Posts Tagged “debate”
 A highlight of John McCain and Barack Obama’s Wednesday debate was McCain invoking a recent exchange between Obama and "Joe the plumber", the Ohio man who told Obama he wanted to buy the plumbing business where he was employed but worried he couldn’t because Obama would raise his taxes. McCain later said "Joe" was the real debate winner–and then learned Joe wasn’t a licensed plumber, owed back taxes and was mostly speculating about the business idea, which made Joe about as popular to McCain as Charles Keating…- Wall Street continues to careen in every direction, with Monday’s record gain of 936 followed by another drastic drop of 733 Wecnesday, then a true rollercoaster ride Thursday that saw the market down about 500 points before finishing up 401, with Friday’s trading starting off 250, but improving to about even at press time. Experts still say leaving your investments where they are is the best advice in the long run–unless of course you were actually hoping to spend any of it in the next 20 or 30 years…
- While the economy may be down, Social Security is going up–a 5.8% increase for next year will be the largest benefit bump in a quarter century. After reading the preceding story, seniors are probably grateful there’s something that’s actually appreciating in their portfolio…
- In a report out Friday, the GAO says that two US labratories–handling some of the world’s deadliest germs–lack some basic security features like adequate cameras, detection alarms and visible armed guards at public entrances. This is a little unsettling to me–there’s better security than this at my grocery store’s express lanes…
- Reformers in Iran are hopeful that former president Mohammad Khatami might challenge Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June presidential elections, with a former vice-president saying that Khatami can’t avoid it, adding, "It is a historic situation. He has to run even if he doesn’t want it personally." This may be one of those times when having a religious leader as a head of state actually improves the government…
  The Philadelphia Phillies–the first team in professional sports to to lose 10,000 games–will head to the World Series for the first time in 15 years after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 Wednesday, while the Boston Red Sox won their 8th elimination game in a row Thursday night with one of the greatest postseason comebacks in history as they overcame a late-game 7-0 Tampa Bay lead to defeat the Rays 8-7. One team propelled to their sport’s pinnacle after a lifetime of disappointment, and still another historic franchise that continues to disprove its one-time ninety-year curse–and people wonder why it’s called America’s Pastime….
Tags: Barack Obama, debate, GAO, Iran, John McCain, Major League Baseball, Social Security, Wall Street
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- The federal government’s quarter-trillion-dollar bank buy-in plan is being embraced by the industry as a means to get them back to the business of lending again, but many experts believe it won’t provide a quick fix to the nation’s economic problems. In my experience, depending on a bank to really help me with my problems is like hiring a shark to host a pool party…
- Wednesday’s final presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama may very well be McCain’s last chance to shake up a race that many polls suggest has been wrapped up by Obama. McCain’s people have suggested he may again try to connect Obama to Bill Ayers, the one-time anti-war radical who is now a professor and neighbor of Obama’s–I don’t know about you, that gets me right off worrying about the economy…
 Engineers at NASA say they know how repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and will begin a complicated remote-control fix Wednesday that will require them to wake up parts on the telescope that have been dormant for 18 years. Are we sure they’re qualified–after all, they probably have parts dormant for much longer than that…- A federal appeals court has ordered that Ohio’s election officials must establish a system to verify the eligibility of newly registered voters and make that information available to all of the state’s election boards, a victory for the state’s Republicans challenging the administration of registration policies by the Democratic secretary of state. So, the GOP is convinced the other side is trying to register ineligible pro-Obama votes, and the Dems are convinced the other side is trying to stop eligible pro-Obama voters from registering–at least they agree on something…
- Thanks to a break in Santa Ana winds, firefighters in Southern California have been able to better control 3 dangerous forest fires that have each moved closer to Los Angeles’ northwestern suburbs. The longer they can keep those arid breezes from fanning the flames, the better off they are–then again, it’s LaLa Land, and the Santa Anas are the least of their hot air problems…
 The upstart Tampa Bay Rays, who until now had never won more than 70 games a season, have pushed the mighty Boston Red Sox into an uncomfortable corner with a 13-4 rout of the defending World Series champs Tuesday–their second-straight lopsided win and the team’s third consecutive victory. The Sox have been here before, and they’ve roared back–but that was with "Manny being Manny", who’s now doing that pretty well for someone else…
Tags: Barack Obama, California, debate, Election Day, financial bailout, forest fires, Hubble Telescope, John McCain, Major League Baseball, NASA
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- John McCain and Barack Obama took to the debate stage for the second time Tuesday night in Nashville, and more or less took turns taking shots at one another. Basically, we learned that each of them plan to do exactly what all of us want them to do, and the other guy is responsible for everything that’s messed up in the country now…
- Wall Street continued its worry about America’s economy with a sell-off that sank the Dow another 500 points and set off a chain reaction around the world, including a nearly ten percent decline of Japan’s Nikkei Index–the largest drop there in a decade. I’m tellin’ ya, that Mattress Stuffing Fund is looking like a smarter investment every day…
 Officials of AIG Insurance–who averted a collapse thanks to an $85 billion federal loan–testified before a Congressional committee Tuesday, where they were asked about a corporate retreat held at an exclusive California retreat just a week after their federal bailout–at a cost of nearly a half-million dollars. Those executives testifying claimed they had no idea it had occured–and are probably ticked off that they weren’t invited…- Vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin surprised reporters on her campaign plane Tuesday when she joined them to answer a few questions, explaining her comments about Barack Obama’s relationship with one-time anti-war radical (and now respected university professor) Bill Ayers as a question of Obama’s judgement, then claiming "nobody has anything to hide" regarding her and huband Todd’s Troopergate controversy (see below) in Alaska–despite the fact that both refused to talk to investigators about it. So were the heels off and the gloves on, or the other way around?
 Officials at NASA are worried that the Mars Science Labratory mission is in jeopardy, as total costs for the program are expected to run over budget by at least 30 percent, which would permit Congress to intervene and shut down the entire project on its own. It could be that the future of the whole effort will not literally but definitely figuratively end up on another planet…- Scientists from the US and Japan have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discovery and development of a jellyfish protein. This breakthrough has wide-reaching possibilities–not only has it helped other scientists understand how cancer spreads, it’s provided sushi chefs with a really cool new ingredient…
Tags: AIG, Bill Ayers, Congress, debate, Financial meltdown, John McCain, Mars, NASA, Nobel Prize, Sarah Palin
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- As America’s credit crunch persists, the Federal Reserve announced Tuesday a plan to buy "commercial paper"–short-term financing used by many companies to fund their day-to-day operations for expenses like payrolls and office supplies–directly from eligible companies. I’m just hoping those "short-term" needs don’t include quick escapes by CEO’s who’s companies they’ve put in the tank…
- Tuesday’s second presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama could give McCain the edge, since the debate’s town-hall format favors him. The "town hall" approach, allowing questions from the audience as well as from viewers via the Internet, has played into McCain’s "Straight Talk" approach with potential voters–just as long as they don’t ask him to explain what "The Keating Five" and "Iran-Contra" mean…
 A Congressional hearing on the reasons for the nation’s recent financial crisis learned that the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers was scrambling to arrange millions in bonuses for its top executives even while it was begging for federal help. But Lehman got no taxpayer money–maybe CEO Richard Fuld could have poinied up some of the almost $400 million the company had paid him since 2000…- New research has found that using a fan to circulate air in a baby’s room can reduce the risk of SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome–the still-mysterious condition that is fatal to otherwise healthy babies. Experts believe it relates to providing the right environment–keeping the infant on their back on a firm mattress, keeping toys and pillows out of the crib, making sure the room temperature isn’t too warm–and of course, avoiding any deliberate suffocation…
 John McCain’s campaign is feeling the heat from a report that links him to a key organization involved in the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra fiasco–where arms were illegally sold to Iran to raise money for the ultra-conservative Contra rebellion in Nicaragua. McCain claims he left the group prior to Iran-Contra, but no one there remembers it happening. On top of the Obama campaign’s release of details of McCain’s involvement with The Keating Five during the savings-and-loan collapse 20 years ago, McCain may find that "Straight Talk" may do more harm than good…- Ford says it will introduce a new feature on several 2010 model cars that will permit parents to limit the speed a teen can drive to 80 mph. The company said they arrived at that number after taking into consideration freeway speeds from different states–but it does me no good in trying to keep my driveway limit under 50, does it?
Tags: Barack Obama, debate, Federal Reserve, Financial meltdown, Ford, health care, John McCain
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 The jury in the OJ Simpson trial returned its verdict Saturday, and it was guilty–both Simpson and co-defendent Clarence Stawart were found guilty on all 12 armed robbery and kidnapping charges. Simpson’s attorneys say they’ll appeal, implying it wasn’t possible for him to get an impartial jury–I’d just say he’s lucky Nevada doesn’t impose the death sentence for those crimes…- The House Friday passed the Senate’s "sweetened" version of the financial rescue bill it defeated Monday, with leaders and negotiators convincing some 58 members who voted "no" to change their minds and support the measure. It’s tough to say what changed more minds–those Senate "sweetners", or the continuing sour economic news…
 Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was called "spirited" and "folksy" by many, and the consensus seemed to be that Palin scored some points on being taken seriously as a candidate. I’m sure that Joe Six Pack would agree…- In a surprising turn of events, Wachovia announced Friday that it would be acquired by California-based Wells Fargo in a $15.1 billion all-cash deal–suprising because of an earlier FDIC-brokered takeover of Wachovia’s banking operations by Citigroup, who is claiming their agreement precludes them from negotiating with anyone else. Wachovia favors the Wells Fargo deal because they are buying the whole package, while Citi is pressing because of the larger national footprint Wachovia’s retail banking locations would provide–I gotta stop watching CNBC…
- A hiker’s discovery of some ID in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains earlier in the week has ended the search for millionaire-thrill seeker Steve Fossett, who disappeared over a year ago in a single-engine plane–which apparently crashed at the site, scattering debris as well as some possible evidence of Fossett’s remains. For a guy who spent the last years of his life chasing just about every kind of air and sea record in existence, it seems like he died just the way he lived–out on the edge, looking for a way to keep going…
 The EPA has reclassified Houston’s smog problem as severe at the request of Texas governor Rick Perry, which will give the city additional time to meet federal health standards set in 1997–standards the EPA no longer considers safe for public health. Just imagine how bad things would be if the government managed the environment the way they’ve handled Wall Street–oh, wait…never mind…
Tags: Citigroup, debate, environment, EPA, Joe Biden, OJ Simpson, Sarah Palin, Steve Fossett, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
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