SchneeWorld

Election Night Dumb*sses, Redux

OK, Maybe I was a bit early in my rant. Now, 10 minutes after my last post, at 10PM CST, they are saying that Obama is the winner. Score one for mathematics.

Election Night Dumb*sses

I'm live-blogging from Schneeworld Corporate HQ. We have the nerve center tuned into national election coverage. As it stands, there are 207 Electoral Votes for Obama and 135 for McCain.

Montana, Indiana,  Virgina, North Carolina and Florida are all "too close to call". Given that California is going to go for Obama (just like Texas went for Texas), that will put Obama at 207 + 55 = 262. Obama needs 8 EVs to clinch it. Probabilititically, this thing is OVER. This isn't a "Dewey defeats Truman" moment. This is pure probability. With the exception of Montana, any one of the "too close to calls" would put Obama over the top. And no one on the boob-tube has even mentioned this. Heck, Colorado has 9 EVs and is currently reporting 25% with a 56% to 42% Obama advantage.

I get probability. I understand distributions and the future isn't set in stone. But this thing is over and no one is talking about it. Even as a probability.

Dumb*sses.

Dumb*sses

I don't get too involved in politics. I have some ideas that may someday manifest (no, I'm not considering a run for office) but I usually vote in everything I can leave it at that.

No more. Of my three federal representatives, two voted for the Financial Bailout bill. Or, as the term I prefer: The Splurge. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn both voted 'yea' for this bill; Representative Lloyd Doggett voted 'nea'.

I'm going to vote just the opposite for these politician's re-elections: "Yea" for Doggett, "nay" for both Hutchinson and Cornyn. While it happens to break this way, this has nothing to do with my political party preference. It has to do with a rash decision to vote for something, anything, to give the appearance of doing something.

Yes, America is facing a crisis. This crisis will mostly affect the people on the fringes: the homeless, the working poor. It is a big deal. I don't claim to understand it all, but do I understand that "perfect" is the enemy of "good", so I'm not advocating for a "perfect" solution. But the Splurge isn't even "good". It was flat-out evil when it was a three-page proposal from the Administration and time (and the addition of 448 pages) hasn't helped much. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my wife and mentioned that if people are concerned with money freezing up (a credit crunch) then maybe a tax-break could help with the money supply. As long as the break is paid for, perhaps out of the proposed $700 billion. And I'm not a knee-jerk tax-cutter.

Fast foward to this week and we got the tax-break. But IT IS UNPAID FOR. It did not come out of the $700 billion, which means it comes out of my children's future. Just like the $700 billion. Unconscionable. If the tax-break is an efficient means to help with the crisis, then pay for it. If it is not efficient, then DON'T DO IT. And, if the "tax-break" wasn't enough, they stuffed it with pork, to make the bill more palatable. The bill doesn't not effectively address oversight, foreclosure, executive compensation, &c. It does allow for the people who caused the problem (the FEDs) to give their buddies (the CEOs) a bunch my MY MONEY. Watch this, read this and this, and share in my outrage.

Who f*cking elected these jerks? Oh, that's right. WE DID. We're obviously the bigger idiots.

I would have liked to have a bit more time put into this bailout bill. Like ensuring that we, the taxpayers, don't get stuck with likely-to-remain worthless securities. Think about it, who knows more about the actual worth of the securities? The investment banks or the Federal Gov't? The banks are going to "sell" us the absolute worst of the securities. And Gov't talks about how this bill makes all of us "investors". If my financial investor tried to sell me this, I'd fire him. And I'm going to fire my representatives.

Fortunately for Hutchison, she has stated that she will not run for re-election (she's going to run for governor) so my lack of voting for her won't mean much. Cornyn, you lost my vote. Period. Hutchinson, don't expect my support for your future campaigns.

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