June 30 - July 25 exchanges

I haven't watched TV in about a week other than the Daily Show at 11pm. I hate that fact that we pay for cable for only one or two shows!!! Oh well. Maybe I'll catch the 10pm repeat of MSNBC one of these days.

- - Fair, July 25, 2008


Rest assured - plenty of media folks notice the inconsistencies of the Repubs - my favorite, of couse, being Keith Olbermann. His 8:00 pm nightly Countdown show probably comes when you are out and about, but MSNBC repeats the same show at 10 pm. Do you ever catch Keith? You know the phrase, preaching to the choir? Well, I'm in the choir that he preaches to, and it's fine with me - it's a comfort to know that prominent media figures think like me - and of course, have access to video and guests that back up the thoughts.

- - Ing, July 25, 2008


First the republicans say Obama cannot be President because he has no experience.

Obama goes overseas and acts Presidential.

The republicans criticize Obama for acting Presidential-like before even being elected - the nerve.

Is anyone but you and I paying attention!!!

Unfortunately, you are correct about simple in nature always being seen as better. I hope Obama's campaign can be both detailed and simple to cover all bases. I am guessing the "blue collar" workers are those that identify with "less taxes," "less government," etc..., the Reagan Democrat message, as the way to move forward.

- - Fair, July 25, 2008


So. So far so good with all of Barack's travels. The criticisms he is getting are pretty standard, other than the, Obama would rather lose a war so he could win an election. That was a low blow. Also, his speech in Berlin to 200,000 adoring fans was too vague? What's he supposed to do: outline a 10-pt proposal to fix social security to that audience?

I do have a bit of unease about the election - in that, I'm afraid it will be - simple will win. The simple messages - cut your taxes, cut your gas tax, win in Iraq - McCain seems to be better focused on those. I think this is something Obama can win on, but it needs work.

- - Ing, July 25, 2008


Puts Michigan back in to play too for McComplain - Romney being the native son!

- - Fair, July 24, 2008


I think our mail is very slow - no sticker as yet.

I heard a rumor (from TV talking head pundits, of course) that Obama might announce his pick soon after his TRIUMPHANT return from overseas. At any rate - Dem convention ends and like three days later, Repub convention begins.

I think McCain WILL pick Romney - and I think that would be his best choice against Obama, in the attack dog mode with a smile. Although, this week, McCain has been a pretty good attack dog himself!

- - Ing, July 24, 2008


I highly doubt McCain will announce Mitt Romney as his VP this week or next. I may be wrong. Is it not true that because of the convention schedules, Obama will have to announce his VP choice before McComplain? If so, if I were a republican, I'd wait until after the Dems for strategic reasons.

When you get the bumper sticker, see if you can figure out the "torch" symbol. It may simply be clip art with no meaning.

- - Fair, July 24, 2008


Shows how much I know – Fairness Doctrine ended in 1987
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6573406.html

- - Ing, July 23, 2008


Awwwhhh - you haven't been reading my blog posts - I've been complaining for some time about how the general election race is BOR-ing compared to the primary battle.

When Hillary was first in the phase of dropping out, I was glad Obama wanted to help retire her debt. But now I agree with those who say, of paramount importance is getting Barack elected - and besides, some of that debt was incurred by her continuing to battle for the nom past the point of making any difference. . .

Thanks for sending the sticker - I'll let you know when I get it – T. hardly ever opens any mail ahead of me.

- - Ing, July 22, 2008


Unfortunately, I seem to not find the race between Obama and McCain as interesting (entertaining) as the race between Hillary and Obama. The Obama/McCain race is a no-brainer - Obama all the way. Do you have similar thoughts?

Oh, by the way, the sticker is in today's mail. Do you think T. will confiscate it - ha-ha?

So far I'm at around $60 or 70 donation wise. I'm not done... Speaking of donations, I see Hillary is selling t-shirts and Obama continues to encourage 'his' donors to help retire her debt.

- - Fair, July 22, 2008


So, do you have in mind the max you would contribute to Obama? I think I will go past $100, but not sure . . .

- - Ing, July 22, 2008


That's so nice of you. Oooooohhh, the reporters make me mad - saying Barack is having a "picture perfect" trip and such code, as if he's doing nothing but photo-ops. On the McCain side, have you heard the latest rumor? That he will announce his veep this Friday to steal thunder from Obama (who, by the way, is single-handedly responsible for high gas prices, per McCain's latest ad) - and the pick very well may be - - - - Mitt-ney!

- - Ing, July 21, 2008


I will place one in the mail tonight or tomorrow. Interesting thing is... the stickers I "donated for" in the store do not appear on the website for purchase. The website stickers have a blue background, white sans-serif font - the common campaign design; the stickers I have are on a white background with what appears to be a Times New Roman-type all caps font. Perhaps they are 1) a special edition or 2) counterfeit! :)

- - Fair, July 21, 2008


I'll have to look for that CNN article . . .yeah - if you would like to mail a sticker, I would like that very much - but not if it is too much trouble.

I would like to get an Obama T-shirt online. . . .

I may have mentioned that I'm going through old (1980s, early 1990s) files of correspondence, memos, etc. for the purpose of sorting and purging. So many things are amazing to me from this exercise - if we are bureaucratic now we were way more so then; and how much e-mail has made a difference. Memo after memo of little things that nowadays would just be in an e-mail. . . .

- - Ing, July 21, 2008


T. is probably right, at least yard sign-wise. I never had a problem with my car. I put the sticker on my back window so it easily pulls off as opposed to my painted bumper.

Better to be safe than sorry - just your luck some idiot would smash your window or do other such things.

Would you like me to mail you one of the stickers, just to have? I was planning to give them to friends and then tell them to donate. The Obama "store" is pretty neat.

CNN.com recently added material about how the New York Times rejected a McCain editorial. Ha!

- - Fair, July 21, 2008


Sorry - I hadn't looked at the blog till you mentioned it below - that was a fine post and fine sentiments, too boot. T. won't "let" me put a bumper sticker on a car or a yard sign out for any Democrat - he thinks our area is too redneck-rural and it could lead to vandalism.

McCain is trying - without any success in my opinion - to have it both ways - 1) Obama hasn't gone to Iraq enough or ever to Afghanistan and 2) How could Obama announce his strategy before even going to these places? Why can't the interviewers ever call out these statements? The so-called "fact-finding" junkets are so brief and so scripted and so constrained that they can in no way provide meaningful facts about how to strategize in those countries. All physical visits can do is offer a tiny bit of local flavor and perhaps be helpful when meeting specific personages. But even the latter hasn't a whole lot to do with developing a strategy. So McCain is an idiot but the news reporters more so for not calling him on it.
- - Ing, July 21, 2008


Have you had a chance to follow any of the TV and/or internet coverage of Obama's travels? And McCain with all his desparate efforts to maintain some attention on his own campaign?

- - Ing, July 21, 2008


I knew you would get a kick out of Jib-Jab. When I first saw it on TV, I wanted to go to their website and see it again and they had a whole little application built in for adding a picture of yourself or a friend. I had digital pictures of you and a few others from when we went to the Nuthouse, before you left us :(

- - Ing, July 21, 2008


I like the post!

- - Fair, July 18, 2008


Morning post – “Pet Peeves”

- - Ing, July 18, 2008


Have you seen the new JibJab cartoon-video-thing for the current election? Pretty funny . . .

- - Ing, July 16, 2008


Wow - that is quite a rant! On quick read, it sounds pretty true. Unless you or a relative or friend is part of that huge gray bureaucratic middle management monster, I guess it's easy to be critical. I've thought for a long time that GM is just too big, but what do I know. . . . more and more, looks like our next car will be a Malibu . . .

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


What I heard was the focus being on Chevrolet and Cadillac. Pontiac, Buick and GMC are being consolidated in to "one" brand (that is why all the dealers are shuffling) because those three brands are only going to have two or three models each.

The other rumor was that Saturn and Buick would be the "other" brands outside of Cadillac and Chevy while GMC and Pontiac would be closed.

It cost GM a ton to phase out Oldsmobile - so what they may do (and I read this somewhere) is just let Pontiac and GMC have one or two vehicles and not market or spend any $$ on them. Not sure where that leaves Saturn.

www.autoextremist.com

- - Fair, July 15, 2008


Apparently Wall Street was underwhelmed by Mr. Wagoner's pitch - too many slices at the edges, not enough big, bold moves (what would that be? like, perhaps cutting out Pontiac, or taking every brand and saying only one or two models per each).

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


I want them to keep the jobs in St. Louis - they SAY they will...

I really am indifferent. I'm so used to mergers and closures from living in Michigan I just am conditioned to think nothing of this.

- - Fair, July 15, 2008


Any thoughts on !n-bev taking over Budweiser? I've read a bit in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about it - I want them to keep the Clydesdales - they SAY that they will . . . .
- - Ing, July 15, 2008


We can't set our sights that high or we will really be discouraged!

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


Well, if I ever step up my contributions it would be a bit thicker content-wise (although my comments may not be as complete or meaningful as those from say... Anderson Cooper or Candy Crowley or a Blogger from the Huffington Post).

- - Fair, July 15, 2008


I just checked the stats and it isn't quite as bad as I thought - no worse, anyway. There was something new to me in the report - Key Word searches - like, one was Racism Colbert, and another was blue state/red state/tim russert. So this must mean that the actual Google search engine is sending folks over. I imagine they may be disappointed because the content is thin right now. But we can slog forward!

I'll check out Time - do you check out http://thepage.time.com ? I just bring it up again because you mentioned Time. This is a sort of low-tech blog but it's good for keeping up on day to day events.

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


I always was just fine with the blog being for fun. The experience is nice too as it is my first. You just never know what can be picked up on the web these days - maybe an unexpected mention on CNN :)

While my grandparents are web-saavy, I think those in more rural areas unfortunately are not. But, as I mentioned, they are probably already McCain supporters anyway in that no computer/no Internets demographic - my guess at least.

There is a good article on John McCain and the republican party in the current Time issue.

- - Fair, July 15, 2008


Well - I agree more with what you said earlier about your grandparents' web-saavy. No matter how much aides can feed McCain stuff, he HAS to be computer literate. If he ends up being elected, I shudder to think that we could have another "stupid" president like W . . .

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


Ahhh, the Internets. The Dems need to be careful with this. They could end up 'offending' (or having republican operatives let them know they should have been offended) older, reliable voters who may be in a similar situation as McCain... as long as they aren't already for McCain already because of his age.

- - Fair, July 15, 2008


Let me know if this link works: - McCain can't use "a google"
http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/07/14/mccain-can-t-use-a-google-so-what.aspx

More on a topic we have discussed previously - here's a "young person" who thinks it doesn't matter that McCain is computer-illiterate.

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


From www.Detnews.com : Cuts announced this morning by Wagoner:

[begin quote]
• A 20 percent reduction in salaried worker costs through a variety of means including normal attrition, early retirement and voluntary separation programs. GM's salaried workforce has declined by about 12,000 to 32,000 since 2000, when Wagoner became CEO.
• Cutting health-care coverage for Medicare-eligible salaried retirees, offset by increased pension payments.
• No pay raises for salaried workers through the end of 2009.
• No discretionary bonuses for executives.
• Reducing truck capacity and related component capacity. GM expects to cut 300,000 units by the end of 2009, about half by already announced actions and half by new steps, Wagoner said. Last month, GM said it would cut 170,000 trucks from its production plan later this year.
• Cutting and consolidating sales and marketing budgets, including motorsports activity.
• Holding engineering spending to 2006-07 levels through the end of 2009.
• Reducing capital spending.
• Suspending the dividend on common stock, to save $800 million through 2009.
Wagoner also said GM would defer until 2010 its payments to the UAW-run health-care trust agreed upon in last fall's contract negotiations, saving $1.7 billion.
"These measures will provide us with ample liquidity," Wagoner said.
[end quote]

- - Ing, July 15, 2008


What is going on at GM? I heard about a news conference today.

- - Fair, July 15, 2008


How ridiculous is our news media/political culture? Obama can't even say he will "refine" his policy based on information he gets from the military on the ground when he visits Iraq and subsequently. FLIP-FLOP. He can't diverge in any regard from - troops out within 16 months. He gets it from the left and the right both. IT MAKES ME SICK!

So, on another note, I was happy to see Nadal win Wimbledon yesterday, because I think he's cute ;->

- - Ing, July 7, 2008


I will be watching DC style - from the top of an apt. building roof :)

- - Fair, July 3, 2008


No problem - maybe you can catch up on your rest this weekend. Will you be seeing the Capital Fireworks show?

- - Ing, July 3, 2008


Favor...

I can't remember what I wrote (I was tired). Can you cut and paste and send it to me? I think it is silly I have no access.

- - Fair, July 3, 2008


Great posts! I'll post back to the blog later on today.

This latest brouhaha with Clark illustrates what I read about him earlier on - that he doesn't get along well with others, not a great team player, pretty well set on his own views, opinions, analysis. Probably not the best qualities for a veep. Of all the mentioned contenders, I'd like to see Daschle - he is so personable - almost ingratiating at times! ;-> - but he's no softy.

Yes, Obama is moving to the center - he has to, to win - and winning is most important. Nothing out of his shifts strike me as cynical and insincere, as some are saying . . .

Have a great 4th - I've watched it many times on PBS out of Washington DC - they put on a spectacular show and a pretty good concert.

- - Ing, July 3, 2008


I added two brief posts last night - one about the campaign, the other about the latest re: the city of Detroit.

- - Fair, July 3, 2008


Romney is the current odds-on favorite for McCain's number two spot.

- - Ing, July 2, 2008


Thanks for the reports. I will comment "on blog" directly via the blog tonight. I would like to get on the blog more often. You are correct; I think Wes Clark just *blew* his chances. Wouldn't be too smart for Obama to select him now. Oh well...

- - Fair, July 2, 2008


"Your guy" Wesley Clark messed up a bit. He said on Face the Nation that, yes, McCain was a hero for being shot down and becoming a POW - BUT, that wasn't really specific experience for becoming Commander and Chief - something like that. On the anti-Obama side, there's a Swift Boater out there defending McCain, as if Obama is attacking McCain - which Obama himself is not. But everyone has to be responsible for every statement by every surrogate, no matter how much disavowal comes from the candidate himself.

- - Ing, June 30, 2008