All Things in Moderation

Morning Report 10/10/12

37 Responses

1. 

   Mike, on October 10, 2012 at 7:47 am said:

   The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Lefkowitz and Kobilka for their studies on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs are intracellular molecules that transmit signals detected at the cell membrane in order to produce proper cellular and physiological responses to stimuli. They are involved in the detection of a wide variety of stimuli, from light (in your eyes) to hormones to histamine (allergies) to taste/smell. Lefkowitz and Kobilka studied the beta-adrenergic receptor, which recognizes epinephrine and which is the target of a number of asthma controller medications.

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2. 

   bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 9:50 am said:

   Because I am a cynic like Bill Clinton with no real belief system, I just made a long term options bet on Romney being elected using the value of dollar.

   It’s one of those what if the Bengals win the Super Bowl kind, that cost me virtually nothing, but If Romney gets elected and say in January that he isn’t going to reappoint Bernanke, I’ll be doing … um . . . ok.

   Remember, you always hedge your bets, no matter what your politics.

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3. 

   Brent Nyitray, on October 10, 2012 at 9:51 am said:

   You can trade it directly in size on Sporting Index:

   http://www.sportingindex.com/spread-betting/politics/united-states-of-america/next-president-of-the-usa/M3484919_1

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4. 

   jnc4p, on October 10, 2012 at 10:02 am said:

   Sigh – Maureen Dowd:

   “Just as Obama let the Tea Party inflate in the summer of 2009, spreading a phony narrative about “death panels,” now he has let Romney inflate and spread a phony narrative about moderation and tax math.”

   Obama didn’t “let” anyone do anything here. Sometimes, events aren’t up to him.

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   • 

     ScottC, on October 10, 2012 at 10:53 am said:

     jnc:

     Sometimes, events aren’t up to him.

     It’s hard to imagine it was just 4 short years ago that he was a Lightworker ushering in “a new way of being on the planet”.

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5. 

   Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 10:13 am said:

   From jnc’s link:

   It was a perfect psychological storm for the president. He performs better when his back is against the wall; he has some subconscious need to put himself in challenging positions. That makes it hard for him to surf success and intensity; he just suddenly runs out of gas and stops fighting, leaving revved up supporters confused and deflated. “That’s just his rhythm,” said one adviser.

   Evidently she’s now a trained psychologist, also. I used to like Maureen Dowd’s writing a lot, whatever happened to her?

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   • 

     markinaustin, on October 10, 2012 at 10:44 am said:

     Kelley, what’s a gossip columnist to do when both nominees are actually happily married?

     I have smiled at some of her snark, but I have never taken her seriously as either a political or a social commentator.

     Her personal confrontation in a DC restaurant with the intern ML was a hoot.

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6. 

   Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 10:18 am said:

   Way out in left field OT:

   D’oh!!!

   Florida Gov. Rick Scott mistakenly sent Floridians seeking information on a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak to a sex hot line.

   I don’t even want to know how he knew the sex hot line number. . .

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7. 

   novahockey, on October 10, 2012 at 10:21 am said:

   “sex hot line number.”

   is that why my phone won’t stop ringing?

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8. 

   bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 10:28 am said:

   “Now Romney is floating a slightly different version of his deduction cap idea. On CNN on Tuesday, Romney said that one possible way to execute his tax plan “would be to have a total cap number [for deductions]. It could be $25,000 or $50,000, and people could put whatever deduction in that total cap they’d like.”

   At the next debate Romney should simply ask the audience to vote on tax changes and promise to do that.

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9. 

   bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 10:30 am said:

   brent:

   I’d rather use the value of the dollar, based in part on your belief from here that if Romney wins Bernanke is gone and probably QE3 with him. That would presumably make a stronger US dollar. Even if Obama is elected, you always have the slight chance of a euro collapse versus the dollar, so why not roll the dice?

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10. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 10:33 am said:

    Fairly fluffy pre-VP debate analysis by Scott Conroy at RCP, but an aspect I hadn’t really thought about.

    Biden is now four years older, of course, and in Danville, Ky., on Thursday night he will be matched against an opponent two years younger than Palin was in 2008.

    To put that age disparity into starker perspective, when Biden was first sworn into the U.S. Senate in 1973, Ryan was not yet 3 years old.

    [snip]

    The Romney campaign hopes that the challenger’s youth will appeal on a visceral level to younger voters just tuning into the campaign more seriously, who may like President Obama but are open to a candidate more relatable to them personally than the man at the top of the GOP ticket.

    But despite Biden’s relatively advanced years, both sides acknowledge that his energetic, happy-go-lucky — and, yes, gaffe-prone — persona (which has been parodied to great effect over the years by The Onion) may have a certain appeal to a younger demographic.

    “The vice president is a very charming man, and you always have to kind of think about that charm and the potential for an ‘Irish uncle’ moment,” a Romney campaign aide said.

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11. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 10:34 am said:

    is that why my phone won’t stop ringing?

    That was you who answered???!!!!!

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12. 

    bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 10:38 am said:

    Unless of course Ryan comes across as he did at AARP, a first grade teacher mistakenly placed in front of a grad school class.

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13. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 10:42 am said:

    From a Bloomberg piece with an unintentionally funny headline:

    A Bloomberg News Swing Voter poll in Ohio and Virginia reveals an opening for Romney to win a key demographic that could sway the presidential election — married mothers, who are disproportionately concerned about unemployment and consider the Republican best at creating jobs, handling gasoline prices, and reviving the housing market.

    Emphasis mine. How, exactly, is he supposed to do that? Is that where those rainbow-farting bunnies come into the picture??

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14. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 10:58 am said:

    Scott–

    Where in the world did you find this in the first place?!??

    To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?

    No, it’s not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn’t have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.

    Dismiss it all you like, but I’ve heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who’ve been intuitively blown away by Obama’s presence – not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence – to say it’s just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

    Here’s where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

    Gack!!!!

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15. 

    bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 11:01 am said:

    I know that this could happen anywhere, but dollar for dollar is MS really, that much ahead of SC as the worst state in the nation?

    “Camaro owner records mechanics abusing car, scheming to get damages paid for”

    http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/camaro-owner-records-mechanics-abusing-car-scheming-damages-152707580.html

    I think I recall reading that SC has more of the worst 20 high schools in the country than any other state.

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16. 

    novahockey, on October 10, 2012 at 11:05 am said:

    Who is vile and soul-sucking?

    [checks avatar]

    oh.

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17. 

    Brent Nyitray, on October 10, 2012 at 11:16 am said:

    Dimon coming out and explicitly saying that the Bear Stearns purchase was a “favor to the US government”

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18. 

    novahockey, on October 10, 2012 at 11:25 am said:

    according to my neighborhood listserv — there’s a station down the street from my house selling gas for $1.84. lines around the block. advertising it as “pre-obama” prices.

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19. 

    jnc4p, on October 10, 2012 at 11:55 am said:

    “ScottC, on October 10, 2012 at 10:53 am said:

    jnc:

    Sometimes, events aren’t up to him.

    It’s hard to imagine it was just 4 short years ago that he was a Lightworker ushering in “a new way of being on the planet”.”

    First he had to stop the oceans from rising, then he could move on to helping mankind evolve into it’s next transcendent state of being (cue “Age of Aquarius”).

    Thanks for that link, it will make for a useful reference in certain discussions. Perhaps his Nobel Peace Prize should have been awarded for his efforts as a “Lightworker”.

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20. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 11:57 am said:

    advertising it as “pre-obama” prices.

    Or post-bunny prices?

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21. 

    jnc4p, on October 10, 2012 at 12:05 pm said:

    “markinaustin, on October 10, 2012 at 10:44 am said:

    …

    I have smiled at some of her snark, but I have never taken her seriously as either a political or a social commentator.”

    I thought she had two worthwhile points in the piece:

    “Just as Poppy Bush didn’t try as hard as he should have because he assumed voters would reject Slick Willie, Obama lapsed into not trying because he assumed voters would reject Cayman Mitt.”

    I think the comparison between Obama and George H.W. Bush when it comes to the debates is apt.

    and

    “At a fund-raising concert in San Francisco Monday night, the president mocked Romney’s star turn, saying “what was being presented wasn’t leadership; that’s salesmanship.”

    It is that distaste for salesmanship that caused Obama not to sell or even explain health care and economic policies; and it is that distaste that caused him not to sell himself and his policies at the debate. His latest fund-raising plea is marked “URGENT.” But in refusing to muster his will and energy, and urgently sell his vision, he underscores his own lapses in leadership and undermines arguments for four more years.”

    She’s correct that part of leadership in a democracy is “salesmanship” and that Obama’s disdain for Romney’s efforts to “sell” his policies is misplaced. If Romney puts the same level of effort into his Presidency as he did into the debate, then he may turn out to be a more effective president than I expected.

    This is also part of a continuing pattern of Obama’s where everyone else fails to live up to his expectations:

    “One closing remark that I want to make: It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we’ve got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.

    The idea that we’ve got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible.

    Everybody out there has to be thinking about what’s at stake in this election and if they want to move forward over the next two years or six years or 10 years on key issues like climate change, key issues like how we restore a sense of equity and optimism to middle-class families who have seen their incomes decline by five percent over the last decade. If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we’d better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money’s coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one.

    We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard — that’s what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we’ve got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.”

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obama-in-command-br-the-rolling-stone-interview-20100928?page=7

    Clearly the problem is that the electorate wasn’t “serious in the first place” about President Obama’s policies.

    Jon Stewart had a great piece as well on “Obama’s approval rating OF the American People falls”. Across the demographic board, the President thinks less of the American people than he did when he was elected.

    “Barack Obama used to find the American people’s inconsistent irrationality charming, but he’s losing his patience.”

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-9-2010/national-displeasure

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22. 

    Brent Nyitray, on October 10, 2012 at 12:06 pm said:

    Fed’s Beige Book is out… employment characterized as “little changed” from last report. Friday’s jobs report is looking more and more like a statistical fluke

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23. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 12:09 pm said:

    Update on the story Don Juan posted yesterday about Mitt Romney and the former Navy SEAL he met at a Christmas party a few years ago.

    Seems the mom isn’t too happy with Mr Romney:

    7News [Boston] spoke with Doherty’s mother.

    “I don’t trust Romney. He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda. It’s wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” said Barbara Doherty, Glen’s mother.

    There was no response from the Romney camp.

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24. 

    bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 1:28 pm said:

    I was wrong though, it was confirmed elsewhere that they had actually met.

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25. 

    bannedagain5446, on October 10, 2012 at 1:32 pm said:

    jnc:

    I would say this, Obama is uncomfortable placing himself out front, because he is used to others doing it for him. I said in the beginning his style is more collegial than executive because I imagine that he got a lot of deference in those type settings for who he was. That’s why he doesn’t know how to sell the things like Bin Laden or the ACA because he is without the natural politician’s gift for taking credit while appearing to give credit to others.

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    • 

      ScottC, on October 10, 2012 at 2:28 pm said:

      It’s difficult to believe that anyone who was comfortable uttering about his own election prospects the incredibly narcissistic absurdity “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal” could be said to be uncomfortable placing himself out front.

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26. 

    jnc4p, on October 10, 2012 at 2:37 pm said:

    I agree with Scott. The takeaway I have from the President’s performance in office over the past four years is the constant theme of “Not My Fault” to explain any shortcomings (with a hat tip to a PL poster who makes this observation frequently).

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27. 

    novahockey, on October 10, 2012 at 2:58 pm said:

    “Not My Fault”

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28. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 3:01 pm said:

    I found This utterly fascinating.

    Look at this map, and notice that deep, deep in the Republican South, there’s a thin blue band stretching from the Carolinas through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. These are the counties that went for Obama in the last election. A blue crescent in a sea of red.

    

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    • 

      markinaustin, on October 10, 2012 at 4:31 pm said:

      From the blue area of the LRGV:

      http://kut.org/2012/10/why-bother-fighting-corruption-in-rio-grande-valley/

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29. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 5:13 pm said:

    If I read that article right, Mark, they’re stacking the deck for Dems–is that correct? Do you think that’s what’s making at least part of that area so blue?

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    • 

      markinaustin, on October 10, 2012 at 5:35 pm said:

      The patron system worked like this: Ds pay vote collectors to bring out votes and Rs pay them to make them stay home in federal elections. everyone pays for their votes in local elections. Collectors did not always stay bought, btw.

      80% of the LRGV eligible voters do not vote because they think the system is rigged. It has been rigged. There is finally some bipartisan “good gummint” stuff going on.

      When there is an honest system, the thinking goes, 3 times as many folks will vote. Locally they will throw more D crooks out then Rs b/c there are more D crooks in office. There used to be an honest lawyer in Harlingen and an honest judge in McAllen. An honest sheriff was assassinated not too many years ago. So this R legislator and this D D.A. are trying to swim upstream here, and the volunteers are trying to convince folks they can make a change. On federal elections the Ds stand to gain. Local Rs are of course Tejano/Tejana and are in no way a threat to shut the river off from this side b/c everyone in the LRGV sees a fence on this side as giving the river to Mexico and Mexico owes us the water they steal, above the treaty allowance, now. Just think how it will be when the freaking river is fenced effectively into MX. Stupido. Or so the thinking goes.

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30. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 5:46 pm said:

    Texas politics seem to me to be a law unto themselves, Mark!

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31. 

    Michigoose, on October 10, 2012 at 5:49 pm said:

    Brent:

    This one’s for you: Lawrence Mishel on The Economic Institute Blog.

    I decided to dig a bit deeper into Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data to gauge the divergence of employment growth in the household survey and the establishment survey in September and recent times. It is, after all, the divergence between these two series in September’s jobs report that generated outrageous charges of BLS economists manipulating the data (the household survey showed employment growth of 873,000 in September, which pushed the unemployment rate down to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent in spite of a surge of new workers into the labor force).

    The BLS, being the highly professional agency that it is, provides documentation on how the two series differ and compares the trends obtained in each series on an apples-to-apples basis (or, as close as they can get it); this information is available when the numbers are released each month. That is impressive, by the way. BLS will also share, on request, a spreadsheet providing the actual adjustments made to reconcile the two series over the last 12-month period (using “not seasonally adjusted” data, which is why they show it for the same month a year apart).

    The bottom line is that the household survey has shown comparable employment growth as the payroll survey over the last year and less employment growth than in the payroll survey since the trough in June 2009. That’s pretty strong evidence that the trends in the household survey are not spectacular or implausible even though September’s employment growth was quite large. If Jack Welch thinks the September numbers were cooked then he’d also need to explain why the household employment growth was so low, relative to the payroll survey, before September’s data.

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    • 

      ScottC, on October 10, 2012 at 9:49 pm said:

      Start spreading the news…

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