Now that the election’s over (President. Elect. Obama. dang, that just doesn’t get old, does it?)…we can return to our regularly scheduled programming. I knew Matt would have some excess energy to work off post-election… his nervous energy quotient is pretty astounding when it comes to politics. So, a few weeks ago when he was still glued to fivethirtyeight.com 24-7 (thank you Nate Silver!), I asked him what he thought about finally redoing our bedroom (like we’ve been talking about since we moved in) the weekend after the election, of course. His distracted answer was yes (yes!). We (okay, I) decided on a nice buttery yellow (Evening Star from Miller’s Acro Pure line of “green” paint) for the walls and bamboo flooring from Costco to replace the dingy, beige carpet (blech, good riddance). We moved furniture on Wednesday, primed on Thursday, painted on Friday, sawed and nailed on Saturday (with many a rented and borrowed power tool and a bit of borrowed elbow grease- thanks Dad & Nate!) and finally moved back in on Sunday. We are pretty pleased with our DIY selves. See what you think.
lovely new floor
scarf rack (hiding under all those scarves) is made from old towel bars scrounged from the rebuilding center
Okay, so I’m making the morning internet rounds when I stumble on ESPN.com’s ad for some bullshit IQ test. We’ve all seen this one before… so-and-so’s IQ is 12X, are you smarter than so-and-so?
I’m not vouching for the methodology, accuracy, scientific regression blah blah… It’s undoubtedly completely full of crap. All that notwithstanding, this is pretty friggin hilarious:
It’s October in Portland. So naturally, it’s raining out.
So I thought it would be a good day to bring back an oldie but a goodie… On May 18, Barack Obama came out to Portland on a beautiful sunny day - one of the first of the year. An estimated 75,000 people lined up for hours to see him speak two days before the Oregon Primary. When I got in line with some friends two hours before the doors opened, I was nearly a mile away from the gates.
We just bought plane tickets to Washington D.C. so we can be there on January 20.
I know, I know… a month is an eternity blah blah blah… so chill for a second, people…
First off, I’m not guaranteeing victory. It’s a bet based on the fact that plane fares are really, really good right now (See for yourself). Almost as good as the polls.
Methinks on November 5 plane tix will be a little less… um… affordable.
Obama is up huge right now. McCain needs a pretty solid game changer in the next month in order to pull this out. He needed one after the Democratic convention and he thought he got one with a governor who can send magical HD starbursts through the screen, but that’s turning out to pretty much completely backfire. He needed one with this economic crisis but it turns out that that America likes presidents who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Bummer.
Some math. Bush beat Kerry 286-252. So that means Obama needs to keep the Kerry states and win at least 18 more to win outright (though even a tie doesn’t look too bad). How do you get to 18?
TONS of permutations look favorable, but here are just a few (roughly in order of what looks most reasonable at the moment):
Iowa (7), Colorado (9), New Mexico (5)
Ohio (20)
Florida (27)
Virginia (13), Iowa (7)
North Carolina (15), Iowa (7)
Nevada (5), Iowa (7), Colorado (9)
Indiana (11), Iowa (7)
McCain will undoubtedly relish playing the role of “underdog” over the next couple of months. He’s off to a good start: quitting Michigan makes you an underdog there. Smart move! But he needs something bigger… An October surprise. Like maybe Palin’s which doctor exorcist putting a hex on Obama.
Worst case scenario, we change our reservations to one-way tickets to Sweden.
Let’s see… $700 billion to Wall Street? It’s to prevent a plague of locusts. But a $26 billion boost for families on food stamps and $14.7 billion for health care for low-income families? That will just “increase government spending” (subscription):
The House this evening approved a $60.7 billion economic stimulus package that includes a seven-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits, a $26 billion increase in food stamp benefits, and $14.7 billion to help states address rising Medicaid costs. The measure passed 264-158. Earlier today, Senate Republicans blocked the chamber from taking up a $56.7 billion economic recovery package that Senate Democrats unveiled Thursday. That procedural vote fell short, 52-42, of the 60 votes needed for approval. The Senate could try to take up the House package this weekend. In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House said President Bush would veto the bill because it would “simply increase government spending, including self-perpetuating entitlement spending by tens of billions of dollars.”
Ask McCain what a gigabyte is, he’ll tell you that it’s a lunch that Bill Clinton eats every day.
But gigawatts? Totally different ballgame. The guy is Einstein on steroids.
The good news is that we have a working time machine. The bad news? Apparently the Russians will invade Alaskan airspace in early 2011, and President Palin will go totally ape shit.
This morning I posted a new status message on my Facebook page: “Matt is thinking of cool ways to spend $700 Billion. Any ideas?”
As you might imagine, I got some colorful responses including:
Lottery tickets.
Puppies.
Tequila.
These are all pretty reasonable. But with $700 billion, you’d have $104 to spend on every person on planet earth or $2295 on every American. That much tequila would kill most Chinese people I know. And untrained puppies would add an entirely new dimention of “toxic debt” to American households. So let’s think outside the box…. We could buy…
Five appointments with John Edwards’ hair stylist for every man, woman and child in America, plus a decent tip.
Two iPod shuffles (1 gig) for every man, woman, and child on planet earth. Plus a gift card to itunes for six bucks.
Seven houses worth $10 million each for every resident of Wasilla.
Now that the election’s over (President. Elect. Obama. dang, that just doesn’t get old, does it?)…we can return to our regularly scheduled programming. I knew Matt would have some excess energy to work off post-election… his nervous energy quotient is pretty astounding when it comes to politics. So, a few weeks ago when he was still glued to fivethirtyeight.com 24-7 (thank you Nate Silver!), I asked him what he thought about finally redoing our bedroom (like we’ve been talking about since we moved in) the weekend after the election, of course. His distracted answer was yes (yes!). We (okay, I) decided on a nice buttery yellow (Evening Star from Miller’s Acro Pure line of “green” paint) for the walls and bamboo flooring from Costco to replace the dingy, beige carpet (blech, good riddance). We moved furniture on Wednesday, primed on Thursday, painted on Friday, sawed and nailed on Saturday (with many a rented and borrowed power tool and a bit of borrowed elbow grease- thanks Dad & Nate!) and finally moved back in on Sunday. We are pretty pleased with our DIY selves. See what you think.
