But it remains to be seen whether the cast reshuffling will achieve Wolf’s greatest ambition: to surpass “Gunsmoke” as the longest-running prime-time drama in the history of television. Wolf, 61, has long voiced his desire to overtake the classic Western, which ran from 1955-1975 on CBS; Wednesday’s season premiere will herald 19 years for “Law & Order.” “It’s one to tie and two to win. I think after that, (we’ll do) another 20,” Wolf said.
Can `Law & Order’ outlive `Gunsmoke’?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 October 2008 at 5:49 PM

St. Louis County Ballot Questions

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 October 2008 at 2:06 PM

Post-Dispatch election endorsement round up

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 October 2008 at 2:04 PM

Is anyone else bothered by the fact that one of the key tenets of the government’s plan to respond to the financial crisis involves merging failing firms into larger firms?  It has seemed to me that one of the problems of this crisis is that all these firms that we’ve been bailing out have been too big to fail.  Even Lehman Brothers, a company which Paulson thought wasn’t too big to fail, turned out to be too big to fail.  And now we’re encouraging troubled companies to merge — in some cases with other troubled companies — forming even larger companies.  It seems like we’re creating a future where the only companies that the government won’t save are the so-called “Main Street” businesses.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 October 2008 at 8:28 AM

This is the first in a series of articles on Missouri ballot measures.

Prop A would eliminate Missouri’s $500 stop-loss rule and limit the number of casinos in Missouri at 13 (those that currently exist or are under construction).  It would also raise the the current tax on casino winnings from 20% to 21%.  It is believed that this proposition would send more than $100m/year to Missouri schools.  However, Missouri casinos have spent $11m running ads in support of this initiative, so you can be sure that they’re expecting to make even more than that.  To me this is a mixed bag, but given that I live in St. Louis where people can already simply drive across the river to avoid the loss limit, I’ll be voting YES.

For some additional reading, here is the P-D’s editorial on the issue and here is the St. Louis American’s editorial on the ballot issues.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 October 2008 at 3:21 PM

New York Times Endorsements Through the Ages
Not sure if this says more about the ‘Times’ or more about the GOP candidates, but the ‘Times’ has very consistently supported the Democrats since 1960. 

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 October 2008 at 3:38 PM

I’ve now seen a couple of ads run by the “Corn Refiners Association”  bragging about the benefits of high fructose corn syrup.  It’s a bit creepy.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 October 2008 at 8:38 PM

Flipping through the channels in my hotel and I found another example of Fresca on TV. Fresca is the soda of 2008.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 October 2008 at 4:19 PM

The more I think about last night’s debate, the more I think that this was a redux of Sarah Palin’s debate performance.  McCain started strong because he stuck to his talking points.  As the debate progressed, he had to deviate further from his scripted lines and became incoherent as he flitted from one idea to another without every really connecting his thoughts.  It was like he was participating in a brainstorming session or something last night.  In the end Obama was looked cool and collected with the facts at his fingertips and McCain looked like he just had talking points and grimaces to share with the audience.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 October 2008 at 4:24 PM

I toured the NPR studios in Washington today and saw Steve Inskeep record the promo for tomorrow’s “Morning Edition.” Apparently, Oliver Stone will be on to discuss “W.”

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 October 2008 at 11:56 AM

One thing that continues to bother me about the debate last night is why Bob Schieffer would ask a question — in light of the downturn, what would you cut from your list of proposed policies — that has been asked at all the previous debates. As moderator youmogjt think it an interesting question, but given the nonanswers from the previous debates, it seems like you have an obligation to spend the 10% of the debate devotedto that question on something else.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 October 2008 at 8:18 AM

…so don’t expect much from me tonight.

9:33…I guess I’d call the first thirty minutes for McCain.  He was clearly better prepared than for any of the previous debates.  But as the debate progressed, he seemed to get more and more erratic, leaving Obama the clear winner of the last hour.  Overall, BHO looked cool and collected while JSM3 couldn’t talk in detail about any one topic.  An overall Obama win.

9:28…Maybe it’s just better makeup artists in NY, but McCain is looking healthier today than he did in any of the previous debates.

9:18…Kevin Drum: “Who is McCain looking at while Obama is talking? He really looks like he’s exchanging looks with someone in the audience.”  I’ve been wondering that myself.  Are his handlers mouthing his responses to him?

9:16…BHO is killing on the abortion topic.  It’s great to see a Democrat who is willing to discuss this in rational terms.  A focus on reducing unwanted pregnancies while maintaining choice is clearly the right answer to this problem.

9:14…Best line of the night goes to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s liveblog:”Doesn’t ‘Joe the Plumber’ sound like a 70s porn star?”

9:13…Abortion isn’t really an issue that works for JSM3, according to CNN’s undecideds.

9:04…Is McCain smoking something?  BHO just answered the question about the fine as being nothing.  And now JSM3 wants to talk to Joe the Plumber again by congratulating him on being rich?  Now McCain is calling BHO “Senator Government.”  I can’t take this dude anymore — I’m wondering now if he has all his marbles.

8:59…JSM3’s health care plan is apparently for all kids to take an extra session of gym class.  Joe the Plumber wants more gym class.

8:58…BHO’s health plan also does really well with the undecideds.  JSM3 doesn’t move the dials when he talks about health care much.

8:55…I wonder if BHO can just say “clean energy” over and over for the rest of the debate.  CNN’s undecideds love it.  Now JSM3 is transitioning from energy to negotiating with our enemies to taxes.  Can the dude not spend more than ten seconds on any one issue?  It’s almost like he’s not trying to answer the question.

8:47…Is McCain crazy?  We can’t build 45 nuclear power plants in four years.  The paperwork alone takes more than four year.  There’s no way we can cut off Middle Eastern and Venezuelan in four years.

8:43…According to John McCain, running for election is proof that you’re a maverick.  Meanwhile, while he talks about Sarah Palin, CNN’s survey shows that men respond well to Palin and women remain perfectly flat and unresponsive.

8:40…How on earth did JSM3 manage to tie Ayers in with McCain’s desire to cut taxes.  I’m so confused.  Does Ayers want to raise taxes?

8:38…McCain’s smirk is ridiculous.

8:36…”Destroying the fabric of democracy.”  JSM3 is really going for all the hyperbole he can find.  Seems like BHO is handling both the Ayers and ACORN questions just fine.

8:24…”I’ve got the scars to prove it.”  JSM3 backdoors his POW status into the debate.

8:21…”I am not President Bush.  If you wanted to run against him you should have run four years ago” is a pretty good line.

8:19…The overhead projector for the planetarium again?  Can he not find better examples?  I wish BHO would spend some time pointing out some of the good things that earmarks pay for.  All earmarks are not wasteful — it’s just a legislative method Congressmen use to get the things their constituents want.

8:16…JSM3 takes notes with a Sharpie.  Does he need glasses that he chooses not to wear during the debate or is he just using the grown-up version of a Crayon?

8:13…Black suit, black tie.  Why did McCain decide that looking like a funeral director was a good idea?  Is he mourning his campaign?

8:11…I wonder if “Joe the Plumber” is a little peeved about being referred to as “Joe the Plumber” all the time.  I’d be pissed if I was getting my fifteen minutes of fame as “Dave the Software Engineer.”

8:07…Instead of saying “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,” BHO should refer to “the worst financial crisis in most of our lives.”  We need a better context for this since the Great Depression happened before most people were born.  Not John McCain, but most of us.  (To be fair, the crash happened before he was born, but McCain was born in the middle of the depression.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 October 2008 at 8:10 PM

“CNN Election Center and coverage of the presidential debate will continue in a moment.”

Another dumb CNN fact.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 October 2008 at 7:24 PM

Since I posted yesterday about being tired of the Impressionists, I thought I should offer an alternative. This is Leonardo da Vinci (sorry about the angle, but there was a crowd and my feet Hirt too much to wait for them to disperse).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 October 2008 at 6:14 PM

The National Gallery of Art has lots of great Impressionist pieces like this one, but I think I prefer the old masters these days.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 October 2008 at 5:10 PM

Taking a break in the National Gallery of Art

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 October 2008 at 12:12 PM

The report finds that Gov. Sarah Palin “abused her power” in violation of Alaska law.
Talking Points Memo | Trooper-Gate: Palin Abused Power

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 October 2008 at 8:28 PM

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there. Here's but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: "Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this." When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama's numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?" If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
Palin Problem by Kathleen Parker on National Review Online

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 October 2008 at 8:11 PM

John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, "We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us." This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget "by the end of my first term." Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?
Christopher Buckley

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 October 2008 at 7:57 PM

When Brokaw asked his “What don’t you know and how will you learn it” question last night, I had a momentary flashback to Donaled Rumsfeld’s known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.  Brokaw wanted to know about the known unknowns, but its always the unknown unknowns that will get you.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 October 2008 at 10:00 AM

If someone could clue me in on the “easy” plan that everyone knows to fix Social Security that John McCain was talking about tonight, I’d appreciate it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 October 2008 at 10:29 PM

9:34…The icing on the cake was the candidates blocking Tom’s teleprompter at the end of the debate.

9:31…The more Obama talks about his history, the more approachable he seems.  I think its worth reminding the voters that he’s the guy whose family was once on food stamps but that he seized the opportunities that were given to him.  He is a classic American success story, and people should take pride in being able to vote for him.  A vote for Obama is a vote for the American dream.

9:24…Seems like both Obama and McCain gave good, nuanced answers to Brokaw’s dumb “Is Russia an evil empre” question.

9:18…Who does McCain love more, Lieberman or Petraeus?

9:15…Obama should spend some time practicing singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.”  This debate needs musical interludes.

9:12…McCain seems smoother now that we’re talking about foreign policy, but he’s still getting tripped up on some of his catchphrases.

9:06…Obama got started strong on the intervention question, but he didn’t really take it anwhere.

9:01…There seems to be a little more energy in the debate when the question originates with someone in the debate hall and not with some internet person.

8:57…How on earth can a debate like this make any difference?  It’s just so boring.

8:51…Of the three network anchors of the last generation — Brokaw, Rather, and Jennings — I was always a Jennings fan with a soft spot for Dan Rather’s craziness.  So take the following for what it’s worth: Brokaw is doing himself no favors with all his clock talk.

8:45…Comparing green jobs to the early days of the computer industry is a pretty compelling analogy.

8:44…McCain has namechecked Joe Lieberman twice now.  Does Joementum have some cross-party pull that I don’t understand?

8:41…McCain’s laugh is even scarier when no one laughs with him.

8:40…Thinking more about this entitlement question, why is everyone so freaked out about Social Security?  It’s Medicare that’s in serious trouble.  The fix for Social Security is to do nothing and see where we are in 20 years or so.

8:39…Brokaw clearly isn’t a fan of the debate rules.

8:34…The debate’s gotten less interesting, so here’s a random thought for the night: Do you think the economic downturn will have a silver lining for McCain in that it may make it harder for Obama to collect donations in an economy that’s clearly on its way down.

8:28…I may be stereotyping here, but why do older people always think that America can only get better if people today sacrifice as much as they did in the past?

8:23…An overhead projector?!  If Obama is president, will he give overhead projectors to planetariums all over the country and not just to one in Chicago, IL?

8:20…If CNN’s live response graph is to be belived, BHO is killing tonight.  Every time he opens his mouth he goes off the charts.

8:19…Where did they find the people to ask these questions?  I can forgive being nervous, but not asking dumb questions.  And boohiss on Tom Brokaw for selecting this question — its a total MSM thing to assume that both parties are equally to blame for all problems.

8:13…So if follow-ups violate the rules of the debate, why was Tom asking one?  And why did he then get mad at the candidates regarding the rules of the debate.

8:09…”Not you, Tom.”  Where was McCain’s weird chuckle?  All kidding aside, asking the candidates who their treasury secretary would be is a pretty good follow-up question.

8:07…Obama is off to a strong start.  The CNN reaction polls were maxed out for most of his first set of remarks on the economy.  Things are looking good for McCain as well though, but he’s doing noticably better with women than men.

8:04…What’s up with Tom Brokaw’s voice?

8:01…Tom Brokaw is getting things started.  Apparently 80 uncommited voters are here to ask questions.  Here’s my first question for: if a voter hasn’t been able to make up their mind about the candidates despite all the news about them over the past 18 months, do we really trust them to ask useful questions of the candidates?  They must be totally disengaged from national and international news.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 October 2008 at 8:04 PM

It suudenly seems like Dave Letterman is relevant again, so I’m watching him tonight.  Seems like he still bears a grudge against McCain for bailing on him.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2008 at 10:47 PM

Do you think Coke is putting some ad dollars behind Fresca?  It got very prominent play on “True Blood” last night including gettign its name mentioned, and now I’ve seen it on “Life” as well.  It would be cool if Fresca became a more mainstream beverage — I’d love to get be able to get it from the fountain when I go out to eat.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2008 at 10:13 PM

Second Fresca sighting on TV in as many days

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2008 at 10:05 PM

A note on the global crisis - Paul Krugman
I tried reading Krugman’s analysis, but his decision to put the graphs at the end of the paper didn’t help my already limited ability to decipher what he was talking about.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2008 at 3:41 PM

McCain: Who Is the Real Barack Obama?

In a speech today, John McCain “repeatedly tried to paint Mr. Obama as a largely unknown, risky choice.”  It seems hard to argue that, at the end of a nearly two-year-long presidential campaign that Barack Obama is “unknown.”  Does McCain really think that it takes 26 years before you know someone?  By that standard, I barely know my parents and John McCain doesn’t yet know four of his seven kids.

I find the argument that “I’ve been around a long time” less and less persuasive as time goes on.  John McCain’s track record is one of contradictions.  What part of his record are we supposed to believe?  Or should we instead believe what he tells us on the campaign trail?  In the end, a president faces challenges that are very different from a US Rep or Senator serving a relatively small portion of the country.  How you act when your constituents are the people of the state of Arizona will — one hopes — be different from how you act when you represent all of the citizens of the US.  (What’s good for America presumably isn’t always good for Arizona, and vice versa.)  So in the end, we must take all these candidates at their word — we must trust them to do what they promise us they’ll do or at least trust them that they are putting our best interests at heart when they deviate from what they’ve promised us.  As McCain’s campaign goes more and more negative, it becomes harder and harder for people to take him at his word. 

And that’s why he will lose this election.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2008 at 3:36 PM

Fresca is making some pop culture inroads.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 5 October 2008 at 10:12 PM

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 5 October 2008 at 10:49 AM

When will peole stop making Nigerian prince Internet scam jokes?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 4 October 2008 at 11:41 PM