After the election comparison

So I just wanted to give an aftermath map to compare against my predictions:


I think that's pretty neat if you compare it to my previous map. What does this show? It shows that the polls taken were RIGHT ON. From looking at polls, I was able to make a guess that was SPOT ON a month before the election. Kinda scary huh?

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog. I think I should update my family blog too.

Quick Prediction

Hey, let's have some fun, I am thinking +/- 15 electoral votes the map will look like:



I didn't change much but used the predictions from average polling provided by Real Clear Politics . Two posts in one day, wow.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

Well, if you know how the rest of the song goes she doesn't top until she swallows a horse and dies but everything is justified except the fly. That's kind of how I view the economy right now. No one knows why we were irresponsible with home loans. I mean, who do you blame? The banks? Insurance companies figure out odds and adjust their rates for their insurance products accordingly, could our banks not do the same things when offering their loan products? I honestly don't don't know if there would have been a good way but I'm sure a couple statistics professors could write a book on how best to have adjusted rates and amount down, work history. It seems to have gotten away with us. Eerie, because when you look at how blind we seemed in hindsight from the 1929 stock crash, it really looks like that to me again. I am almost sure we won't see quite that magnitude of depression, but we will be paying for it for many many years.

The poster-child for the negative publicity of the bailout seems to have been AIG. With their hands in just about everything we saw an initial bailout for $85bil and a follow up of $37bil to "replenish liquidity" and then turned around and had an executive retreat that featured spa treatments and a price tag of $440,000. Well $400k is tiny compared to the bailout money, it just shows bad judgment and appears as a slap in the face to our congress.

I will say that to be optimistic of the situation I think Bush may be right on his prediction, in fact it seems very likely: Investor confidence in the market (currently down to 8500 from about 11000 not long ago) will return SLOWLY. I guess it is kind of vague but it looks like something to welcome as soon as it may come... no one with a 401k out there is probably planning on retiring soon. We can only hope that when we look back 10 years from now we can praise congress for their actions and not curse the time when we were damned to years of more and more debt to pay back for naught. Keep on truckin'....

Meet the Spin Wrangler

Hello, I wanted to start a blog of this nature for several reasons:

1. Exposure of any spin becomes in peoples minds...truth.
2. I'm in a search for my own truth and feel like I'm on a trail to something good, I'd like to take you with me.
3. The "no spin zone" aka O'Reilly is a danger to America. By claiming a "no spin zone" it leads us to believe that we can rely on Bill to tell us how it really is, that his opinions are truth. That's wrong and he knows it, Fox knows it, unfortunately many people can't see that.

I'm not saying people can't think for themselves, they can. It is actually a great power and very refreshing to know that we have an unbelieveable power in this day-in-age to seek out information and sift through it to find our own truths. I guess this is my real goal. I want to look into the world of public policy, ethics and the general direction of the nation. With it I can tell you, I'll have my "two cents". So who am I:

I vote mostly democratic. I would consider myself a moderate. I have a passion for giving as much as possible where it is effective and folding where it is not. That's right, I have blown away my republican's friends minds when I say that I would have no problem giving more money in taxes if I knew all of it was going towards an efficient common good. I believe we need serious reforms to our welfare system and a hard look at many other areas of spending. I think it's funny that more American's may know the name of J-Lo's twins than may know their U.S. Representative. I'm guilty of catching E! News every once in a while as well but I still have to admit, I could probably get a lot more out of checking out some real news that might actually affect me :-) Please stay with me and check in every once in a while. Mark it as a "feed" if you want, those are always neat, they update when you open your browser. Until we meet again,
Chris