Not a fan of Mad Men myself, but I know a lot of you are. Rubicon is much more to my liking. I think the “tie scene” just a few moments ago was just great.
Archives for August 2010
Not Bloody Likely . . .
This is funny:
Argentina legend Diego Maradona has informed Aston Villa he would be willing to take over the Villa Park hotseat.
Ignoring the fact that he isn’t exactly beloved in England, Maradona coaching in the English Premier League? The heads of the English Football Association are probably praying for deliverance from him as I write this while Murdoch’s Sky Television would probably love to explore the possibilities of turning his tenure into a reality series.
It won’t happen.
Just Start Drinking Heavily
Didn’t need to read this:
Although not unexpected, the news flow is about to take a more negative tone starting with the existing home sales report on August 23rd. We’ve been discussing this for some time … and I’d like to highlight just a few pieces of forthcoming data:
# The existing home sales report will show that sales collapsed in July (this is showing up in all the regional reports).
# The existing home months-of-supply will jump to double digits.
# House prices are probably falling again, although this might not show up in the repeat sales indexes until September or October (this data is released with a lag).
# On August 27th, the second estimate of Q2 GDP will be released. This will probably show a significant downward revision from the preliminary estimate of 2.4% annualized growth. The downward revision is due to lower construction spending than the BEA initially estimated, less contribution from inventory adjustments, and the June surge in exports.
# The unemployment rate will probably start ticking up again soon (or the participation rate will fall further).
But what about the deficit and inflation?
Open Thread
You wanted a picture, here you go. See if you can find something relaxing in the clean sheets and unfolded socks before I even had a chance to make the bed:
Those sheets were on the bed for no more than three minutes. I threw them there, then the phone rang and I went to answer it, and someone had decided it was the perfect place for a nap.
Guns Don’t Kill, Pubes Do?
Via Jezebel, Lisa Russ has a modest proposal regarding sex education in our schools:
… Despite the fact that Texas ranks third in the rate of teen pregnancies and that its students are more sexually active and that they have more sex partners than the average U.S. student, sex ed here is nearly exclusively devoted to abstinence education, often with a religious bent. Information about contraception, disease prevention and STD testing is most often scarce or, worse, wildly inaccurate.
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Like Texas, many of the same states that resist comprehensive sex ed are the same places that pride themselves on loose laws for gun ownership. Gun-rights advocates maintain that straight-forward education, not regulation and licensing, is the best way to keep kids safe.The National Rifle Association leads the way: they have a cool program called Eddie Eagle… According to the NRA, it doesn’t aim to teach kids that guns are either “good or bad”, but rather how to stay safe when you see one. “Like swimming pools, electrical outlets, matchbooks and household poison, they’re treated simply as a fact of everyday life. With firearms found in about half of all American households, it’s a stance that makes sense.”
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I don’t have a gun in the house, but I can agree with that line of thinking. Like it or not, guns are around, so kids at an early age should learn how to be safe around them.
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Now, genitals, at my last count, are in 100% of households. Why not use the same common sense approach that knowledge is power, and give our kids straight forward, age appropriate information? That is exactly why a new toolkit launched by EMERJ called The New Sex Ed is so important. The New Sex Ed is full of useful community-created and tested strategies to help parents and educators implement useful and effective sex ed programs that are based in real people’s experiences. Given the fight the Right has picked against teaching science, health, and touchy subjects like evolution and global warming, advocates for the truth need great resources like these to support parents, communities and school boards in making informed choices about educating their kids.
Read the whole article for more snark, the second-best weapon (after good information) against ignorance and stupidity .
Probably Should Have Paid the Bill
Ok. You can stop tweeting me, emailing me, and sending me messages on facebook.
Sorry about the scare, but I forgot to pay the bill for the account because I usually pay with paypal, and the liberal fascists at paypal have had me locked out of my account for two months. I guess I will finally have to break down and send them all the damned personal information they now want but were fine not having for the previous ten years.
Back to your usual complaining about margins and ads.
Democrats Always Have a “Massive Political Machine”
Democratic Senate candidate Lee Fisher faces a daunting 9-to-1 disadvantage in fundraising in his campaign against Republican Rob Portman in Ohio and has endured unexpected staff turnover, developments that have spread concern among national party leaders about his ability to remain competitive in the race. Fisher, the state’s lieutenant governor, recently hired his third campaign manager while his campaign spokesman and researcher quit.
The Democratic Party’s massive political machine in Ohio could help Fisher with $3 million raised during the last 40 days to help statewide candidates. Organized labor has long played a role in the state and has opened political offices in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. And Obama’s political arm, Organizing for America, never truly shut down after the 2008 race and continues to communicate with supporters who helped Obama carry the state with 52 percent of the vote. The state party, the largest in the nation, has more than 206 paid staffers working for Democrats. The Ohio Democratic Party has taken over the statewide voter turnout and political aspects of the campaigns, including Gov. Ted Strickland’s bid for re-election and Fisher’s Senate run.
It’s early for individual races, but I had an organizing meeting at my house last night, so I’ll translate this into how the “massive political machine” looks from the ground, right now.
I’m in a “red” Ohio county. We have about 15 local Democrats who are members of the State Party and reliably volunteer at this point in any cycle. I call those 15 people, and we meet at my house. We invite the paid organizer and he or she tells us the Master Plan, and then we tell him or her how we plan to customize it to our county.
This year the Ohio Democratic Party is running a “coordinated campaign”. That means all of the grass roots planning and work for every statewide candidate will run through the state Party. Lee Fisher will be the main beneficiary of this approach, because he seems to have some campaign issues.
Last night, 11 of the 15 showed up, but we lost two from 2008 (one moved to Texas and the other got a paid position with Sherrod Brown). That’s a good turnout.
The 11 state Party members will then contact the people they’ve personally worked with in the past, and essentially form “teams”, and that’s where we start.
Some points of comparison: In 2006, the Ohio Democratic Party had 33 paid organizers in the state. In 2008, the Obama campaign had 300+ paid organizers. In 2010, the Ohio Democratic Party has 105 paid organizers.
In 2006, we had 25 active county volunteers. In 2008, we had 58 (that was an all-time high for us) and in 2010, we anticipate we’ll have 40, plus or minus.
I “poll” the local volunteers occasionally, and they put up with it because they’re very kind and patient people. I’m always surprised at the result, and last night was no exception. The single thing they are most pleased about re: Obama is that he is getting us out of Iraq on schedule. All eleven mentioned the Iraq draw-down. I was surprised by that, as it got virtually no media attention, and Democrats here run hawkish. Health care was next, with nine.
There is an OFA effort running alongside the Ohio Democratic Party effort, and that’s where the House races come in.
Democrats Always Have a “Massive Political Machine”Post + Comments (28)