Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Bad instincts for Obama (Update)
Assuming everyone knows the Blago details, here's my two cents:
1) It looks like Obama is squeaky clean on the corruption (if Blago is taped cursing you for not playing ball, it's pretty likely you didn't play ball). If there's a failure to report, that'll blow over.
2) What'll be a bad long term narrative (besides the associations, but everyone knew he had atrocious associations before he got elected) is his proclivity for unnecessary lies when there's the potential he'll look bad.
Case in point his assertion that he's had no contact with Blago since resigning. That's just BS (1, see Axelrod and 2, it doesn't seem plausible as he had proposed a replacement) and it's unneccessary BS since he didn't do anything wrong in this case.
Since he's lied badly when unbecoming things have come to light (Wright, Ayers, NAFTA / Goolsbee), I think it's reflexive for him.
It's not that Obama lies. All politicians lie. A good politican gives believable lies that aren't contradicted in a recorded medium. And since I don't think he's used to the scrutiny he gets now, I don't think he takes adequate care with his lies (when to and how to), so I think this is going to be a continuing problem for Obama.
Update
Example of how dumb the lie is:
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1) It looks like Obama is squeaky clean on the corruption (if Blago is taped cursing you for not playing ball, it's pretty likely you didn't play ball). If there's a failure to report, that'll blow over.
2) What'll be a bad long term narrative (besides the associations, but everyone knew he had atrocious associations before he got elected) is his proclivity for unnecessary lies when there's the potential he'll look bad.
Case in point his assertion that he's had no contact with Blago since resigning. That's just BS (1, see Axelrod and 2, it doesn't seem plausible as he had proposed a replacement) and it's unneccessary BS since he didn't do anything wrong in this case.
Since he's lied badly when unbecoming things have come to light (Wright, Ayers, NAFTA / Goolsbee), I think it's reflexive for him.
It's not that Obama lies. All politicians lie. A good politican gives believable lies that aren't contradicted in a recorded medium. And since I don't think he's used to the scrutiny he gets now, I don't think he takes adequate care with his lies (when to and how to), so I think this is going to be a continuing problem for Obama.
Update
Example of how dumb the lie is:
Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled.
That's one of Obama's first priorities today.
He's meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich this afternoon in Chicago to discuss it.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2008
CRT doing well
We're likely winning another major contract or two (just started negotiations for one and were told last week that another has been awarded, but we're subs on that to some folks I don't know well so I'm taking that with a grain of salt for the moment).
This means I now have more work than I can handle on my own.
So if you're a US citizen (a hint on the contract vehicles), think you're a kick ass engineer / programmer, and have interest in working for the leading research company in cognitive radio, drop me a line.
Update
And just got another email that another proposal is likely going forward (completely unrelated other than most everything we do cognitive radio). However, it's an order-of-magnitude smaller as we're small-time subs on it. Would be a good night to celebrate, if I didn't have to stay up all night to finish up a deliverable for a customer.
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This means I now have more work than I can handle on my own.
So if you're a US citizen (a hint on the contract vehicles), think you're a kick ass engineer / programmer, and have interest in working for the leading research company in cognitive radio, drop me a line.
Update
And just got another email that another proposal is likely going forward (completely unrelated other than most everything we do cognitive radio). However, it's an order-of-magnitude smaller as we're small-time subs on it. Would be a good night to celebrate, if I didn't have to stay up all night to finish up a deliverable for a customer.
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Monday, December 08, 2008
An early New Year's Resolution
If the Big 3 get bailed out, I won't be buying another car from them (new or used).
To date, I've driven a Chevy (Lumina) and a Ford (Escort) and I previously had the intention of continuing to drive "American" cars (and will sometimes privately tout the quality of Fords over the last 10 years) and will likely buy a new car next year. This means that the resolution nominally has some teeth.
Why do this?
Besides the fact that the bailout (and all of the bailouts) pisses me off1, I figure the best way to prevent this from occuring again in the future is to hasten their demise and the only tool available to me is to not buy anything else from them.
A consistency check of sorts - I also do not bank with any of the bailed out banks, as I do all of my banking via local banks. However, this move preceded the bail out.
1. Besides the fact that it's a straight up wealth tranfer from productive uses to non-productive uses, this is a textbook Austrian recession (popping of speculative bubbles created by an extended periods of too easy credit) and treating it like a Keynesian recession (money irrationally sitting on the sidelines) is going to make things worse.
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To date, I've driven a Chevy (Lumina) and a Ford (Escort) and I previously had the intention of continuing to drive "American" cars (and will sometimes privately tout the quality of Fords over the last 10 years) and will likely buy a new car next year. This means that the resolution nominally has some teeth.
Why do this?
Besides the fact that the bailout (and all of the bailouts) pisses me off1, I figure the best way to prevent this from occuring again in the future is to hasten their demise and the only tool available to me is to not buy anything else from them.
A consistency check of sorts - I also do not bank with any of the bailed out banks, as I do all of my banking via local banks. However, this move preceded the bail out.
1. Besides the fact that it's a straight up wealth tranfer from productive uses to non-productive uses, this is a textbook Austrian recession (popping of speculative bubbles created by an extended periods of too easy credit) and treating it like a Keynesian recession (money irrationally sitting on the sidelines) is going to make things worse.
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