My Quick Reaction

Quick cause I am exhausted and I want to sleep, but the brilliance of Joe Torre is keeping me awake.

Damn. Nobody fucked up. I guess SNL will be funnier then tonight. Sarah Palin did a hell of a lot better then I thought she would so I guess John McCain wont kick her off the ticket. Thats a shame because I still think she is a moron and is hurting John. Her answers tonight were not dumb, but they were very vague and repetitive. Everything seemed to have the same answer and all the questions to her kind of blended in.

On the flip side of that Joe Biden also did better then I expected. In fact I would go so far to say that his performance was better than McCain and Obama's from their first debate. His answers were precise and actually had meat to them. Their were actual answers to issues and his answers on foreign policy seemed like he had a hell of a lot more experience then anyone else on these tickets. 

A very good job by Palin to stick in this thing. Nobody thought she would really beat Biden in this debate, but she held in there well enough. Biden however thoroughly impressed me.  

And yes I said the brilliance of Joe Torre. I hate the yankees, but the one thing I could always say was that Joe Torre was a great manager. He is proving that this year with the Dodgers as his formerly dysfunctional team is now shocking the team people were picking to win it all. Go Joe. I am routing for Terry v. Torre 2: This Time For the Whole Sha-Bang.

VP Debate Warm Up

Just to get you all ready for tonight here is a video from Keith Olbermann's show with his best of Sarah Palin moments. Keep in my mind Olbermann is about as far left as you can go in the media. Having said that, I would love to see a video of the things Sarah Palin has done right in the past month.

My prediction is this: Joe Biden says 3 stupid things in the course of 90 minutes while Sarah Palin says only 4.5 things that are true or make sense or at least make her sound like she knows what she is talking about. In the end Joe Biden's slips will do no harm compared to those of Sarah Six-pack. Maybe I will be wrong and maybe Palin will have one of those touching made for Disney 3d under dog tales that capture our hearts.....but I dont think so. I wish she could turn this into a race again. I wish she could make John McCain respectable again, but I wont hold my breath. 

One final note: Do I think tonight's moderator Gwen Iffil has a conflict of interest? I sure do. Should she be removed? Nope. Its way too late in the game for that. I just hope if things go as poorly as predicted for Palin that McCain doesn't step out tomorrow and blame Iffil. You see a presidential nominee should know the battles he is fighting and should know the people he is standing tall with. It is a show of his character which is the second most important part of an election next to issues in my mind. John McCain and crew did a horrible job vetting Sarah Palin and instead of fixing that mistake they are holding on to it for dear life. John McCain and crew approved Iffil even though her book was announced (and in hundreds of magazines and newspapers) back in July. Long before she was approved. Its been on Amazon for pre sale and its been in her publishers '09 guide book for a month. I dont know what McCain's crew is doing with their time, but they are not vetting anyone or anything in a way to help their candidate. What if John McCain becomes president and a world crisis erupts? Should we trust McCain on whose side we take after seeing how well he has done on his research so far? 

Because Turn Around Is Fair Play

So I received this article in a chain email today. It goes on about how Joe Biden claims to know where Al-Qaeda is because his helicopter was forced down in Afghanistan. Now he never says his helicopter was forced down by terrorists or gun fire or Osama Bin Laden's pet dragon (in fact it was forced down by snow), but Biden was dumb enough to put in words that were mis-construed. This is why fact checking is important and I appreciate the people out there working so hard to keep this campaign impartial.

So in the spirit of fact checking and being impartial here are several links fact checking a few of the things that Sarah Palin has said in the mere month she has been on the trail.

From Politifact

From FactCheck.org

From The Washington Post

Now if you dont want to spend all that time reading facts then how about some video of her talking about regular ol' things:

Here with Charlie Gibson

With Couric here and here 

So let me be honest and if you want to call me impartial then do it, but I'll call you a fool. I dont care if Joe Biden claims Darth Vader forced his helicopter down or if he spells potato with an e and a silent x (that would be pxotatoe for the record) I will still have more respect for him then Sarah Palin. George Bush has a 70% disapproval rating right now, but that other 30% will still claim its all because of biased liberal left wingers. However, that 70% includes everyone. Democrat, republican, white, black, male, female, etc. etc. It is time to come to your senses and stop blaming left or right on George Bush and Sarah Palin. They have dug their own holes and neither have proven they should be in the white house. The saying goes "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck". Well in the case of Bush and Palin if they walk like morons and quack like morons then they must be morons. Palin is ruining any chance John McCain has to become president. Everyday he goes out to defend her instead of defending his policies and issues while Barack Obama sits back and does nothing but reap the benefits. Obama is politically windsurfing his way to the white house. Maybe I will be proven wrong during the VP debate, but I have the feeling that Thursday's 90 minutes will be a better bone tickler then whatever 90 minutes SNL throws our way on Saturday.

Attack of the Sox Vol. 1 Issue 2

The future of the Boston Red Sox

AAA Pawtucket won the wild card from the international league's northern division with an 88-58 record. They were eliminated by the scranton Yankees in the first round of playoffs.

AA Portland clinched a playoff spot with a 74-66 record,but were knocked out by Trenton - another Yankee farm team.

A (advanced) Lancaster won their division in the California League in both the first and second halves with an overall record of 76-64, but lost the championship to the Stockton Ports an affiliate of the Oakland A's. Next year the Lancaster Jet's will be representing the Houston Astros while the Red Sox will move their affiliate to Salem in southwest Virginia.

A Greenville won their division with a record of 47 and 22.

A (short-season) Lowell won their division in the New York - Penn League with a 40-33 record, but were eliminated from playoffs by Batavia an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardnials.

Rookie League GCL Red Sox finished third in their division with a 28-27 record. 

My Top Five Favorite Prospects '08:

5) Yamaico Navarro - SS in 2008 for Class A Lancaster and Greenville, 20 years R/R

83 games for Greenville: .280 with 54 RBI and 46 runs. 

42 games for Lancaster: .348 with 23 RBI and 33 runs. 

Signed as an international free agent in 2005 he has shown great improvement in '08 with improved patience at the plate and is getting better at defense in the ss, 2B and 3B roles.

4) Josh Reddick - OF in 2008 for Class A Lancaster and Greenville as well as AA Portland, 21 years bats left and throws righty.

14 games for Greenville: 0 homers, 7 runs, 9 RBI and a .340 avg.

76 games for Lancaster: 17 homers, 60 runs, 57 RBI and a .343 avg.

34 games for Portland: 6 homers, 22 runs, 25 RBI and a .214 avg, but had a .290 OBP

17th round draft pick in 2006 is an excellent outfielder with a great arm. While his averaged dipped in AA he did take the time to work on his plate discipline. 

3) Lars Anderson - 1B in 2008 for Class A Lancaster and AA Portland, 21 years L/L

77 games for Lancaster: 13 homers, 58 runs, 50 RBI, .317 avg and a .408 OBP

41 games for Portland: 5 homers, 27 runs, 30 RBI, .316 avg and a .436 OBP

18th round pick in 2006 is probably the best 1B prospect in the minors right now. Has great patience and could have amazing power. Decent defense might be his only weak link. Red Sox named him offensive player of the year.

2) Daniel Bard - RP in 2008 for Class A Greenville and AA Portland, 23 years R/R

16 games for Greenville: 43 K in 28 innings with a 0.64 ERA

31 games for Portland: 64 K in 49.2 innings with a 1.99 ERA and 7 saves

1st round pick in 2006 he struggled at first in AA, but quickly calmed down . Has a 97-98 fastball, a cut fastball, a slider and a circle change with movement. Should be in the bullpen at some point in 2009. Red Sox named him their pitcher of the year.

1) Michael Bowden - SP in 2008 for Class AA Portland, AAA Pawtucket and at the MLB level, 22 years R/R

19 games for Portland: 9-4 with a 2.33 ERA, 101 K's in 104.1 innings with a 4.21 K/BB

7 games for Pawtucket: 0-3 with a 3.38 ERA, 29 K's in 40 innings with a 5.80 K/BB

1 game for Boston: 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA struck out 3, walked one in 5 innings

1st round pick in 2005 with a 90-94 four-seam fastball, 12-6 curve a great circle change-up. Has excellent control and I would rather see him in the rotation that Bucholz.

Best pick in the 2008 draft: Casey Kelly SS/Pitcher in 2008 for Sarasota High School, Rookie League GCL Red Sox and class A Lowell, 18 years R/R

Has great power potential and could be a great defensive SS. Wants to play SS, but the organization may move him back to pitching where he has a low 90's fastball, hard curve and a changeup all with good command. He was their first round draft pick this year.

Trade 'im or play 'im: Charlie Zink SP in 2008 for AAA Pawtucket and the MLB team, 28 R/R. Ok forget about his horrible debut start against Texas. He is a very good knuckleball pitcher who deserves to play somewhere wether in the rotation or in someone's bullpen. This year he was 14-6 with a 2.84 ERA. 

Other Red Sox award winners were: Che-Hsuan Lin (20 year old OF for class A Greenville) for Defensive player of the year, Wilfred Pichardo (18 year old for GCL Red Sox and A Lowell) for Base Runner of the year (42 of those in 55 games), Manny Rivera (18 year old LHP for rookie league DSL Red Sox) for Latin Program pitcher of the year and Eddie Lora (19 year old 1B for rookie leagues DSL & GCL Red Sox) for Latin Program player of the year.

The future of the Red Sox looks very bright. 

Dear Diarrhea: The Joys of Skype

So a few weeks ago my cell phone broke. The up, down and select buttons stopped working and you'd be surprised how much those three tiny things do. I cannot check or send text, check my missed call log or access my phone book for starters. All it can do is check my voice mail and pick up incoming phone calls. How did I get it fixed? Well I didnt because it was going to cost me about three hundred dollars. So while I save up to buy a new phone I needed to come up with a short term alternative.

Enter Skype (again). When I first moved to my current apartment and had sprint as a cell phone service I could not get any reception. To fix that tiny problem I signed up for Skype service. I guess you could call a VOIP since you are talking through your computer, but I feel like too many people would compare it to Vonage. Anyway I switched to T-Mobile and wonder upon wonder I had reception at my house and felt I no longer needed Skype.

Now here we go again. Why am i using Skype as my alternative? Well its costing me 7 a month to have a home phone. Skype is a service that runs through your computer. Yes your talking through your computer. You can use a usb phone, one of those stupid bluetooth headsets, or buy one of this big boxes to plug your regular home phone in. They even have wi-fi cell phones now that allow you to install Skype directly onto them.

So what is the advantage? Well if you know other people on Skype you can talk to them for free no matter where in the world they are. You can still call regular land lines as well. For an unlimited amount of calls to US & Canada a monthly subscription costs 2.95/ a month. Want to call Mexico too? 5.95 a month. The rest of the world? 9.95 a month. If you dont want to subscribe monthly they also have a pay as you go feature. 

What if someone from a land line wants to call me? Well thats why I signed up for the call in service. I can buy a phone number that will allow anyone to call my computer. The price varies depending on your subscription plan, but it is basically costing me 4 bucks a month. So between my phone number and the US subscription I am just paying $7 dollars a month to have a home phone. I even get free voice mail with it. 

I was talking to a friend of mine who (if I remember correctly) has Verizon and is paying around 45 dollars a month. He was switching over to Comcast and was going to save $9 a month. Thats still almost thirty dollars more then I am paying. The reception is fine and a usb phone is cheap. Bluetooth is even a better way to go. If your looking to cut down on your monthly costs and you still need to have a home phone then I can't imagine why you are not looking into this service yet.

Now lets say you live in southern Maine and one of your best friends lives in....Oh I dunno...let's say..... Ireland. Would you pay $9 a month to call your friend? Well I guess it depends on how often you call. Do you know what would be an even better idea? If your American friend in Ireland and you both had Skype and talked to each other over this amazing piece of software. If you both have skype and talk to each other through skype then your international calls will be free. FREE. YOU WOULD BE AN IDIOT NOT TO TRY IT OUT. FOR FREE. 

Anyways thats me doing my good part on introducing you to a great a little company & program that could save you a lot of money or be a cheap way to have a home phone.

Debates Round 1

I think I need to invest in a defibrillator. Not because the debate the other night kept my heart pumping, but because about 30 minutes into it I wanted to make sure I didnt go into coma. Figure a good shock to the heart would wake me up. While the two candidates talked around each other last night I had the MLB scoreboard running to my side in the hopes Milwaukee could upset the Mets and the Sox could steal the AL east crown. I wishI had a monitor to tell me how much time I spent watching the debate and how much time I spent hitting the refresh button on a browser that was set to automatically refresh itself every 30 seconds. Any ways I guess this blog comes down to who I think won. Well as you probably have heard a hundred times now there was no knock-out blow on either side so we have to start nit picking the small things. First things first: yes, Obama said John McCain was right about a dozen times. Republicans would look at this as a win for the candidate and they probably should've. Only problem is their candidate blew and continues to blow that momentum. John McCain couldnt look his opponent in the eye. Normally I wouldnt give a shit, but the particular format of this debate was the two candidates would come out and give a two minute answer each and then have five minutes to talk to each other about it. Obama continually tried to look over and turn it into a conversation, but McCain refused to make eye contact. Instead he stood their with a condescending smile and did that annoying thing where he constantly just seems to hop in place. Yes Obama kept saying John McCain was right, but because John McCain stood their like a pouting old man who refuses to listen to those "pesky youngins" it made him look like he was not open to change. It made Obama look near brilliant. Barack came off looking like he was the one who was trying to be bi-partisan while John McCain looked like he could give a rats ass about listening to anyone elses opinions or reaching across an aisle. The whole thing played like a very boring episode of Scooby Doo. In the end Barack jumped in his van and took off in a puff of smoke while McCain was left their shaking his fist at the meddling young kids as he was hauled off by the police. So McCain blew the opportunity last night to make Obama look stupid for saying McCain was right all the time, but John could still spin it in his favor the next day right?.........right?

wait.......what? Watch it again. This ad shows Barack Obama agreeing with John McCain 3 times.

Then it asks you if Barack Obama is ready to lead and answers the question for you with a "no". .......have you figured out my frustration yet? In an ad supported by John McCain we are told BarackObama is not ready to lead because he agrees with John McCain. So if John McCain thinks agreeing with John McCain's ideas is bad who exaclty is he going to be voting for? You are blowing it McCain. Between your odd week running up to this debate and the horrible Palin interview with Couric things are quickly going off track. Ok. What else can we nit pick. How about when Obama tried to one up John McCain with his bracelet only to screw it up by forgetting the name and making it look like he read it off his wrist. All right Johnny gets a point now right?.......nope. Because foreign policy is supposed to be Jon's forte and he could not remember the name of a world leader. Its a tough name I will grant him that, but he spent so much time name dropping to try and show up Obama and then blew it on the home stretch. So again no points to either candidate. You remember in Karate Kid one when the blond kid from cobra kai kept getting a point on Daniel San, but then would lose the point because of a foul just to wind up back at square zero? This is how it felt to me. This was John McCain's home turf and he failed to drop a crane kick to Obamas chin or at least to one of his ears and that is why in my opinion: The edge in debate 1 goes to Barack Obama. By the slimmest of margins. They went toe to toe and both stood their ground. Thats the problem. A tie in this debate is a win for Barack. John McCain needed a strong and clear win, but he did not come through. So what is everyone else saying: Looks like Obama is the winner.

From CBS:

From CNN: 

Who Did the Best Job In the Debate?

Obama 51% McCain 38%

Who Would Better Handle Economy? Obama 58% McCain 37%

Who Would Better Handle Iraq? Obama 52% McCain 47%

 Who Did the Best Job In the Debate?

Obama 51% McCain 38%

Who Would Better Handle Economy? Obama 58% McCain 37%

Who Would Better Handle Iraq? Obama 52% McCain 47%

From Fox News:

And when conserative web sites like The Pundit Review and National Review Online call it a close win for John McCain then you know something is wrong. Both reviews seemed deeply upset by McCain strategy, but being consertative still gave the nod to McCain......barely. Their is a lot of work needed to be done by John McCain in the next week and a half. Somehow he has to hope Sarah palin does not screw up his campaign anymore then she already has with three simple television interviews and he has to prepare himself to have a clear victory for the October 7th town hall debate. 

Issues: Social Security

Social Security. My arch enemy. For years I have looked at my beloved pay check wondering where all my hard money goes. I knew who you were SS. I even knew most of what you did, but I had heard the rumors. The rumors that all this money I was giving to you would never be seen by these eyes again. Now I finally get of my ass to figure this out. What are you really? Are the rumors true? Finally, what if anything, will be done about this system by the two men running for the White House?

Social Security is a program signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. It has changed a lot through the years, but the basics of the program remain the same. We the people are taxed directly from our paychecks and all the money is put into a fund nicknamed the "federal old-age, survivors and disability insurance." Its like a little savings fund the government forces on us in case we have a rainy day. Don't let my language mislead you. Forcing us into action on something like this is actually a good idea. I am horrible with my money and it is nice to know that my hard earned cash will be there when I get older or when doctors finally admit that I am mentally disabled.

Anyway this fund covers me for when i want to retire (the retirement age of course being set by the government babysitting my money) or if I become disabled. If I die the money will go to my wife (that I dont have) or my children (that dont know I exist) and all the accumulated monies are invested in treasury securities. It is apparently against the law for this money to be invested into the private sector like Wall Street. Thats not a joke, the money can only be invested in government securities instead of taking a chance on a high rate of return on wall street or other private sector investments.

If that were not enough that very same government our funds are invested in can, and does, reach into this social security surplus when it needs some extra cash by replacing it with government bonds. Basically imagine you are a small child trying to save up your allowance money to buy the newest super soaker gun (man I loved those things) so you can out duel the neighborhood kids. Only daddy needs a case of beer and all of his money is wasted somewhere else so he opens your money jar, takes out your money and replaces it with a little piece of paper with I.O.U. written on it. Thankfully every four to eight years mommy gets smart and gets a new daddy. However, this new daddy needs money for his crack cocaine and the whole freakin process starts all over again. Suddenly you wonder if you will ever see that fancy new super soaker. Fun fact: in 2007 the social security surplus fund held 2.2 trillions government bonds i.e. daddy's I.O.U.'s

The final kick in the balls from this shoddy operation is that the social security tax is only taken out of the first 102,000 thousand you make. So thankfully after that 102,000 all the rest of my money is.....awwwww, fuck. Never in my days did I ever dream of hitting it big so that I could make enough money to stop paying social security. I wanted to make mucho money to have golden super soakers and be comfortable in life. Sadly I doubt I will ever come close to that $102,000 threshold. So if a person stops paying at $102,000 they get less benefits right? Nope. The upper class pays less into the system and makes the same benefits of the middle and lower classes who need the money more.

More controversy comes from those politicians in the government who think we would benefit more by privatizing the program. There are many different ideas on how to do this, but the simplest way seems to be making it like a 401(k). A 401(k) is already like privatized social security. If your job has it as an option and you choose to take it, then a portion of your weekly paycheck will go into a 401(k) account. This money is invested in stocks, bonds, money markets or a mix of anything you want. You are the one who usually chooses how the money is invested. None of this money is taxed until after you decide to remove it from the fund.

Barack - He strongly opposes privatizing social security and wants to fix the payroll system so that it applies to more then just the first $100,000 a person makes. I believe I read that he would increase the cap to $250,000,but don't quote that number. He has also said that he will work with congress to get a new reform package on the books that will keep the program healthy for at least the next half century.

note - many people attack Obama because they feel he wants to raise taxes. In fact by removing the social security tax cap there will be a 1.3 billion tax increase. However since anyone making under $100,000 is already putting in the full amount they can, then this tax would only affect people with incomes greater then $100,000. So the talk of him taxing the middle classes in this case is false.

McCain - He advocates supplementing the social security benefits with individual investment accounts and prefers slowing the growth benefits to raising the taxes.

My View - I am not much of an economist and I have not seen a serious plan from either one of the candidates, but instead just quotes on what they would like to do. Like I said above their are many different ideas on how to privatize and I don't have the first inkling on how McCain's plan would work. Hopefully we learn more during one of the upcoming debates. Having said all of that and read all I have on this subject i would personally vote to privatize social security. The program is not working in its current state, its not making enough interest as it could on the private market and quite frankly its my money and I should be able to invest it how I please. Every week workers in this country pay into social security and many of them also pay into 401(k) accounts. The government should be able to find an intelligent plan to combine these two systems while still insuring our money that is invested just as I described last week with my housing blog. Why the government will insure investors in the housing market, but not insure our social security benefits is beyond me. Obviously the hardest part of this would be the change over. I am not sure how it would be done or if it could be done, but I am willing to listen to ideas on privatizing more then I am willing to listen to ideas on how to fix a failing pyramid scheme.

Obama - 2
McCain - 1