A Show of Hands, Please

Does anyone think the Obama Administration will lead the charge suggested by my man, E.J. Dionne?  I wouldn’t let the MSM off the hook here (and he doesn’t), but now is the time for the President to start motivating the troops by standing up to the other guy.

E.J. Dionne to Democrats: WAKE UP!

I share his pain.

Yes? or No?

If you don't remember the "Yes, We Can" video from 2008 or didn't see the end of the House debate before the HCR vote Sunday night, this video may not completely resonate with you, but it makes a great point:

Great High Burn

Or greatest high burn?

-- Posted from my iPodPhone

Virgin Wins Again

While Delta surprised me on the way out to SF, I have to say that nothing tops Virgin America. Today, boarding my return flight, they impressed me yet again. After boarding first class, they boarded everyone without roller suitcases. This seems very obvious to me, but I've never seen it before. Boarding without a rollerboard is much quicker (don't have people jamming up the aisle, trying to stuff their so-big-it-needs-to-be-checked suitcase in the overhead. The boarding process was insanely quick.

Thank you Virgin. Let's hope everyone else copies you.

Early Departure

Amazingly, Delta has decided to schedule my flight to depart 5 minutes early (which I discovered upon reaching my gate). I realize it's only a small time period, but I feel like this is some kind of victory for all humankind.


-- Posted from my iPodPhone

Wizards or Huskies?

We could really use him for the stretch run. Seriously, isn't this the argument for some kind of idiot clause? I get that Thabeet is making gobs of money, even when he gets sent to North Dakota (how many Tanzanians are in ND?), but can't they come up with some escape/return/ejection/undrafting clause that let's guys, who were never ready in the first place, go back to college for the tourney? It's like expanded rosters for the playoffs!

Maybe I'm biased because UConn has so many of these guys: Rudy Gay, Donyell Marshall, Thabeet, etc. I'm shocked Stanley Robinson stuck around after last year. Despite his terrible year, I'm sure someone was telling him he had the right "length" and "ability."

Hey Cabbie

You know what's coming next, right? I mean seriously, do not complain to me about my using the credit card system installed in your cab. It's in there exactly so I can use it. I get that it takes days to process, that's why I gave you a bigger tip than normal (and than you ephing deserved (taking the extra long way, thinking I wasn't paying attention)). Don't wait until after I give you said tip to sigh and say, "oh jeez, what the hell? It takes ten days to process, man!" I know this isn't unique to Boston cabs either. Cab drivers everywhere seem to hate it. I get it, you want cash. When I have it, I'm happy to pay with cash. But when I don't, just relax and deal with it, I'm sure I'm not the first (or last) person to pay with credit card.

And, by the way, you work in a service industry. So be happy that I don't take your crappy ass service as an excuse not to reward you for crappy as service. If you want to complain, GFY. I'm swiping.

Bocce!

Not just for Latin class anymore.

0-2. Not a strong performance so far. You would think that I didn't play once a week for four years during Latin class in high school.

-- Posted from my iPodPhone

Knickerbockers Warchest

I put the odds of LeBron coming to NYC this offseason at about 1%. While I think it would do amazing things for the franchise (in terms of fan interest and valuation), I don't think LeBron is interested in going from a championship caliber team to a rebuilding Knicks franchise. Wouldn't they be better off going after both Wade and Bosh? Assuming they offer them their two max contract slots, they get the best hybrid guard (and an absolute gamer) and one of the best forward/centers in the league. If McGrady shows any signs of life (he's only 30!), they are good to go for next year.

Then, assuming LeBron rumors are true (that he only wants a three year deal), they can pitch LeBron on NYC in '13/'14 coming to play with two other studs and win as many championships as they want. I don't know what Donnie Walsh is thinking, but he has truly done an excellent job making room to spend some money. I'm hopeful.

In other, more distressing news, I just read the following: The Knicks have not been below the salary cap since 1996, when they signed free agents Allan Houston and Chris Childs. Yikes.

Update (10:10pm): My mistake, McGrady's $23mm comes off the books this summer, not next summer. Either way, the Knicks could spend enough for Bosh and Wade.

Right Choices

With mgp's shot across my bow, I figured this is a good time to point out something in my life about which I made the right choice: college. This video reminds me why I refused to consider attending a certain University in CT, despite it's quality reputation and its crew coach's pursuit of my (once upon a time) rowing abilities:

To be honest, when I first saw the video, I thought it was made by The Lampoon or The Onion. Or maybe even some kind of weird response to this prank:



But then I read the accompanying New Yorker article. Man, oh man. Yale really does suck.

Also, Brian Williams...I'm just shaking my head.

Time Out

It had been a little while (~3 weeks) since i've pondered anything important in this location with no readers. There had been a lot of nothing on the politics front. I haven't seen any good music in Boston (and will yet again miss Dawes when I leave town this weekend). It's too easy to comment on the stupidity of 10 Best Picture nominees. I'm swamped at work and with wedding planning. Now LOST is back on, which eats up Tuesday nights and my brain the entire next day. Maybe soon I'll have nothing to say about nothing that I can post here for no one to read.


-- Posted from my iPodPhone

Obama and House Republicans

Really, the entire video is worth watching. It's amazing to have a President who is knowledgeable and thoughtful about the issues and is willing to get into the details rather than simply sloganeer, a point Obama himself tries to make during the Q&A. Obama makes clear that he is an adult. Most important stuff starts at the 59 minute mark with Tom Price's question:

I think Obama hits on an essential point: Republicans are in lock-step opposition unless the final bills reflect 100% of their demands, even though their current share of the congress is roughly 40% (and even lower when accounting for geographical population density skew of the Senate). This is not how our government works. Elections have consequences. If you have stuff to offer, get it into the bill and pass it.

I'm Ready to Give Up

First, the Democrats take the wrong lesson away from the loss in the MA Special Election. Then, Obama decides that a spending freeze is the way to go in the midst of a lack of aggregate demand in the economy; an idea so idiotic, Chuck Grassley proposed it last year when the Obama Administration was fighting for stimulus dollars. Now, the Demo...actually, we've had this retarded discussion before. Only now, as the ARRA has helped keep the economy from cratering one would hope that the Democrats would push for more stimulus in the face of an economic "double dip."

Alas.

Eph me.

Florida, 2000 vs. Massachusetts, 2010

An interesting comparison from TNR's Jonathan Chait

Martha Coakley, GFY

Seriously, you were a horrendous candidate. Way to "lock it up" by thinking you had it won, totally misreading the public at large and not campaigning at all. Brilliant. Oh, and Democratic Primary voters in MA, you can GFY too. Seriously, way to choose the wrong candidate for the current political environment. I voted for Capuano, who by the way, can GFH. Capuano, you knew this was going to be a difficult election long before anyone else, reportedly telling the caucus "you're screwed" after the primary campaign. Why weren't you campaigning for Coakley, or at least drawing attention to national implications of the race?

And that goes for you Obama White House. First with all your putzing around with Olympia Snowe and wasting months trying to win a vote you were never going to get, letting this thing drag through the summer (when the Crazies of Crazytown came out of hiding) and leaving it in the hands of mostly uninformed, underemployed voters. And on top of that, you didn't make a peep about the election, the whole time Coakley's numbers were falling off a cliff. You suck too.

And don't even get me started on the likes of Ben Nelson (D-NE), Evan Bayh (D-BAG), Joe Lieberman (D-HEAD) and all the Blue Dogs who will learn exactly the wrong lesson from this (ie, when you look like a pussy, voters treat you like a pussy) and will let this thing die. Hey assholes, what exactly are you going to run on then? You already voted for the bill or something extremely close to it. You think you're going to get anything done now? These donkeys kept the Democrats from passing any meaningful legislation in the first year (outside the stimulus), complained about it, empowered the minority and left themselves with exactly zero accomplishments to campaign on. So any Democrat who thinks that letting HCR die now is a good idea and will help their electoral chances in October is pretty patently retarded and can GFH/H.

Strangely, the only person I think deserves a pat on the back here is Harry Reid. He somehow managed to adhere to the White House's silly wishes (include Olympia Snowe, let the bills grow organically through each house of the legislature, etc.) and managed to cobble together his caucus of 60 Senators (including a lot of the aforementioned sanctimonious assholes) and get a bill passed. You can say what you want about his leadership in the past and I know lots of people complain about the Senate bill in its current form, but I think what he accomplished is pretty impressive. And I think it's not going to be repeated.

Everyone else can GFT.

Zucker (Once Again) Has to Clean-Up His Own Mess

After discovering that this post was showing up #1 for the Google Search, "Jeff Zucker Worst TV Executive," I felt compelled to write a brief post on the current Leno/Conan fiasco.

For those that don't know, Jeff Zucker (The Worst TV Executive in History) decided last season, to put Jay Leno on at 10pm, 5 nights a week, in the place or original dramatic programming. This boneheaded idea was that Jay Leno cost less than original, dramatic programming, which would save the network in costs. This was true. But what the boneheaded WTEiH forgot is that costs are only one side of the equation to making money: can't forget revenues!

Revenues in the TV universe are pretty simply: ratings x dollar per rating point (that the advertisers are willing to pay; aka a CPM). It's a symbiotic relationship. Higher rated shows command higher CPMs, thus driving revenues exponentially higher. Lower rated shows drive lower CPMs, thus Jeff Zucker is a moron. Not only was Leno bound to have lower ratings than "Insert Awful Drama with Lame Storyline that is Canceled at Mid-Season and Replaced with Equally Crappy Show," but advertisers would know it and demand to pay lower CPMs.

The beauty is, the 10 o'clock hour serves as a lead-in for the local news, one of the biggest drivers of advertising revenue for local affiliate stations. Crappy lead-in means crappy ratings for local news. Crappy ratings for local news crushes affiliate revenues. To pile on, NBC actually owns a number of its affilate stations (think WNBC in NYC), so not only has Zucker destroyed the value of his network by sinking its ratings, but he's also crushed the (already struggling) affiliates! Oh and I forgot, by crushing the 10 o'clock hour and local news, he's essentially sucked all the air out of "The Tonight Show" (local news serves as its lead-in). With one boneheaded move, Zucker destroyed 3 hrs of programming (5 nights a week!).

Now, his big plan is to put Leno back at 11:30pm and watch Conan O'Brien go to Fox/ABC and continue to eat away at The Tonight Show audience. Way to destroy a 50 year old franchise, Jeff! I'm especially going to enjoy seeing Conan on Letterman right before he launches his new show. I'm sure Jeff Immelt is sad he can promote Zucker for "accomplishing" all of this.

The Eph You Phone by Google

This is pretty clever:

In all seriousness, though, there isn't (and likely never will be) an iPhone-killer. Because Apple was first and the most innovative (and they have the cool rep), they basically established a pricing umbrella that makes it impossible for other companies to compete on a "gotta have it" basis. Palm/RIMM/Google can't price at $299 or $399 (thus keeping the phone as a "high-end" device) because you can get an iPhone for $99 or $199. They can't price for free to lure people in, because that pricing has shown to destroy brand value. They can't price exactly the same (the Pre launched at $199) because people say, "shit, for that price I can have an iPhone."

What they are left with instead is to try to market the crap out of their devices (see weird Palm Pre adds and lame-O BlackBerry ads) trying to push smart (or now for some dumb reason, "super") phones as a category in general.

Oh, and the pricing logic totally ignores that they iPhone has a gajillion apps available in the store as compared to 1,000 for the Pre and like 100 for the Android O/S (and I think 3 for BlackBerry O/S). If Apple ever figured out the enterprise email app, RIMM would be out of business.

One last thing: the Nexus One is a fucking HTC phone with Android...just like the Droid, the Droid Eris, the Motorola Sholes, the Motorola Cliq and a bunch of other Android phones. Yes, it will be marketed differently (sold directly by Google, available unlocked, etc.), but it's not anything new to get excited about.

FW

I have been fortunate enough to convince a wonderful woman to spend the rest of her life with me. As we have taken the plunge into wedding planning the last few months, I've come to despise the term fiancé. Maybe it's that Seinfeld episode playing over and over again in my head, but I hate the word:

I've recently taken to referring to her as my "Future Wife," or "FW." That felt like too many syllables/a mouthful, so I tried to shorten it to "F-dub," but it was pointed out to me that "F-dub," sounds suspiciously like "Ephed Up." I'm really not trying to make any kind of comment about modern engagements or marriage; just that I hate the word fiancé.