When It's Sleepy Time Down South

With tonight's Mardis Gras parades canceled due to storms, a tune to set the mood.

Or this version, if you want a bouncing Boswell ball and scrolling, racier time-period lyrics.

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GOP Debate, On Sandra Day O'Connor

Video Here

Responses, toward the end, on whether or not Justice O'Connor was the right choice for the U.S. Supreme Court:

Huckabee: No real answer other than that he's pro-life.
Ron Paul: No.
McCain: Proud of her, but gives a different set of ideal judges.
Romney: No.

Interesting to see that both McCain and Romney held up Roberts and Alito as their standard for judicial appointments, rather than the old Republican standard of Scalia and Thomas.

Also interesting...Rehnquist is never used as a candidate's role model or example of being "too soft" or insufficiently textual.

It would be refreshing to hear more in-depth answers from candidates on their preferences for judicial philosophy and methodology, something that reflected an understanding built on greater depth and nuance.

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Schwarzenegger and the Slur

Which will get more media traction?

This or this?

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In Memoriam

For fellow Kielite, "Ginnie" Ortlieb.

I have never encountered a human being who faced down so many medical obstacles to her life. There were so many times I was amazed that she had soldiered through. She never put on a smile through it all - she was a smile. Even when she could barely see, when she could barely walk, when she was rushed to the hospital one more time.

I visited Ginnie once during college when she was in the UW Hospital in Madison. It was unlike any hospital visit I'd ever made. I will never forget how she greeted me cheerily, wearing a bright, colorful Tweetie Bird shirt, the perfect mirror of her personality, a personality that had long ago transcended illness, one that had pared away all the facades and fuzzy lenses we put in front of ourselves and seen life for what it was. She will be sorely missed.

I last talked with Ginnie in September. She was, as always, warm, caring, and genuinely interested in what I was up to at the time. We had a great conversation. During its course, I learned, to my surprise, that she was a reader of this blog. It was comforting to see that she was smiling as we parted, smiling despite the great weariness her body had imparted. But that was Ginnie.

It is tough to lose a person dear to you when you're over a thousand miles away with no feasible way of making it back to pay your respects.

To Ken and the family, my respects and deepest sympathy.

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Here's some food for thought...

while I'm contemplating what to make myself for dinner.

A few days ago I saw a story on a new product in Europe: canned cheeseburgers:

I honestly can't figure out how I feel about this: is it the greatest achievement of mankind thus far, or is it an abomination of foodstuffs that deserves to be hucked back into the gaping maw of whatever food processing plant it was spewed from?

Today I saw a story about poor people in Haiti making and eating dirt cookies:

A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.

If they start canning mud for dirt cookies, would you even bother washing the pan before baking them?

Update: A guy cooked and ate a canned hamburger here

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Rubber Hits the Road

Where are the dollars going in the wake of recent presidential poltical happenings?

For McCain, sky high.

From what I know, for the first time in this cycle's real money-backed political futures markets at Slate, a Republican candidate exceeds a price of $25 on the chart.

McCain's trendline rockets up toward Hillary while Obama takes a dip (despite "no delegates at stake" in Florida) and Romney springs a significant leak.

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5th Circuit In the House

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is officially in the building today for oral arguments here at Tulane Law.

Here's what's on the docket.

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Edwards Out

It makes sense given his numbers - and despite his insistence on staying in for the long haul, which made about as much sense as this.

In the absence of an open endorsement at this time, I wonder how Edward's elimination will play out in states like Wisconsin, where Edwards performed well last time - skew to Obama or Hillary? It's a tough call in my mind.

While Edwards indicated a preference for or alignment with Obama as an "agent of change," I think his base in Wisconsin last time around was a heavily labor-Democrat population that might be more inclined to Hillary policy-wise. Yet that bloc is a bit more culturally conservative in Wisconsin, too, so I don't see how either Democratic candidate would really appeal to that aspect.

UPDATE: Edwards is actually officially dropping out here in New Orleans, down in the Lower 9th Ward, at noon.

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Ghosts on Tchoupitoulas Street

Lingering.

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"I'm even in this party - that's a big party!"

Giuliani. To drop out, endorse McCain tomorrow.

Confirmed by MSNBC.

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To All My Midwestern Friends

Hope you're having a sunny, balmy day, just as we are here. Current Temp in New Orleans: 72 Degrees F

Hope your city's housing stock is in slightly better shape, too.

Right now, a small, garrulous flock of escaped green and yellow parrots is making a racket in the green magnolia trees across the street.

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Campaign Cash and Elected Judges

A new statistical study of the relationship between donor cash and judicial decision-making is slated for publication in the Tulane Law Review in the near future:

A local law professor has completed a study (soon to be published in the Tulane Law Review) that suggests a connection between judicial decisions and campaign contributions. The finding is based on the use of statistics, which no doubt some folks will say are misleading. But, statistics aside, no one should be happy about judges taking campaign contributions from lawyers who appear before them. Least of all judges.

While the piece seems to focus exclusively on Louisiana judges, I look forward to reviewing Professor Palmer's study.

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Beer, Super Bowl, Competition, and the WSJ

America, in an article.

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Night's End

Circle Bar. Post-parade workers. General Robert E. Lee. New Orleans.

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SOTU Simul Simul Blog

I'll be doing a bit of simul-blog of President Bush's final State of the Union tonight, simultaneously working on my motion in limine project for Legal Research and Writing. We'll see how it goes.

SCOTUS at SOTU? Looks like Alito, Breyer - who's looking quite old, Kennedy, and Roberts.

Laura and the girls have arrived in the chamber. Jenna's black dress is far better looking and more appropriate for the occasion than Barbara's choice for the evening. Speaker Pelosi's in lavendar, having a great time up on the rostrum with Cheney, no doubt.

CSPAN is looking a little fuzzy for some reason.

8:05 Central - And here's POTUS.

A blue tie? A sign of unity?

Maine's Olympia Snowe gets in a handshake. Mary Landrieu of Lousiana does, too.

Something's screwy with the C-SPAN audio.

A wink from Bush as he sips some water. Was it Hillary? Ted Kennedy? And now a half wink over the Republican side.

Pelosi seems to be clapping vigorously at the prospect of this being Bush's final SOTU.

In the opening remarks, a hint at China's rise as an economic competitor.

And now, the economy. He's a little feisty. No pork for you. Act swiftly.

[But will a tax rebate this summer be too late even if the stimulus is passed tomorrow?]

The IRS accepts money order?

There's Dave Obey sitting next to Charlie Rangel - Rangel laughs (and rightly so) at Bush's remarks about the government keeping a balanced budget like American families.

Earmarks = bad. Talk of veto.

...the Eastern District of Louisiana says so, but does the Fifth Circuit caselaw?


Housing. Housing. Housing.

The No Child Left Behind Act. Hmmm. Read Chapter 9 of Conscience of a Conservative. Education is the province of states, not the federal government. Funded or not, I disagree. Grants or scholarships for students excelling in specific areas critical to U.S. national security are appropriate, like the Barry Goldwater Scholarship for math and science students.

Free Trade agreements. He gets, at the very least, that these agreements are in America's strategic interests, although he doesn't specically detail how we're now competing with China for South American trade.

He whips the word "hemisphere" out as if proud of getting it right after all his practicing.

And now - wait for it, wait for it, one more time...NUKE U LER!

He's right on the unfairness of Kyoto-type treaties.

...let's see, an unpublished source. Man, I despise citations.

Stem Cells - why are we increasing funding? Morals and science aside, why is the government expending funds on it?

8:30 - OOH - now judges. A strict constructionist line. "A prompt up or down vote."

Awesome - the four justices present are completely immobile as the camera pans over. Black robes. No twitching. No movement. Impartial. Nice work.

"The armies of compassion..." in the Gulf?

NOLA! A North American summit headed here to New Orleans. Should be fun.

It looks like Pelosi is reading a book - perhaps it's the speech text - that's more interesting. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, a large, bright purple dot in the crowd, stands clapping, alone, on her side of the aisle.

Foreign Worker's proposal gets a chilly reception from the GOP.

"Advancing liberty in troubled regions of the world..." Don't make bellicose talk about Iran.

"blood soaked finery" - that is clearly not a Bush line

"We will deliver justice to our enemies." The young soldier seated above Jenna Bush is very late to clap, claps briefly, and is done before everyone around him. Haunting.

A mini surge for Afghanistan. Marines.

..."It takes two to tango, in court as well as on the ballroom floor." Can evidence of this subsequent remedial remedy be used to impeach or not?

Iraq. The narrative. Widespread applause for the work of the troops and civil servants. Even at least one of the Justices.

A full-throated roar from the Republicans as Bush announces al-Qeada is on the run and will be defeated.

Was that a random elk mating call or a Marine hoo-wah?

"a protective overwatch mission" A new euphemism.

[Bush, really, has not changed over the course of seven years. His rhetoric remains the same, the narrative style, the tone, the unchanged insistence on Iraq. The belief that everything is possible through a little government help. The insistence that things are looking better. A black and white view. A man who needed to create a Reaganesque good versus evil storyline to fit his abilities, his mindset. A man who does not recognize how broad a brush he paints with and what it will mean overseas.]

Iran. Nuke u ler!

"And above all know this...America will confront those who threaten our troops..."

Alito's been clapping rather enthusiastically, even standing, throughout the evening. The other justices have been more subdued. Breyer now gets in a few half-hearted slaps of his thigh.

Fully fund a global poverty initiative? Break the cyle of famine. [Bush, as in SOTUs past, tries to solve all the world's problems - no matter what the cost]

Is there anything we haven't increased funding for?

New measures for vets are great, but talk about the necessary, unsexy cuts in spending that must correspond.

...does this deserve its own subsection in Argument or not?

9:02 - liberty in their hearts (what about in actuality?)

the state of our union will remain strong

[the young soldier seated above Jenna Bush is still seated even as everyone else rises at the end of the speech]

...ok, it's time to buckle down and Westlaw some of these cases cited in the footnotes.

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State of the Apartment

My friends, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the State of the Apartment as my two roommates and I near the midpoint of our lease.

Our two-bedroom apartment had a successful first apartment-wide convention back in August. The main point of contention was the dispute over rent; the large state proposed a plan for each state to pay equally which was met with just opposition from the two smaller states who proposed a much fairer plan. After much deliberation in a hot and humid room, a somewhat amicable settlement was reached.

Shortly after the great Rent Compromise of August, the Apartmental Congress overwhelmingly passed the historic Charter Charter which was needed to establish timely payments of the bill to maintain the security of our stragetic inter-apartmental communications system.

Today, despite those earlier legislative triumphs, the state of the apartment could be better.

In some areas, the apartment runs like clockwork, once such example being the Department of the Interior. In nearly six months there have been no complaints concerning the kitty litter box.

In other areas we have had to come together for a solution. We have to deal with the rising cost and perpetual scarcity of milk. As we all know, our apartment has to import all of its daily milk requirements, which leaves us vulnerable to the whims of the White Hen Pantry. There is no quick fix to this problem, but if we all use what milk we have wisely, we should get through the time to the next trip to the grocery store.

Our policies have been historically successful. Our move to shut the outer aluminum storm windows has successfully mitigated the effect of changing atmospheric temperatures. It's too early to tell if the atmosphere will continue to deviate from normal temperatures. To deal with the ongoing issue of apartment safety, as this is the city, the front door will continue to be locked routinely as well as the windows.

To continue our success, tonight I am proposing a some legislation. The first is the Clean Dishes Act, which says in short, if you make it dirty, don't just stack it up in the sink and look at the rest of us like we're supposed to wash your dishes, the both of us have already washed our own and you should have figured out the pattern by now.

The other is the much needed Take out the Trash Act. The premise is the same as the proposed Clean Dishes Act. Dude, it's seriously starting to pile up and we both know you know because it's totally going to start to block your bedroom door soon. Both Acts have already cleared the committee.

If we adopt my proposals, I know our apartment can continue strong into this next year.

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What About Judicial Nominees?

A president's choice of judicial nominees, crucial as it is, has been less of a focal point in the 2008 cycle thus far than it seemed in both 2000 and 2004. At least in my perspective.

A few parties have broached the issue along the way, but it hasn't hit prime-time by any means. And candidates, by and large, haven't said much of anything I'd qualify as new or revealing.

Perhaps the issue simply hasn't risen to the surface beyond the ranks of single issue camps like pro-life and pro-choice groups. The primary races have been awash with other crucial issues - Iraq, the specter of recession, healthcare. The basic need to pare down the oversized fields has also been a significant threshold issue.

Today, however, John McCain sounded off in the face of conservative critics of his take on judicial nominees, reiterating the standard support for strict constructionism and adherence to the Constitution, as well as Justices Alito and Roberts. Interestingly, however, he said this:

I asked whether McCain had ever drawn any distinction between Roberts and Alito. "No, no, of course not," McCain said.

McCain seemed to be defending himself in context, but why doesn't he draw any distinction?

He also offered a defense of the notorious Gang of 14 on pragmatic grounds:

"And maybe as an aside, why would I say anything derogatory about somebody like that? What would be the point, after working so hard to get not only those two confirmed, but the Gang of 14 ­ which I know is controversial ­ but our record of getting those judges confirmed that the president nominated, I'm still proud of."

Some well on the political right aren't buying it.

But in the face of it all, we have this piece on judicial philosophies from Stanley Fish, who, quite aptly, cites a string of judicial nominees who wandered off the ranch as years on the bench elapsed after confirmation:

In the end, the only way to tell the difference between conservative and progressive judges may be the Justice Potter Stewart way. You know them when you see them, and when you know them it will be because of the decisions they hand down, not be because of any interpretive theory they may profess, even one they loudly proclaim. And that means that when a candidate loudly proclaims that he or she will appoint judges who promise to be faithful to this or that theory, you will have learned nothing.

Yet who would they nominate? It's still of immense interest to me. Giuliani, long the subject of most judicial nominee stories given his need to reassure a base, tossed out a telling list of judicial advisors back when he was viable. I like the concept of actually naming a few names and would like to see others toss out even hypothetical names.

What about the other candidates? Ron Paul? Mike Gravel? John Edwards?

Would there be noticeable differences in the lists of Obama and Clinton? McCain and Romney?

Would McCain contemplate nominating this guy along the lines of TR's nomination of this guy?

They agree on one thing at least.

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A Petri Challenger

You're going to need a lot more than this, Mr. Kittleson.

And even then, I doubt you'd have a chance.

Also, Petri was elected to Congress and took office by way of a special election in 1979, not 1980 as the APC article states.

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Hangin' out

Sumqayit style.

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Things heat up in Florida

There has been a lot of coverage of this all over the Internet and on the cable networks. A lot of conservative bloggers and talk show hosts have been hitting McCain hard for it, but if you look at the transcript posted at The Corner, I think the Senator has a point.

Does Romney support the war? Yes. Has he been as strong as McCain? No and few have been. My question is what do you think? Is McCain lying and smearing Gov. Romney, or is he making a legitimate point?

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Karnivale Parades: Sparta and Pegasus

Carrying the traditional flambeaux.
































Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Posse - this guy had quite the Farvian sidearm when came to throwing beads.





























The chain gang marches down the neutral ground between the streetcar tracks at parade's end.

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Obromide

From one of Althouse's commenters, an astute observation:

Why do so many of Obama's supporter's statements remind me of an NPR pledge drive, where marginally talented radio personalities have to fill five hours with repetitive pablum that ends up portraying NPR programming as a kind of corrective laxative?

With a little effort, you could turn the narrative of the Obama campaign into a collection of secular carols to be sung at UNICEF non-denominational holiday events.

Well put.

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SC & Beyond

There you have it.

The question is whether the Obama appearance of strength is enough to shift trendlines in the big, moderate states of Super Duper Tuesday:

Dem February 5 Polls
TN: Clinton 34, Obama 20
AZ: Clinton 37, Obama 27
IL: Obama 51, Clinton 22
MO: Clinton 44, Obama 31
CA: Clinton 43, Obama 28

And here's a scattering of GOP numbers, which show a bit of a problem for Romney in states with big delegate prizes even if he takes Florida:

GOP February 5 Polls
IL: McCain 31, Romney 20
MO: Huckabee 27, McCain 26
MO: McCain 31, Huckabee 25
CA: McCain 29, Romney 17
AZ: McCain 40, Romney 23

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The Secret Lives of Photographs

Here, sequestered away from public view

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George and the Dragon

I commend to you two items about the overarching forces and factors that are changing your life - or will impact it soon - whether you like it or not.

















Print them out. Take them to a coffeeshop or your favorite snug seat. Grab a beverage and get familiar with:

1. An epic must-read piece for any American concerned about America's place in the world in coming years, especially with regards to the emerging Orwellian "Big Three" poles of China, E.U., and the U.S.

2. A sweeping look at the staggering - and potentially precarious - economic and financial relationship between China and the United States. James Fallows of The Atlantic hints at for whom the bell tolls:
"With a lack of tragic imagination, Americans have drifted into an arrangement that is comfortable while it lasts, and could last for a while more. But not much longer. What’s left is to prepare for what we find at the end of the path we have taken."

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Update on the Blogjacking

From Mixmaster in Malaysia, godfather of the Hobohookah, after investigations regarding the recent Indonesian blog-jacking of this blog:

Yo, that website that was swiping your stuff was actually in Malay. They were talking about poverty in the Malay part. Couldn't get much more info that that. Ultra weird.

Indeed.

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Guest Blog: South Carolina Democratic Primary Field Report

[More pics coming soon when blogger lets them upload]

Joe Luebke from Clemson, SC here once again to talk to you about what is going down in South Carolina. Let’s recap on my predictions from last week; I predicted McCain, Huckabee, Thompson, Paul, Romney and the real results were McCain, Huckabee, Thompson, Romney, Paul. Also Fred Thompson dropped out of the race as I predicted and unfortunately the Packers lost. So this week the Democrats go to the polls. There are only three candidates that are worth talking about here, sorry Kucinich and Gravel.

Hilary Clinton: She is the one democratic candidate that did not make a trip to the Clemson area. In fact I have not found many supporters of Hillary Clinton around the area. However I have heard she has a lot of support in areas like Charleston and Myrtle Beach. I really don’t know much about here candidacy in South Carolina.



John Edwards: I went and saw him here at Clemson. Just like in 2004, he is trying to play the South Carolina’s favorite son role. He was born just up the road from Clemson in the rural town of Seneca. He went on to attend Clemson for a year before going to North Carolina State. He has also had the most commercials running on TV in South Carolina.

Barack Obama: He has had the most rallies and attention in this part of South Carolina. He has had a lot of celebrates, Chris Tucker, Tatyana Ali (Ashley from the Fresh Prince of Bell Air), and Kal Penn (Kumar from 'Harold and Kumar') to name a few, come to campus to rally support. I had a chance to see Obama twice, once on campus yesterday and back in November in Spartanburg, SC. The November speech was interesting because of the way of he fed off the energy of the mainly African American crowd.

Yesterday on campus, the event was in the outdoor amphitheatre where security was very tight. All the surrounding buildings were closed and there were sharpshooters on every roof. It was by far the largest crowd out of all the events I went to and he didn’t even have Chuck Norris. As always he spoke his message of urgency and change in Washington.

As for my predictions about today’s primary they are as follows: if there is a high voter turnout especially among African American community, Obama wins in a landslide. It gets interesting between the favorite son John Edwards and Hillary for second place. So I say this: Obama, Edwards, Hillary.

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Bill Clinton as Faust

Clearly, being the first First Man in the history books is worth any short term cost to reputation, worth deploying any conceivable disingenuous tactic (ht/FH).

Clearly, John McCain is the next biggest threat to a Clinton II presidency.

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A Dose of Tulane

Gibson Hall, named for a Confederate general, shows off a little Southern Richardson Romanesque at a rare non-denominational public school turned private.



















Green Wave, ever green, since 1834.
























Richardson Memorial, the Tulane School of Architecture.



















Ye olde quadrangle.


















Live Oaks slither across St. Charles Avenue in Audubon Park.

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"Death and Taxes"

A great visual representation of where your tax dollars go.

HT/Wolf

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Wisconsin 2008 Primary: February 19 Means More

February 5, 2008 - "Super Duper Tuesday" - will not be conclusive:

"it is mathematically impossible for any candidate to lock up the nomination on Feb. 5, according to an Associated Press analysis of the states in play that day."

I'm increasingly glad I'm voting absentee.

Louisiana holds its primary on February 9. Besides Ron Paul holding an event out near the Louis Armstrong International Airport in the past week (the supporters, from the video, seemed pretty pumped and even greeted him with the local 'Who Dat?' cheer), I haven't heard of much candidate activity in the area.

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Truthfully, spend your moments elsewhere

When I saw the commercial for Fox's new game show, The Moment of Truth, I thought it would be pretty interesting to watch, even though I'm not a game show person. What's more entertaining than watching people voluntarily squirm from being asked embarrassing questions on tv for money?

Finally it was on last night and it left me disappointed. They only went through softball questions like "Is your hair real?", "Have you looked at other guys in the locker room shower?", and "Have you been through a co-worker's possessions without his knowledge?" Embarrassing, but not particularly life damaging for some random person.

I was hoping for questions about illegal activities or more touchy stuff along the lines of "Do you hate __ people?" I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that that stuff comes further along in the questioning than where they got.

The biggest blunder of all is the speed of the show. It literally takes an hour to watch the 'moment of truth'. In the first show, an hour long, they asked about 20 questions from two people. It's blatantly obvious how drawn out the show is. It's painful to watch them take at least 2 minutes to ask and answer a yes or no question. The pace combined with the huge amount of over-dramatization of the show is to the point that its condescending to the viewer. They need to work on that.

The same host used to host another game show a few years back, Russian Roulette, the draw being that contestants would stand on trap doors that open when they lose. As far as bang for the time spent watching, that show was better.

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"Rudy has fallen like the Dow Jones industrial average,"

In Florida.

DJIA - past three months.

Giuliani's trendline, under GOP, Florida.



















McCain and Romney are gaining support at the expense of Huckabee and Giuliani, if the polls are to be believed. McCain's rate of climb is higher than Romney's, but his overall trendline is significantly more volatile than Romney's steady ramping up.

McCain's resurrection from the tomb of summer and fall is incredible - and I wouldn't be surprised if the closed nature of the Florida primary may deal him another walk through the valley before independents on Super Duper Tuesday can pull him out of it again.

"In July I said a McCain recovery would be a miracle of Biblical proportions. Now I've seen, yet I still find it hard to believe." - Professor Charles Franklin, pollster

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I Still Write for the Badger Herald?

According to the byline of a piece on The Badger Herald's website (which has since been modified), I wrote a column supporting Mitt Romney.

Let me be clear: I did not write the column. I do not endorse Mitt Romney for President at this time.

I just posted a comment on the Herald boards to that effect, so we'll see if it gets approved and posted even in the wake of the revision.

Ironically, the reasons the true author uses to justify his support of Romney - namely, the prospect of massive government spending to bailout the Michigan auto industry among other things - are precisely the reasons I don't support Romney.

I don't know if the error appeared in the print version of the paper or not. At any rate, I'm amused - and slightly concerned, because a Google search for "Brad Vogel Romney" now shows this. The curse of the cache...

As a law student, I wonder vaguely what the law has to say about any damages to my reputation resulting from such an error... :)

HT/CB, Mike Fay, Google Alert, Al

UPDATE: As of 4:54 PM Central Time, The Badger Herald has yet to approve my comment on the online story (which I posted prior to noon) for some reason. Additionally, it has not approved my subsequent comment inquiring why the first comment was not approved.

My guess for a motive? This or this.

UPDATE 2: Now the Google search for the same term shows this LIB post as the top two, followed by the cache of the erroneous Herald piece. It's like a mirror reflecting in a mirror. .5wOOt!

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Winged Feet

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C-SPAN Simul-Blog

I'm watching C-SPAN2. It's a tape from a Congressional hearing earlier today.

Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag is talking with Rep. John Spratt D-South Carolina, Budget Committee Chairmen. They appear to be almost alone in the hearing room.

It is absolutely surreal.

Billions are being tossed about. Iraq and Afghanistan. Troop level scenarios.

"So it is a pretty dire forecast in that sense?" - Spratt

"Even the medium-term outlook is not good." - Orszag

"The long-term fiscal outlook is quite dismal." - Orszag

Oh - now Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, Ranking Member, jumps in.

"If we have the largest tax increase in the history of earth - the largest tax increase in the history of our country, it's not going to make a difference?" - Ryan

"...just a general program of fiscal relief would not do that." - Orszag

This is edifying; Orszag explains, in response to Ryan's queries, why increasing the amount for food stamps are a better economic shot in the arm than infrastructure.

"We spent $933 billion dollars." - Ryan

"Do you agree with Chairman Bernanke's..." - Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas

"In terms of recession insurance...something of that magnitude would be appropriate." - Orszag

"A quadrupling of the national debt in the course of a decade." - Edwards

"The publicly held debt at the end of 2007..."

"So $1.6 trillion over the course of this administration." - Edwards

Now we're talking trillions of dollars of debt. And they're all so calm about it.

"If Congress made all of those tax cuts permanent..." - Edwards

"A reduction of about $2.2 trillion..." - Orszag

"...very sobering information..." - Rep. Gresham Barrett, R- South Carolina

MORE: Orszag's blog. And the video.

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What to talk about?

One gets tired after a time.

I dashed off two substantial posts earlier today only to find fatal flaws in the premise of each one at the last moment on the very brink of publishing.

But you, though?

What brings you here this late January evening?

Here, I have one last can of Hamm's in the fridge.

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Florida Frenzy

As the Florida Primary approaches, keep an eye on this blog with a view of the Atlantic for some knowing detail and on-the-ground analysis of the unfolding situation.

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Amidst Everything, This

Heath Ledger's death, volatile markets, Democratic race war, Republican Florida flux, Russian belligerence...

...and a question that should not be pushed to the back burner, that I will shove intentionally to the front of the stove this evening:

Are We Ready for China?

It's a brilliant piece - crystallizes my concerns almost precisely in an eloquent, reasoned manner.

The article also references my former professor, a China hand at the University of Wisconsin, Ed Friedman.

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I Guess I Met James Dean

Or at least the photo (bottom row, second from left) would seem to suggest.

Besides the nose, the figure's resemblance is uncanny, as a good friend alerted me after coming across the shot. The build, the shape of the head, the hair - it's all there otherwise.

Cool.

Or is it my doppelganger?

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Coming to a Youtube Video Near You

A glistening new tool for the toolbox.

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The Lost Ark

The Smithsonian follows its own Indiana Jones questing in Ethiopia.

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Fred Thompson Done?

Mayhaps.

If so, will he endorse McCain? If so, will it do McCain any good in a GOP-only Florida primary?

UPDATE: Yep, he's done.

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All alone in the dark

What happens to people who try it voluntarily for two days.

I don't know what I'd do. I probably try to keep my mind busy but losing a sense of time would be the hardest part.

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Show Review: Peel at Circle Bar

Thanks to my friend Kristen, I made my way down to the Circle Bar for a unique show last night by the band Peel.

An indie pop rock band from Austin, Peel delivered a rousing, if overly brief, wall of sound set in the dim red shabby Gothic grandeur of the venerable Circle Bar as streetcars rumbled past the heavily-draped windows, obscuring now and then the giant white column outside topped by a statue of General Robert E. Lee. Faulkner's "A Rose for Miss Emily" might have been playing out upstairs.























Dakota Smith, the quintet's frontman, combined an uncontrollable Presley-style gyration with Cobainic mop to electrify the intimate living room space beneath the giant glowing red clock face hovering overhead. Fresh off a show in Shreveport, the band was headed back to Austin following the show.
























The venue proved as fascinating as I had hoped; dingy, but highly memorable, the half-destroyed mural above the bar, a steamboat and Southern gentlemen lighted by Chinese lanterns, old bricks emerging here and there into the smoke and bass and conversation.

"Who's your biggest influence?" I asked Dakota after. "My father," he replied. A former country musician. And indeed I had detected a thread of Texas twang infused in the music.























It was all very New Orleans, right down to the viny silhouette scrambling crazily across the ten foot window in the breezeway, the totally inappropriate, roughed up, transparent plastic chairs around the lone front table.

Outside, it was cold and dark. Almost as cold and dark as Lambeau.

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15.6% of Jesus

would vote for Ron Paul.

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WWBFD?

A classic post-911 conflict emerges between liberty and security, setting the stage for a looming states' rights showdown.

What would Benjamin Franklin do? The qualifiers on his oft-misquoted quote are key.

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McCain as Bullmoose

A column at Cato rips John McCain (again) as an old school Progressive in the mold of post-presidency Teddy Roosevelt and, war views notwithstanding, Bob LaFollette.

While I, too, have concerns with the McCain-Feingold restrictions - the author's chief beef - I wonder whether that legislation is worse from a Madisonian view than the prospect of a general increase in the size, power, and spending of the federal government that the election of Giuliani, Clinton, Huckabee, Obama, Romney, or Edwards seems to portend. While the implications of McCain's view on America's continuing presence in Iraq might negate it, his stance against excessive federal spending has been public and longstanding.

Statistically speaking, UW-Madison's Charles Franklin shows what looks like a strange nationwide Republican consensus emerging on McCain - even before his win in South Carolina. Romney is the only other GOP candidate with an upward trend.

Also: I also wonder whether James Madison would view financial participation in elections as "speech" protected under the First Amendment, the author's contention, or generally protected under traditional fundamental conceptions of representative government and campaign finance in America (tangentially, see George Washington's election to the House of Burgesses by hard cider), perhaps reserved to individual citizens by the language of the Ninth Amendment.

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Worth a Ponder

Jib raises the right questions, concerns about the intersection of blogging and history:

Bravo.

I was discussing a smaller scale venture along the same lines with the intent of archiving a bit of UW-Madison campus blogdom with HP a few weeks back:

"..it would be nice for the [campus] archives to have a snapshot of a genuine development in campus life and dialogue, especially since unlike a student newspaper that can simply be subscribed to and archived, we would probably have to actively facilitate the creation of any record. Further, as blogs die out, the potential for all record to be lost gets pretty high - the Slanty Shanty's audio is all gone already since the files were stored on UW server space and a number of the smaller short-lived campus blogs, like Schneeberg, have disappeared. (the same concern applies to campus phenomena that are largely or exclusively conducted on Facebook)"

I know CB is accruing some blog history for an independent project, but I think the greater scale anticipated in Jib's observation is right on target.

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Politicking

Slate's John Dickerson talks straight about Barack Obama's failure to do so.

Nevada, South Carolina - McCain's win in light of 2000 means something. And Ron Paul #2?

It's about the delegates? For Romney.

Florida or bust. Is Huckabee now gunning for VP under McCain? Will Fred Thompson hang around just to be the albatross around his neck?

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THE LOUISIANA CAUCUSES, PRIMARY - GOP Caucus: January 22, 2008; Primary: February 9, 2008

The lay of the land.

Ron Paul's engaged in the caucus stage.

Will Louisiana matter in the electorate's mind if Super Duper Tuesday is less than conclusive?

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Big, Easy, January

In introducing the new roommate, Phil, to the city, the shores of the Industrial Canal seemed a good place to begin.









































The banks of the Mississippi are rather industrial in places, too.





































Shooting a Nike commercial on a basketball court at night.

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Green, Gold, Cold

Are you ready for Sunday night?!

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Treating death

Turns out starving cells of oxygen isn't what kills a body when the heart stops. Rather the damage, called a reperfusion injury, is caused by the sudden reoxyidation of the body when the heart is restarted. I came across this article about it. There's a doctor who's developing new ways to treat people, with things like blood chillers and heart-lung machines instead of cpr and defibrillators, at higher success rates.

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There Was Blood

Last night. At the theater. Down on Canal Street.

There Will Be Blood. Monstrous and monumental. The viewer is wading chest deep down in a deep, dark oil hole when the film rushes at him like a wayward drill bit - uncompromising, ominous, and with deadly force. But also an eerie, tense, epic beauty.

I have not seen a movie that rocked me at my core quite like this.

The cinematography proved stunning - meeting and exceeding the hype, evoking the most powerful techniques of Kubrick and Hitchcock at times. Daniel Day-Lewis towered darkly over the film as he should have. The musical score by Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood drove blackening tension into every nook and cranny and made the movie.

Roger Ebert faulted the film for "its unbending characters, its lack of women or any reflection of ordinary society, its ending, its relentlessness." In a Lawrence of Arabia vein, I found those qualities were precisely what catapults 'There Will Be Blood' to the upper echelons of film. The lack of maudlin, commercially targeted Titanic-like romance and other stock bits gave it its power. It was barren and gritty, focused almost Rand-like on one man's daringness to rise up from the plain despite an Ellsworth Toohey (ht/OOTM) and the tragic costs that it entails, but not necessarily the failure, even in consuming madness.

The father-son relationship was presented without sentimentality and became real. The brutal interaction between reality and religion was not toned down. The landscape mirrored the harsh, flinty personas. The film brought to mind some of the starkly powerful aspects of Bad Day at Black Rock, Citizen Kane, and even Kill Bill.

Perhaps you'll find otherwise, but I was riveted. I don't find terribly many movies worth my time, money, or praise. I want one that's not shallow, one that respects me, one that has some historicity and heft to it, one that leaves me stunned, trying to make sense of it all.

Last night we missed the streetcar home. I found one. The collective, lingering silence in the seats as the credits rolled had lasted longer than we could have imagined. And that, as a friend pointed out beside me then and again as the three of us walked past the Mardis Gras bleachers in the rain, is a rare thing.

MORE:

1. Mr. Plainview hails from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, of all places. (!) So was the man who inspired the book that inspired the movie.

2. Greenwood's score also evoked Stockhausen.

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Tax rebates and the economy

I saw the president was speaking about sending out anti-recession rebate checks to taxpayers. I think it's completely stupid.

First of all, every $100 billion is 0.76% of our $13.13 billion economy. It's a drop in the bucket.

Secondly, 'infusing' quick money into an economy to be spent doesn't really pull the economy out of a recession. Economies and their wealth grow only when the total amount of capital increases. Fiat, or paper, money isn't capital.

Suddenly having more money does stimulate an economy, but it doesn't make true, good, sustainable growth; it's the inflationary kind. There's more money demanding products so producers make more and charge higher prices, appearing that the economy has bounced back, but soon it fades again and the currency has lost some value.

Our current trouble, the housing bubble, was caused by too much money. Interest rates were set too low starting in 2002 which made getting money cheap. Money was so cheap that banks loaned it out to people who didn't ordinarily have the means to afford those mortgages. Bubbles are caused by mal-investments from money being too abundant.

Back in November and December, over a few weeks the Fed threw at least $200 billion at the banks to cover their bad loans. Now we find that last year, picking up in December, had the highest amount of inflation in nearly two decades.

The government can stimulate a recession away by lowering interest rates, but low interest rates cause the dollar to be cheap, encouraging more bad loans, more inflation, and the dollar to lose value against other currencies. The main ways the government interacts with the economy are through the interest rate and its spending and taxing. They've already exhausted the interest rate option and the dollar is at historic lows. Politicians cut spending as often as hell freezes and running a big deficit is like pouring money into the economy anyway. Ironically, there's nothing they can do without causing damage somewhere else.

Now might be the second quarter of the recession already and it'd take until March to pass the bill, and then it'd be summer before people even started seeing money anyway.

Furthermore, if Washington realizes that giving money back to people in tax cuts or rebates helps the economy more than whatever the government usually does with it, then why don't they try to lower taxes more? In the CNN article it says that the $100 billion refunded to people's pockets in 2002 worked out to an increase in GDP of 1%. From here, the government takes in about $1100 billion in income tax, so if they cut that, then GDP would go up 11%!

How are we going to pay for this? Our national money tree is tied up with the war on terrorism right now; maybe the Chinese will help, after all, these dollars will probably end up there anyway. The government is going to 'give' us $x billions now, but in a few years we'll have to pay $(x + interest) billions in taxes? We're robbing future-Paul to pay now-Paul. It doesn't make sense.

As a matter of fact, if we're going to just toss around billions of dollars, instead of telling people to buy junk that'll break in a few years, why not do something productive and give it to NASA and tell them to get people on the moon or Mars using only American companies? (And you know how I hate government spending.) We could use another round of new technology as well as national engineering inspiration (not to mention a national non-military rallying point).

For a moment I thought about writing to some of our elected democratic officials to encourage them to oppose this but the democrats are on board with the gop for this. It might just be an election year stunt.

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South Carolina GOP Primary: Guest Field Report

Hello, my name is Joe Luebke, a student at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. Right now it is primary season in South Carolina with the Republicans going to the polls Saturday and the Democrats to follow next week. Here is what I have seen so far on the Republican front:

Ron Paul: He was the first candidate to come to our corner of the state (we're in the Northwest corner of South Carolina, not far from Greenville, close to Georgia), so the Ron Paul Revolution hit the area hard. To this day there are more Ron Paul signs in Oconee and Pickens counties than any other candidate; he certainly has vocal supporters.

John McCain: He was the second Republican candidate that I had a chance to see. It was the day of the YouTube debate. I was impressed because he decided to do a town hall format and answer questions from the audience. He was able to defend his position on illegal immigration stressing that we must first secure the border before we do anything else. He also claimed he would veto pork barrel spending bills. If you saw the YouTube debate, it sounded pretty much the same.












Mike Huckabee: He had by far the biggest crowd because of his celebrity guests. However, he seemed more content at his rally to play bass guitar, tell jokes, and show off former wrestler “The Nature Boy” Rick Flair, and of course Chuck Norris. In an effort to ask him a real policy question, I got a door slammed in my face. I then tired to track him down by his bus, but I was stopped by security when I was talking to him because Chuck Norris was coming through.












Fred Thompson: He was at the Family Restaurant in Seneca, SC today. He was doing an interview and open Q&A with the local news. He seemed desperate. However, he was able to defend himself as a stronger conservative than the rest in between bashing the other candidates. He admitted himself that he must win or place well in South Carolina to stay competitive, so he has been on a bus tour throughout South Carolina for the last two weeks.

Conclusion: I did not get a chance to see Romney; he has actually been campaigning in Nevada the past few days. Huckabee has pretty much just been campaigning on his charm and theology degree in South Carolina, Fred has been the strong conservative voice, and despite all of this McCain leads in the polls. In the school newspaper, The Tiger, Ron Paul has been leading among all candidate Republican or Democrat the whole way.

My predictions go like this: McCain, Huckabee, Thompson, Paul, and Romney. However this is probably not even close to what will happen, but I have two more predictions for you; this may very well be the bitter end for Thompson, sorry “Friends of Fred.” Finally I am just going to throw a Packer’s Super Bowl Victory prediction for good measure.

[Thanks, Joe!]

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The King Tips: Bobby Fischer is Dead

In Iceland at 64.

Here's the update from my former roommate live in Reykjavik:

They just said that he had been sick for awhile and died because of that. I saw him just before xmas, he did look a little skinnier then though. They say he was in hospital in october and november and at his home for the last two months.

He died at Landsspítali (it´s the Hospital).

HTs/GG, DH

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UW Seg. Fee Saga

Comes to a close?

Erik hopes so, but I doubt it.

While I believe the case was correctly decided based on the relevant caselaw cited - the UWRCF was subjected to greater than normal and, under Southworth, impermissible scrutiny - I'm still opposed to the segregated fee system as a whole if it incorporates allocable fees.

"Speech" doesn't need to be funded to create a vibrant campus forum. The university marketplace of ideas doesn't need subsidies funded by students who are trying to pay for an education to be meaningful.

Pare down, but fund basic, widely-used, pragmatic entities - normatively neutral actual services - like health services and recreational sports. Or roll these into the price of tuition.

Leave the rest - cultural, political, and religious groups - to private fundraising efforts or user/membership fees.

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It's unconstitutional

From the AP:

U.S. District Judge John Shabaz says the school's policy of turning down funding requests for activities involving prayer, worship and proselytizing is unconstitutional.

He says the policy violates students' First Amendment rights to free speech.

The whole ruling is here.

This comes from the case involving a Catholic student organization trying to get campus seg fee funding. The ruling makes sense; if you're going to give money to one religious organization, you've got to give funding to all. In ruling that the university can't refuse to give money on the basis that it's going to be used for religious ceremonies or materials, which would seem to open the floodgate for all sorts of religious groups getting money for their own ceremonies. In a roundabout way that might ultimately lead the University to stop giving seg fees to any religious organization, and I would support anything that reduces or eliminates seg fees.

The University is public and as with anything public in the U.S., religion should be kept private. A university campus is a place for the advancement of ideas, debates, and learning. Religion is in a different sphere from campus. People will follow whatever religion to the degree of their choosing and hang out and do stuff together whether or not religion based student orgs get seg fees. And I'm not anti-religion, like I said, I'd want to cut as much seg fees as possible.

Update: there's now a longer article

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New movies this year

I came across 'the 50 Biggest Movies of 2008'. What's in store? For the kiddies there's another Dr. Seuss, Harry Potter, and Chronicles. Otherwise, Will Ferrell is taking on basketball, and another round of Indiana Jones, James Bond, and X-Files are to be released. In the superhero department there's Wolverine, Hulk, and Batman. There's also Tom Cruise trying to kill Hitler and a caveman movie.

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Banning Nanoparticles. Really?

As someone who's read Michael Crichton's foreboding book "Prey" about nanotechnology run amuck, I try to keep abreast of developments in the field to see if the doomsday scenarios come to fruition.

A few days back, I ran into this article about a British effort to ban nanoparticles. I also heard about a legislative effort in Wisconsin to regulate nanoparticles. So, I thought I'd get an opinion from someone with more insight on the topic. I sought the advice of a friend and LIB reader, Toby Z, who's a bona fide scientist.

His take? The efforts to control nanoparticles - especially given the confusion over what the term means and the attempts to view nanotech through earlier political prisms - are somewhat laughable and overbroad:

I guess if they are scared of nanoparticlces, they are scared of pretty much everything. Consider that a simple carbon dioxide molecule (CO2) has a bond length of 120 picometers or 0.120 nanometers. The total length of the molecule, which due to the two double bonds (O=C=O) gives a linear three dimensional shape, has arguably a total length at its largest point of 240 pm or sub nm size. It can be assumed that the Soil Association is banning nanoparticles because of their very small size, but wouldn't they also be banning any particles that are actually smaller than nanoparticles as well? Such as CO2 or any other small molecule for that matter?

Now the most ludicrous part of this scenario is available: if the Soil Association was to ban CO2, which by their own measure they should, it would save the planet because it is the most abundant "greenhouse gas" in our atmosphere. Basically reversing the effects of Global Warming, right? Wrong!

Banning CO2 (which I am equating with removing the production of entirely) would kill everything. CO2 is the most important gas in our atmosphere; it isn't oxygen (what we need to breath) or nitrogen (the most abundant). CO2 is the carbon donor molecule for all parts of every living thing. Plants are able to fix CO2 through photosynthesis into the simple sugar glucose (after many modifications). But this breaking of the 2 CO2 molecules into 2 O2 molecules and one C2 molecule is basically how almost everything lives. (There are some extremophile bacteria that can fix methane, CH4, in places like volcanoes and thermal vents in the bottom of the ocean, but I digress). This C2 molecule is used in every single major molecule in living things: DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, sugars, et cetera.

Basically by banning nanoparticles the Soil Association is banning every single thing in existence, living and dead for all of time.

He takes some liberties, but he makes some sense. While the British effort bans man-made nanoparticles (and I suppose carbon dioxide is, technically, partially man-made), Toby's point that the efforts to control the particles may be unwittingly overbroad - almost killing flies by burning down the horse barn - is well taken. It's also alluded to in the article:

It seems that the Soil Association's reasoning would lead one to the unwanted position of banning chemistry itself, not just pesticides, because poisons can be created.

While I understand the new scale of potential danger from nanotechnology is uncertain in scope, I think knee-jerk reactions should be avoided in favor of something closer to a rational response.

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Start Learning Mandarin

You might need it in the near future.

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Bleg

Can anyone tell me what this is all about? Have we been blog-jacked? Or do we have a rabid fan following? Basically, does anyone speak Indonesian?

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Sunset Along the Mississippi

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Does the 'Young, Single Male' Need to Grow Up?

Some people think so:

Unlike bachelors past, Young Single Males no longer bother posing as sophisticates. Instead, they indulge in scatological jokes and chugging contests. Partly this is a backlash against feminism, says Ms. Hymowitz . More fundamentally, pop culture has given the seal of approval to the long-running discomfort men have felt for the responsibilities of family life. Articles in Playboy were describing marriage as an encumbrance long before modern feminism arrived.

A broad brush, perhaps.

Ms. Hymowitz's targets/detractors have an abundance of amusing points in response in the comments. For example:

In conclusion, you seem like a Puritan cut-out. While you are welcome to expect your kids to fly straight right out of high school, spare me your pious concern that everyone else “wrecks society”.

I will live my life at my own pace — and you can ice the suburban split-level with grass in front and a yard in the back. Keep your lawns off my body!

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Jena

Unplugged.

HT/CS

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Meet the neighbors

Well, kinda -- more, "go read some other blogs from PC Azerbaijan," really:

This one, in addition to being an awesome photographer, can "American dance." That's crucial here.

Jeff is kinda in hell, but he's got a stand-up blog.

Donny is my sitemate, and pretty much rocks.

Jenni also rocks (and may have to rockin'-est music collection in the country, but I can't quite say that for sure yet).

There are more here.

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Memories: The Frozen Tundra

An old roommate and friend, Tom S, passed this little tidbit along today, so I thought I'd share it and reflect in anticipation of this weekend's conference championship game against the Giants:

Crazy Joey and I took a trip today to Green Bay to help shovel the stadium for Sunday's game. We arrived at Lambeau around 8:30 am, and there were already about 200 people waiting in line. They opened the gate at 10 am, and the first 300 got shovels. We worked until noon, removing snow and ice from the bleachers and aisles as best we could with the low-grade shovels provided. At the end, we both got paid $16.00 ($12 of which I spent right away at the fan store).



















The group of shovelers seemed to be mostly locals, however there was an elderly woman behind us in line who had driven up from Milwaukee to participate. A lot of the shovelers who were around us in line expressed their plans for the money they were about to earn - beer! I've attached some pics and a video I took while there - they show the 2 groups of shovelers on both sides of the stadium, and also how we had to move the slide that we used to send the snow down to the field. This was my first trip to Lambeau...overall, a very interesting experience.














Nice work, Joey!

While I've never had the opportunity to shovel dear old Lambeau, I remember standing outside the Packer practice field once near sunset with my little blue 20" Huffy Python hoping a player would pick my bike to ride back to the showers in the stadium. This was in the Don Majkowski/Sterling Sharpe era. I remember being crestfallen when no player, much less #7, picked my bike (looking back, it was far too small!). But I felt even worse when an older kid spat on my tire in a way that told me what he thought of my ride.

Luckily, my love for the stadium was rekindled with visits using Grandma's pair of tickets (she and Grandpa were genuinely at the Ice Bowl in 1967) and later seared into my mind with a series of visits in the mid-to-late '90s when my father acquired "Milwaukee Tickets" in the front row near the corner of the endzone, mere feet from Lambeau Leap territory. It was always a good time, especially games against da Bears. Like it or not, my other set of grandparents and extended family living in the Town of Green Bay helped pay, through taxes, for the stadium renovation.














Yesterday, walking down Magazine Street here in New Orleans in a red Badgers shirt, a man on a doorstep got up and hi-fived me spontaneously saying the Packers were going to the Super Bowl. I hope he's right.



Go, Pack, go!

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Kucinich is fighting

to get in tonight's debate and he appears to be winning in the Nevada courts.

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Meanwhile, Rick James...

Well, actually not Rick James at all. But music! In America!

I got this in the ol' e-mail inbox, and thought it sounded interesting enough to post:

I’m writing to let you know that Mark Olson will be in Madison performing at Café Monmartre on February 12th.


Mark was the founding member and songwriter for the Jayhawks, pioneers of the alt-country movement. He left the band as their biggest single, “Blue” was still climbing the charts so that he could live a simpler life in Joshua Tree with his wife Victoria Williams.


Earlier this year, he released his first solo album, The Salvation Blues, to incredible acclaim. With deeply personal lyrics penned during an introspective journey on the trains and walkways of Europe, Mark has entered an entirely new phase in his musical career—and the critics agree that it’s a great one. Among others, the Village Voice calls it “Olson’s finest, most fully realized work,” and Harp pegs this “Olson’s best since his Jayhawks days.”

His website is here.

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No Swimming

Summer. Sumqayit. Didn't they read the signs?

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Socialism strikes again!

In France, an internet book retailer has to pay for provding free shipping:

"The company decided to pay the daily fine worth $1,500 rather than eliminate its offer of free shipping on book purchases, said Xavier Garambois, director of Amazon's French subsidiary.

The law in question "was passed at a time when booksellers were losing sales to supermarkets and other new competitors. It was meant to assure that the French public had equal access to a wide variety of books, both high-brow and low-brow, not just heavily marked-down publications.

"In the Amazon case, a union of French bookstores won its lawsuit against the company last month over the free-shipping offer, which applies only to deliveries within France on book orders of more than €20.

A company comes in and wants provide books at a lower cost upsetting the bookstore union. Because their prices are lower, that means their company is more efficient, saving labor and energy, in comparison to bookstores. So the bookstores via the government want to make a minimum price which means that the French have to pay more for their books, diverting money that would have gone elsewhere in their economy.

It appears justifiable since in France, which has chronic high-unemployment, the bookstores employ so many thousands of people whereas a few distribution centers employ considerably less. Also I can understand because streets of small shops in France are quaint.

A reason for the law might be that the French dislike a non-French company doing well against their own. Ironically, either the cost of the penalty and the legal fees or the loss of competitiveness of not being able to sell as low as possible keeps a small French company with Amazon's model from starting up.

More likely though, it's because France and Europe have taken the socialist way to fix things; they really don't care what's going on just as long as lots of people are always employed. By trying to keep an online distributor out, they are forcing thousands of people to manually do the work that perhaps a few hundred in a warehouse and a some additional mail carriers can do.

I don't care what other countries do, but it worries me that we're trending towards being more socialist. I can't stand to watch the democrats debate because that's all they are and increasingly the republicans seem to be drifting that way, for example the President trying to do something for the people who took out mortgages on houses they couldn't afford. Any time the government intervenes on someone's behalf, it helps one group at the slight disadvantage of everyone else.

Back to France, the extra money customers have to pay to get the same book could have gone elsewhere in the economy--people would have taken that money and bought an additional item or invested it, both of which facilitate innovation which could give rise to new products and industries, which would create new jobs, new technologies, and greater efficiency which makes products' costs decrease, raiseing the standard of living. Instead that money maintains people doing the same old job in shops.

The nice thing about socialism, if you're a socialist, is that the problems it creates can be solved with more socialism. In France the laws that 'protect' workers make them very expensive and hard to fire, making employers reluctant to hire new people causing greater unemployment. From an article about the riots in 2005:

an incredible 21.7% of 15- to 24-year-olds in France were unemployed, compared to only 11% in the U.S. and 12.6% in Britain. France isn't alone -- other European countries, such as Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy, and Finland -- also have persistent youth unemployment rates above 20%.

To alleviate unemployment, they've started to realize that they need to start repealing existing laws. The socialist safety net doesn't just protect people, it ties them down to the point of strangulation.

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"Donald Trump on acid"

The United Arab Emirates, handily profiled in its headlong rush to glory.

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The Lynchpin Slips

Uh oh.

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Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans

Making it right?

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Facebook Conundrums

1. I am receiving invitations/offers for so-called "Hotness Points" - does one accept such things?

2. If certain classmates befriended me on Facebook prior to meeting me but have yet, after six months, to introduce themselves to me in real life, do I make contact? De-friend and start over offline?

3. If a person requests friendship who is more than eight years younger than me and not a relative, do I accept?

4. I have about a dozen people from UW-Milwaukee waiting in a queue who requested friendship with me several years back during the Wisconsin State column controversy. I'm still uncertain as to why they wanted to be friends. Do I accept, reject, or leave them in limbo?

5. Recently, several friends have committed "Facebook suicide" - is such a thing advisable in today's day and age?

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Bush in the United Arab Emirates

This language -

"Iran is today the world's leading state sponsor of terror. It sends hundreds of millions of dollars to extremists around the world while its own people face repression and economic hardship at home," Bush said on Sunday.

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, so the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late."

- sounds eerily similar to Bush's rhetoric in the leadup to the present war in Iraq. The emphasized part is especially troublesome.

It's too confrontational, especially in the present context. Bush does not have the political capital internationally (nor the economic strength regionally) to create a meaningful coalition. Additionally, the U.S. alone is not in a position militarily (or politically on the domestic front) to engage in conflict with Iran.

Bush's comments -

The Islamic republic "seeks to intimidate its neighbours with missiles and bellicose rhetoric," the president said. "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere.

- are, ironically, disturbingly bellicose themselves. And his overbroad pronouncements about democracy -

In renewing his "Freedom Agenda" — Bush's grand ambition to seed democracy around the globe — the president declared: "We know from experience that democracy is the only system of government that yields lasting peace and stability."

- demonstrate not only an arrogant, rather shallow understanding of comparative government, but also a failure to know his audience and the realities of the region. And, most disconcerting, an inability to learn and apply the lessons of Iraq.

Some text of the President's remarks.

Reaction from Al-Jazeera.

Also: Did Bush take fashion hints from Ahmadinejad for his foray into the desert?

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Chilling

Or should I say, warming?

Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages.

The changes would allow utilities to adjust customers' preset temperatures when the price of electricity is soaring. Customers could override the utilities' suggested temperatures. But in emergencies, the utilities could override customers' wishes.

I guess it might help them with their energy issues, but I just can't imagine any future problems arising from being able to centrally control temperatures in people's houses. Politicians could campaign on allowing people to go a few degrees cooler in summertime. And isn't global warming a big enough emergency?

It seems people generally think that ac is wasteful, but did you know that you could actually save energy in wintertime by turning your window ac unit around and heating the room that way?

Interestingly, air conditioners, also known as heat pumps, are a lot more efficient than electric or gas furnaces. In fact only really inefficient heat pumps get down to 100% efficiency. Electric or gas heaters turn the input energy into heat but heat pumps use the energy to move heat and a small amount of input energy can move a larger amount of heat. Cost is more of a factor since heat pumps are electric whereas furnaces run on cheaper natural gas.

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LIB: Three Years Today

Seven people, thousands of miles, and just shy of 2,000 posts later, Letters in Bottles (originally Letters in Bottles: The Island Pundit) marks three years since founder Steve S made the first step into the unknown.

I don't think anyone anticipated all that would follow the inaugural post. Given the high mortality rate of blogs, it's amazing we've made it this far. We are still proud to be entirely non-profit, independent, and anything but formulaic.

Thanks for linking.

Thanks for commenting.

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Night. Carrolton. New Orleans.

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Headlines

From today's Metro section of the Times-Picayune Online:

• 2 accused of firing shots at homes, school, store
• Agencies advised to settle dispute
• Alla Gras festival to return to Algiers
• Boy, 14, says he started park fire
• Boy, 15, charged as adult in killing
• Break-in spree sends 2 to prison
• Classic car is crushed in parking lot mishap
• Council imposes mini-storage moratorium
• Council releases some city money
• Council replaces outgoing member
• Ellis Marsalis to miss MLK event
• Ex-teacher arraigned on reduced charges
• Guard to help out at Carnival
• Habitat dispute causes concern
• Homeless still here, advocates say
• Jeff 'Gras' is all about family fun
• Lakeview krewe marches today
• Man wearing woman's wig robs bank in Metairie
• Mixed use recommended at Kenner apartment site
• N.O. POLICE REPORTS
• Repairs to close one lane of Lapalco
• Rivals stake out positions on Mandeville
• Slidell woman, 27, swindled Red Cross
• State-of-the-art state of mind
• Trial nears in wave of rapes
• Two men arrested in drug lab case

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GOP Debate - Simul Check In

Thoughts? I've had the GOP South Carolina debate on in the background as I'm studying.

Ron Paul clearly has some rowdy supporters in the back of the chamber who are shouting up a storm every chance they get - including one very high-pitched young woman - and they're getting some chances as he hits a number of unique points, e.g. his economic analysis of illegal immigration.

Fred Thompson, to quote the NYT liveblog, "rocks tonight" as far as appealing to the crowd, ripping into Huckabee and coming off as competent. His numbers and finishes heading into the state haven't made him a media favorite, but his thorough knowledge of the Pakistani situation and south Asian region clearly bored the crowd with its (rather rare for the evening) substance and soundness.

McCain's joke using Paul as a foil about al-Quaeda using only one-way tickets seemed unbecoming, especially when delivered with a big grin. Otherwise calm, optimistic.

Huckabee is slip-sliding all over the place - he's such a talented politician. His defense of his record in Arkansas did indeed sound strangely like a Democratic response (education, healthcare, higher taxes). Not a moderate or populist Republican affectation. Democrat. His personality overrides.

Romney. First, he speaks too rapidly. Second, too often trite.

Giuliani. New York City.

Update: Frank Luntz's focus group says Thompson wins and Ron Paul loses - the crowd is rather monolithic in its outlook, however.

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Legal Attire? My Ascot!

A foppish fray plays out in a Milwaukee courtroom.

I must admit I'm less familiar with the neckwear than the innuendo it inspired as a staple of Representative Jim Traficant's infamous one-minute speeches.

Free trade my ascot, Mr. Speaker. This is a free ride and a free for all for China, who is gobbling up our national security secrets faster than the President can down a Big Mac and a box of fries. Think about that. Mr. Speaker, I want to yield back what secret codes, secrets, and national security we have left.

Perhaps the judge involved would relent if the litigator would deign don one of these to compensate.

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Captured

Our two faces, one looking forward, the other back:

"The Janus that is New Orleans"


HT/Minor Wisdom

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McCain & Lieberman

Holding hands, holding their collective breath.

Do I smell a VP candidate?

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What's Happening Down My Street

According to the masterful Chris Rose, a fellow University of Wisconsin graduate and a columnist with the Times-Picayune:

Every Tuesday night, the members of United for Peace in New Orleans gather on an open lot at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and South Liberty Street, a location selected as much for its proximity to the killing fields of the city as for the hallowed ideals the street names conjure.

The weekly gathering is called The Moment of Silence and it begins with exactly that -- a vigil of serenity amid the soundtrack of city life: traffic, chattering children at play, old men haranguing each other over sports and politics on the neutral ground and, of course, the ever-present backdrop of sirens.

Then, each week, Anderson selects a name from the ever-increasing roster of murder victims in the city and, as darkness falls on the street corner, he tells their stories.

South Liberty Street is a long and interesting street. It's a drive through several different worlds.

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In lieu of the sunrise

Something to wake up to...

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Another one bites the dust

Bill Richardson quits. That's a shame, he was the democratic candidate I liked the most and he had the most experience. Perhaps he'd have a good shot at their vice spot. The race is down to Hilary and Barack and I couldn't say whether one would want the other as a vp.

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Old St. Roch Market

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And the greenbacks are backing...

Call up your bookie. There've been some captivating developments on the political betting market in recent hours.

Hillary plunges back up and out of the graphical Valley of Death. Obama slides into it.

Giuliani refuses to leave the stage and actually inches up (as of 12:12 p.m.) despite a fourth place finish.

McCain (small wonder) moves into noticeably better position than either Romney or Huckabee.

And Ron Paul gets slapped by the Invisible Hand despite nearly beating Giuliani last night. Probably because of this stuff.

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The Business of Banning

Good question, good point.

Requiring a higher hurdle to enactment might achieve the same ends, but I would submit it's better to proscribe things locally in order to preserve liberty. Or at least bastions of it.

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Your Presidential Alignment

A little sliver of a quiz to find out where you stand with respect to the candidates based on their policy views.

How do your results jibe with your current preferences?

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Night. Chalmette. Louisiana.

Chalmette Battlefied, site of the Battle of New Orleans, with ships heading upriver brightly lighted in the background. It took a bit longer to get there than anticipated. Crossing the shipping canal into the Lower 9th Ward was eerie as dusk fell on the destruction, dead traffic lights, and a sickly rancid smell in the air. Brad Pitts pink tents huddled off to the north.

















The gates of Chalmette National Military Cemetery.



















Highly evolved locals.

















One the refineries along the river in Chalmette going full tilt into the night doused in halogen.


















A vast refinery along the Mississippi seen from the Algiers Ferry landing.

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Balanced on a Pin

As the exact nature of the Iranian maritime incident with U.S. naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz becomes clear, it looks increasingly worrisome.

It seems the feint maneuver may be interwoven with a desire to put the Iranian-U.S. relationship in flux in advance of President Bush's trip to the Middle East. The radio message and swarming actions in international waters certainly appear to constitute some type of signaling.

The restraint by U.S. forces during the incident - and restraint generally in any interaction with Iranian forces - is admirable and absolutely crucial. The U.S. must go to great lengths to avert a showdown or even a skuffle with Iran.

We should not stand for threats to or attacks on Americans, but we simply cannot afford the prospect of open conflict with Iran at this time.


















For more:
- Some sharp morsels on Iranian naval tactics from the Danger Room.
- TIME puts it into context

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Live New Hampshire Map

This graphic should get more interesting as the evening goes on. With a small sample in already, it looks like McCain is going to win as expected with Romney in second and a fight for third. I'm hoping Ron Paul will do well--New Hampshire is one of the most liberty-oriented places in the country--especially since Fox News excluded him from their debate on Sunday.

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Obama Round 2 - Not Yet Enraptured

Uppercut.

Jab.

Even... George Voinovich... gets in a slap.

But is Obama untouchable? McCain's love affair with the media in 2000 pales in comparison to the rolling honeymoon with the Illinois Senator. Facts and criticism don't stick. In the blogosphere, Andrew Sullivan is piling up arguments and anecdotes for why conservatives should vote for Obama, or, at least, not fear him.

Couple a "fairytale" story with an entrenched, wildly unpopular administration that makes a broad, nebulous call to change and hope viable, and you have a teflon man who is speeding forward without what I would consider sufficient skepticism, or at least equal skepticism. Obama's trajectory seems rather parallel to the rapid ascent of Woodrow Wilson - professor, great orator, little experience - especially in foreign policy, meteoric rise.

Obama is refreshingly intelligent and articulate, a big plus when contrasted with the current administration. He does sometimes argue from reason during debate when one would least expect it - when he argued for less government involvement when critiquing Clinton's healthcare plan during the final New Hampshire debate, for example.

Former President Bill Clinton is clearly risking his own legacy, stooping low to make petty attacks. I can actually understand his frustration, however. Many media outlets, I think, have been blinded by the glare of a star and sat silently as tough questions took second chair to Obama's personal story and intangible incantations before swooning crowds. Facts, by comparison, seem boring. Legitimate criticisms seem vicious and curmudgeonly.

I know too many people who embraced George W. Bush largely on the basis of his personality, his likeability and were subsequently alienated by the realities of his administration. I'm concerned the strong willingness to counterbalance and rebuke the Bush era is allowing Barack Obama to slip over a lower bar (it's lower for any Democratic candidate, really) based largely, ironically, on personality.

It's too easy to be the candidate of hope and change in the wake of George W. Bush. Give Obama a slightly higher bar, the normal bar - one that at least probes the seemingly vacuous phrases that continue to flow out like syrup, sweet to the taste of audience after audience. He might be able to meet it. There may be substance somewhere buried inside the oratory. But let's see it, let's hear it. Even if it's a little less sexy.

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Hail, Prytania!

Last night, I ran into an 86 year-old gent in the parking lot after getting groceries. He wore a colorful, lively tie. His name was Rene Brunet. It turned out he owned the famous little theater in the the neighborhood, The Prytania. Great guy, great theater

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The Battle of New Orleans

Occurred on this day in 1815.

What a colorful cast of characters:

Among the British forces were the First and Fifth West India Regiments, made up of about one thousand black soldiers from Jamaica, Barbados, and the Bahamas. Some of these units recruited and trained American slaves who escaped to British lines, attracted by the promise of freedom.

United States forces at the time of the Battle of New Orleans were much smaller--somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000. This detachment was composed of United States army troops; Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana militia; Baratarian pirates; Choctaw warriors; and free black soldiers.

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Are You "Change"?

Everyone else seems to be these days.

I would rather be changes myself.

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Tigers and Tree Nuts

The excitement for tomorrow's game is palpable here in New Orleans.

I'm looking forward to it. Any chance to beat Ohio State makes for a great game in my book.

But is it really a meaningful game?

Sorry, but there's a reason this year's BCS championship doesn't feel like a true national title game. And that's because there are too many questions about the two finalists, and too many other qualified candidates for the game.

LSU is the first two-loss team to play in a BCS title game. That's not a good thing. The Tigers are here because they hit the BCS lotto: They squeezed past Tennessee in the SEC championship, Oklahoma beat then-No. 1 Missouri in the Big 12 championship and Pittsburgh upset then-No. 2 West Virginia in Morgantown.

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Vicksburg

The Old Courthouse, Vicksburg, where General Grant reviewed his troops after Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863.

















The battlefield. Union siege positions during the battle and siege of Vicksburg.








































































The Affair of the Crater or The Vicksburg Mine























Grant's HQ
















































Admiral Farragut



















The ironclad, U.S.S. Cairo

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Want to Toss the Electoral College?

Really?

Grab a warm mug of cider and find a cozy recliner for some interesting Sunday afternoon reading - a physicist's defense of the electoral college.

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I Want a Slot on this Expedition

Sounds exciting. And I thought the Ruwenzori ice remnants were obscure.

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Walking in Memphis

Beale Street Blues
























Graceland



















Where to next?

Well... and then there's that place that starts with a V...

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The Best Post-Caucus Speech

Cape Girardeau, MO - I caught portions of many of the candidate post-caucus speeches last evening in good company. While Obama has won praise for his positivity and Huckabee for his "intimacy".

I found the Senator's speech bloated with glittering generalities (he want's addition instead of division - how about subtraction? we chimed in) and the Governor's remarks rather basic but for the alabaster grin of Chuck Norris emitting electromagnetic rays over his shoulder. Clinton did her best to be oblivious. McCain was already bashing Romney, licking his chops for New Hampshire.

Who truly impressed me? Edwards.

John Edwards' fiery, heartfelt, highly personal pitch won the prize in my opinion. The speech, drawing on stories of his own family members and hard work, actually connected with me despite my vehement disagreement with him on many issues. The strong, urgent delivery was more meaningful than any other candidate's as far as cutting through the politics and connecting, despite my defensive bulwarks, with my emotions. It struck an almost visceral survival chord, activating the same sense that hit home when I read Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth.

I doubt that tactic or that rhetoric stands a chance in New Hampshire. But it certainly left me impressed for a few minutes during an overdose of otherwise typical coverage.

Then again, I didn't get to hear Ron Paul's speech to compare. And if yard signs posted illegally along interstate overpasses along I-55 here in Missouri were any indicator, he'd be leading the pack.

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Death of the Billable Hour?

This prospect might extend my life (perhaps by making it easier to carry my wallet).

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How Go the Hawkeye Cauci?

Check it out.

There are more precincts to report before the rest of the slots get settled, but I called the winners of the two races at the very least.

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Iowanian Prognostications

Here's my call:

Democrats
1. Obama
2. Edwards
3. Clinton
4. Richardson
5. Kucinich

Republicans
1. Huckabee
2. Romney
3. Fred Thompson
4. Paul/Giuliani/McCain
5. Duncan Hunter

If nothing else, I believe Edwards will perform beyond expectations given what I encountered on the ground in Iowa and his past performance in the state. More than Clinton or Obama, I feel he found some way to make himself seem at least a tinge "rural" to connect with a great number of Iowans.

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Fieldstone

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Manufacturing in Kiel

H.G. Weber, the company that "makes the machines that makes the bags" gets new ownership.

Looking at Kiel's manufacturing sector, the city seems to be in a far stronger position than some of its neighbors. For a small town, it has remarkably diverse manufacturing employers - unlike New Holstein which is largely dependent upon the long-ailing Tecumseh plant. With the addition of 100 jobs as Polarware moves all operations to the old Stoelting plant, Kiel now boasts of additional major employers including a furniture company, cheese plant, metal fabrication plant, snack food processing plant, and an agricultural implement factory.

The city would do well to look toward tech-based employers if it wants to continue to thrive.

Coupled with a sizable increase in residential units and a rock-bottom tax rate ("historically one of the most frugal cities in the state"), Kiel seems poised to weather any economic weather.

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Resolved

This blog will be better before 2008 concludes. It will have rock-hard abs. It will be eloquent. It will abstain from sweets. It will commit random acts of kindness. It will raise the bar. It will lead with grace under fire. It will shake hands with a surer grip.

In other news, a fellow Kielite, Sheepshead player, and ice carver launched a blog based here in the little city that does big things (where last I checked it was 4 degrees F, feels like -14).

My car, after traveling over a thousand miles sans a rear driver's side window was made whole again, thanks to the talents and generosity of my uncle Ken.























It was a good thing. Chicago, where I rang in the New Year with an old friend (who brews a great porter, I discovered) and some new ones, required a long drive through the inclemency.

The refreshingly simple things stand as good omens.

Cheers.

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