noisewar internetlainen - games, politics, and sarcasm

When the victory din for Obama was ringing loudest, I must admit that I was caught up in the hope that a regime change was something more, that there was hope that this time. It would be an end to our past decades of policy sins. I should have known better.

Forget that Obama hires a Raytheon lobbyist Bill Lynn into the DOD (among other lobbyists) right after banning such action. Forget that former lobbyist Tim Geitner who now heads out treasury is a tax dodger. Forget the laughable half mil salary cap on fat cats, which only affects the top 25 employess (promote a few janitors) and ISN'T RETROACTIVE! Where's the accountability for the bailout money spent as CEO bonuses?

The hypocrisy of the left wing denouncing conservative tax cuts and ignoring democrat ones makes me want to just tell you to forget it all. But when I saw the mortgage relief plan, well I snapped back to reality. I hope you do too.

So pretend for a moment that throwing $275 billion at a trillion dollar hole was somehow enough. Here's the gist of the plan, with my comments in red:

1. For 5 years, mortgage interest will be reduced by banks so that monthly payments are 38% or less of monthly income.
   So the tax deductible part is reduced, and even then for only 5 years. Right now it's a blessing to have any tax at all to deduct! Got Job?
   
   
2. Treasury will help get this down further to 31%.
   ...with our tax money. Just clarifying.
   
   
3. Both banks and borrowers get paid for modifying their loan.
   We're paying these guys to do something they need to do anyways? Are the banks even trying to survive?
   
   
4. Modified loans get bolstered insurance policies as an incentive.
   So that when fundamental real estate forces cause more foreclosures, the banks will get more protection for their assets. Aren't we supposed to be stemming those forces in the first place?
   

The best things for banks to do now (by my uneducated guess) is to modify as many loans as possible on the worst terms possible. This is a reckless win-win for the banks. Either get paid for modifying loans you had to anyways, or foreclose on modified loans if the asset price + insurance adds up to more than what the owner can short sale.

Really, the only solution right now is to define exactly how much capital banks need to survive, kill the real estate market to that level, and then give them the bailout money for that use only. Too bad that bailout money is made of caviar and yachts right now.

Long live change.

So much to be thankful of this year. Having the opportunity of a lifetime staring us in face as the market collapses, having Obama make a brilliant choice in appointing Volcker, having a job of any kind, these are things to be thankful for. Steve showed me a chart where on the bell curve of the market's annual gains/losses, 2008 is currently at the far left end of the bell, -4 SD into hell. Time to buy.

With that, I wish you all a happy holiday, and when you get a chance play this amazing game Auditorium. So many other games talk the talk about play, but with Auditorium, you really feel like solving puzzles is part of the discovery and creation process. You conduct the visualizaton of sound as a physical stream of liquid, forgetting about interfaces and hit points, for your imaginary audience. Goals are almost subjective, and the visuals are pure player expression. Enjoy!

Forwards or backwards, it's all the same. Am I the only person with a semi-objective view of it all?

I hate being a libertarian in California. To defend the right is to invite the wrath of the entire Bay Area, and to defend the left is to look as crazy as the worst of them. My stance has always been behind the underdog, so don't misunderstand my position when I say that Republicans are not getting a fair shake... remember where I live.

But by any measure, the attack on Sarah Palin, John McCain's VP pick, has been absolutely vicious, and not wholly fair. For the record, I know she's nothing more than a political tactic, but c'mon so was Joe Biden, unless you think him and Obama have some kind of chemistry that I haven't seen. Even as a political tactic, she was a shrewd choice for a desperate candidate- NRA hockey-mom, PTA, down-syndrome kid out of 5 more, union member / snowmachine racer /fisherman husband, the list goes on. You don't hail mary if you aren't losing in the eleventh hour, and this was a hail mary. Anything else would have been a slow, agonzing death.

But the press has been very unfair in their desperate search for controversy. Granted a lot of things should be investigated more, but here a short sample of topics I saw during the RNC that are misrepresentative and often taken out of context:

- Bristol pregnancy proves Palin a hyprocrite.
- Palin calls Hillary a whiner.
- Troopergate.
- Palin raises $8 billion for the Democrats.
- Peggy Noonan calls Palin "Bullshit"
- RNC stopped riots outside with teargas and flashbangs.
- Cindy McCain's outfit estimated at $300,000.

And so forth and so on. If you've seen any of the above, read a little closer and you will find that the stories are more nuanced than their headlines suggest. I'm not complaining about the fact that the media is trying to dig up dirt, but for fuck's sake leave the sensationalism out of it! Don't liberals realize you can't fight lies with lies? I imagine Republicans would be infuriated by the media's lack of balance mentioning the RNC riots but not the DNC ones... but they're not! What's going on?

I've noticed more and more that both sides tend to be equally hypocritical, but the Republicans are much easier to thrash for a simple reason... they preach from a moral high-ground. Admit it... a conservative caught lying just look a heck of lot more arrogant than a liberal. If the Republicans want to have the kind of influence that Obama has, they need to stop praying The Message (you know what I mean) is all they need to drill (pardon the pun) into their adoring masses, and start admitting mistakes.

This campaign ain't over yet, but it's clear Palin changed the game. A week ago, Republicans were trumpeting experience and Democrats braying about change, and now they've literally flipped sides. What I do is listen to the extreme wing-nuts from each side, and research the truth in the middle. But as long as I'm in California, I can't help but laugh when someone tells me Ariana Huffington is a centrist.

Is there a liberal bias in the media? If your answer is yes, or no, then you are wrong. If you answer is "let me spend 5 minutes researching it on Google first" then you are closer to being right. Or left. Same thing.