Bits & Pieces (Tuesday Night Open Mic)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Michigoose

Well, well, well. . . many of our hometowns turn up on this list, but look who’s the gayest of them all.  Who’d a thunk it??

Few things are better than women in science (right??!!??), and this TED talk is great!

Another edition of clinician silliness cartoons: 

Try as they might. . .

The Granite State © Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner,mitt romney, new hampshire, granite, state, primary, campaign, 2012, republican, gop, candidates, nomination, election, politics, newt gingrich, ron paul, rick santorum, jon huntsman, stone

So what else is up out there?  Got any more code for us tonight, Kevin?  🙂

Filed under: Uncategorized | 24 Comments »

Whither Texas?

Posted on January 10, 2012 by markinaustin

Quandary.  Texas’ primary will surely be postponed until June.

How did we get here?

1]  TX Lege published its CD map based on the 2010 census.

2]  TX is a state that must pre-clear its map with the Justice Department or alternatively ask a USDC in Washington DC for a declaratory judgment.  No state had ever gone to court before, but TX thought it would do “better” in court than with a D DOJ.  This infused delay, as a matter of course – DOJ pre-clearance takes but 60 days.

3]  The DC Court has not finally ruled, but did make an interim finding that the TX plan violated the VRA.  The DC Court will finally rule in March, perhaps.

4]  TX had scheduled its primary for Super Tuesday in March, so, in an unusual move, the DC Court permitted a TX federal court panel to draw an interim plan for TX.  The San Antonio panel obliged, but without ever making its own preliminary finding that the TX plan violated the VRA.  

5]  TX appealed the SA map to the Supremes saying it was not based on a finding of a violation. Further, TX said, it could use its own map if no violation had been found.  The DC court case was not part of the appeal but it was not far from the Supremes’ minds, either.

6]  Read the link to see that the Supremes are confused, too. I think you will sense that the Supremes will probably come up with a compromise result that will be more about judicial administration of the federal court system, IMHO, then about the probable swing of 4 HoR votes by party that are the political stakes.  3 of 4 new HoR seats are R under the TX plan, but D under the San Antonio USDC plan.

7]  Remember that this is only about TX’s interim plan at this point – the final plan will be dictated by the USDC in DC, or the appeal of that case.  Problem for TX is that the interim makes the CD lines for 2012, and until we have a final ruling, we cannot have 2012 elections or primaries.  The Supremes [and all courts] hate tight timelines in complex matters.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 23 Comments »

Morning Report

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1289.5 13.9 1.09%
Eurostoxx Index 2351.9 65.460 2.86%
Oil (WTI) 103.13 1.820 1.80%
LIBOR 0.5795 -0.001 -0.17%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 80.776 -0.212 -0.26%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 2.00% 0.04%

Markets are rallying worldwide on no real news. Alcoa kicked off earnings season last night with a loss that was more or less expected. Sales were higher than forecast. Alcoa also forecast global demand will drop to 7% from 11% last year on China weakness. Regardless, the stock is up this morning. Lennar and JP Morgan also report this week. I am interested in what Lennar has to say – construction has been the weak link in this recovery, and some of the other homebuilders had been relatively optimistic about 2012. If housing construction starts picking up, that is a great sign that the recovery is picking up steam.
The markets are rallying partly on hope that China will ease. China’s hard or soft landing may turn out to be the next wall of worry after Europe. By all accounts, their real estate bubble has burst and Chinese savers are heavily exposed to real estate. China’s capital controls mean that Western banks don’t have much exposure to China’s banks, but they do have exposure to the big UK/HK giants HSBC and Standard Chartered. At any rate, the loss of Chinese demand is the last thing the global economy needs at the moment, though it will be music to the Fed’s ears as it should lead to lower commodity prices.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 17 Comments »

Another Baby

Posted on January 10, 2012 by lmsinca

I’m not sure how many of you remember BGinCHI (Brad-King of Snark), or ever knew him, but here’s a picture of their little guy born on Jan. 6.  Maybe once his life gets back into a nice routine he’ll have time to post over here occasionally…..lol.  Hey if Ash can do it………………………

Also, some of you may remember me asking for advice when our daughter fell in New Orleans at one of the hotels and broke her front tooth quite badly.  We’re still waiting to see if their insurance pays for it (about $5K) but she got her smile back and is grinning again.  I just wanted to say thanks for the advice.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »