Next stop Wall Street

Jack Shafer explains why Wikileaks is extremely valuable:

I love WikiLeaks for restoring distrust in our most important institutions. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine:

Moneyquote:

"he idea of WikiLeaks is scarier than anything the organization has leaked or anything Assange has done because it restores our distrust in the institutions that control our lives. It reminds people that at any given time, a criminal dossier worth exposing is squirreled away in a database someplace in the Pentagon or at Foggy Bottom. Assange's next stop appears to be Wall Street."

After the past three years a Wikileaks dump of Wall Street documents will be manna from heaven.

Asterisks Abound

2007's Spygate has roared back in to the headlines with the revelation that Bill Belichik's disciple Josh McDaniels and the Denver Broncos have been punished for taping an opposing team's practice.

Unlike many New England Patriot diehards I have not buried my head in the sand in order to pretend that Spygate does not matter. I recognize the reality that the rest of the country continues to associate the Patriots with cheating. Those are the facts, and as much as I might like to, I can't shake the disappointment that this incident tarnishes the team's accomplishments over the last decade. This why the loss in Super Bowl 42 and missing out on the undefeated season, post Spygate, is even more difficult to swallow. An undefeated season after the Spygate fiasco would have shut up all of Belichick's detractors who argue he only won because he cheated.

I am particularly annoyed by those who argue the "everyone did it" defense. This argument is used so often in the defense of wrong doing that it didn't seem worth engaging. However I have been convinced that this argument may have some merit while I was arguing these points with another Patriots fan who actually backed up the "everyone does it" argument with facts. Although it does not exonerate the Patriots, it may provide needed context to the severity of the Patriots' crimes.

Jimmy Johnson:

"Oh in a heartbeat, yeah. Yes I did," Johnson said, before confirming it was done via video."Oh yeah, I did it with video and so did a lot of other teams in the league," Johnson continued. "Just to make sure that you could study it and take your time, because you're going to play the other team the second time around. But a lot of coaches did it, this was commonplace."

He then detailed how he learned: "I was saying one of Marty Schottenheimers scouts, Mark Hatley, who has passed away now, Mark told me that's how they did it, and Howard Mudd their offensive line coach with Kansas City, who now coaches for Tony Dungy, he was the best in the entire league at stealing signals."And his methods: "My guy was up with my camera crew in the press box. So you'd just put an extra camera up with your camera crew in the press box who zoomed in on the signal callers. That's the best way to do it, but anyway you can't always do that because the press box camera crew might be on the same side as the opposing team. If they're on the same side as the opposing team that's when you need to do it from the sideline."

Mike Shannahan:

"Our guy keeps a pair of binoculars on their signal-callers every game," says Broncos coach Mike Shanahan. "With any luck, we have their defensive signals figured out by halftime. Sometimes, by the end of the first quarter."

I'll put an asterisk next to the Patriots' Super Bowls as soon as the Denver and Dallas fans agree to do the same.

It's the Economy Stupid

The handwringing over the results of the midterm elections continues unabated. Every pundit is offering their analysis and advice to President Obama on how to turn around his Presidency. Pundits recommend that he needs to demonstrate "leadership" or be "bipartisan" or "connect" to the American people. And right wing pundits of course demand that he adopt a conservative ideology.

People seem determined to ignore the one variable that explains it all, the performance of the economy. Probably because that explanation is boring and can't fill up the 24 hours of blathering that is required for FOX and MSNBC programming.

My conviction that the economy explains almost everything in our current political environment was confirmed when I read the Wikipedia summary of the final chapter of CNN's Cold War documentary while preparing for my World History class. This statement about President George H.W. Bush really struck me:

"The Soviet Union ends on 25 December 1991, and in his Christmas Day address Bush announces the Cold War is over."

George Bush presided over the country when it's mortal ideological enemy of 50 years fell AND managed the armed forces to a total and convincing victory over Iraq, the first major successful military operation since Vietnam, and he still convincingly lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. When I think about that election result it is a stunning event? Of course Bill Clinton's most famous slogan from the '92 campaign says it best, "It's the economy, stupid."

Political scientist have convincingly demonstrated the overwhelming relationship between the economy and Presidential re-election rates. It just seems pundits don't want political scientists to reveal that all the endless white noise on TV is useless and wrong.

So when someone suggests that Obama needs to do this or that to win back the American people remember that that person is probably just advancing their own personal agenda by disguising it as sincere advice designed to help the President.

Hammer Time!

Quite possibly my least favorite politician during my time in Washington was Tom DeLay (thankfully Sarah Palin was just a mayor of a small town in Alaska). So you can imagine my glee that "The Hammer" was just found guilty by a jury of his peers for money laundering.

But this quote was almost too much:

"I still maintain that I am innocent, that the criminalization of politics undermines our very system, and I'm very disappointed in the outcome. But you know, it is what it is, and we will carry on and maybe we can get it before people who understand the law."

I guess DeLay can drop the faux man of people schtick that he and his GOP cohorts continually trumpet now that he is no longer running for office. His contempt for the people on the jury is mixed with an elitism that would make even a sociology professor from Harvard blush.

Well if there is one thing the policies of DeLay and his Texas GOP allies have supported it is the state's prisons. Now he'll get to reap the benefits of his ardent advocacy for a robust and active criminal justice...Texas style.