kirktastic

Do I know my way to San Jose? Yes, I was in California for a few days earlier in the week for a business conference thingy. Instead of having to stay at a chain hotel near my company’s offices out there, I got to stay on Santana Row this time. Which was nice since being within walking distance of something to do was nice. Starbucks coffee and Wahoos too. Nice people watching. I do indeed wish they all could be California girls.

It meant I had to fly in American fucking Airlines. So the plane was 90 minutes late leaving Austin. Not due to poor weather anywhere in the US, but just because American Airlines sucks and there was something wrong with the 27 year old plane they chose for this route. Beer was $6 in coach! You can get a 12-pack of of Old Style for that! The flight back left on time, but when we landed in Austin and I turned on the my phone I got a tweet from the newspaper that the power was out in the terminal. This explained the longer than normal time rolling around on the ground. We were parked out in the middle of BFE when the captain came on to tell us that the power was indeed out at the airport terminal and we had to wait for them to restore it and open the airport. I went online to learn that part of the fuckup was when the power went off and it set the fire alarms off. So of course, the TSA freaked out and emptied the terminal even though there are backup generators. We ended up waiting about an hour. Since there is a noise ordinance there are no departures that late, but the last few planes that come in (including mine) are met with a skeleton crew of ground staff. So when all of the planes that had landed in the past hour or so all got the OK to come into the terminal, the place was packed. In the baggage claim it was a zoo with all the people that had come to meet the incoming planes and only about 2 guys in the back to unload the planes and put them on the baggage carousel. I think if I had checked a bag, I would still be there waiting for it. The van to the parking lot was full and it has valet and all these special services so I jumped off when we got there instead of waiting for them to get to my car. The time I saved doing that was sucked up when I get to the cashier. One dude that seemed to be a complete moron working the gate. God I was pissed. I mean it is nice they hire special needs people there, but fuck I just want to be home. Turns out a snake caused something to fuck up at a substation near the airport. Damn snakes.

Speaking of snakes… the drama that is the John McCain campaign continues. I’ve spent way too much time hitting reload on websites since this all came to pass. Sarah Palin’s interviews with Katie Couric were telling. She got all her talking points messed up and came across as a babbling idiot that didn’t even manage to really actually answer Katie’s questions. And this person is who John McCain thinks is ready to lead the country on day one if something happens to him? There are tons of conservatives calling on her to bow out of the election. Last week they were blaming the “liberal” media for “attacking” her, now they see that even if handed softball questions, she can’t answer. Palin is way out of her league.

When he “suspended” his campaign and asked to delay the debates until the economic crisis was over on Wednesday I was stunned. What does that mean? It turned out he didn’t stop campaigning or running ads. He ended up pissing off David Letterman who showed him instead of rushing to the airport to get to DC, he was in makeup prepping for an interview with Katie Couric. Dave’s rant was great. Obama’s response to the suspension was great. A president should be able to handle more than one situation at once. With the “suspension” stunt McCain lost a lot of cred with the conservative media. It was a stunt. Just like Palin.

It then turns out that part of the last-minute revolt by House republicans was so that McCain could inject himself into the process (even though he’s not on any of the relevant committees and he himself admits doesn’t know shit about economics). The meeting at the White House was telling: Obama showed up with his Senate aide since this was a legislative matter; McCain showed up with his campaign aide since he was there for politics.

McCain ended up “blinking” which according to his running mate is not something the president should ever do and showed up at the debate. I really think McCain would think that Obama would roll over and agree to delay the debate. It shows that McCain’s people have no idea what Obama is all about. Had McCain not shown up at the debate, it was to be a town hall meeting that the networks had already blocked time for. Of course that crazy old bastard had to show up.

I started to watch the debate but after a while I just got angry. McCain was there bullshitting and using his trademarked platitudes and not really debating anything. Obama was measured and thoughtful, but I wanted him to be more on the offensive. On the “Montana Bear DNA” line he could have jabbed back with “but you’re OK with the Seal DNA earmarks your running mate asked for?”. He could have hit back of how expensive the fucking war is. He could have been better about the fact that if McCain’s health care plan passes, we have to pay taxes on our health care (not just the part you pay, but the part your employer pays… it comes to thousands more a year. For rich people it is a small part of their income and offset by other tax cuts, for the rest of us, it means we have to pay more in taxes).

I’m sure Obama was not going on the attack so as not to appear to some as an “uppity negro” beating up the old man. The fact is most of the racist wouldn’t going to vote for him anyway. But McCain needs to be beaten up. His answers were only about 10% more lucid and 0% more meaningful as what Palin said about the economy.

What bothers me is no matter how many stunts McCain/Palin pull, the race will be too close to call. Which means it will be too easy to steal. The single issue voters will stick with Palin. The racists will never vote for a black guy. The warmongers will vote for McCain since it means more war. And there are still many weeks for McCain to be all mavericky and pull more surprises out. One thing is certain, he will do anything to be president. Risk the nation by picking someone incompetent for the job as VP. Ask for a time out. Anything. McCain is dangerous. I don’t believe a word coming out of his mouth. I didn’t think it would be possible that anyone could be worse than Bush. But I didn’t have the imagination to dream up Johnny McCain and Sarah Palin.

I can’t help but be a little nervous about the Bush Plan For Saving the Economy. If this is anything like the War on Terror or response to Katrina, we are all fucked. We (as a country, as taxpayers) are going to take our $700 billion in new debt. To buy up bad debt from Wall Street. The “losses” are not really lost. Many people got billions of dollars making these bad loans and setting up financing schemes that they themselves did not understand. The premise all along was that housing prices would always go up. It cannot go down. Then when housing prices did go down (fortunately, I live in an area where prices are still going up, like my friends in the PNW) the cards came falling down.

The fact our economy is based on mortgages on people’s homes and to a lesser extent on stuff we manufacture should give people pause. We’ve mortgaged our economy and as long as times are good, no problem we can just borrow more because our collateral is worth more! This isn’t a way to run your household budget and it isn’t a way to run the largest economy in the world.

The fact this deal is being rushed through in a matter of days and there’s no deliberate thought put into this scares me. Naomi Klein’s incredibly awesome The Shock Doctrine. Here thesis is: You need a disaster to push through unpopular policies. She gives several examples in the book and she thinks one is playing out right now in front of our eyes. If you haven’t read her book, you need to read it right now.

The government is throwing good money after bad to bail out an industry that abhors regulation because it stifles free market capitalism. What a load of bullshit. In a truly free market there would be no bail outs. If a business fucked up it would fail. Because there is the Fed and there is the promise of bailouts, these douchebags can continue to make money without risk. The government will bail them out. If you don’t pay your mortgage the bank will take your house away. But if you have billions in mortgages don’t worry, Uncle Sam will take it off your hands. Eventually you and I will be paying for it in the form of taxes and a weaker dollar.

Just as when a consumer takes on more debt, they run the risk of having their credit rating fall as their debt to income ratio gets out of whack, the United States runs the same risk. This $700B plan dilutes the dollar. If the people on the planet that have the money and buy US treasuries stop, then we’ll have to pay higher interest in them. If the value of the dollar falls, other countries may tend not to base their multinational deals on the US Dollar. If OPEC did that with oil we are fucked. If other countries decide to keep more of their reserves in euro rather than USD, we’re fucked.

I had an economics professor on the first day of class tell everyone to take out a dollar bill. It didn’t matter the denomination. It says “In God We Trust” which is odd for a supposedly secular country. At one time, the US Dollar was actually tied to gold and silver. The dollar used to say that you could get a dollar’s worth of silver or gold upon demand. Well, now the dollar is based on trust from God. Or for the secularists and heathens, the idea that the dollar is worth something. As long as everyone believes the dollar is valuable, it is valuable. When people stop believing the dollar is worth something, it will be worthless. Can’t happen? Right, go back to that show about the people trying to fit through giant styrofoam blocks.

Although cats can’t vote, they do have a lot of influence on politics in the US. Kitties like having a cat in the White House and use a lot of “soft money” donations to make that happen. After Bush sent his cat off to live in Crawford full time, this country went to hell. Since McCain is steadfastly against the cat agenda, kitties worldwide are lining up behind Obama.

He doesn’t have a cat, but his daughters have wanted a pet for a long time and so it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see claw marks on the desk in the Oval Office come January.

Ike. Thank you all for the cards, letters telegrams and electronic mail inquiring how the cats and I braved the storm. Well, Ike landed east of Austin and tore up Galveston and Houston instead. I don’t even think it rained a drop here and no strong winds. Nada. Yesterday was overcast. Today there’s nothing but blue skies. If the breezes stay it might not feel so goddamn hot.

Oh, Sarah. I’m still in that stunned phase that Palin was selected by old man McCain. It really shows his maverickness. Sort of like the maverickness of lying his ass off and not giving a shit if he’s called out on it. Palin was for the bridge to nowhere. She personally lobbied for earmarks. She knows nothing about foreign policy and that visit to Iraq never happened. Nice little wrap up from Mr. Olbermann on her first interview last week. And John McCain got hard questions from the ladies at The View?

The New York Times today has a great article on Governor Palin’s “reforms” today. The media who haven’t been doing their jobs lately do seem to be waking up and starting to be critical of Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin. Then again “real Americans” don’t read the NYT or the Washington Post. Back in the day, when I was a mass communication major I learned in journalism classes that although the national dailies like the Times and Post aren’t read by the masses, almost every editor at smaller newspapers do read the those papers and they can set the tone for the stories that appear locally. That was a long time ago though. Now it doesn’t seem to matter.

It is as if many Americans are willfully ignorant about the world around them. The major broadcast networks have shows about making it through a moving styrofoam wall, or guessing numbers, or outsmarting a grade schooler.

If there is a silver lining to this, Tina Fey on SNL last night.

I’m taking today and tomorrow off. I needed to be free of my cubicle.

Oh, Apple. The other day Apple announces some really sexy new iPod nanos. Dedicated readers of this site will remember that not too long ago I bought a short and stocky iPod nano to replaced my 2nd gen nano that went off to another plane. I do find the old nano sort of a pain. I don’t like the arm strap. On my 1st and 2nd gen nanos I always used a lanyard. But because I have three iPods (the iPhone, a full sized 80GB iPod for the car, and the 3rd gen nano for the gym) I’m not n a hurry to get another one. My favorite feature is you can shake it to shuffle the songs.

The other product announcement was the iPod touch next edition which seems to be less of an iPhone without the phone part and coming onto its own. The new touch has the Nike+ thingy built-in so all you need to do is put the other thingy in your shoe and you can get your run on. I think they should have put a GPS antenna in it too so you could figure out where the hell you ran to without hoping you ran into a place with wifi to triangulate to. But I think the iPod touch and iPhone are too big to stick on your arm for working out. Plus they are to pretty.

They announced a new version of iTunes. It is all the way up to 8.0. The “killer” new feature is a thing galled “genius” which supposed to put a little guidance into your musical journeys. You anonymously send iTunes your music library and history and it spits back a playlist that is based on some algorithm (it also has a bar over to the side which offers you ways to spend lots of money getting other songs you might like). So how does it work?

The bait song I used was Sausalito by Connor Oberst. Not too bad. There’s no Black Sabbath recommended and his Bright Eyes stuff is there as well as “like” artists. There was a thing I had back in my Windows days (it has been 5 years!) called moodlogic which attempted this idea but using peers to add not just genre but mood attributes to your MP3 tags. Of course it is subjective as there are no definitive definitions of genres. Pandora is something similar with internet radio to what iTunes is trying to do but it uses the music you already have (and makes suggestions as to other music you’ll like similar to what iTunes 7.x does with its store thingy on the bottom pane. And it does a better job than “iTunes recommends” since that tends to be only based on what you’ve bought and although I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on iTunes music, it pales to the thousands of songs that came by other means.

It is a nice start but it also shows just how unwieldily my music collection as become. I have a lot of music without and mp3 metadata and cover art. That is my constant rainy day project of cleaning up the music. I’ve gotten to the Ds. I have a strict rule where any new music I put in the damn thing must be tagged with album art.

Speaking of rainy days. Hurricane Ike is coming! Everybody panic! Earlier in the week it had a trajectory that after hitting landfall around Corpus Christi it would head to San Antonio and then up to Austin. Today’s models show it will got farther east toward Houston/Galveston where it could be nasty. They are canceling outdoor events and expecting lots of people in shelters. Unlike Louisiana, Texas has a very good disaster preparedness system and the money to pay for it. The only area of concern in the lower Rio Grande Valley near Brownsville and McAllen where some of the most impoverished people in the US live. And many of them are not exactly here legally.The feds have promised that they wouldn’t have agents at the evacuation centers or for those driving/riding at the inspection station. Which is damn humane of Chertoff (a man who should have been fired after Katrina and the stupid worthless liquids in bags rule). Except he said that after Hurricane Dolly and many people were busted anyway because the evacuation was voluntary and not mandatory. Yes these people might be here illegaly but they are still people. The good news is at present the storm is tracking to completely miss the south coast and so the rain shouldn’t be too bad.

I didn’t even know Mad Magazine was still around.

When the Palin announcement was first made, like many other people I asked “Who?”. One of the first discussion boards I saw had this video…

While of the subject of AD, I was saddened to read that Michael Cera isn’t planning on doing the Arrested Development movie.

And as I wondered how the country could be fooled into thinking she was all that, I thought of the beginning of of Idiocracy…

Of course that film was set in the future. There’s no way that would happen so fast. But it would explain a lot… like how things like logic and education and crazy notions like science are looked down upon by many.

The good news is with a little Resolve I was able to get the vomit stains out of the couch after sitting through a few moments of the RNC this past week. I only saw a few minutes at a time but I did learn that John McCain was a POW, that 9/11 happened, and that Sarah Palin hunts moose. These are all critical things to think about when choosing a president. Palin’s speech was so inspiring for the first time in my life I gave money to a political candidate.

We’ve seen this movie before. A fundie governor with little experience from an oil state? She, like poster boy Bush in 2000 is the narrative the Republicans want. In fact I would bet some would like to see McCain step down. He’s old and busted, plus in the past he hasn’t really shown his commitment to the important issues like abortion, abortion or abortion. Many of the conservative christians felt he was too liberal. But the republican machine made a deal with McCain after they ruined him when he ran in 2000. If he was a good soldier, he’d get a shot after Bush. So they held their noses and supported him this year. Remember a year ago among candidates on the Republican side “none of the above” was the most popular in the polls. Palin is an effort to fire up the base and it is working. Favorite joke on of the week (after the Jesus was a community organizer) is “If you think Palin is a reformer candidate: I’ve got a bridge in Alaska to sell you.”

One of the things that Bush had going for him in 2000 was the conservative “outrage” over those horrible Clinton years. Bush promised to bring honor and dignity to the White House. And he ran on the idea of “change”. Gore couldn’t get the swing voters because he was too closely tied to Clinton. Had he had Clinton go on the campaign trail with him, he probably would have gotten a better turnout and make that clusterfuck in Florida not happen.

This year, Bush and McCain are at their distance. And for the first time in recent history the sitting president did not speak live in front of his party convention. Oh, sure there was Gustav. Bullshit. He went to sunny Austin and San Antonio Texas for photo-ops and then back to DC. You mean he couldn’t have bumped Giuliani or Thompson later in the week and appear live instead of on video? If Bush was was popular today, they’d find room for him in the schedule and McCain wouldn’t be trying to co-opt Obama’s message of change. It would be what Bush ran on in 2004: don’t change horsemen mid apocalypse don’t change horses midstream.

What also makes me sick is the hypocrisy and “do as I say, not as I do” on social issues. Had Obama announced that his 17y.o. daughter was pregnant the same people standing behind Palin today would go off the rails over it. Irresponsible parenting! Sex before marriage is a sin! Abstinence only! It would be 100% of their message. The Daily Show has had a great round up of this hypocrisy about this. Strangely Palin gets a pass on her parenting skills because she didn’t terminate her last kid and that the daughter and her redneck boyfriend are going to get married. So it is all OK. And we’re supposed to lay off the kid because it is a private family matter. Of course it is. But it became a public matter when Palin issued a press release saying the kid was pregnant. They didn’t need to disclose it. And they didn’t need to trot out the boyfriend onto a photo op at the MSP airport to meet McCain. Or show him in a suit at the convention. But they did. And now it is sexist even to ask about Palin’s experience in government and calling bullshit on her record. Again, the Daily Show is doing the work the real news should.

It looks like Gustav is weakening and it won’t even bring winds and rain in my direction. That’s good since there are medical evacuees and other people who drove up in shelters in town. I’m really upset at the local Red Cross for a) not providing cots for people to sleep on (except in the one Bush is expected to visit) and for its director saying “they need to treat this as a camping trip”. Although the Red Cross decided not to put out cots, that as a really fucking insensitive way of saying it. You usually don’t come back from a camping trip with your house and all of its contents just gone. I could see if there were so many evacuees that they ran out of beds, but that isn’t the case. The message from the state of Texas this time is if you can afford it, stay in a hotel or at a friend. If you’re poor, get your broke ass back to Louisiana.

Of course, George W Bush is also in town. What a dick. McCain and Palin lucked out since Bush was scheduled to speak up in St. Paul at the RNC. So there’s little chance of McCain and Bush hugging each other again and it showing up on in a new Obama ad.

There is a great weight on my deliberation to wash my car today. On one side, it is dirty. Why do I keep buying black cars? There is a 0% chance of rain this week in the forecast. However, I know that as soon as I get my car washed, Gustav could restrengthen, change direction and head right this way. This would mean the Texans may come to Austin for shelter. Wonder if they’ll get the cots out for them?

Flickr has been pretty famous for “as it happens” photos showing up on the interwebs. So I went and typed in Gustav into the search box and this came up.

I’m still in the state of disbelief over McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin yesterday for his VP. Of course the first thing I had to do is see what wikipedia had to say since I haven’t heard of America’s most popular governor (actually I had, his name is Arnold Schwarzeneggar, but that pesky constitution makes him ineligible for the position).

I’m stunned to find that “Mr. Experience” chose someone with so little experience. The Republican Talking Points play up she’s a governor of Alaska but fail to mention that although a huge land mass, has less than 700K people. More people live in my small city than in that state. Well, before that she was mayor (Karl Rove called it the second largest city in Alaska, but even in Alaska a village with only a few thousand people won’t make the top 10). McCain says she has experience with the military since her son enlisted (on September 11th no less!) and is going off to Iraq soon (and she’s also Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard). The Republican talking heads are already saying she has more executive experience than Obama and Biden (but fail to add McCain to that worthless list). She’s a maverick! She’s a reformer! She went after big oil! (she basically got a windfall profits tax for Alaskans — what Obama’s talked about on the national level). The complete moron Steve Dooce on Fox News claimed that she had international experience because Alaska is right next to Russia. I have more experience dealing with the Russian government than she does. She killed the “Bridge to Nowhere.” She didn’t kill it, Congress killed the funding for it and when Alaska had to pay for it by itself, she said no. Not because she was a maverick, but because she wasn’t an idiot.

Continue reading »