Father Knows Nothing

This Picture...

2009-01-21T23:58:00.003-05:00

is worth a hell of a lot more than a thousand words. Maybe a thousand books. And don't get me started on Jill Biden's boots. Wow.

The Gray Lady nails it

2009-01-21T23:30:00.002-05:00

I can't stop crying

2009-01-19T11:14:00.003-05:00

Just watched this from yesterday. My sisters had the wonderful fortune of being there to see this live. I am surprised at just how powerful this was for me.

Why New York is still the greatest city

2009-01-16T11:18:00.001-05:00

Only in New York can a plane crash become a feel-good story.

Cull your in-box, you never know what you'll find

2009-01-12T18:33:00.003-05:00

I spent some hours culling my Gmail inbox last night. It had grown to over 275 messages, some from over a year and a half ago.

What I was surprised to discover was a treasure trove of messages from my friend Michael, who died last summer. But what was so wonderful, was that nearly all of them were from the year when he was in remission from his cancer. Looking at what were essentially ordinary missives between friends took on a very different feel. We talked about the election, work, football, baseball, work ( he liked to talk about work), music, and most things. But not his cancer. So fucking naive we were, but I would never trade that year for anything in my life. As horrible as 2008 was, 2007 was pretty wonderful.

I never expected to be transported back to a time that was, dare I say, more innocent than today. But cleaning out my mailbox gave me the memory of a time when I (we) thought that he had cheated death. It was a lovely time, so long ago.

Out of the mouths of babes

2009-01-10T15:34:00.002-05:00

During a particularly fractious moment today where Grace was sobbing due to the fact that her sleeve was slightly bunched up while I tried to put on her mittens, I very sternly told her that there was no reason to cry about a bunched up sleeve. It was ridiculous to cry about it.

She simply replied through her tears "Daddy, but small children cry about small things."

Checkmate.

And, yes I forgot my wallet, so we ended up skiing for only about an hour before the hunger was too much. Grace insisted on a rummage through the car for cash, but I spent way too much on meters in the city. Nothing is 60 cents any more.

2009

2009-01-01T17:47:00.002-05:00

I will be posting to this site again soon, when I get back to the land of regular reliable internet access. The date I stopped writing is pretty obvious to those who know me. I just didn't see the point.

But 2009 is a new year and I intend to honor that so I will resume regular posts when I return.

Regards,
CS

Testing 123

2008-11-10T23:21:00.001-05:00

Pander Pander!

2008-04-30T11:03:00.002-04:00

This whole gas tax nonsense shows just how craven Clinton & McCain really are.

If voters reward them for this crap, then we deserve crapy leadership:

General Election Polls Suck and Here's Why

2008-04-26T00:12:00.000-04:00

One of the things I don't think the media folks have articulated properly is the ramifications of Hillary wrestling the nomination away from Obama.

From my vantage point, Obama has the "cleanest" path to the nomination. He is leading in the most important yardstick for voters to understand, the pledged delegate count. This is how the system is set up. His argument for the nomination is easy to understand and extremely logical for the regular voter to figure out. Hillary is attempting to cloud the picture with her talk of the "popular vote". For her it brings back memories of 2000, which still makes dems like me wince. I totally understand why she is trying to make this new argument on a theoretical level, but it is clear that the pledged delegate lead is the cleanest argument by far. That is why his argument never changes, and hers does with each primary vote.

So, by this measure, the nomination clearly is Obama's to lose. He will absolutely end the primary season with the most pledged delegates and therefore, his claim to the nomination will make sense to voters sense of fair play. He won by the yardstick that was in place at he beginning of the process. It will make sense to the average voter.

So when I see Hillary trotting out polls showing that she does better in certain states (Ohio, PA) than Obama, what the press never seems to mention is that her path to the nomination is much more difficult and fraught with peril for the Democratic Party. Any scenario that gives her the nomination (other than discovering photos of Obama with a naked teenage boy) will without question involve undermining the expressed will of the voters of the primary season. Her path is the one that will create the riots on the streets of Denver. His path does not.

So assume for a moment that she manages to snatch the nomination from Obama under these circumstances. It will essentially destroy the Democratic Party. Black voters (one of the bases of the party), young voters (also known as the future of the party), and very possibly the "upscale educated" voters (that would be us) will leave the party in droves. No Democrat can get elected without these groups.

No polling with her numbers in a general takes into account her destructive path to the nomination. That is one of the huge flaws of her campaign right now. She trots out her arguments of "electability" but the linchpin of her path involves undermining the expressed will of voters. No polling asks these questions. And therefore these polls mean less than nothing until they factor in her only path to become the nominee.

You clicked here. Thank You!

2008-04-25T22:57:00.001-04:00

Yep. Another one of those periodic outages that have no excuse.

Stay tuned. More in a bit.

Stealing Bush's backdrops

2008-03-27T22:06:00.003-04:00

Just noticed that Hillary is stealing those backdrops that Bush uses when he is giving a speech. The big theme of the speech is repeated as wallpaper behind him to let the viewer know what he's talking about.

See what I mean?

Today's Picture worth a thousand words

2008-03-21T20:22:00.002-04:00

Two people, one the child of a white American and a Mexican, and the other, the child of a Kenyan and a white American.
One thing you could say about these two if they ran together, they would have all the electoral bases covered!!

Nice end to a tough week.

MSNBC's interesting choice of messenger!

2008-03-19T08:43:00.003-04:00

I must say that I find it highly amusing that MSNBC trots out Pat Buchanan to discuss race relations in the wake of Obama's speech yesterday. you know, this Pat Buchanan, the one who gave this speech:

This is what Desperation looks like

2008-02-24T08:56:00.002-05:00

The sports metaphor is so horribly overused, so let's add to the pantheon.

Football
When your team is down by 2 scores with 2 minutes to go, you start with the trick plays and the Hail Mary passes. There is a reason we have seen the Doug Flutie pass a million times.

Baseball:
This is a little different, because when a team is down by 6 runs going into the 9th inning, they often just try and get the game over with. But if they have a whiff of a chance, you often see guys trying to hit a 6 run homerun.

Hockey
Pulling the goalie (also a sexual reference which is not applicable here)

The Clinton campaign pulled the goalie yesterday:

This is what class looks like

2008-02-18T22:07:00.002-05:00

I've always been a Yankee hater and I always will. But I have also always had a soft spot for Andy Pettitte, especially after he suffered outrageous treatment in the press by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, who publicly threatened to trade him (right - a then under 30 year old lefty!) in the middle of a subpar season. His performance in Game 3 of the ALDS against my team, the Indians, was staggering, and he didn't deserve his fate that night.

Today he made a public statement about the allegations of him using HGH. And unlike the bellicose and defensive Roger Clemens, Andy was nothing but class. A real person takes responsibility for their actions, and Andy did just that today.

Life in the Snow isn't so bad

2008-02-15T22:10:00.002-05:00

I got to spend a little chunk of time today in our very snowy, hilly yard on a very cheap sled with Grace today. We traversed every possible hill that was negotiable on our property without killing ourselves and she even made a snow angel for me as an exclamation point on our little outing.

Sarah got a much needed break from the brand new testing of limits phase of our daughter's life. I'm not used to being ignored so easily. But the deprivation of the toys seems to have an effect. I'll keep you posted.

Weekend at Barry's

2008-02-11T00:02:00.000-05:00

There has been so much talk, even by people who get paid A LOT of money for their opinions that while Obama might have a good February, Hillary had her firewall in Texas & Ohio on March 4th. This is her 2nd or 3rd firewall. Even Rudy only had one.

What they never mentioned that this race, which has not lacked for drama, has lacked one important ingredient: momentum. Neither candidate has been able to put together a string of victories that would create a dynamic change.

This weekend may be the beginning of that change. If Tuesday goes like the polls are saying, Obama will have run off a string of 8 wins in a row, with Hawaii & Wisconsin to come. The March 4th voters of Texas & Ohio (and of course Vermont) will see those results as well. Polls taken in those states after Tuesday will be very instructive for both campaigns. Don't expect Hillary to have a double digit lead any more.
.
Another interesting side story of the weekend is the Rasputin like campaign of Mike Huckabee. He too had a great weekend, and with the obvious shenanigans in Washington State over the missing last 13% of the votes, it will provide an excellent story. Just when we think the GOP race is over and the Democrats are in disarray, an election breaks out and the stories reverse. Strange weekend.

McCain will be the nominee, but these kinds of bumps in the road will not serve him well as he tries to get a jump on beating up the democrats.

Lastly, Bush got in on the action by taking a swipe at Obama today. Got to love that if you're Obama. Not so much if you're Hillary.

Hillary's Millions

2008-02-08T11:07:00.000-05:00

I have no problem with a candidate spending their own money on their campaign. It's their money after all all.

But think about this. Bill and Hillary Clinton are rich because Bill was the President for 8 years and in the wake of that he has been able to rack up huge fees for speaking and book writing. Hillary has written several books that, if she were not a first lady, would never have sold (for a comparison, please see how many copies Barack Obama's book sold before he got into the Senate).

This has the potential to look like is that the Clintons are using the money they made from being President and First lady to buy the Presidency a second time. That is why the loan to the campaign is a big deal. It becomes circular. Using the power of the Presidency to attain more Presidential power.

CNN has the rookie team on

2008-02-06T02:29:00.000-05:00

They have pundits on discussing Super Tuesday who have never been seen outside of cable access. Never seen any of them.

Well, to be fair, it is 2:30AM

Obama makes a play for the Golden State

2008-02-01T00:24:00.000-05:00

This my theory about tonight's debate. Perhaps it is a happy accident, but I bet not.

Obama has made the decision that if he wins California then he will win Super Tuesday. He will likely win most of the south and perhaps Missouri, Idaho & if he is really lucky, Connecticut. (Massachusetts is probably out of reach).

What is the biggest prize on Tuesday? California. Obama made a play for the Golden State tonight in a big way. His team is aware that whoever wins there will control the narrative going forward. The clock is running out for Obama but he made his case to California voters explicitly and in code.

My prediction: whoever wins California will be the nominee.

We aren't in Kansas Anymore (hint: We are in LA)

2008-01-31T23:10:00.000-05:00

This is one of those normal undecided voter groups commenting on the debate with doofus Frank Luntz.

But it goes all wacky at exactly the 2:27 mark: This is totally worth a moment of your time on this planet.

Hint: Ministry of silly analysis.

OK Time for some father daughter posts

2008-01-31T00:25:00.000-05:00

Today, Grace and I were working on a few puzzles together. Occasionally I would give her a high five if she finished one. My version of encouragement.

After putting one especially difficult piece together, she turned to me and said, "Daddy can I have a five?"

In Her Own Words

2008-01-30T21:40:00.000-05:00

As Primary day approaches, here is a short film to remind you of a few things about the run up to the Iraq War.

Live from Florida...It's Morning Joe!

2008-01-28T07:10:00.000-05:00

Thw MSNBC road show is in Florida today, where they are apparently holding a pretty important Republican Primary.

The first half hour, the closest they got to mentioning the GOP was some mention of Joe Lieberman. All the oxygen is being taken up by the other party, and another former President. And today it is being taken up by the senior senator from my neighboring state.