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That Wiley Stock Market

A row of houses in foreclosure

We just had the biggest two-day rally in over 20 years, coming on the heels of the recent prolonged crash from mid-september onward.  Analysts are giving credit to Barack Obama and the announcement today (and Friday) of his economic team.  Combine that with Citi’s personal rescue plan, and you’ve got people apparently willing to invest once again.  At least for a couple of days.

This, from CNN:

“There is a massive amount of liquidity on the sidelines but it’s sitting behind a dam of fear,” said Stephen Leeb, president at Leeb Capital Management.

He said that there needs to be a major catalyst to really start it flowing, but Monday’s news had certainly caused some cracks in the dam. In particular, the nomination of Timothy Geithner for secretary of the Treasury was helping Wall Street.

Am I the only one at least marginally concerned that our entire financial system behaves like a petulant child, with all its whims and overreactions and fits?

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By Mark Casey
November 24, 2008

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Sarah Palin’s Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble

Mere moments after the traditional pardoning of a local turkey before thanksgiving — a tradition most state governors participate in — Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was interviewed by a local news channel… in front of Turkeys being slaughtered.

Asked if she was concerned about the backdrop, Palin is said to have responded “No worries:”



Palin staffers are reportedly miffed by the incident, claiming that they wanted the interview to be “a chance to do something without controversy.”

Speaking of which, here’s a hilariously-timed, Thanksgiving-themed “thank you, Sarah Palin” message being put out by the conservative Our Country PAC (notice the Turkey dinners in the background):



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By Mark Casey
November 23, 2008

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Need a Break from Politics? Try a Free Dr. Pepper

If you would permit me, I’d like to take a break from the business of cultural discussion, political policy, and media criticism to point you toward one of the finer things in life:  snarky corporations offering free products based on mocking pop culture.

I am, of course, talking about Dr. Pepper vs. Chinese Democracy.

Chinese Democracy is the brand-spanking-new Guns N’ Roses album coming out this Sunday — and by brand-spanking-new, I mean they’ve been “recording” it since 1994.  The extreme delay has become a fitting cultural punchline for the notoriously dysfunctional rock group, and the joke is now so old that most younger kids don’t even get it.

But I’ll tell you what they do get.  Free Dr. Pepper:

Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008.

…

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper’s Web site. They’ll be honored until Feb. 28.

Sweet.

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By Mark Casey
November 21, 2008

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How to Transition from Successful Campaign to Successful Presidency

The Obama campaign is now famous for its success with everything from fundraising (they raised half a billion dollars during the campaign) to organization — which outpaced the GOP’s famous three-day plan.  Much of that success was predicated on bottom-up strategy influence, grassroots organization and personal committments.

But how do you transfer that unprecedented success to an even more important job — running (and, more specifically transitioning to running) the entire country?

I dunno — ask the organizers.  And that’s exactly what the Obama campaign is doing.  Making sure no one is left out, the transition team has organized five full days of conference calls with its top field organizers to help brainstorm strategies and tactics for “where to go from here.”

Talk about putting your mouth where your money is.  Here’s part of the email sent to organizers:

YOU are the reason we have and will continue to change the world.

As a part of the transition process, we are completing a thorough analysis of the campaign and are seeking your input on where we should go from here.  In order to do this, we are setting up a series of one hour conference calls starting this Friday, November 21st through Tuesday, November 25th.

I know a field organizer, and he is very enthusiastic about this move.  It’s not just because he gets to kinda-sorta help influence parts of the president’s strategy (maybe).  It’s that the field organizers were always the closest to the peple, to the American public — and they know what the public wants from the president, and how the president can frame his discussion for them.

Once again, the Obama team is showing its organizational prowess by doing something unique — listening to the organization.

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By Mark Casey
November 21, 2008

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Polling Maven Nate Silver to Write Two Books

Nate Silver and his brand-new website FiveThirtyEight.com predicted the 2008 election with unprecedented accuracy. Unlike any number of other pollsters, who rely heavily on designating any number of states “toss-up” states, Silver used his model to predict them outright.

He was correct in every case but one oddball with unreliable polling — my home state of Indiana — and the one state he did indicate was literally polling as “too close to call” — Missouri — still has yet to be called, two weeks after the election.

And his success is now being rewarded, as he just inked a two-book deal reportedly worth $700,000 with Penguin Books.

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By Mark Casey
November 18, 2008

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Chris Matthews Set to Return to Ellen

Chris Matthews is set to return to “Ellen” this Thursday, which is garnering plenty of laughs and jokes after his notorious dancing incident on his last appearence.  In case you don’t know what happened last time, I’ll never be able to beat Huffington Post’s snarkiness, so here you go:

In March, Matthews infamously danced with Ellen so violently that he ended up groping her breast and throwing her to the floor. He’ll be back on her show again next week, and this time, Ellen will be prepared, she said. She joked about hiring a self defense expert as she showed off a special bra that sounds an alarm when it is grabbed.

She also unveiled a force field device, meant to keep Chris Matthews at a safe distance.  But don’t think I don’t know what actually brought you to this site.  Without further ado, here is the video of the first assault:



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By Mark Casey
November 18, 2008

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Hulu is Gaining on YouTube

Hulu.com is an amazing website.

An ironic partnership between Fox and NBC, Hulu is a video sharing site featuring high-quality, professional videos from each network’s primetime shows and webisodes — including the popular Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and Family Guy.  Since it’s inception just over a year ago, Hulu has also added plenty of extra content to its ranks, including viral video machines The Daily Show and The Colbert Report — and unlike YouTube, Hulu shows many of those programs in the form of full episodes, and even quite a few in HD.

And of course, the fix for YouTube was in as soon as Hulu launched.  Unlike other online content ventures from major media outlets, Hulu allows their videos to be imbedded in one’s blog or website — even full episodes.  Now, it appears as though Hulu will very quickly surpass YouTube in terms of advertising revenue:

The feat suggests traditional media companies can make money online without having to cede control to Google, as the music industry did to Apple, whose iTunes music store dominates the digital music market.

It also shows the difficulties other social networks might have in generating revenues from their amateur content.

Obviously, the ability to become associated with professional, monitored content is more appealing — for now — to advertisers than appearing on random YouTube viral videos is.  That easily explains why Hulu’s 6 million visitors is currently pulling in nearly as much as YouTube’s 80 million.  But I still believe that advertisers skittishness toward online advertising is on its way out, however slowly.

Why Coke or Pepsi or Budweiser thinks that flashing their logo on TV and in magazines is more valuable than flashing it on a website is beyond me.  Branding is branding, and they can reach just as many people on Facebook as they can in Maxim Magazine — only in Maxim, readers cannot click on their logo and be taken directly to the product’s website.  Yet advertisers still complain about “low click-through rates” — a marvelous concept that doesn’t even exist in other advertising mediums, but still manages to disappoint CEOs.

Once the internet becomes as integrated in our society as television, Hulu will have to have an audience, not just a product, to rival YouTube’s.  Until then, congratulations to them.  They’ve succeeded where other media companies have failed miserably for a decade.

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By Mark Casey
November 18, 2008

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Oh, Obama the Antichrist…

The latest cry for attention from a traditional media outlet comes from Newsweek, who just printed a very straight-faced and, frankly, inflammatory piece suggesting that President-elect Obama might be the “Antichrist.”

Based on the title, I thought the article would tongue-in-cheek, and would eventually debunk all the silly religious paranoia that traditionally comes from “Antichrist” watchers.  They did, after all, also believe that Ronald Reagan was the Antichrist, because all three of his names had six letters in them.

Sadly, when you actually read the article, you realize that Newsweek’s faith-based reporter is as serious as a heart attack:

One of the winning lottery numbers in the president-elect’s home state was 666— which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast (also known as the Antichrist). “It is very eerie, and I take it for a sign as to who he really is,” wrote one of Strandberg’s correspondents.

[...]

In this world view, “the spread of secular progressive ideas is a prelude to the enslavement of mankind,” explains Richard Landes, former director of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University.

No wonder, then, that Obama triggers such fear in the hearts of America’s millennialist Christians.

[...]

The people who believe Obama is the Antichrist are perhaps jumping to conclusions, but they’re not nuts: “They are expressing a concern and a fear that is widely shared,” Staver says.

Yes, you read that right.  Intrepid faith journalist Lisa Miller writes, in a national publication, the unqualified statement that people who believe that the next President of the United States is a religious-themed representative of Satan meant to bring about the end of the world are “not nuts.”

I love it when fear and paranoia are validated by respected external sources.  And why shouldn’t they be when some variation of lottery numbers in Illinois is 666?

Actually, the oddest part of the piece is how it acts purely as an advertisement for End Times opportunist Todd Strandberg.  Watch all this free pub go splashing around:

Strandberg is so certain that the Rapture is coming, he’s bought a number of Internet addresses in addition to RaptureReady: AntiAntichrist, Tribulationus and RaptureMe. In the event that RaptureReady crashes during the apocalypse, anyone who needs an update will, with a simple Google search, be able to get one. Strandberg says Obama probably isn’t the Antichrist, but he’s watching the president-elect carefully. On his Web site, he has something called the Rapture Index, a calculation based on signs and prophecy of the proximity of the end. According to Strandberg, any number over 160 means “fasten your seat belts.” Obama’s win pushed the index to 161.

Consider my seat belt fastened.

Only I’m not worried about Obama the Antichrist.  I’m worried about American religious fundamentalists who are eager to see their bible acted out in real life, and who are so quick to blame Obama for every abortion in history that they might take some insane action against him or his supporters.

And thanks to Lisa Miller for giving those people a pat on the head.

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By Mark Casey
November 17, 2008

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School Children Chant “Assassinate Obama” on the Bus

I’m pretty sure that parents in Idaho have some explaining to do:

Matthew Whoolery and his wife aren’t blaming the school district for what happened on the bus but they do think all parents need to be careful about what they say and teach their children.

Whoolery and his wife couldn’t believe it when their second and third graders got off the bus last week and told them what other students were saying.

“They just hadn’t heard anything like this before,” said Whoolery. “They were chanting on the bus, ‘Assassinate Obama. Assassinate Obama.’ Then adding in a name sometimes of a classmate on the bus, ‘Assassinate Obama and Kate.’”

Of course, the intrepid reporter from Channel 2 in Idaho seems most interested in whether or not the shocked parents in question are Obama supporters:

It’s not that the Whoolery’s are big Obama fans they just don’t like people joking about a serious matter concerning any leader of the country.

“I’m assuming if it were, ‘Assassinate McCain’ you’d feel the same way?” asked reporter Nate Eaton.

“No question about it,” replied Whoolery.

And that’s a big relief. It’s nice to know that, in Idaho, the story isn’t about the children chanting about assassinating the president, but rather the parents who were offended by it. In the same community where children are taught to think like that, the first follow-up question is used to explain to the audience that the concerned parents aren’t necessarily Obama supporters.

Also: their state has a stupid shape. So neener.

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By Mark Casey
November 13, 2008

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Shepard Smith Dismisses Claim that Media Gave Obama the Election

My all time favorite conservative news host, Shep Smith, recently took on my all time least favorite comedian, right-wing hack Nick DiPaolo.

Shep stands for reason against bitterness from the losing side–including many on his own network–as he says what most sensible people, including myself, know happened in these last couple of months:  “The media reflected what is happening in the nation.  It did not drive it.”  Amen, brother.

Enjoy:



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By Mark Casey
November 13, 2008

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