a joke and if I were the Clintons, I would be insulted. Obama's team is reviewing Bill Clinton's history and financial dealings since he was president. He was the President of the US and HRC ran for president. The press, the bloggers and the right wing world did not investigate any possible scandal by now? He is not some obscure guy who had hired a illegal alien nanny. I did however predict that had HRC gotten the nomination for president hat this was going to be an area that was going to receive intense scrutiny in the general election.

Go Lee!

Madison's on-air liberal local Air America personality will be all over the nation, Lee Rayburn will be sitting in for Thom Hartmann a bit this week while Thom is on the Air America cruise. Lee has done this before and he is always well prepared and does a solid job and makes Madison proud.

Your doorbell rings, some guy holding a copy of the Watchtower, then you realize it is not just some guy, it is Prince!

The artist now known as Prince is a Jehova’s Witness!?! He left Minneapolis and now lives in LA. According to this New Yorker article by Claire Hoffman 'Soup With Prince' he is going through a some changes:

“More, you know, it’s a realization. It’s like Morpheus and Neo in ‘The Matrix.’ ” He attends meetings at a local Kingdom Hall, and, like his fellow-witnesses, he leaves his gated community from time to time to knock on doors and proselytize. “Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they’re really cool about it,” he said.

I am not sure how his fans feel about the new interest but he has always been an enigma.

I Should Have Paid More Attention on the Bus?

Bill Ayres is finally speaking out now that the election is over. He did an interesting interview on Good Morning America with Chris Cuomo about his relationship with Barak Obama. I did not share Althouse's outrage over the fact that he did not say more here about their relationship. I think Ayres did a good job of putting it in the context that Obama has limited political acquaintances with thousands of people and he is one of many. The campaign event at Ayres home was one of many that he did that day. I was glad they let Ayres get in a point about the reason for his antiwar protests and the violence our military was committing.

One thing caught my eye. Ayres made a statement not specific about his relationship with Obama but he suggested that he may have shared a bus from Hyde Park to the Loop with Obama while they were on a board together. I could have been on the same bus, maybe I was sitting right next to the two of them. While I lived in Hyde Park for 2 years, 1994-1996, I took that same bus often for class and to two jobs I had downtown. This was the same time that these guys were working together. There is a lot of time to talk on this bus ride......

When I was a Kid I Wanted to be an Astronaut

.....now....not so much.

What ever happened to Sue Bauman?

Does anyone else think it is odd that we have not heard anything from our former Mayor Sue Bauman. While I was not a huge fan you't think that she would occationally get involved with some local issue or write a letter to the editor, etc. Last I heard she got some sweet job for Doyle on some labor board or something that paid well but did not have a lot of interest from the public. How could you run a city and then just drop out completely. Other former mayors are involved with things and write about them, appear on TV etc.

fruit roll ups = crack

My daughter went totally nuts wanting more fruit roll-ups tonight. What do they put in those things?

How Are They So Relaxed?

I watched some of Steve Carell on Jay Leno last night. He is funny, I like him. What struck me was how Steve was reading some funny things his kids say, he was holding a paper and it seemed to be shaking like he was nervous. Then it struck me how totally relaxed every person is who goes no national TV. I would be very nervous if I went on TV for anything. My voice started to quiver when I called in a radio show one time. Of course Steve Carell is a famous actor but maybe the pressure of live TV and reading something personal did make him nervous. It made him seem more real, and showed me how fake the TV talk show world is. We are not really sitting our living room with Letterman and Paris Hilton having a chat.

Flip a Coin

What I learned during the 2000 Gore Bush election was that no system of counting votes can really be 100 accurate. While people are used to the notion that a poll will have a margin of error from basic statistics, you are not surveying everyone, people think that in an actual election, you can count every vote and add up the sum of everyones intentions as represented by what ever system is used and get an answer. People also assume a manual recount would get the true answer.

I have been watching the Coleman - Frankin race and it seems like a silly exercise to try and do a recount to get the real answer. This recount is turning ugly because the right thinks it is being stollen.

I remember after the 2000 election some discussion about research as part of the CalTech/ MIT Voting technology project. They carefully looked at election statisitcs and studies of different voting technolgy and found that in fact no system is perfect and will actually count all the votes. There is a "residual vote rate" which is the rate of folks who don't vote for anyone for an office. While some of this is intentional by the voter, they decide not to vote for an office, but much is due to some flaw with the voting technology or counting system. The national rate is around 1% and it is around 2% in some states. Residual votes are only one problem with voting systems, poor ballot design, and other problems can result in a final vote tally that is not really the number of people who voted who wanted X candidate to win.

So when you have a race that is as close as this one is, it seems that it is really a satistical tie. A recount will not really discover the winner. It seems that there should be another way to decide the outcome in these cases.

Good Work Government Accountability Board

Kudos to the Government Accountability Board for approving new rules requiring special interest groups to fully disclose their electioneering activities and abide by existing state campaign contribution limits. I hope that it can withstand a court challange.

Ginsburg and Stevens Better Retire Or I Will.....

Interesting piece on the speculation on who on the Supreme Court will retire during Obama's term.

All the liberals on the bench can not assume that Obama will get a second term since the GOP attack machine will be doing everything they can think of to make sure he does not. If he were to only have one term, we could have god know how many years of Republican rule. I hope not but I would not want to chance it. If these Justices just stay on because it is such an exciting place to be, they don't want to quit, etc. that is very selfish and will hurt this country for YEARS and YEARS. Roberts will be on the court for as many as 40 more years.

While the Election Will Not Help SNL - The Right Wing World Just Hit Gold

For 8 years, the Right wing radio, Blog and TV personalities have been in a hard position trying to defend their president. Just like the Clinton years, Rush and the rest love to mock, slam and yell about everything the President does. They were pretty harsh during the election but the sad truth is that we are going to have to endure 4 or 8 years of their efforts to discredit and bring down Obama and the dems. It will be honest criticism as well as nasty crap.

Here are two of the attacks we are seeing. John Hinderaker from Powerline Blog has a good one suggesting that Obama is going to show his inexperience by putting his foot in his mouth.

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated.

Of course the Bush thing is funny in that he always sounded like an idiot even when he was just reading boring pre-prepared remarks. But the point was that the puppet masters would not let him get off script and actually have real press conferences and interviews. Bush was not able to ever share his thoughts with anyone publicly.

This one from Rush Limbaugh seems so ridiculous but he actually said:

"The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen," Limbaugh told his radio audience of 15 million to 20 million on Thursday. "Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression."

These Right wing freaks will have so much fun licking their chops to attack Obama every way from Sunday. Hold on to your hat.

1 out of 100 friends

I am not sure what this means but I find it intersting that for a while now I have had 99 friends on facebook and today I added my friend number 100. The unique thing about #100 is that he is a black man (thanks Moneytime). He is the only black person in my list. I have several east and south asian friends.

How (Blank) is Obama?

There have been several pieces written recently about Obama and what he brings to the White House. One recent one is about the benefits of having an intellectual in the office, see Obama and the War on Brains by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF.

Of course, others have talked about what it means to have an African American in the White House.

My Univ. of Chicago magazine recently asked how University of Chicago Barak is. It seems clear that he has not played up his connection with the U of C as a big part of his resume to run on. To me the Chicago approach does not really fit with Obama's approach since it is not a school with profs who are activists, political, or liberal. They seem to take a very traditional, analytical, and conservative approach to issues of law, policy, business, economics, etc. Obama's passionate feelings would be a better fit at the Univ. of Wisconsin or Yale.

I was surprised that I did not see more during the campaign or now about how Chicago or how Illinois he is. In what way is he a product of the political environment that he comes out of? Chicago politics is world famous and not for the reasons Obama was elected. He was elected to statewide office from Illinois which is a very odd state in that the connection between the issues down state, Chicago and the burbs barley exists. In some ways the election of a politician from IL as president is a big departure from the American political tale of the person with hometown roots working there way up in one state with a unique identity. Did he ever care about or relate to the people of IL or did the people of IL just like him and send hit to Washington to do good things for America?

Then you have Chicago, with its long history of political machines and political patronage. The connection to Mayor Daley's brother seems to indicate some connection the the beast. Does he accept Chicago style politics or reject it? we shall see.

A Big Loophole

The amount of transparency and oversight over tax policy is already pretty minimal and this is a scary abuse of power that occurred with apparently no public notice or input. The WP reports that hoping no one would notice, the treasury department re-interpreted tax law so that companies who merge with other companies can avoid paying taxes if the new company has large losses. This occurs at a time when no one trusts Wall Street's fun and games.

Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion. The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.

Frozen Fraud

I hate to get on a big conspiracy theory/ they stole the election soap box but this article I found on Huffington Post seems to make a pretty strong case that there is somethings stinky up in our northern tundra. Shannyn Moore, an Alaskan reporter, makes a pretty strong case that there appears to be some major problems given the pre-election survey results, exit polls, etc. Read it and look at the numbers. Who cares? Obama won, well yes but the Stevens seat is very important for the balance of power in the Senate.

I am not surprised that he stayed on the ballot and that many people voted for Stevens because my guess is that he will resign sometime next year and then Ms. Palin will get to pick some other GOP person.

Rahm Is The Man

From what I can tell, Rahm is a good member of the tribe, a solid smart Democrat, with a bit of an intense fire at times.

In theory, this choice should make the Hillary fans happy since he worked for Clinton.

He has a sister named Shoshana (cool) and a brother Ari (my middle name) who inspired the character of Ari Gold on the West Wing (sweet), can you imagine Jeremy Piven hanging out in the White House.

He helped coordinate the 2006 democratic surge in congress so he is a guy who can get political change to occur.

What seems obvious about this however is that I am sure that Obama has been working with him for some time and they had already discussed having him take the job long before Obama was elected. I am sure he did not share this news with anyone because they did not want the media and McCain to focus on Emanuel. This is a sly move and effective. I am sure Bush would have liked to hide Rove but could not given the circumstance.

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

Well Put

Obama's Challange

There are many but one big one is that I am sure in his heart from his experience he really cares about helping rebuild the inner city, providing money for the failing inner city schools, and proving health care for the millions of people who don't have it. Unlike other presidents, I sincerely believe he really really cares about these issue for the urban poor especially. The federal government can do something to change this but the amount of money needed is massive. A slight increase will not solve these systemic problems. The federal budget situation is the worse it has ever been and will get worse as the economic crisis trickles down.

Buzz Kill

I was really thrilled to read the emotional comments from my facebook buddies, very inspiring, almost brought me to tears. Except for one.

An old HS acquaintance who is cough cough conservative I guess. Here is what her status says today.....

"can't wait to start spending your money!"
and "can't wait for the wealth to spread...she really needs it!"

I don't think she is wealthy so she would get some tax reduction if Obama's tax plans were enacted. She works hard and should share some of the huge wealth that this country's wealthiest people and companies have enjoyed for years. Maybe I am reading into this too much but it seem like a ridiculous odd comment to make today. I don't get it.

We are Going to Paint the White House Black!!!

I think Public Enemy should play at the inauguration!?! : )

Here are a few observations:

- Some of our neighbors (a family in their 50s with two kids in their 20s) had a little party and went out on the street screaming when they declared Obama the winner and someone was playing a trumpet, loud and fun.

- If McCain picked a moderate republican like Tom Ridge as a running mate he would have done better, the moderate republicans can't be be afraid of the far right wing, they would support any GOP candidate even a pro-choice one.

- McCain's age was an issue, he seemed old and people are smart and recognized that it was questionable whether he would have been able to be a strong president for 4 years or 8.

- Obama's win was in part due to money, but why did he have so much cash, because people liked him. He did not take special interest money.


- Thank goodness the people of Green Bay that they reelected Kagen. Washington would not be the same if John Gard went there.

- McCain did not really want to win, he is happy to spend the rest of his life without all that stress. He can hang out at the Sedona camp. He will be in the Senate for 2 more years and then it is golf and relaxing.

- McCain is smart and a good guy and fairly moderate. If they had a less qualified more right wing candidate, Obama would have won much more.

- Obama was awesome in that he took the highroad and did not get into mud slinging and partisan negative campaigning. That was key. He even got the other democrats and pendents to refrain from the negative against McCain.

- The demographics in this country are changing. The number and % of people color is going up and up. That is reality and a party that doesn't welcome and include all sorts of people will not be able to lead the country.

- Think about what this will do for all the little black boys and girls in this country who can aspire to great things. The goal can be not only basketball and rap music but law, government, and anything.

- It is also great that the Dems will control the WI assembly and senate. yea! This is a great opportunity for Doyle (if he doesn't get a job with Obama) to be a great leader.

- Madison school funding approved! Yeah!!! Sad that we need to do that but it is too important.

YES WE CAN!!!!

My Kids are Trying to Learn the Words to Video Killed the Radio Star

and may want to perform the song at the neighborhood talent show in the summer.

weird?

one madison man's voting story

I went vote today at a church under Mary's watchful eyes. Rode my bike and there were many bikes outside, many were not locked up. Line was out the door. Older guy in front of me looked around 85 and had a hearing aid. I was surprised how few people I knew. The line was around 30 people in front of me outside and as I found out later around 100 inside. It took around a half hour. The middle school kids had a bake sale and were peddling stuff to folks in line. I few poll watchers but not many from what I could tell. No electronic voting machines, just the draw a line across the arrow paper ballots. The only glitch was that the electronic machine that you are supposed to put your ballot into after you vote was not working so you had to stick the ballot in a slot under the machine. I hope someone counts them later. Most voters were in their 40-60s. Not many 20 year olds.

Palin's Second SNL Bit - WTF

Did anyone see the odd skit from the real Sarah Palin tonight? Just her talking and it was not funny strange and not good. Her first time on SNL was good, funny, she took the high road. It was like the let her say whatever she wanted. Something about cutting NBCs license, huh? Going out on a flop.

Pave Baby Pave

I am surprised to see this big push from the Left and Right for investment in public infrastructure. See David Brooks' article. Yes we need it and the bridge collapse was a clear wake up call for that but this whole thing seems odd given the WI politics. The Wisconsin road builders group or whatever they call themselves are a huge right wing lobbying group that basically tries to push for more money for the DOT so that the companies that do this work will grow. They have been trying to make this claim for years as part of their lobbying that supporting this helps the economy, blah blah blah. While it is somewhat true, the dems here argue that there are other more important priorities (schools, local governments, social services, etc.). Should the school district be forced to layoff teachers and the construction company will hire some more? Ideally we'd do both.

I don't have some brilliant insight here other than to say that the older communities need the repairs of their infrastructure more than the newer ones and this would really only help the cities if they are not forced to pay so much for the local share and the firms hire some folks from the 'hood. This whole thing should not really be a federal issue and more of a state one and most state legislatures care more about the rural and fringe areas than the central cities.

Who Can Wait For 5 Hours?

The Obama campaign should not have pushed this in person early voting at all. They should have just suggested people do paper absentee ballots. I wanted to vote early and went to City Hall but the line looked too long. Think about single parents, poor people with not-flexible jobs, people with health problems, etc. I am sure if you looked at the lines across the country, the longer lines are in poor places.

You've been pranked

This prank call to Sarah Palin from guy pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy is funny but sad. You would think that they would have a better screening process for these type of calls given that this has happened before with other world leaders. I kind of feel bad for Palin being tricked but the call does give you some insight on what world leaders may talk about on the phone. The Sarkozy guys statements sound so ridiculous it is hard to believe that she thought this was real. I wonder if they record real calls that the president makes with world leaders. I would love to hear Bush and Putin or Tony Blair or if advisors sit in on the calls.

If Obama Wins - I Hope He Wins Big

This way it will be harder for the McCain supporters to claim he somehow stole or bought the election. I think that we should not gloat and be respectful of the McCain supporters. This will help to bridge the gap that divides this country.

Also, a personal story, I went to a wedding this weekend in Chicago. Sat next to a couple I did not know, they are related to my cousin but not me. As it turns out they were conservative and not Obama supporters. Big church goers and they home school their kids. She was born Jewish but converted to follow Christ. I rarely talk to anyone outside my political bubble (other than my old neighbor who almost got elected into congress a few years ago).

I was proud of myself that I had a civil friendly conversation about various topics including beer, Wisconsin, and the fact that both of us lost a parent recently and how to talk with the kids about that. We did talk a bit about politics and it was fairly respectful. They expressed a fear that Obama would nominate 2 justices to the supreme court. I tried to make the case that as a constitutional scholar, Obama would likely nominate smart moderate folks. I said that I had a personal interest in that issue since I took a class at the U of Chicago from a friend/ advisor of Obama who has been mentioned in the past as a possible supreme court justice. The dude says to me, "who Bill Ayres?" And I said, no Cass Sunstein who I explained is a moderate smart guy. Then the manly table talk turned to sports and they lost me.