HamCo Republican Party Chair Alex Triantafilou has decided to blog about Joe Biden's purported tendency towards gaffes. The former judge is upset that Biden told a Delaware crowd that the Delaware Blue Hens (a div I-AA team) would beat the Buckeyes. Of course, the two don't even play against each other.
I had a lot of respect for Triantafilou when he was a judge. He's a really intelligent man, and he was a really good judge, in my opinion. But you'd think the local GOP chairman wouldn't be too interested in calling attention to a candidate's less-than-perfect oratory this week.
You see, John McCain announced earlier this week that he wouldn't meet with the president of long-time NATO ally Spain if he's elected. The most reasonable explanation for this is that McCain was confused about the nation to which that president, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, belongs: the question came after a discussion of a series of Latin American leaders who an American president probably wouldn't be willing to meet. But rather than admit this, McCain's campaign is insisting the septuagenerian senator meant what he said, even though this past April, McCain said he'd welcome such a meeting.
So who would I rather have leading the country: someone who pandered (admittedly) to his home state by asserting that its university's second-rate football team could take on one of the best in the nation, or a senator who's "bumblin'" may hurt American foreign policy and alienate our Western allies? You be the judge.
Finally, since Triantafilou raises it, let's deal with the Biden plagiarism myths. In 1987, when Biden was running for president, during a debate he borrowed extensively from a speech initially given by British politician Neil Kinnock. Sounds damning, right? On its own, sure. But not so much when you consider that Biden had repeatedly paraphrased Kinnock as he did during that debate, and on each previous occasion, he attributed it. During the more abbreviated format, he forgot to. There was no intent to mislead anyone into thinking the idea was his own: he'd told people on numerous occasions that it had originated elsewhere. And as for the allegations about what occurred during law school: he was fully investigated by his law school at the time, and a determination was made that he was guilty only of sloppy citation (lawyers are a stickler for citation), not intentional plagiarism. He'd pointed out the work (a law journal article) his ideas had come from, but had not sufficiently footnoted his assignment.
Joe Biden certainly is not a perfect candidate for national office. If I were a GOP leader trying to throw red meat to the base, I'd be talking about Biden's ties to the banking industry, given that this week all hell has broken loose on Wall Street (of course, then the Dems might start talking about McCain's role in the Keating Five . . .). The petty attack on the Blue Hens remark is, quite frankly, beneath our local GOP chair, and not what the voters of this or any other county will be focusing on in November.
Friday, September 19, 2008
1929 Redux --- Free Market Capitalism's Last Gasp
Since I have been without power since the freak wind storm on Sunday, it has felt a lot like what 1929 must have felt like on a lot of fronts. Let's see, where once there stood five major historic finance houses, now there are two. The government has nationalized the giant home mortgage loan companies and now has a majority equity stake in the largest insurance company in the world. Individual shareholders and employees at these companies who have seen their savings and their retirements and their lives wiped out in an instant have been told by the "inventor" of that great Canadian device, the blackberry, that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." (The inventor of the blackberry realized after conferring with his staff that no stupider statement could possibly have been made and tried again a few hours later.) The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen almost 1000 points taking with it thousands of dollars that you and I have put away for retirement --- although likely the market will rally today with news of this societal bailout. Credit card companies overnight began slashing all of our credit lines, after decades of encouraging our profligacy --- they don't seem to understand that it is my right as an American to have stuff I can't afford, because it is not fair for people with money to live better than me.
No, the fundamentals of this economy are not strong. It is hard to know even where to begin the discussion of the events that have occurred over the last week that have led to the remarkable interference in the markets announced by Treasury Secretary Paulson and the SEC this morning.
First, the SEC and its UK equivalent announce that they will prohibit, at least temporarily, the short selling of financial company stocks, which means that no longer will these free marketers allow you to bet that the price of the stock will fall. Now you can only bet that it will go up --- hardly an unfettered market.
Treasury also will create a $50 billion fund to protect investments in some segments of the mutual fund market --- the market where most of us have our retirement money after the government's idiotic decision to drive retirement dollars to the speculative markets as a way of giving us all freedom --- freedom to be poor in old age (How much is in your 401K and how many years salary does it represent? Enough if you live to 80? Or are you counting on that "conservative" 8% annual growth?)
Next, the Congress and Treasury will work together to essentially create a "bank" to buy up and hold over a trillion dollars in bad toxic mortgage debts that financial institutions have created by putting individuals in houses and loan instruments that they could not possibly afford and then selling those loans off --- all the while knowing they were crap and that the whole system was built upon the false assumption that housing values would never fall.
So to all you free marketers out there benefiting from your government subsidized education with your money held in government protected accounts and living in your house mortgaged by a government protected entity, here's a toast to the week that the myth of free market capitalism crashed and burned. Unfortunately no one will be held responsible and we will be paying for this devastation for years.
So maybe this election will be about more than lipstick and pigs and whether McCain knows where Spain is and whether he invented the blackberry and whether Obama is a celebrity who chose hoops over troops, and whether Palin is a celebrity who had her brother in law fired because he was a cad or whether she can actually see Russia from Alaska and thus is a foreign policy expert on the Bush Doctrine --- maybe this election is about us and our children and our country and our future and what kind of country we will be and whether we will continue to be a country that tortures and one that honors its values.
Hope springs eternal, but today feels like 1929.
No, the fundamentals of this economy are not strong. It is hard to know even where to begin the discussion of the events that have occurred over the last week that have led to the remarkable interference in the markets announced by Treasury Secretary Paulson and the SEC this morning.
First, the SEC and its UK equivalent announce that they will prohibit, at least temporarily, the short selling of financial company stocks, which means that no longer will these free marketers allow you to bet that the price of the stock will fall. Now you can only bet that it will go up --- hardly an unfettered market.
Treasury also will create a $50 billion fund to protect investments in some segments of the mutual fund market --- the market where most of us have our retirement money after the government's idiotic decision to drive retirement dollars to the speculative markets as a way of giving us all freedom --- freedom to be poor in old age (How much is in your 401K and how many years salary does it represent? Enough if you live to 80? Or are you counting on that "conservative" 8% annual growth?)
Next, the Congress and Treasury will work together to essentially create a "bank" to buy up and hold over a trillion dollars in bad toxic mortgage debts that financial institutions have created by putting individuals in houses and loan instruments that they could not possibly afford and then selling those loans off --- all the while knowing they were crap and that the whole system was built upon the false assumption that housing values would never fall.
So to all you free marketers out there benefiting from your government subsidized education with your money held in government protected accounts and living in your house mortgaged by a government protected entity, here's a toast to the week that the myth of free market capitalism crashed and burned. Unfortunately no one will be held responsible and we will be paying for this devastation for years.
So maybe this election will be about more than lipstick and pigs and whether McCain knows where Spain is and whether he invented the blackberry and whether Obama is a celebrity who chose hoops over troops, and whether Palin is a celebrity who had her brother in law fired because he was a cad or whether she can actually see Russia from Alaska and thus is a foreign policy expert on the Bush Doctrine --- maybe this election is about us and our children and our country and our future and what kind of country we will be and whether we will continue to be a country that tortures and one that honors its values.
Hope springs eternal, but today feels like 1929.
Map Out Oktoberfest
If you don't know where to go during Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, you'd best check out the map. Please be warned that during the peak hours, 4PM to 11PM Saturday and 3PM to 7PM Sunday (After the Bengals Game) you are going to have to fight the dreaded slow walking crowds. With that in mind, use the map to enter the 5th Street area near where you want to be. Get a beer and a brat, then just start the stroll.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Update to Ike Damage
A reader has an update on the damage from the falling street light Donald wrote about Monday. Here's the photo update:
BuyCincy Drinks Deep into Oktoberfest Zinzinnati
The Gents at BuyCincy have a nice article on Oktoberfest Zinzinnati.
Media Coverage of the Storm
While I didn't lose power, I still had no Cable or Internet at my house, therefore radio has been (and continues to be) my lifeline to the world. John Kiesewetter's piece on local news coverage during the wind storm illistrates how little news coverage we have. The public is oblivious to most of the world, but when they have a tree fall in their yard, they finally can take notice that no one is paying attention anymore. Hell, our entire storm here affected everyone in the tristate area and it barely got noticed in the national press. So, who is left to report on things locally? If you are saying not many, then you are correct. This is of course not unique to Cincinnati, but the storm here and our abundance of apathetic hyper consumerists show the cost of losing so many local news reporters. We have been abandoned by the corporate media. They don't see the profit in providing for the public good, instead they prefer to keep the Reds games on.
We have brought most of this upon ourselves. We want everything to be cheap, Wal-Mart cheap. With that kind of cheap, comes low quality and syndication. That is what most of the Cincinnati media landscape has become. We are left to rely on technology, which when the power goes out, doesn't amount to much. It would behoove us to start consuming media with a local focus. If you want more news coverage on WVXU, then give them money and they will provide it!
We have brought most of this upon ourselves. We want everything to be cheap, Wal-Mart cheap. With that kind of cheap, comes low quality and syndication. That is what most of the Cincinnati media landscape has become. We are left to rely on technology, which when the power goes out, doesn't amount to much. It would behoove us to start consuming media with a local focus. If you want more news coverage on WVXU, then give them money and they will provide it!
HYPE Haus Party - Oktoberfest Zinzinnati
Something a little different this year at Oktoberfest is the HYPE Haus Party. I am a little torn on this. I see Oktoberfest as more of a fest where you get out and mingle with the masses of people. If you are going to get drunk and dance a few polkas with an unsuspecting Suburban former fratboy, then you really should be out in the middle of 5th Street. If you are scared of crowds, then you might be more comfortable in this special area on Fountain Square. Tickets are limited.
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