Feed The Animals

I downloaded Girl Talk's Feed the Animals from illegal-art after following a link from one of the music sites, but it wasn't until today, after reading yesterday's NY Times article, that I started listening to it. It reminds me of the excitement of finding out about mashups back in 2004, but a more wrapped up, commercial version-- a more accessible, updated, and less clowny version of DJ Yoda's Amazing Adventures. Like most mashups, GT's songs capture the best moments of popular contemporary songs to stir up your emotions in a post-post-modern we-play-everything radio play for the short-attention span, multitasking, always-online, text-messaging twitter generation.

Sources:
1. Girl Talk: Feed the Animals
2. Making Girls Dance: All in a Night’s Work By JON PARELES Published: November 19, 2008
3. Steal This Hook? D.J. Skirts Copyright Law By ROBERT LEVINE Published: August 6, 2008
4. The Amazing Adventures of DJ Yoda

A library card

At 3:45 AM on election day, the Somerville fire department accidentally sent an all-points bulletin about a fire on Walnut street, intended for department heads, to everyone in town who registered to receive City updates on snow emergencies and street sweeping through its Connect CTY system. On the David Square livejournal, duffless2323 responded to those seeking apologies:

The city has offered restitution for those affected. They have made arrangements for any one affected to get a special pass/card which can be used at all branches of the somerville library. With this card you can check out not only books, but dvds and books on tape, FOR FREE. You just need to sign up.

How to Win

David Plouffe seems to be every bit the opposite of Lee Atwater, and a welcome change for politics. He used Deval Patrick's campaign for governor in Massachussets as a test case for Obama's grassroots popular appeal, and the strategy worked. This is a welcome change from the win-at-all-costs strategies of Lee Atwater and his protege Karl Rove.

I can't find the Chicago Trib David Plouffe article referenced on his Wikipedia page, but found it on this howieinseattle blog:

As Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager, Plouffe was the mastermind behind a winning strategy that looked well past Super Tuesday's contests on Feb. 5 and placed value on large and small states.

The campaign had the money to make such a potentially low-yield wager, and Plouffe had long understood that the Democratic Party's complex system for apportioning convention delegates meant winning even one congressional district in a state could help generate the total needed to reach the magic number.

From his 11th-floor Michigan Avenue office, he sent resources to such states as Nebraska, Idaho and North Dakota that Sen. Hillary Clinton virtually ignored, putting extra emphasis on those with lower-turnout caucuses instead of primaries.

The plan, which had been in his head at least as far back as late 2006, was partly out of necessity because Clinton's early name recognition and party ties gave her advantages in big states.

The strategy proved itself in the two weeks after Feb. 5, as Obama won 11 contests in a row and achieved a delegate lead he never would lose. In late February, Plouffe reportedly confided to a colleague that he believed a mathematical tipping point had been reached.

'A rare talent'
Marking one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history, Obama himself saluted his behind-the-scenes general at the start of his victory speech last week in St. Paul.

"Thank you to our campaign manager David Plouffe, who never gets any credit, but who has built the best political organization in the country," he said.

As Obama's campaign transitions to the general election, Plouffe (pronounced Pluff) will lead the way. Ironically, it will be against someone he listed in 2003, in a Washington political journal, as his favorite Republican, Sen. John McCain.

In a campaign filled with alums from the 2004 presidential efforts of Sen. John Kerry and former Rep. Richard Gephardt, Plouffe comes from the Gephardt branch.

In 2003 and early 2004, he served as a senior adviser to Gephardt's short-lived presidential bid, a dozen years after getting his first taste for presidential politics working on a campaign for Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa.

That Iowa experience helped him understand the state's arcane presidential caucus system and just how important an early win there would be in knocking the air of inevitability out of Clinton.

Lean and about 5 feet 10 inches tall, Plouffe can seem almost shy compared to more gregarious campaign personalities. But he can swear like a sailor, and his near-broadcast-quality voice exudes confidence on the many conference calls he holds with reporters and donors.

"He's not a weirdo, and a lot of the people who you meet at the senior level of presidential campaigns are eccentric or difficult or egomaniacs," said friend and Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf. "If you look at the high command of the Obama campaign, normalcy seems to weave through them."

Plouffe, 41, is a business partner with Chicago-based media strategist David Axelrod and worked with him on Obama's winning 2004 U.S. Senate campaign. But Plouffe, unlike Axelrod, rarely appears in front of television cameras.

"He's the most disciplined and focused person I have ever met in politics," said Elmendorf, who previously supported Clinton. "It is very easy to get distracted by the press and donors and activists. David just has a great filter and he doesn't let any of the noise bother him. In a presidential campaign, that's a rare talent."

Stealing bases, not show
Plouffe, who declined to be interviewed for this article, believes the airing of campaign disputes in public should be avoided at all costs and that the candidate should always be the focus. Even with a rapidly growing staff of about 800, unintentional leaks are rare.

"He is smart and scrappy and doesn't bring a huge amount of ego to the table," said JoDee Winterhof, a political strategist who has worked with and competed against Plouffe at several points of his career.

Like a baseball manager who knows it is a long season, Plouffe tends to avoid highs or lows, similar to his candidate. While his boss cheers for the White Sox, Plouffe prefers the Phillies (a reflection of a childhood in Delaware).

Plouffe's singular focus on running the campaign was displayed last week when he refused, despite encouragement, to fly with Obama to Minnesota for a victory rally. He stayed behind with the staff in Chicago, where he gave a pep talk about the historic moment.

"He was about as happy as we've seen him," a campaign aide said.

Guarding the coffers
Plouffe's campaign office door is always open, but his wallet isn't.

Although Obama's campaign has shattered fundraising records, Plouffe, the survivor of congressional campaigns that have run short on money, is well-known for his frugality.

Staff members are often paid less than their Clinton counterparts were, many double up in hotel rooms while on the road, and the "L" is the preferred form of transportation to and from Chicago's airports. At least early on, workers who wanted business cards were typically expected to pay for the printing themselves.

By guarding the campaign's coffers, Plouffe was able to ensure Obama had the money he needed after an expensive Super Tuesday advertising surge.

A specialist in tactics, Plouffe also understands the workings of the media and has offered lines for Obama speeches that were powerful enough to make the final cut, a skill he honed working on many other campaigns and with Axelrod.

'They will have a plan'
While there is no time for the sandlot this summer, those who have worked with him say he brings his same zeal for statistics to politics as he does when he is pitching in recreational leagues or following the batting averages of his favorite players.

"He's fascinated by numbers," said Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who worked with him in 1999 and 2000 when Plouffe was executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "He just has an insatiable appetite for this stuff and he could keep all of it in his head."

Carrick credits Obama's success with his campaign's long view.

"From the very beginning of this campaign, David was very focused on the calendar and the sequence of it," he said. "The Obama campaign planned for the potential of it being a longer campaign all along."

In politics since college, Plouffe worked with Axelrod on the successful 2006 campaign of Deval Patrick for Massachusetts governor. An earlier big win came in 1996, when he managed the campaign for Bob Torricelli to fill Bill Bradley's U.S. Senate seat.

Plouffe joined Axelrod's consulting business in the winter of 2000 and was named a partner of AKP&D Message and Media in 2004 (the "P" is for Plouffe).

"He has the capacity to handle more details in his head at one time than anyone I know," Axelrod said. "David is very determined at whatever he does."

Elmendorf, meanwhile, said he looks for more of the same from Plouffe in the general election.

"It was probably the best-run presidential campaign in a generation," he said. "They will have a plan. It may not be clear yet, but they will execute it."

Sources:
1. Frontline: Boogieman, the Lee Atwater Story
2. Wikipedia: David Plouffe
3. McCormick, John (2008-06-08). "Obama's campaign chief: low profile, high impact", The Chicago Tribune. [broken link]
4. Howie Martin: "Obama's campaign chief: low profile, high impact"

I'm not acting

Comments after the news that Joaquin Phoenix announced that he is giving up acting to focus on his music.

"Casey looks like he's afraid he's gonna get whacked with that rolled up paper."
hawaiian | October 29 2008 at 03:13 PM

"I'd like to say something, I'm no longer an actor, I'm a puppeteer. -John Malkovich"
cal_79 | October 29 2008 at 03:20 PM

"He's quitting acting? When did he start?"
AmericanMark | October 29 2008 at 05:41 PM

photo courtesy REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES)

Just a normal day...

From
curlytoes79 regarding the end of the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers:

Looks like a normal day at a government agency to me!

Here's a better quality video:

How much are we spending?

"On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve pledged $540 billion to make sure [money-market mutual funds] really are [safe]."

Add that to the $700 billion plus that the Treasury department has already spent... Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-New York, 14th District: Manhattan, Astoria) summed it up nicely at the The Causes and Effects of the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Monday, October 6, 2008 (lines 864-871 of the Preliminary Transcript):

"We are facing what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. And the potential cost to [the] taxpayer is staggering: $29 billion to J.P. Morgan to buy Bear Stearns; $85 billion to AIG; $200 billion to Fannie and Freddie; $700 billion rescue package; $300 billion to the Fed window opening it up to investment banks; $50 billion to stabilize the money market funds. A staggering $1.7 billion potential cost to taxpayers."

Plus whatever has been spent between then and now. How much is all of this going to cost us? Can we really trust the Federal government to get us the best deal for our taxpayer dollars? Check out Frontline's report on the Resolution Trust Company and how some people profited by putting out offers on houses, such as $1,200 for a house worth $80,000 and getting the deal, without any kind of a counter offer by the government. The story goes on to say that these people submitted over 20 offers ranging from $50 to $8,000, and getting them all.

Sources:
1. NY Times Dealbook blog
Fed Adds to Its Efforts to Aid Credit Markets
October 22, 2008, 7:56 am

2. The Causes and Effects of the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy
Monday, October 6, 2008
House of Representatives,
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Preliminary Transcript PDF available here.

3. Frontline 1991: The Great American Bailout

4. Fed Chairman Endorses New Round of Stimulus
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: October 20, 2008

"The government announced last week that it would invest $250 billion directly into the nation’s banks as part of a $700 billion bailout package to ease the financial turmoil and loosen the credit markets. In addition, the government has helped bail out the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the insurance giant the American International Group."

5. JPMorgan Acts to Buy Ailing Bear Stearns at Huge Discount
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: March 16, 2008

"The companies said that the Federal Reserve would provide special financing in connection with the transaction and that the Fed had agreed to fund up to $30 billion of Bear Stearns’s 'less-liquid assets.'"

The mess keeps getting messier...

Melinda, commenting on an article in the St. Petersburg Times, sums things up nicely. The Times reported about how Bubba The Love Sponge Clem contributed large sums of money to Sheriff Jim Coats campaign for reelection. From the article:

To date, Clem has given $1,000 to Coats under his own name. He also sent money to the campaign through seven corporations:
• The Bubba Radio Network ($500).
• Bubba Army ($500).
• BRN Shock Media ($500).
• BTLS Web Media ($500).
• B3H Web Holdings ($100).
• BRN Travel, Inc. ($250).
• Intense Frequency ($500).
Clem promised $2,000 or $3,000 more from people including his wife, Heather, and his producer, Hatley.

Melinda's comment:

If someone who legally changed his name to include 'Love Sponge' is this adept at creating shell corporations to evade taxes and buy influence, imagine how dirty it gets higher up the power ladder.