Why the Dems are Losing It

This blog post hits the nail right on the head when it comes to why the Democrats are losing ground. Mr. Simon says:

I haven't heard a single original thought out of the Democratic Party in what feels like years now. All the serious debate seems to be taking place within the Republican Party between their traditional conservative, South Park wings, etc.

Yup, the reason why the Dems are being tuned out is that they are against the wrong things. Some of them like Kennedy are anti-troop and others just want to see the Iraqi leadership fail to give W a black eye. No American wants to hear stuff like "we need troops to frag their officers" or Iraq is Vietnam War Part 2. The Dems need to shake off the feeling that they are the gloom and doom party.

To do this they need to be at the forefront of the let's help Iraq movement. They are supposed to be the progressive, peace-loving people that support the 3rd world. They are billed as the party with the big heart that reaches out to helpless people etc. This would be a great time for them to speak out against the treatment of women in the Muslim world and for building a peaceful Middle East.

I never hear about what the Dems want to do in Iraq besides cut-and-run. Will they do anything differently and if so what would they do? What is their position on Iranian nukes? How would they solve the Israel and Palestinian mess?

They talk about Universal Health Care but they haven't floated a proposal on how they will pay for it. What is the Dems Energy plan if they even have one? What are the Dems proposing to lower oil prices? These are the questions they need to answer for Americans to take them seriously again. It sucks that they are the "anything but Bush party" when they cannot even say what they would do if they got "anything but Bush."

It was funny to watch Ravin' Mad Dean on the Daily Show a few nights ago. Stewart kept asking him what the Dems are going to do on various topics. Dean just kept saying "I'll tell you what we aren't going to do," and then slammed Bush. Maybe Mr. Simon is true when he says that they don't have anything original to bring to the table.

FED should tell us the inning at least

The FED raised interest rates another quarter point today. They are at least addressing energy prices when it comes to their rate rises though. I think high energy prices are likely to spin us into a recession here if we aren't careful. I think this bit was interesting:

The Fed is expected to pause in its rate-rise campaign eventually but has been vague about timing. The halt is likely to come when rates hit a level the Fed deems "neutral," one that neither slows growth nor stimulates inflation.

Lets get certain signs they are looking for that signal we are approaching this "neutrality." Something like the CPI is between this number and that number. Or the manufacturing index needs to be under this number. The speculation is starting to get annoying. I guess they are ass-covering just in case there is an actual recession coming down the pike.

The French are Blowing EU growth

I really agree with this EU official when it comes to the mess Europe is in with the "non" vote. Mr. Monti says the Chirac pretty much derailed the Constitution process for domestic political interests. So it seems the French are looking after the French it seems. And they blame the US for being selfish on the world stage. This was a striking statistic also:

Europe must reexamine its spending on agriculture subsidies--currently 40% of the European budget. Monti says the subsidies should be reduced for the benefit of poorer nations, and expenditures should be shifted towards research and development spending.

I had no idea that 40% of their budget goes to propping up farmers. That is an incredible figure in a world that has left behind the agrarian driven economy 100s of years ago. Getting rid of these subsidies will be really hard though. The French farmers would go wild and riot if cut backs are even mentioned.

More Ward Churchill Ravings

Wow, now he wants troops to frag their officers. And the left wonders why people don't take them seriously in this country. We have a so-called academic calling for the killing of US officers by their own troops. Aren't they supposed to be anti-war but pro-troop? I guess that is just a platitude that they say to mask their true agenda.

I think the left needs to come down like a ton of bricks on this guy. The more the left is painted with the brush of being anti-troop the longer it will take for them to be taken seriously. They need serious voices out there preaching against Churchill's nonsense. Maybe the left just wants to be relegated to a fringe group similar to the US Communist party.

Looks like War of the Worlds could be a dud

The first review is in and it doesn't look good. This is as scathing an indictment of the film:

This is Spielberg's "Attack of the Clones," a movie burdened with stiff dialogue and fatuous relationships, dolled up with the gloss of computer animation into a big-screen video game with puny humans as targets.

This to me would make me avoid the film at any cost. I really hated Attack and if this movie is anything like that then I don't even want anything to do with it. I hate even seeing Attack's DVD cover at the store. Maybe all of the Tommy Boy Cruises histrionics was to deflect attention away from this potential turkey. It still may do good business so I will reserve judgment until I see the Box Office on it.

DC Comics coming out this week

BATGIRL #65 »
BATMAN #641 »
BATMAN ALLIES SECRET FILES 2005 »
BATMAN/SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN: TRINITY »
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #10 »
CATWOMAN: WHEN IN ROME #6 (OF 6) »
THE COMPLETE INDIGO PRIME »
THE FLASH #223 »
GREEN LANTERN #2 »
JLA: CLASSIFIED #9 »
THE OMAC PROJECT #3 (OF 6) »
SEVEN SOLDIERS: SHINING KNIGHT #3 (OF 4) »
SOLO #5 »
SUPERMAN: INFINITE CITY »
WONDER WOMAN #217

This week I'm going to be getting Flash #223 and The OMAC Project #3. Should be some good books since Flash will be continuation the Rogues War and OMAC has been a great book so far.

AMD serves Intel a Lawsuit

Wow, if what AMD says is true it looks like you can call Intel the new "Evil Empire." It is alleged that Intel did all kinds of stuff to push AMD down. Some of this stuff is serious big monopolist behavior that is Microsoftian in its scale and deviousness. Good thing I only use AMD PC chips when it comes to building a machine that I own.

It may even be a good idea to put AMD back on the watch list because this kind of thing will only serve to make Intel look bad. Perhaps some market share gains are in the offing for AMD in the future. Or some big old fines (and then good behavior) levied against Intel.

More Fuel Efficient Cars

This article states that 11% of auto sales by 2012 will be hybrid cars. I think this would be a great thing to see happen. I'm hoping numbers will be even higher then that.

What the Bush Admin. should do is provide a bigger tax credit for people buying Hybrid vehicles. Currently it is $2000 for '04/'05, $500 for '06, and nothing after that. They should double it or perhaps put some kind of national consumption tax on regular fuel vehicles. Maybe something like $250 per vehicle or something like that.

I never gave much thought to hybrid cars until I heard some stuff about how much Saudi and Iranian oil money has been funneled into terrorist groups. One way to win the war on terror is to cut off their sources of funding. So the less oil we use, the closer the war on terror will come to being won. I think the environmentalists and hybrid manufacturers should tap into this line of thinking. "Buy a Hybrid and keep money out of Osama's pocket."

Psychiatrists hit back at Cruise

Looks like the psychiatrists are fighting mad at Cruise's attack on their profession. They are saying:

"Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works," the APA statement said. "It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy."

But what the APA doesn't know is that Cruise is steeped in the medical research and is an actual published peer of the APA. Wait isn't he just an actor promoting a movie? An actor without a doctorate that hasn't gone through a residency or anything. Maybe Kelsey Grammer can shine some light on all this, after all he has played a psychiatrist on TV in the past few years. He has about the same amount of knowledge as Cruise does on this subject I think.

Wow the Brits are Fall down drunks?

It looks like the young of Britain are drinking the night away. And they are binge drinking too.

Binge drinking, generally defined as consuming five or more standard-sized drinks in one session, has become the norm for many young people. According to a recent study of 15- and 16-year-olds in Britain, 29 percent of the girls and 26 percent of the boys had engaged in binge drinking at least three times in the previous month.

This was a big problem at my college too. Lots of people had parties on the weekend that consisted of just drinking a bunch of beers and getting staggering around drunk. Also, the bars near UH always seem to have $1 beer or $3 shots for an hour or something like that. This encourages binge drinkers because you have to down lots of beers or shots to get your moneys worth. It seems the Brits are doing the same thing:

The industry promotes itself to the youth market in a manner that experts say encourages binge drinking. While suited corporate spokesmen speak solemnly of "responsible" alcohol use, pubs and clubs push happy hours, 2-for-1 specials, ladies' nights and discounts on sugary alcoholic beverages marketed to young people.

Is Pfizer a good Short?

Hmm all this talk of blindness and Viagra could make for a decent short candidate. That CBS news report may make people think that Viagra could have harmful side effects. Also I think the nature of the side effects could be pretty bad too. Blindness would be only short of death when it comes to taking what many think is a recreational drug.

Even if the PFE finds that their drug doesn't cause blindness it will still take months to complete the investigation. It will most likely lose market share against its two rivals in the meantime. Finally, if the FDA tells them to pull the drug this stock will take a Biogen Idec style nosedive.

Educational Bias Documentary

The film is called Brainwashing 101 and it is coming out at the end of 2005. This will be a great film to see because from what I read universities are getting worse and worse when it comes to policing correct thought.

I was in the business school and most of my friends were in engineering so we missed the majority of this stuff when I was at UH. But I know the crazy undercurrent that is there now. I mean the University of Hawaii invited Ward "little Eichmanns" Churchill there in late 2004. They did it at the height of that scandal just to get more publicity for him.

I am really looking forward to this documentary and what things it will uncover about this bias and "correct" thought that parents are spending $1,000s on.

Female Suicide Bombers get 72 Virgins?

Hmm this is an interesting statement I saw on opinion Journal.

Girls Gone Wild
Fundamentalist Muslim mythology has it that terrorist "martyrs" are greeted in heaven by 72 virgins. With Palestinian Arabs increasingly making use of female suicide bombers, we've often wondered what they get in heaven. Now we have the answer, thanks to a report in London's Sunday Telegraph from an Israeli prison:

One of the inmates, Ayat Allah Kamil, 20, from Kabatya, told me why she had wanted to become a martyr: "Because of my religion. I'm very religious. For the holy war [jihad] there's no difference between men and women shaid [martyrs]."

According to the Koran, male martyrs are welcomed to Paradise by 72 beautiful virgins. Ayat, as with many of the women she is incarcerated with, believes that a woman martyr "will be the chief of the 72 virgins, the fairest of the fair."

That is to say, the highest aspiration for a fundamentalist Palestinian girl is murder, suicide and prostitution. Has there ever been a more depraved culture?

I think the female suicide bombers get a passel of 72 Comic Book Store Guys, who live in their parents basement and get squeamish at the mention of a naked female. All 72 will congregate together, have bad BO, and mostly ignore her in favor of their debate about whether the Enterprise can beat an Imperial Star Destroyer in one on one combat.

100 Acre Woods looses voices

This is an odd story. Both the voice of Piglet and the voice of Tigger died within one day of each other. Also the guy who was the voice of Tigger, Paul Winchell, was the voice of Gargamel too. That's a pretty strange coincidence.

Supreme Court Ten Commandments Ruling

Looks like the Supreme Court is starting to make church and state start to stick together again. I guess this is a good idea but throws it back to the states to determine if the content is okay or not. So I guess there will be some person that will be in charge of figuring out what amount of material is okay. In this case a granite monument outside is okay but a display inside isn’t. The American people seem to be okay with church and state coming together a bit:

Ten Commandments displays are supported by a majority of Americans, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. The poll taken in late February found that 76 percent support it and 23 percent oppose it.

That is quite a large majority of people that think it is okay to post this kind of material in court houses. It seems like the God-hating wing of the Dems is out of step with the majority of Americans on this subject.

The Entitlement Generation?

Ah the next generation is now referred to as the Entitlement Generation. At least the term "slacker" to refer to my generation seems not so bad compared to that. The X-ers didn't know what to do but the Y-ers are feel that the world owes them a living. And this is a culprit I think:

He partly faults coddling parents and colleges for doing little to prepare students for the realities of adulthood and setting the course for what many disillusioned twentysomethings are increasingly calling their "quarter-life crisis."

This will be an interesting dynamic to watch as we go along here. The boomers are going to go into retirement and Gen-X will be running things for a few decades. We will have slackers in charge of people who think they are owed a living. Not a good recipe for competing with the Chinese and the Indians.

Monster Thickburger! It's a Monstrous and Thick!

Looks like big fat burgers are back in style again. It's strange too because people were just heavily into dieting just about a year or so ago. Everything was low-carb or low-fat and it seemed that everyone I know (including me) was on Atkins. I guess this guy is spot on:

"It's a backlash by the American people against the food police," said Dean Haskell, an analyst at JMP Securities. "And operators are catering to it. We try to eat healthy at home, but when we go out we want to splurge."

The problem with eating healthy is that it is usually more expensive then eating a big-fat burger. Most of the time a salad costs more then a Big Mac. If you wanted to eat healthy all the time it would take alot of work and extra money. Oh well, it is just another reason why America is the Land of the Big, Home of the Fat.

Hard-Liner Wins in Iran

Looks like the Revolutionary-Guard guy won the thing. This might leave Iran in a much worse mess then before. Let's hope this guy doesn't go all out to "destroy the Great Satan" and other such nonsense. Also let's hope W doesn't get froggy and jump Iran in the near future. This was an interesting statement though:

"The real nuclear bomb that Iran has is its unemployed young people," said Ali Pourassad, after casting his vote for Ahmadinejad at a polling station set up in the courtyard of a mosque in the middle-class south of Tehran. "If nothing is done to create jobs for our young people, we will have an explosion on the streets."

Hmm, I wonder if resentment of being unemployed will drive the young Iranians to revolt against the Mad Mullahs? I mean all it sometime takes is some crushing poverty to start the fire of revolution. It happened in France. I wonder if the Mullahs will go hard-line and touch off Tiananmen massacre Middle Eastern branch?

Theater Owners are Running Scared

Hmm this is a very interesting article on why people are going to the movie less. I think this reason that they gave is very compelling:

Industry watchers and even some insiders privately acknowledge that the filmgoing experience has become onerous for many consumers. Difficulties with parking, lines and what seems like an endless stream of commercials and coming attractions before a screening are turning viewers off.

Now there seems to be at least as many commercials as there are coming attractions in todays movies. And what is worse is they are exactly the same. They have that dumb Moterola (or Ericsson) one where the Japanese guy and the Swedish (or is he German) guy start to sing. They also have the one where the kids travel across the US to make a documentary for Coke. People don't want to watch commercials after having payed $8.50 a head to watch a movie.

Also I think one reason why DVDs are really starting to eat into movie profits because the lag time between the theatrical release and the DVD are so short nowadays. It seems that Hitch was just in theatres and now the DVD is out. In fact the article mentions that:

And the timelag between theatrical and DVD release has shrunk, said Carrie Dieterich, vice president of marketing and industry relations. In 2002, the average time between theater and DVD debut was 171 days. The lag currently is 138 days, with more than a month shaved off.

So for the price of two people going to see a movie you can actually wait and buy the DVD at a savings. It is still true that certain movies must be seen on the big screen to be appreciated. Movies like Lord of the Rings, Revenge of the Sith, and Batman Begins must be seen on the big screen to be appreciated. Those films will still make a bundle no matter what. The romantic comedies, the live action family films, and the non-Oscar worthy dramas will probably not make as much money as they once did. Seeing them on DVD is pretty much the same as seeing them in the theatre but without any hassle or trouble.

Tommy Cruise vs. Matt Lauer

I thought this was going to be an insane throwdown upon reading the headline. But it seemed like a pretty regular thing. It is nice to know that Tommy-boy is amateur phamacologist too. He says:

"Matt, Matt, you don't even — you're glib," Cruise responded. "You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done."

Yup, he read those research papers and went for his PHD, no wait he went to acting school in New York. But I hear that the Actor's Studio offers a great PreMed program. And their Pharmacology Department is one of the best in the nation. So he speaks from a place of experience.