Political yearbook

Here's a link to 15 politicians' high school yearbook pictures.  

Fourteen of the fifteen seem to reflect the personality we've come to know.

One - Dick Cheney - is inexplicable.

Quote of the day goes to...

... President Obama.

He was down in Florida campaigning for the stimulus.  Florida's Republican Governor Charlie Crist joined him.  Charlie has been outed more times than Elton John.  Last year he really, really wanted to be McCain's running mate so he got engaged (and is now married).

Whether he's gay or not is irrelevant.  There is no doubt President Obama knows the rumors and his staff prepped him to avoid any type of innuendo.  

But the more you try to avoid saying something the more likely you'll let something slip.  Like...

"Everybody here needs to grab a hose and that is  what Charlie Crist is doing here today."

World of Coke

I've done the Budweiser tour twice. If I had time to kill in St. Louis I'd do it again. You get to see the Clydesdales and the 3 story high vats where the beer is brewed. They discuss the various types of beers they make and even pull out a tray of beechwood to show how the beer is beechwood aged.
I set the bar for the World of Coke based on Budweiser. Sadly, Coke came up short. We didn't see any production facilities. They did have a lame mini-production facility that looked like something out of Willy Wonka. It was lame enough that I forgot to take a picture.

They did have an eight minute 3D movie. The seats rocked back and forth and they added wind and sprayed us with water to enhance the simulation. It was pretty cool.

Here's Matt sampling one of the Coke products from around the world. Coke claims that the only difference between the types of Coke around the world is the type of sweetener used. Anyone who had Coke in Nepal and Coke in the US knows this isn't true. I have no idea why Coke would try to make the claim.

79 days

I didn't remember that terror of losing Coke lasted for 79 days. Here's the important quote from the text:

Company leaders knew the new formula for Coke had scored well in blind taste tests and expected the initial uproar to subside once people had sampled the product. But they had not anticipated the depth of the consumer loyalty to a brand that has been virtually unchanged for generations. Stung by increasingly angry and vocal critics, on July 11, 1985, exactly 79 days after the new version had been introduced, the Company announced the return of the original formula, renamed Coca-Cola classic.

And there was much rejoicing in the streets.

Coke store

I managed to spend only $150. And the stuff I bought is really cool.

My retirement job

Playing a polar bear has to be more fun than being a Wal Mart greeter.

Iowa True Blue

Iowa True Blue was written by Gordon Fischer. Gordon was chair of the third district Democrats back when I was chair of the Benton County Democrats (he was my boss.) He went on to be State Chair and, by all accounts, did a great job.

Gordon stopped writing his blog a year ago. He was an early supporter of Obama and it may be hard to remember but a year ago tensions between the Obama and Clinton camps were running high. Gordon wrote about Bill Clinton staining his reputation like a blue dress he had also stained.

Following the media storm Gordon stopped blogging regularly and closed up shop completely after the election.

When I set up my blog I asked Gordon if it bothered him if I well, plagiarized, his blog title. He assured me he wasn't offended.

It's unfortunate that Gordon has stopped blogging. Most Iowa bloggers are to the right of Rush Limbaugh and Steve King. Gordon's a funny guy and his contributions are missed.

In Ben we trust

Bush deserves credit. It's like praising the "challenged kid" who finally ties his shoelaces... but Bush does deserve credit for appointing Bernanke. I listened to Treasury Secretary Geithner's announcement (underwhelming) and several hours of Bernanke testifying before congress.

Bernanke is very impressive. There is no longer a question of whether or not we're screwed. The question now is "How bad will it be." Bernanke gave no easy answers but he calmly explained everything he was doing to improve the situation. He didn't talk in circles or pat himself on the back (like his predescessor Alan Greenspan).

*****
According to stats along the side this is my 500th post. I'll make the same request I've made many times before: Please make comments. I've removed the time consuming log in requirements. I'll try to answer questions from the comments and not get (too) defensive on the criticisms.

Gallup

I like Gallup's poll showing Obama with a 67% approval rating and Republicans in congress with a 58% disapproval rating. Obama may well be making headway on the idea of getting beyond partisan politics.

Unfortunately, the economic policy proposals thus far have been uninspiring. He gave the Republicans incredible ground on his initial proposal and seemed shocked that they didn't jump on board. To get just 3 Republican moderates they've jetisoned some of the more stimulative parts of the stimulus bill.

Andrew Sullivan approves of Obama's maneuverings on the stimulus. His post here and here give me some hope for the future... Sullivan believes Obama is using a rope-a-dope strategy that he used effectively against Clinton and McCain. Take the high road, use words like "post-partisan", fluster your opponents into saying or doing stupid things and then go in for the kill.

Obama may be successful and become the most loved depression era president since, well, the last depression. I, however, would prefer that we avoid the depression. What good is being bi-partisan, post-partisan or whatever they are calling it these days, if the end result is bad legislation?

With no repercussions

The Dean of the College of Business stuck his head in my office.

"Did you know that 6 of your students went to the Vice Chancellor to say that you had lost their finals last term?"

"Umm, no... I didn't lose six finals. I still have all of the finals and can look them up if it would help."

"Oh, no, it's not necessary. I assured the provost and chancellor that everything was OK."

*****
Wow.

Wow on so many levels. Students going to the Vice Chancellor has no equivalent in the US. The Vice Chancellor is the person in charge of the entire educational system of the country.

I knew a couple of my students had wasta (that's the term for having connections). I knew my life would be easier if I simply gave them good grades. I didn't. They went to the Chancellor.

In my perfect world I would produce the finals, prove them wrong and they'd be punished. Instead, I guess I should be happy I still have a job. These are probably the only C's or D's these guys have ever received... and that's the good feeling I can take away from this.

Michael Steele

Steele is the guy who beat the racist guy to become chair of the Republican National Committee. Essentially, he is now the face of the Republican Party.

As an American I cheered his election. Republicans will not be helped by a guy who had a membership at a South Carolina country club and didn't notice there weren't any blacks.

Now, as a Democrat, I cheer his election because Steele is a frickin' moron.

Steele went on This Week with Stephanopolous and said, "These road projects we're talking about have an end point." In Steele's logic the job goes away, therefore, the spending was not worth it.

Yeah, you're right. Why did we spend billions building the interstates? Those workers who built it are no longer building it, right? Total waste of money.

Update: Totally unrelated... but I wouldn't be happy if I were a Republican and Steele axed the entire RNC strategy division.

Wow, keep it up Republicans and we'll have 90% of the electorate on my side. But don't worry, we will still give in to you at least 50% because that's our new president's "post-partisan" way.

CNN

In election news back home CNN was the preferred channel. (Get past the overrated Wolf Blitzer.) The "Best Political Team on TV" with Anderson Cooper beat MSNBC and Fox.

Living in this country we get very little CNN and mostly it is CNN International. This is a shift from A league to C league. I have tried and tried to watch but the programming can't match the quality of Channel 2 back home. (For those non-Cedar Rapidians reading, that's an insult.)

Nevertheless I looked forward to the tour of CNN complex in Atlanta. Unfortunately I have no pictures because cameras were not allowed. We went through a security process that rivals any airport. We then went up an escalator that took more than two minutes to get to the top of eight stories and learned that it's the longest escalator in the world (very believable).

We had a chance to see the CNN news floor live and in action. It was interesting to see the cameras facing the anchors. I remember seeing teleprompters from a visit to Channel 9 when I was in elementary. Basically the anchors read from a screen below the camera. Today's teleprompters project an image to a plate of glass in front of the camera. The anchor staring right at the words appears to you and me to be looking right into the camera. When they are doing an interview they are looking into the camera seeing exactly what we see.

We moved onto the CNN Headline News where we watched workers play solitaire. We learned that Headline News has no "new" news generation, it's all recycled news from the regular CNN.

That explains a lot.

We then saw CNN International. We heard nice words about how CNN has more international bureaus than any other organization but the woman giving the tour didn't stop for a second for me to ask, "So why is the coverage so lame?"

Anyhow, I'm glad I took the tour. According to Matt, whose been on the tour 3 times now, it is a much better tour than it was in the past.

Overall, I'd say CNN was pretentious. The tour struck me as claiming that they were the end all of news. Sorry. I don't watch CNN anymore and I'm able to keep informed.

More bad news for Nepal

Many Nepalese head to other countries to work. They don't make much money but they send home whatever they can to support their families.

The guys who do my laundry are an example: They work in the Emirates and, if they are lucky, get to go back to Nepal every 2-3 years. They routinely send home small sums of money to help their families survive.

According to this article 150,000 Nepalese have lost their jobs abroad and been sent home. This is a double whammy to an already desperately poor country. First, the returning workers add to the already high unemployment rate. Second, the money from those workers was a lifeline that's been cut off. Poor third world countries need hard currency (like the dollar) . Workers abroad help prop up the country. When those workers return en masse the results are devastating.

Sometimes a graph helps explain

Click on the graph above to see it more clearly. It shows job losses in the previous two recessions as compared to job losses in the current recession.

The economy is in free fall. There is no comparison to recent recessions. I am disappointed in Obama because he created a package with a bunch of useless sweeteners to attract Republicans. If this package ends up being insufficient -and I believe it will - Republicans are the real winners. They get all the tax cuts they could have hoped for AND get the chance to blame the recession deepening on the Democrats.

I've had enough of this post-partisan bullshit. Hillary would never have made this mistake.

"Independent study"

That's what spring break is called here. I'm not sure why.

Hmmm... Spring break in the Emirates. I wonder what it is like for the typical college student. According to those who have been there, the beaches here rival any in America, but... needless to say, there would be no body shots, MTV wet t-shirt contests or public drunkenness.

That's good. It will leave them more time for independent study.

Calvin and Hobbes

I spent most of today writing my syllabi for the next term catching up on news. A good part of my day has been reading economic analysis. Unfortunately, the news is grim; we are screwed. I did come across this cartoon linked on economist Greg Mankiw's blog.
People who read this 15 years ago had to smile. People today will groan.

*****
I have plenty of posts in the future about the Coke Museum and the trip back. Right now I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to unwind. And I can't find my Ambien. I know I brought it back...

Good dad, bad dad

Good dad: Accompanies son on a field trip.

Bad dad: Uses meth while on the field trip.

Missed marketing idea

Upon returning home I threw out old food including this box of Frosted Flakes. (I ate a bowl or two back in October.) Then I read that Kelloggs dropped Micheal Phelps because he smoked pot.

Dumb, dumb move. Kelloggs should have embraced Phelps. Imagine the sales increase if Frosted Flakes became the stoners' first choice in munchies.

I can see the ad campaign: Tony says "It's the bowl you eat after the bowl you smoke..."

The back of the box would include simple instructions with pictures explaining: Pour Flakes into bowl. Add milk. Eat with spoon.

Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now!

All day I've been repeating the "Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now!" line from the old pull up ads. Why? After living in my apartment for 3 months I have graduated from sleeping on the couch to my bed. I brought two eggshell cushions with me from America. It makes the hard mattress soft enough for Goldilocks me. Finally I have a place to put my $200 sheets.

And their always glad you came!

It's not Cheers but it's close.
I stopped at my favorite fast food joint on my first day back. There were three women behind the counter. Two of the them were elated to see me:

"Hello sir! Welcome back!"
"Where have you been?"

I explained my absence and they quickly told the trainee that I always get a mushroom and swiss or a big roastbeef with upsize fries and water instead of Pepsi.

I sat waiting for my meal to go and one of the lady's brought it to me and escorted me to the door and opened it for me.

All 100% true; I couldn't make this up.