Archive for October, 2007
Democratic Debate Summary
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Clinton Clinton Clinton blah blah blah Clinton Clinton Clinton blah blah blah blah Clinton blah Clinton blah Clinton Clinton Clinton blah blah blah blah blah Clinton Clinton Clinton blah Clinton blah Clinton blah Giuliani! blah blah blah Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah …
…for two hours, with a little bit of “corporate America is evil” and “we’ll give you free money” mixed in. That sums it up nicely.
If I had to choose between these characters, honestly it’d be Hillary. Looking at the future state of things going into 2009, Clinton really is the only Democrat candidate who appears to have the ability to deal with the situation rationally without tearing the economy apart at the seams. I also think she’ll help the Republicans keep a strong minority in the Senate, so we can enjoy four more years of fun filled partisanship.
One thing is for sure, if she does win, she’s not going to have a massive internet boom pumping up the economy as her back wind. She’ll most likely also inherit an economic recession that at this point is looking pretty bad. I have to wonder how that will affect her policy as it relates to spending and taxation. I wouldn’t trust any of the other Democratic candidates, who all have the same or more extreme goals in mind in the same situation.
Update – whoa, “The Rangel Plan” question throws all the candidates for a loop. Any time somebody talks about taxing the upper middle class, things get s t i c k y for Democrats. Hillary offers a definitive no, I won’t support it. The rest twist and turn in the wind.
Update – Oop, Hit points to the anti-Clinton crowd on stage, they’re nailing her on her non-answers to straight questions. Dodd really nailed her on drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.
Best moment of the night – Kucinich answers the ultimate question, “Have you in fact seen a U.F.O.?” Kucinich – “Yes.” Woohoo! The Democratic party in a nut shell. 
Freecom MusicPal
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Nice looking UPNP stand alone clock radio / alarm clock. The MusicPal supports UPNP streaming, built-in speakers, RSS feed display support for the UI (Cool, but how useful would this be really?), web based advanced configuration, and built-in wireless. The MusicPal also supports use of a streamed playlist for the alarm, which I’ve found to be one of the coolest features of my Roku Radio. The device also comes with a free download service allowing you to download internet radio station lists, with support for around 5000 radio stations. The price of the MusicPal beats that of the Roku Radio at about $190.00, although based on the size of this device I wonder in a head-to-head match up which would have better sound quality.
The Libertarians Were Right
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
A sharply divided, partisan federal government gets very little done.
Democrats are under tremendous pressure from liberal activists to take a hard-line approach against everything Bush. Republicans face similar pressure from their own base to stick with the president and prove they are serious about curtailing spending, even if it means less cash for a popular state-run health care program for children not covered by Medicaid.
Bush has only inflamed those tensions. He has threatened to veto Democratic legislation 46 times this year, according to data compiled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). House Democrats have circulated a tally that puts the number at 35.
Whatever the number, the White House has been predictably confrontational — and so have Democrats.
The irony of the feud is that huge chunks of both parties are actually not far apart on the details of these big bills.
Staggering State Tax Losses Coming
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
Both Florida and California have the highest risk.
Florida:
outstanding sub primes loans: 708,195
estimated foreclosures: 157,341
estimated loss of property value: 12 billion
estimated total loss of tax revenue: 90 million
California:
outstanding sub primes loans: 1,030,920
estiumated foreclosures: 191,144
estimated loss of property value: 23 billion
estimated total loss of tax revenue: 100 million
The Subprime Lending Crisis: The Economic Impact on Wealth, Property Values and Tax Revenues – A Senate report on our sub prime woes. Lots of good graphs and data.
Baseball
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
It always chokes me up when they sing the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the game. One of the things I really like about this game is it’s tradition. That’s something the football and basketball simply don’t have.
Coors field is looking really sweet. Fox had a nice shot of the mountains from there at the beginning of the broadcast (I’m sure we’ll see more) which made me miss my old home town in Denver. When I was a kid I always maintained I’d never return there, the placed caused me much hardship. (Actually most of my hardship was my own fault, not the fault of Colorado.) But these days it’s softening on me as I get older and I kind of miss the beauty of the place.
Anyway, good luck to the Rockies, lets see if they can turn this thing around for two games and make this series really fun to watch.
My Hosting Provider Delivers
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
EZ Web Hosting (funny name, great provider) is upping the bandwidth on their accounts next month apparently, and they gave me an early preview by bouncing me up to 100GB/month today. No more outages for a while. Some of the new fangled Silicon Valley / web 2.0 providers get a lot of attention, (EZ is actually in North Carolina) but I’ve been with these guys since 2001 and I have to say they have always impressed me. Response times on support requests are super quick (sometimes less than a few minutes), up time is almost perfect, all the services offered are great and install with a few clicks of the mouse, the stats package they run is good, and the pricing is on par with most other providers. Highly recommended if you’re ever looking for a plug-and-play web site plus a blog provider.
Green Cars
Friday, October 26th, 2007
I’ve been kicking around the idea of going hybrid on my next lease (I have to give up my BMW Z4 next spring) but I’ve been put off by the fact that hybrid and electrics lack style. Why must green always be wrapped in ugly?
Going Offline
Friday, October 26th, 2007
In about a day or so. My provider refuses to give me a good deal on my base account plus a bit more bandwidth without upgrading to something much more expensive. Does anybody know of a good hosting provider that sports web site hosting plus WordPress 2.0? I’m looking for a service that provides 100GB+ of bandwidth for less than $20/month with “plug and play” services and in-house consulting to help get things set up.
Baseball Fans
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Baseball fans must have nerves of steel. In football and hockey, things are always very pliable. In baseball however fans spend a lot of time sitting on the edge of the seat. I’m not entirely sure I can take this game.
side note – What’s up with that weird pattern in the grass in the middle of Fenway’s infield?
Great Economics Blog
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Written by “a senior executive, retired from a public company, with a background in investing, finance and economics.”
