It seems someone else noticed the resemblance between John McCain and Battlestar Galactica’s Colonel Tigh. It was a nagging worry, but then he selected Gov Palin to be his running mate. Well, she does have at least a passing resemblance to president Roslin from Galactica too.

So what is going on here? Now I get the impression that some of you out there think that Cindy McCain might look a bit like #6.

If you think that the Cylons are influencing top of the Republican ticket, you might want to check out this web site.

Tigh / Roslin 2008

I always wondered if John McCain was a frakk’en toaster….

Today’s New York Times reports that the US government plans to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

WASHINGTON — Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday called in top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, and told them that the government was preparing to place the two companies under federal control, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.

The plan, which would place the companies into a conservatorship, was outlined in separate meetings with the chief executives at the office of the companies’ new regulator. The executives were told that, under the plan, they and their boards would be replaced and shareholders would be virtually wiped out, but that the companies would be able to continue functioning with the government generally standing behind their debt, people briefed on the discussions said.

It is not possible to calculate the cost of any government bailout, but the huge potential liabilities of the companies could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and make any rescue among the largest in the nation’s history.

I can’t say I’m surprised. I spent two years as a senior IT consultant at Fannie Mae in the late 1990s, and it was clear even then (and even from my position) that there were some serious disfunctionalities within the organization. Most notable was the drive by top management to achieve (at almost any cost) double-digit growth in earnings, year over year, each quarter. It was a mindset that permeated the company. It helped drive the stock price up from just over $30/share when I arrived there in 1996 to nearly $90/share in 2001 (here’s an interactive stock price chart), and with good reason: Fannie was highly profitable (if I recall correctly, on the order of $1 million in profits per employee per year [before taxes] while I was there in the late 90s).

However, growth like that is hard to sustain quarter after quarter, year after year. The effort to do so appears to have led to the fradulent bookkeeping that eventually got Fannie Mae in trouble a few years back and cost CEO Frank Raines his job. I suspect it also led to Fannie’s flyer into subprime mortgages, which has led to massive losses and the collapse of Fannie Mae stock prices down into single digits (just over $7/share this morning, pre-opening). And now it’s led to the US government taking over Fannie Mae, and a massive bailout by the US taxpayers.

Ouch.  ..bruce w..

P.S. I suspect my co-blogger, Bruce Henderson, may have more to say on the matter.  Or maybe not.

Purple Avenger (at Ace of Spades) posted the following video. Avenger’s not sure if it’s real or a parody, neither am I:

This post over at Reason says that “Syndee L’ome Grace” is a real person, and her name certainly does show up via Google.

But . . . sheesh.  ..bruce w..

Courtesy of the ever-wonderful American Digest:

As Gerard Van der Leun says, “Any questions?”   ..bruce w..

Word from SFGate that during Wednesday night’s speech by Vice Presidential nominee (Gov) Sarah Palin, several members of Code Pink, the fringe / loon troupe that likes to protest Marines, attempted to storm the stage. From SFGate:

On Wednesday, CodePink did it again, as co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans hit the floor of the Republican National Convention here, unfurling banners and getting arrested in the process.

The two protesters had official guest passes, and managed to get right up to the podium near VP candidate Sarah Palin.

Just as the Alaska Governor hit the line in her speech about hockey moms, the two women, wearing pink slips saying ”Palin Not a Woman’s Choice,” both tried to unfurl a banner that proclaiming, ”We need a Peace VP.”

This raises quite a few concerns, not the least of which: how did these nuts get so close? Were the Secret Service aware of them? Sadly in this day and age, you have to wonder if someone as rabid as these people might be packing some kind of Al-Qaeda suicide vest to underscore their protest.

Given the track record of the Secret Service, I find some right-wing site’s reports that Obama big money backer Jodie Evans was running towards the stage a bit tough to believe.

Update - my dear wife informs me that while I was flying cross country (during the McCain speech), another one of these 60’s rejects tried it again during John McCain’s address to the convention.

Word to you folks - try to keep in mind that Gov. Palin is at times heavily armed. I would guess she is at least an adequate shot.

From Stubborn Facts:

..bruce w..

…comes from someone who doesn’t think highly of her:

It was that good. No, she’s not qualified, and the substance was thin, but my God — that was perhaps the greatest bit of political theatre I have ever witnessed. Her critics in the media and in the opposition may regret having piled on quite so enthusiastically, and with so little heed for who they hurt — or angered. Watching the tumultuous, ecstatic reaction in the hall, I was reminded of the famous words of the Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbour: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Heh. Hat tip to Mark Hemmingway at National Review Corner.  ..bruce w..

US Magazine of course had its infamous cover story this week on Sarah Palin, titled “Babies, Lies, and Scandal”. Bradley Jacobs, the senior editor for US Weekly, has his head handed to him by Megyn Kelly at Fox News by virtue of the fact that she actually read the story:

Hat tip to The Jawa Report.  ..bruce w..

Just got in today’s mail a letter from our son Jon, currently stationed in al Rutbah in Iraq; here’s the text:

=============

August 22, 2008

Mom, Dad..

I wanted to write y’all a quick letter while I’ve got some downtime here at the IP Station. It’s now Day 50 of our deployment and so far things have been going relatively smooth. There’s only been one incident where I’ve had to bring my M4 up and take it off safe; each time never escalated any further than that.

No encounters with any IEDs, either, which is outstanding. But, even with that said, we’re rolling with a couple MRAPs (basically a 40,000-pound up-armored ice cream truck) when we drive to/from Rutbah & our outpost, so we’re good to go!

The main challenge is working with the Iraqi police. The majority of them are so apathetic to what’s going on or what’s expected of them that it’s almost impossible to get them to do something as simple as wearing their uniform properly, if at all. These guys are the laziest bunch of grown men I’ve ever worked with and they make over twice as much money as the doctors out here when half of them can’t even read or write. Not only that, but this entire town in tainted with corruption. The IP Chief, the mayor, the city council and the sheiks…it’s ridiculous, but it’s perfectly common out here.

I wish you guys could see this place…But, then again, I don’t. This town is trashed. Not just figuratively; I mean there’s literally human waste and garbage everywhere…dead goats, sheep, cats, and dogs outside people’s houses, in the alleyways, in the streets…It goes without saying, but it friggin’ stinks out here. The structures these people live in are in pretty bad shape, plus most of these families have no electricity. It’s sad to say, but ti’s just like what you might see on TV, only much more surreal when you’re out on patrol walking right through the thick of it. I’ve gotta hand it to ‘em for surviving the way they do with what little they have. It makes me that much more grateful for the things I have today and for everything you guys did to provide for all 40 of us kids as we were raised up.

Anyways…so everything’s fine out here. I hope the two of you are okay. I’ll leave my address below; if it changes I’ll be sure to let y’all know. There’s been rumor about us possibly moving to a different outpost around the end of the year, but it’s nothing official, so…we’ll see.

Anyways, we’re gearing up and getting ready to roll soon so I’ve gotta go. I miss and love you both. Hope to hear from you soon.

Your son, Jon

LCPL Jon A. Webster
PTT 21 (AO Rutbah)
Unit 42741
FPO-AP96426-2741

===========================

I couldn’t be more proud of him.  ..bruce w..

The title above is from a comment on a previous post. The graphic below is from Suitably Flip:

And while it’s true that Delaware has about 180,000 more people than Alaska, neither Obama nor Biden have ever been governor (or mayor) of anything. Plus, Alaska’s state budget (not to mention its government and infrastructure) [PDF] is a bit larger and more complex than that of “most towns” (to use the words of the commentor linked to above):

“Just for the record, Alaska’s FY2008 operating budget is $11.2 billion, and the state employs approximately 15,000 people.”

Yep. Lots of towns like that around.  ..bruce w..

As reported by William Kristol over at The Weekly Standard:

McCain aides whose judgment I trust are impressed by Sarah Palin. One was particularly amused by this exchange: A nervous young McCain staffer took it upon himself to explain to Palin the facts of life in a national campaign, the intense scrutiny she’d be under from the media, the viciousness of the assault that she’d be facing, etc.:

Palin: “Thanks for the warning. By the way, do you know what they say the difference is between a hockey mom and a Pit Bull?”

McCain aide: “No, Governor.”

Palin: “A hockey mom wears lipstick.”

Heh. Tonight should be interesting.  ..bruce w..

All courtesy of S. Weasel:

Sort of sums up my feelings, as do the next two (color versions of Stoaty’s early B&W graphic):

I’m going to put this one in my sidebar. Here’s the same graphic with a black border:

Heh.  ..bruce w..

[with apologies to Averroes (aka Ab ‘l-Wald Muammad ibn Amad ibn Rushd)]

I have been a registered Democrat since turning 18 in 1971, though over the past 20 years, I have often wondered why. The best answer: every time I consider registering as a Republican, some major Republican (or group thereof) does something so profoundly stupid or appalling that I can’t bring myself to switch parties. My most recent reason has been the gutless, self-serving and self-defeating behavior of Congressional Republicans over the past 4 years.

But I digress. As a Democrat, I have over the past 16 years — since the nomination and election of Bill Clinton in 1992 — watched my own party define its ethical standards and behavior downward, committing virtually every bad act of which they constantly accuse conservatives (it’s called “projection“). I thought I had ceased to be surprised by both the viciousness and the sheer, rank hypocrisy of both Democratic leaders and much of the Left’s rank and file, not to mention their handmaiden, the mainstream media.

But this weekend has surprised even me.

The Democrats like to complain about “the politics of personal destruction”, even as they have mastered it (again, since Bill Clinton’s ascension in 1992). But the absolute frothing rage and vile, hypocritical and/or false attacks that have followed hard upon the announcement of Sarah Palin as the GOP Vice-Presidential candidate have left me appalled beyond words. The Left has shown once again that no one surpasses them at their willingness to utterly trash anyone — especially women and minorities — who defy or threaten them.

Here’s a simple thought experiement: suppose that Sarah Palin were a Democrat and had been chosen by Barack Obama as his VP candidate. Virutally everything that the Left is attacking Sarah Palin on right now would instead be touted as “real-world experience and understanding”, especially her time as mayor of a small town in Alaska.  They would fiercly mock any criticism, however mild, of Bristol’s pregnancy; they would tout Sarah’s choice to keep Trig (their Down’s Syndrome child) as showing how much of a ‘big tent’ the Democratic party has; and they would shout to the heavens Palin’s reformist credentials, particularly her fight against corrupt Republicans in Alaskan government.

Sarah Palin’s only real sin is that she’s a Republican. And the sheer virulance of the Left’s reaction to her shows how utterly terrified they are of her. If she really were a poor choice, a desperate choice, a lightweight choice, the Democrats would rub their hands with glee and thank the political gods for such a dumb choice. They would simply let the GOP ticket fail on its own, taking the high road (assuming the Democrats even know any more what the “high road” is). But the vicious, over-the-top, incoherent rage of the incoherent Left shows that Palin is anything but a lightweight, anything but a poor choice. She is, they fear, a second Reagan, one shaped for the 21st Century. Their nightmare is that if McCain/Palin win in November, they may have lost the White House for the next 8 to 16 years.

So they have to destroy her, smear her name, build up a negative image of her and her family in the public’s mind, before anyone gets to know her. And this means passing the stupidest, most vile rumors; being profoundly (and hypocritically) anti-feminist and misogynist in their attacks against her and her family; and generally lowering their political ethics beyond even their usual Stygian depths.

I can no longer bear, in even a ‘DINO’ sort of way, to be associated with the Democratic Party; whatever hopes I had that Barack Obama may actually represent something new are gone, notwithstanding what I thought was an outstanding talk last week. And for all the stupidities of the Republican Party — past, present, and probably future — the selection and nomination of Sarah Palin gives me hope for the future of the GOP.

All this is why I’ve added a new ‘to do’ item to an already busy list for this week. I just downloaded a voter registration/change of information form, filled it out, and printed it; I’ll be mailing it to the Douglas County Clerk & Recorder tomorrow.

And for the first time in my life, after 37 years as a Democrat, I will be a Republican.

..bruce w..

[UPDATED 09/04/08 — 0654 MDT]
If you’re wondering, yes, I did mail off the updated voter registration yesterday; I’ll let y’all know when my new Republican voter registration card comes in.

In the meantime, enjoy this People’s Newswire Roundup regarding Sarah Palin.  ..bruce w..

From Creative Minority Report:

Hat tip to the always-worth-reading American Digest.

UPDATED 0854 MDT

OK, I ran across this photo of Palin’s parents in their home (from National Journal Hotline):

Heck, I don’ t hunt (or like to hunt), but this just cracks me up.  I don’t know what’s more fun: having Sarah Palin on the ticket or watching the Left become absolutely unhinged.  ..bruce w..

S. Weasel made the poster to the left; I may try to get a larger version to stick onto our car.

Also, because they deserve more attention, two items which I tacked onto my previous post plus a few new ones:

• Jeff Emanuel has a detailed and — IMHO — rather devastating “tale of the tape” comparing Sarah Palin and Barack Obama (NOTE: the Redstate.com site appears to be currently [8/31, 1550 mdt] down/overloaded.)
• Suitably Flip has an interesting graphic regarding the two VP candidates.
• Uncle Jumbo over at Blackfive shows that Palin’s “Commander-in-Chief” bona fides are nothing to sneeze at — the Alaska National Guard is the first line of missile defense for the United States (hat tip to Stubborn Facts).
• Harvey over at IMHO shows yet another way how the Left’s dismissing of Palin backfires on Obama (e.g., “I think she’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it.” becomes “I think he’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for an African-American in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it.”)

Last — but far from least — is the Red State Update commenting on Sarah Palin:

Hat tip to American Digest.

Heh. Ain’t we got fun?  ..bruce w..

[series of updates below]

Palin has been my second choice for GOP VP, after Condoleezza Rice. This is, IMHO, a great move by McCain; what may make it truly brilliant is if McCain makes the “one term and out” pledge at the GOP convention. That way, electing McCain-Palin gives Palin an almost certain shot at the GOP nomination in 2012 — which would probably kill off Hilary Clinton’s chances. It also makes the GOP convention next week actually interesting.

[UPDATED 10:05 MDT]

I see that the Left and the MSM (but I repeat myself…) have already started the “no experience” drumbeat on Palin, which is going to backfire. Obama has been a Senator for four years and has no executive experience (unless he really wants to bring up the Bill Ayers connection again); Biden has likewise been a legislator pretty much all his life. Palin has served both on a local government level (something she can point to as a plus, given Obama’s rhetoric last night about being a community activist) and for two years as governor of not only the largest state (geographically), but the only state that borders two foreign countries — one of which is Russia, fer cryin’ out loud. Tell me how much either Obama or Biden have had to deal with Russia on a government-to-government basis.

[UPDATED 1027 MDT]

OK, this just keeps getting better: her nickname as Governor is “Sarah Barracuda”. Apparently she first had that nickname in high school, but it’s come back during her administration because of all the special interest groups and corrupt politicians she’s crushed.

[UPDATED 1044 MDT]

S. Weasel (one of my favorite bloggers and a hell of an artist — yes, she did all those drawings you see on her web site) pretty much sums up my own reaction:

[John McCain] did it. He showed me something. Sarah Palin is distilled essence of awesome.

Lifetime member of the NRA. Flies her own float plane. Eats mooseburgers, kills own moose first. Nickname in high school: Barracuda. Former commercial fisherman. Went to college on money she won in a beauty contest.

Her husband is an Eskimo. Dude. Her husband is an Eskimo.

Her main claim to fame is fighting corruption in her own party — which means she won her elections in defiance of the state Republican party. She’s the one who killed the Bridge to Nowhere. So, yes, this is a sort of maverick-y pick, but in a good way. I’m psyched.

I now have a reason to vote, and a ticket I can get excited about. Haven’t felt that way, oh, since Giuliani cratered.

[UPDATED 1509 MDT]

Craig Ferguson — my favorite late-night talk show host — had this communication from Sarah Palin:

Hat tip to The Jawa Report.

Also some Little Known Facts about Sarah Palin, with a hat tip to Ace of Spades.

[UPDATED 08/30/08 - 1213 MDT]

Jeff Emanuel has a detailed and — IMHO — rather devastating “tale of the tape” comparing Sarah Palin and Barack Obama.  Go read it. (NOTE: the Redstate.com site appears to be currently [8/31, 1550 mdt] down/overloaded.)

In the meantime, Suitably Flip has an interesting graphic regarding the two VP candidates.  ..bruce..

All in all, I thought it a very powerful, well-delivered speech. He is, without a doubt, the best orator that the Democrats have put forward since JFK; he is, I think, more polished than Reagan, though Reagan knew how to be folksy without sounding either stupid or condescending.

I thought his attacks against McCain were effective (I’ll let others critique whether they’re accurate), but I do think he slipped big time with this statement:

If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

Obama has been in the Senate for 4 years and doesn’t have much of a record prior to that. I expect this line to show up in McCain ads, pointing out who has a record and who doesn’t.

The domesitic policy part of Obama’s speech had me hearing cash registers in my head (”cha-ching!”) for each new proposal he mad. Beyond that, I have serious questions whether he can enact — in a recognizable form — any of these policies, especially with a Democratic Congress. Bill Clinton made very similar promises in 1992 and then had a disastrous first two years — with a Democratic Congress — so much so that the Republicans gained control of the House in 1994.

The foreign policy portion was better, though given that we now have more support from France and Germany than we did a few years ago, I’m not sure what the basis of his “restore respect” comments are. I will frankly admit that — with a son (Jon) serving in Iraq and a nephew (Darren) most likely head to Afghanistan in a few months — this passage made me tear up:

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.

Against all odds (and my own misgivings), the stadium venue worked — even the Grecian columns. It was a profoundly effective setting.

Setting aside my own policy and political preferences, I would rate the acceptance speech as a 5 out of 5, simply because I’m not sure what more Obama could have done to fire up the Democratic base, reach out to independents, and leave an amazing sets of sound bites and images for the whole country to ponder. Plus, having most of the mainstream media in the tank for him, Obama won’t face a lot of critical analysis over what he said and what he proposes. I suspect Obama may go over 50% in the polls this weekend, and McCain has his work cut out for him.  ..bruce..

This is wishful thinking on my part, but if McCain really wanted to steal Obama’s thunder, I think he should pick Condoleezza Rice as his VP candidate. Frankly, I still like her better than any of the names currently bandied about, and it would capitalize on PUMA sentiments.

We’ll see.

[UPDATED 08/29/08 — 0645 MDT]

It appears that both Pawlenty and Romney are out — which I think is a good thing. McCain is really going to need to shake things up, and for that he needs a woman and/or a minority. I still hope it’s Rice, but there are rumblings that it may be Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

On September 2nd, I’ll be speaking at a meeting of the Denver IEEE Reliability Society. It will be held at 5:30 pm in the Seagate Building in Longmont (CO), on Nelson Road between 75th Rd and Airport Rd.

Here’s my abstract of the talk:

INSIDE-OUT: Organizations too often treat software reliability as an ‘after the fact’ consideration, performing testing as a last step and then constraining it due to schedule and financial pressures. Webster will present a simple “inside-out” software lifecycle model where all software development activing (not just coding) takes place within a framework covering a broad spectrum of quality-related activities.

I’ll post the presentation slides here after the talk. ..bruce w..

Earlier this year, I was quite excited. Both the annual World Science Fiction Convention and the Democratic National Convention were coming to Denver (Sandra and I live in Parker, just outside of Denver) in the month of August. It would be a great two-fer!

As it turns out, I have been in Colorado for maybe 100 hours or so this August. I’ve been consulting full time on the East Coast, with a one-week break to attend our son’s wedding in Utah. I missed WorldCon and I’m missing the DNC. Heck, I even missed the four (harmless) tornadoes that touched down in and around Parker on Sunday.

But, hey, it’s work. ..bruce w..