Enough of this. She's not qualfied.

The Palin shows continues in the media unabated. What great fodder for the media. However, I'm frustrated and already tired of this. Are we really debating the qualifications of Palin versus Obama? If you had two interviewees for a job at your company, one worked as manager at a Taco Bell and the other just finished their MBA from a top school who would you hire? Even if my business was selling taco sauce, I would still take the MBA! Folks, running the back sale at the PTA meeting is not the same thing as running a country.

In retrospect, it was a brilliant Karl Rove move to insist on her selection. Not because she is brilliant and be a great VP, but because selecting her does exactly what the RNC party needs to win the election; distract Americans from real issues and get them focused on highly emotional, faith based politics. They are masters at this tactic.

A friend sent me this polling website and asked me to vote 'no' to Palin. No problem, you don't need to ask me twice to do that. But then I took a minute and read the attached debate between Gloria Feldt and Rep. Michele Bachmann over her qualifications, character and treatment in the media. Gloria Feldt is an activist, author and blogger and Michele Bachmann is the first Republican woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota.

I was really surprised to see such little substance. Read it for yourself;

PBS interview

Is this election really about the glass ceiling for women and whether or not hockey moms are getting a fair shake in corporate America and world? Although important; wouldn't it maybe be more important to discuss, oh I don't know; iraq policy, energy crisis, this little banking meltdown we are having, surging entitlment costs, etc.?

To answer the question, she's not qualified. Have you listened to her speak? She doesn't have a clue what's going on in the world. Take a look at her profile I found in Wikipedia and don't tell me this impresses you:

Palin wikipedia post

Here are some highlights from her distinguished academic career:
In 1982, Palin enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. From there she transferred to North Idaho College, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From the community college she then transferred to the much larger University of Idaho for two semesters.[11][12] During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant beauty contest,[13][14] then finished third (second runner-up) in the Miss Alaska pageant,[15][16] at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award.[17] She then left the University of Idaho and attended Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska for one term. The next year she returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.[11][12]

Now let's take a look at our little community organizer Obama:

obama wikipedia

Obama graduated from Columbia and then attended Harvard Law School. " Beginning in 1992, Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, being first classified as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004.[25]"

Hmmm, I would say he is just a bit more qualified than our moose shooting Governor from Alaska. Just a little.

Fw: election map

I thought this was a great map showing how the election is shaping up state by state. Hopefully, this movie doesn't end the way it did in 2000 and 2004. But I'm very worried it might.

AM
Subject: election map

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I Must Be Taking Crazy Pills!?

Yesterday I heard that McCain was leading in the polls. You have got to be joking. I nearly spit out my drink. Then today, I heard that Palin has re energized the Republican ticket and that she has a 85% approval rating amongst Republicans. Finally, I saw an article on yahoo that says that a lot of women are now indicating they will vote for McCain verses Obama. Is this really happening?

I feel like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Its not necessarily surprising to me as much as it is truly disturbing. As I was discussing with a good friend today, the Democratic Party has a lot of flaws. Especially, when it comes to targeting it's core audience. We'll get into that more in another post. Hat's off to The Republican ticket for maximizing their chance to leverage this confusion.

For now I'd like to point out some of the few things I have learned about the Republican VP pick. Please correct me where I'm wrong. Given that the Republican campaign hasn't granted any interviews with her we have limited material to work with. Here is the list of highlights I have selectively gathered about her vast career in politics:

1.I heard a CNN report setting the record straight about that government plane that she supposedly sold on EBAY for a profit. They contend that yes it was listed at one time on EBAY, but it didn't sell and was sold through a dealer, at a loss. Not quite as good of a soundbite I guess.

2.The idea that she is any kind of a budget hawk is a complete joke. In an article in the 'Economist' this past weekend. article here

they explain what really happened to that 'Road to Nowhere' project she so defiantely resisted for the good of the taxpayer. When she was campaigning she was all for it until it was exposed for the scam it was. Only then did she change her mind about supporting it. Oh yeah, and the money was simply used to spend on something else. Is this what McCain meant when he said he was going to protect us from "earmark" projects?

3. Remember the theme song to 'The Beverly Hillbillies'? "and then one day he was shooting at some food and up from the ground came a bumbling crude, black gold, Texas tea." I can already see where the Republicans are going with Palin. She's going to save us by her vast knowledge of petropoltics! I can hear the war chant; America must reduce it's oil dependence. We MUST drill in Alaska!!! I say go ahead. We should be surveying that area anyway. What they will likely find is that yes there is oil in Alaska. Probably enough to satisfy US Consumption ( currently at about 25 million barrels per day ) for about 1 whole year. Oh yeah, and it will take about a decade to build out the infrastructure to get to it. That should take the pressure off at the pumps! Trust me, you won't hear that from the debates.

Nor will you hear about how Palin negotiated a windfall tax on the oil companies. That doesn't really rhyme with the lower corporate taxes they are promising does it? Her state also gets more money per capita from the Federal Government than almost any other. I guess it will be nice to have someone that knows about how these earmarks work so that she can put an end to them. Sounds more like putting the fox in charge of the hen house to me.

4. Do I have bring up her comments about wanting to teach creationism in public schools or her messianic rumblings about God wanting us to go to war with Iraq?

5. Finally, what's with McCain picking her in the first place? Apparently,he only met her once before. Was it her distinguished record that attracted him to her? Her vast experience running potluck dinners from the neighborhood hockey moms? It's been absolutely fascinating to me to hear the Republican talking heads rally to her defense. All give the Republicans one thing, they are uniform and united. You have to believe that Giuliani needed a few gin and tonics before he went onstage to sing her praises. Seriously, how could he go up there with a straight face and tow the party line. She must have promised him a squeezer if he did and came across as sincere.

This is a long rant, I know. I'm just bothered that this country is so accepting of these politicians. Are we really that gullible? Unfortunately, I think many of us our. We shouldn't have to dig this deep to get a clear picture. But, that is where we are at. Most politicians by nature would rather drink piss from someone that just ate asparagus then tell us what they really are about. But I guess that is only fair considering all of the crap they spoon feed us that we so willing eat!

Water World

A friend of mine passed along this article today about our water supply. It's refreshing, no pun intended, to see more and more awareness about these types of problems.

One of the biggest issues that most people are completely unaware of is how tenuous our fresh water supplies really are. As more and more people move to the desert ( Arizona, California, Nevada ) the supplies will continue to deplete. This is before factoring the impact of global warming which will like make these regions more arid.

More importantly, what the heck is in the water that we currently do drink? Apparently, a lot of chemicals and drugs that we probably would rather not be exposing ourselves to.

So what are we to do? Drink more bottled water? That's certainly not the answer since most of the bottled water we drink is the same or worse for us than tape water. Plus, when you factor in the energy and landfill waste it takes to package and ship it doesn't seem worth it.

I guess the next time someone asks you what you have been drinking when you are acting a little weird you can reply.....just tap water!

http://online.wsj.com/wsjgate?subURI=%2Farticle%2FSB121910526011851511-email.html&nonsubURI=%2Farticle_email%2FSB121910526011851511-lMyQjAxMDI4MTE5OTExMDk1Wj.html

You have got to be kidding?

I think we can chalk this up in the "you have got to be kidding me file." What were they going to do, have a grand jury investigation into his death? What do we need to know? A Hollywood actor took too many pills and died while waiting for his massage girl to come over. Can you imagine a panel of Senators grilling that Olson twin? For some reason I can. It's a tragedy, but not a surprising one.

"http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080807/ap_on_en_ot/heath_ledger">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080807/ap_on_en_ot/heath_ledger

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Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/

GMO Letter

Here is a great quarterly letter from GMO and it's well known steward, Jeremy Grantham. I would encourage everyone to read it. He is a tremendously successful investor who's goal is absolute return; not relative. In other words, his goal is to make money, or at least not lose it. One would think that all mutual funds would operate this way, but the dirty little secret is that they don't. Many, including some of the largest, operate for relative returns. This means that the only desire they have is to not lose more than the other guy. Thus, when we get a chance to read what someone like Grantham thinks, I think it's worthy of the time.

Here is the link ( you need to register to get the letter. it's the 2nd quarter letter to shareholders ):

http://www.gmo.com/america

He makes a lot of great points in this letter about the continued housing market bubble, at what level it might end ( on average another 17% to the downside or 4 flat years ) and it's implications. This assumes that it does not overshoot to the downside, which is a very high probability. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we don't live in the UK. He predicts that they are just starting their collapse and it will be as much as 40% to the downside!!

A large part of his investment philosophy is the belief that all bubbles eventually revert back to their statistical means. This certainly has been true in regards to Internet stocks and housing. Are we about to experience the unwinding of the credit boom bubble that began in 1982. One year now into the credit bubble burst seems to say yes. Both Grantham and Soros seem to think so. I wouldn't want to bet against them.

So what is an investor to do? Well, we probably would be all well served to reverse condition ourselves to buying the dips. If you look at his table he provide on page 6 you will see that in real terms returns have been awful over the past decade. Most people aren't even aware of it. If you are lucky to catch some of the panic drops along the way, then be sure to take some profits. If there is anything that has proven to be true in this bear market, there is a good chance that you will get another chance to buy things cheaply again.

If you don't have a chance to read this whole letter, try to take a look at his essay at the end. It's truly fascinating and ties into the current environmental issues we all face. As a proponent of a stronger energy policy focused upon renewables and a less wasteful way of life in general, I think Grantham nails it when he encourages us to think of our resources as irreplaceable. What is the alternative?

"The prices of commodities are likely to crack short term
(see fi rst section of this letter), but this will be just a tease.
In the next decades, the prices of all future raw materials
will be priced as just what they are: irreplaceable. Oil,
for example, will never again be priced on the marginal
cost of pumping a marginal barrel from some giant Saudi
oil fi eld, as has been the practice for most of the last 100
years of oil production. Real cost is always replacement
cost and oil, a precious feedstock for chemicals and
fertilizers, simply cannot be replaced. Using marginal
cost as a substitute was ignorant and conducive to wasteful
consumption of scarce energy resources. It also enabled
us to put our collective head in the sand and ignore the
growing need for an enlightened long-term energy and
climate policy"

Really?

Earlier this spring Obama dissented from both Hillary and amazingly McCain when he said that he did not advocate a reduction in the national gasoline tax. At the time, I was impressed as it seemed that he was the lone voice of reason as to what would have been a wasteful and largely unhelpful policy. There are no quick and easy fixes to our energy problems. It requires creating incentives to use less gasoline, not more, in combination with a lot of investment in alternative fuel sources. ( sorry beltway boys - I was not referring to corn based ethanol ).

Any 8th grader that has taken an economics class can tell you that the plan below would do nothing to help us out. But I guess it might help him gather some votes from uninformed ( most ) voters.

My disdain for all politicians continues to grow....

DrumBeat: August 1, 2008

Obama proposes $1,000 energy rebates for consumers

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is calling for a $1,000 "emergency" rebate to consumers to offset soaring energy costs.

Obama says the rebate would be financed with a windfall profits tax on the oil industry.

"This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday at a town hall meeting in the crucial swing state of Florida.