Debate Reaction
That was much more civil than I expected given McCain's rhetoric of late. McCain does better when there aren't any follow ups, but Tom Brokaw (and the candidates themselves) snuck a few in anyhow. Overall I'd say Obama came out better. Obama talked more about specific policies and related to people. McCain kept saying how everybody knows he has the judgment. If you got to tell people that perhaps they don't think you have the judgement and telling them only makes you look foolish.

I'm bias of course, however the inta-polls agree with me.

Who won (CBS)?

Obama (D) 39
McCain (R) 27

Who did the best job in the debate (CNN)?

Obama (D) 54
McCain (R) 30

I must say I really like the insta-polls. It gives a good reality check on the after debate spin. McCain needs a game changer and this wasn't it. Obama continues to surge ahead in the polls.

Two critics of the whole thing though. First the question about sacrifice in the face of economic and energy crisis. While I know it wouldn't have played well I really wished Obama would have given a nod to President Carter and wearing a sweater. It is a simple thing that can help. Of course it didn't play well when Carter said it. Though if we would have kept Carter's alternative energy policies perhaps we wouldn't have these problems today.

Second the question about would we wait for UN approval to respond if Iran attacked Israel. This question is absurd on so many levels. I really wish the boundaries of political discourse in this country were closer to reality when it comes to Israel. First, there is the whole Iran is going to attack Israel fear mongering. It is based upon out of context quotes from Ahmadinejad, a man who doesn't even command the military in Iran. Second Israel and Iran don't share a border. Israel and Iran are about 1000 miles apart, so an Iranian army would need to go though several other countries to get to Israel. Third, Israel has somewhere between 100-200 nuclear weapons. If Iran sent missiles towards Israel, Iran would be a plate of radioactive glass before an American President would have time to ask what aircraft carriers we had in the area.

Odds and ends. McCain still thinks that his "suspending his campaign" is a winner. He also thinks Americas care that Obama didn't agree to Republican lead town hall meetings earlier in the campaign. It is good to see that the bubble around he and his campaign staff is secure. There were several times during the debate I commented "I think that was suppose to be a joke." But you know, without the funny part.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Crazy Base World
Daily Show (2006):

JON STEWART: You're not freaking out on us? Are you freaking out on us? Because if you're freaking out and you're going into the crazy base world - are you going into crazy base world?
JOHN MCCAIN: I'm afraid so.

If you wondered what "crazy base world" might look like. . .

In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

I expect things to get uglier from here. I also expect John McCain will try to blame Barack Obama for the tone of John McCain's campaign at the debate tonight.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Invite: Debate Watching Party Tonight!
I'll be hosting another debate watching party. Please come to watch, learn, and shake your heads in disbelief. I have a big screen TV and TiVo, so we can pause the action to kibitz and fact check with Google.

The debate starts at 9:00 so try to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00. I'll be providing snacks and drinks (wine dulls the pain) but feel free to bring some to share yourself. Please RSVP (email or post a reply) if you'd like to come.

The "town hall" format of this debate would normally make for a more boring debate. When questions are submitted from the audience in advance and vetted by the folks running the debate you usually get only the obvious questions. No follow ups are allowed by moderator or audience member (some town hall). However, McCain is falling hard in the polls, he is getting desperate so there is the possibility that he will try something crazy.

(2 Comments |Let me tell you this about that!)

Science Shorts
It is snowing on Mars. The Phoenix lander has detected snow falling on Mars. It looks like it is sublimating before it hit the ground, but still very cool. Then again sublimation is really cool too.

A black rhinos bred in captivity has been released into the wild for the first time in 25 years. Black rhinos were hunted almost to extinction and still face serious poaching risk thanks to Traditional Chinese Medicine which believes there rhino horn has magic healing properties. So few black rhinos remain “that many are literally kept under armed guard,” allowed to forage by day then penned at night.

In related news, Dan Ariely, a Duke University economist won an IgNobel Prize for his work showing that expensive fake medicine works better than cheap fake medicine.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Confusing big and small

The Federal Reserve said today it is establishing a special fund to lend money directly to businesses so they have adequate cash to operate, a major move by the central bank to ensure that "main street" companies are not crippled by the financial crisis gripping Wall Street and other money centers around the world.

Under the new program the Fed will buy up commercial paper, the short term debt that large companies around the country use to fund their day-to-day operations. That puts the Fed in the unprecedented position of, in effect, funding individual companies by buying their debt.

This may actually be a good idea. Short term credit is becoming a real problem for businesses and even states. However, I do have to object to the what this was written. Paragraph one talk helping "main street" companies, while paragraph two describes buying up the debt of large companies.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Stabbing and Shooting
This happened outside the office building I work at. I can hear the sirens but am otherwise oblivious.

Boston police are investigating a double stabbing near the State Street MBTA station, police said.

The attack happened shortly before 3 p.m. on State Street. Police said the victims were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. A hunt is underway for possible suspects.

Meanwhile, police are looking into a report of shots fired on Bromfield Street near Downtown Crossing. No victims were found. Police are looking for shell casings on Bromfield and have called in the canine unit.

It's unclear if the two incidents are related.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality
I may have to buy this book. The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality.

Gradually, however, the idea of the person one has lost evolves from gaping wound to piercing nostalgia, to moving memory, to gratitude, and almost to happiness… At first, you thought: “How dreadful that (s)he should no longer be here!” But as the years go by, you start thinking, “How wonderful that (s)he should have lived, that we should have met, and that we grew to know and love each other!” This is the mourning process: It takes time and memory; it takes acceptance and fidelity. At the moment of the death itself, it is obviously impossible — there is nothing but horror and inconsolable suffering. How one would like to believe in God at such times! How one envies, temporarily, those who do believe! Yes, it must be admitted, this is where religions are virtually unbeatable. Is that any reason to believe? For some people, it clearly is. For others, including myself, it would almost be an additional reason to doubt, either because the ploy seems too obvious or else out of pride, rage and despair. Despite the pain we must endure, mourning merely reinforces our atheism. In the face of terrible distress, we consider revolt more appropriate than prayer; horror, truer than consolation. For us, serenity will come later. Mourning is not a race.

His description of the atheist grieving process matches well with my own. Lose of a loved one is hard it really sucks. But as the wounds heal the pain transforms to gratefulness. We only have a limited time to be alive and how glad we should be for having the opportunity to share it with those we love. As Richard Dawkins so eloquently said "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born."

The first death I went through after losing my religion was the suicide death of one of my best friends. His name was Grant. We had become friends when we meet in elementary school when we were both living in Florida. My family only lived there for 3 years and his for 2 years. However, through the power of coincidence we both found ourselves living in Wichita during our Junior High and High School years.

We lived across town from each other and went to different schools so our friendship was constrained to hanging out on weekends. He later moved out of state and we drifted further apart, but he was one of the few people in my childhood I really felt close to.

Midway through my freshman year in college he shot himself. It was a pretty traumatic event for me. But I got through it without recourse to empty promises of resurrection or reincarnation.

The one thing I would disagree with the author about is his statement that I didn't envy the believers at the funeral. I didn't wish I had faith that I'd see him in heaven or in a future life. Those empty promises didn't ease the pain when I was a believer and I could tell they weren't easing the pain of the believers at the funeral either. We were all just sad and we had to get through it.

Today I feel lucky that I had his friendship even if it didn't extend into adulthood. He was the one I first played RPGs with, talked about the awkwardness of growing up, and felt was like me.

Hat tip to Friendly Atheist

(Let me tell you this about that!)

VP Debate
Palin put to rest any concern that she couldn't evade a question. All politicians do it but it was more painfully obvious in this debate than usual. I had to break out the Port to numb the pain.

It is really odd to see Republicans trying to pretend they are Democratic. Suddenly the Republican party is all about regulation. I recall reading that the instant polls of the first debate gave McCain the highest ratings when he talked about opposing his party. I guess that was the focus group result Republicans went with in this debate. Anyone who drank every time the word "Maverick" was repeated is dead from alcohol poisoning.

Did Palin actually come out in support of gay equality (civil unions or legal equivalence for gay relationships)? Should we expect a correction tomorrow or just Republicans hoping none of the social conservatives took her seriously? I think it would be too optimistic and take this as another social conservatives surrender.

(5 Comments |Let me tell you this about that!)

Pedantic
Question inspired by a silly exchange on another LJ. If 95% of a group believes something is it unfair to say said group believes that? To site a non-controversial example, would it be wrong to say that the medical field believes it has a role to "address alcohol abuse problems among their patients and their patient's families." Or should one always insert fine print that says 95% of medical professionals believe they have a role to "address alcohol abuse problems among their patients and their patient's families."

Would this change if the subject is controversial or discussion is in the context of a joke?

(1 Comment |Let me tell you this about that!)

Why I Like DailyKos
The recent polling numbers have been very good for Obama and us Democratic folks. However, there is always the danger folks will take a temporary bump in the polling numbers and slack off. Markos over at DailyKos explains what needs to happen.

Many people will warn against "getting complacent". I like to approach this potential problem differently -- we have a chance to rip out the GOP's jugular. We can throw them an anvil. We can kick them while they're down. No matter the metaphor, the underlying meaning remains -- we can destroy the Republicans. Now's not the time to slack, it's the time to pick things up. We've got them in a near rout. Let's destroy them.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Invite: VP Debate Watching Party Thursday!
I'll be holding another debate watching party this Thursday and you should come! I'll be providing some snacks and drinks (wine numbs the pain), but feel free to bring stuff to share.

Vice presidential debate:
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, MO

The debate starts at 9:00pm EST so try to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00. We have Tivo to pause the action and kibitz. Though I do ask you not to throw things at the TV.

I'll also take this opportunity to make a prediction. There have been an amazing number of "leaks" about how Palin isn't ready for the debate. I'd like to suggest that these "leaks" are intentionally being made to lower expectations. I expect a mediocre performance by Palin followed by pundits everywhere declaring her a winner for not convulsing and speaking in tongues during the debate.

The big unknown is will she try to be sweet or will she try to be a dick. History would tend to favor the dick outcome. However, the way the McCain campaign has been flailing the last couple weeks it is hard to predict their behavior. I hope Biden is prepared to deal with both "Miss Congeniality" and the "Pitbull with lipstick."

(1 Comment |Let me tell you this about that!)

Google Supports Marriage Equality
I think I'll keep using gmail.

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions -- Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay -- we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 [the gay marriage ban] appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

I wonder if the coming conservative boycott of Google will be as effective as the one they had against Disney? (When Disney granted "benefits to same-sex employees in domestic partnerships" the AFA ran a 9 year boycott. Disney held it's ground continued to be very profitable and eventually the AFA gave up.)

(1 Comment |Let me tell you this about that!)

Mattison's Economic Rescue Plan
The economic problems that motivated the bailout bill have not disappeared in the wave of recriminations that followed the failure of the bill. A wave of panic however has swept through Wall Street this afternoon with stocks down somewhere between 7 and 9% depending upon which index you prefer. Stocks are down about 25% since October of last year. To make matters worse, since none of you were wise enough to ask me not too, I'm going to share my economic rescue plan.

The fundamental problem is that there are a lot of people who have mortgages they can't afford. This is bad for them, it is bad for anyone else trying to sell a house, it is bad for anyone owning those mortgages or various derivatives based off of them, and its bad for anyone who has a 401k that owns companies which have those...

Since mortgages people can't afford is the root of the problem it is a good place to start. The federal government should offer free mortgage insurance for 5 years to refinancing mortgages which meets the following criteria.*

• Must be owner occupied home
• Must be a conforming mortgage ($417k single family, $533k two family, etc)
• Mortgage rate must be a fixed rate 5.5% or lower for 15-30 years
• Owner can provide proof of income (tax returns and/or pay stubs) to demonstrate ability to pay

Further the federal government will offer to buy up to 5% equity in the home as part of the deal.

This won't get everyone who is on shaky ground with their mortgage out of trouble, but it will help a lot of people who are on the edge. It will especially help those with variable rates that got crazy. For those that can take advantage of this it will transform these mortgages from part of the problem to part of the solution.

Since the insurance is limited to those who can prove the ability to pay the refinanced morgages, the cost of this should be small. Buying equity in the home will of course cost some money but the government will get 5% from the eventual sale of the home so it isn't exactly a giveaway and could even make money in the long run (though I don't recommend investing the Social Security Trust Fund in this scheme).

While this will help people keep their homes and help stabilize the free fall that is home prices it isn't going to work for everybody. Some people are still not going to be able to afford the homes they bought and those mortgages are still going to get foreclosed. While we may not have as much sympathy for someone who bought too much house and less for a speculator who bought too many houses, we do want to limit the fallout on the rest of the economy.

The second side of this problem is the large number of financial institutions which own mortgages or mortgage derivatives which aren't worth what they bought them for. There is both a liquidity and valuation problem here. The liquidity problem is no one wants to buy these things because many of the mortgages they are based upon are going into default. The valuation problem is if the companies did value these things based upon what they are worth the companies would suddenly be insolvent and have to go out of business.

To solve this problem you need to fix these companies' balance sheets. I propose the following. The federal government will buy preferred stock from any company at the market rate up to 75% the outstanding value under the following conditions.

• The revenue from stock sales must equal the mark down in mortgage or mortgage derivative assets
• Executive compensation is limited to $250,000 and all compensation plans for officers are subject to review by a bipartisan panel

As with the refinancing plan this won't necessarily save every bank or financial institute but it should soften the blow. Much like the government would be getting an equity share in your house the government is getting an equity share in the companies. So while it won't be free we (the American people) will be getting something for our money (ownership in the companies). As I don't see a compelling reason why JP Morgan should be owned by the federal government long term the preferred stock should be convertible to bonds or resold to the public eventually.

This reselling of the stock should help finance this in the long term. In the short term something along the lines of what Rep. Peter DeFazio suggested in a 0.25% transaction fee on the sale of stock or other derivatives. Such a tax could raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion a year. Most appropriately the money to save Wall Street would be coming FROM Wall Street.

* All numbers in this plan are pulled out of my ass. If someone were serious about a plan like the numbers would certainly move around a bit, but should be within an order of magnitude of workable ones.

(3 Comments |Let me tell you this about that!)

Bailout has failed
The vote in the HoR on the bailout has failed to pass. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. It will depend upon what comes next.

Vote: 207-226

I haven't seen a party break down but judging from the speakers support and opposition were both bipartisan.

(1 Comment |Let me tell you this about that!)

Invite: Debate Watching Party Tonight!
The debate and the debate watching party is on. McCain decided to suspend his "my campaign is suspended" campaign and return to campaigning (did anything really change?). Perhaps McCain will give us some more drama queen behavior in the debate tonight. We won't know until we see it.

I'll be hosting a debate watching party. Please come to watch, learn, and shake your heads in disbelief. I have a big screen TV and TiVo, so we can pause the action to kibitz and fact check with Google.

The debate starts at 9:00 so try to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00. I'll be providing snacks and drinks (wine dulls the pain) but feel free to bring some to share yourself. Please RSVP (email or post a reply) if you'd like to come.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

More Sound Fundamentals
Top Fortune 500 Savings Institutions 2008

Rank    Company
1       Washington Mutual
2       Sovereign Bancorp
3       Hudson City Bancorp
4       IndyMac Bancorp
5       New York Community Bancorp

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Science and the Economy
One of the podcast I regularly listen to is This Week in Science. They often open with a mildly amusing disclaimer about their views not representing those of the radio station or university where it is broadcast. This week was great! If you want something to listen to at work I recommend it.

Disclaimer Disclaimer Disclaimer

While particle physics awaits the Large Hadron Collider's return from the Disabled List, the sidelined scientific community has time to ponder more terrestrial matters

Such as the 700 billion dollar corporate donation given out by our very generous federal government. which is, scientifically speaking, approximately equivalent to.

191 dollars for every mile between the Sun and planet formerly known as Pluto.

155 dollars for every year the planet earth has existed.

140 dollars for every year the sun is expected to continue shining.

2300 dollars for every American alive, regardless of age.

100 dollars for every human being alive anywhere on the planet today.

a mere 7 dollars for every human being that has ever lived on the planet at any time ever in the history of homo sapiens. I didn't calculate back any further.

More than 2 dollars for every penny that has ever been minted by the US treasury.

7 pennies for every cell in the average human body.

If carefully stacked in pennies, the pennies would reach a height of 69 million miles, which would be enough reach the planet mars and continue for another 21 million miles into space. in the other direction the stack would pass both inner planets and reach more than two thirds of the distance to the sun.

And while, incomprehensibly massive mismanagement of finances, much like the following hour of programming, does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California @ Davis, KDVS or it's sponsors.

And while recklessly mismanaged finance schemes of our modern economy has cost us more than 2 dollars for every star in the milky way galaxy.

The most startling of all these somewhat silly contrasting comparisons is this.

It amounts to 115 dollars to every dollar spent on the National Science Foundation.

If instead we had invested that 700 billion in scientific research? Priceless doesn't even come close describing the returns we would get..

Speaking of priceless returns, get ready for This Week in Science, coming up next.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Desperate McCain Suspends Campaign
John McCain thinks he is losing. When you are losing you become more willing to try hair brain schemes to turn things around (see Sarah Palin). He latest stunt is to announce he was "suspending his campaign" so he can work on the bail out in Washington. I wonder if this is coordinated with the speech Bush is going to give tonight.

Three words come to mind: arrogant, grandstanding, desperation. Let us start with arrogant (a vice I'm told I know well). There are 98 Senators in the US Senate who are not John McCain or Barack Obama. While I rather like Obama I don't think he is "uniquely qualified" to address this issues. John McCain main qualification is having been a strong proponent the deregulation that got us into this mess, and sadly that isn't unique in the US Senate either.

Next let us move to grandstanding. Not only is John McCain expendable in any bailout legislation, inserting Presidential campaigns into the process is not going to be helpful. Sadly not going to DC isn't going to remove Presidential politics from mess but going there will certainly make it worse. In addition to the usual political scheming everyone will need to make time for campaign photo-ops.

Finally we have desperation. If you look at the polls McCain's post convention bounce has faded. Obama is leading in the polls and the country rightly blames Republican deregulation bring us this mess. So McCain is going for another desperate gamble and hopes that he can convince Obama to suspend his campaign too or try to make Obama look bad for not grandstanding on this issue with him.

PS: This could put a damper on my Friday debate watching party as McCain is trying to use the economy as an excuse to chicken out of the debates now.

Update: Debate party is still on as the Obama campaign's response to McCain's stunt is

However a senior Obama campaign official said Obama "intends to debate."

"The debate is on," a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News.

(Let me tell you this about that!)

Help with your credit card debt
I know many of you have credit card or mortgage debt problems. I have a proposal to help solve your problem. Write me a check for $1000 that I will use to get you out of debt and sign a contract that says that

Decisions by Mattison pursuant to the authority of this contract are non-reviewable and committed to Mattison's discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

What you don't want to do that? What if instead of $1000 to me, it was $700 Trillion to George W. Bush?

Perhaps you should Call your congress critter and politely tell them giving George Bush a blank check is not sound economic policy.

(3 Comments |Let me tell you this about that!)

Celebrating Democracy
The first presidential debate will be this Friday, September 26th at 9:00 EST. Though our democracy has been taking a lot of hits lately it isn't dead yet. The tradition of Presidential debates is one of the great democratic traditions of this country. Both candidates have to answer questions head to head with the American people watching.

I'll be hosting a debate watching party. Please come to watch, learn, and shake your heads in disbelief. I have a big screen TV and TiVo, so we can pause the action to kibitz and fact check with Google.

The debate starts at 9:00 so try to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00. I'll be providing snacks and drinks but feel free to bring some to share yourself. Please RSVP if you'd like to come.

First presidential debate:
Friday, September 26
University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

(1 Comment |Let me tell you this about that!)