The #1 Jacob Bodnar website on the Internet
Is this Real Life?
Jan 26th
Sometimes Obama makes me feel like this…
Literally a day after saying in his State of the Union speech that we need to put aside our differences and get stuff done AND claiming for the third straight year that we need to do something about illegal immigration, Obama travels to Arizona and visibly snubs GOP governor Jan Brewer who was asking Obama to visit the southern border and work on illegal immigration.
President Barack Obama and his deputies publicly snubbed Arizona’s Republican governor when she welcomed him at the Phoenix airport.
Gov. Jan Brewer met him at first stop of his five-state campaign swing with a hand-written letter asking him to visit the state’s southern border, which is a hotbed of illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
But Obama suddenly turned cold, claiming that her Nov. 2011 book mischaracterized their previous White House meeting in June 2010. He then quickly walked away.
Is this real life? Sadly, yes.
–jb
The Me President
Jan 21st
Earlier this week President Obama traveled to Disney World.
Nothing too weird there, plenty of people travel to Disney World everyday.
Earlier this week President Obama traveled to Disney World and shut down Main Street USA.
A little more unique, not many people can lay claim to shutting down and disrupting a major sector of America’s most loved theme park.
Earlier this week President Obama traveled to Disney World and shut down Main Street USA to talk about increasing tourism.
Wait what? Let me get this straight. Obama decides he wants to talk about increasing tourism, so he goes to one of the most sought after tourist destinations in the world, and makes it more difficult for those tourists to enjoy their time there.
Backwards doesn’t even begin to describe this.
Not only that, but his speech was all about giving himself more power to pass items that Congress simply doesn’t want to pass or act on. Ya know, that pesky checks and balances thing is actually working!
Let’s get one thing straight, Obama has no desire to increase tourism. This event at Disney World was simply a giant campaign event, an opportunity to get a photo and video of Obama in front of that magical castle. This speech could have easily been made at a more convenient location. But it is not like this president to pass up an opportunity to make people’s lives miserable so he can enjoy himself.
His $4 million vacation to Hawaii was not only absurd because of the price, it was absurd because of the location. He picked a house flanked by two bodies of water, therefore local coast guard and the Navy had to spend even more resources patrolling the area. Furthermore, because of the location and the size of the house, his security team had to rent out space in a local office complex so they could keep the president safe. All the while Camp David, a recreational getaway specifically designed for presidential retreats – security and all – remain doormat.
This Disney World speech is the same thing. Obama wants to speak in Disney World, regardless of how many people visiting the park that day it might inconvenience. Regardless of the security challenges it posed, Obama was speaking in front of that castle.
Because so far this presidency hasn’t been about the country, it’s been about Obama. What he wants, when he wants it, regardless of the cost. If he wants to fly to the furthest possible state to take his vacation, he’s will. If he wants to shut down a section of Disney World to have what is basically a photo op, he’s doing it. Obama continually claims Congress is putting themselves in front of country, but the only one proving that in practice is the Commander-in-Chief.
Yes, the president as a person is important, but he is serving the country, not the other way around. The job is inherently selfless, and should be treated as such. But as far as I can tell Obama has done nothing but act selfish in the position. Instead of buckling down and leading during the credit downgrade crisis, the debt limit debates, and the payroll tax cut fight, he sat on the sidelines, letting Congress bicker at each other, because it helped him politically.
I think I’ve been wrong before by claiming he’s failed to lead. He hasn’t failed to lead, he’s simply chosen not to. The actions of his entire presidency have been self motivated. Time and time again he has glossed over the actions that were right for the country, and instead chose the actions that were right for him. That explains his past statements complaining about Congressional action being necessary and how much easier the job would be if he could just take action unchecked. It explains why since September he’s been on a relentless campaign to secure as much executive power as possible, despite his criticisms of his predecessor doing the same.
Obama has officially become the “Me President.” Doing what is best for himself, without fail.
I think the American people are finally waking up to the inauthenticity of Obama.
Honestly, that Disney speech as just too transparent.
New Hampshire Surprises
Jan 11th
Two weeks. Two states. One winner.
So far, that’s the way this story goes.
In not-so-surprising fashion, Mitt Romney destroyed the field in New Hampshire with 40% of the vote, the next closest was second place Ron Paul with 23%. It was a dominate victory, but not a surprising one.
So we really have to scan the field to see what sticks out as surprising. What can we take away from the New Hampshire race. Just like I did with Iowa, here’s what each candidate can expect going forward.
Mitt Romney – Uh, a victory. As long as he can secure decent support in South Carolina, let’s be clear he doesn’t even have to win South Carolina, he’s the nominee. With that said, recent polls in the Palmetto State indicate another Romney victory. And if he sweeps the first three, it is game, set, match.
Ron Paul – Continue to be a pain in Romney’s side, and that is about it. Paul described his New Hampshire performance as “nibbling at the heels” of Romney, and declared it a “victory for liberty.” Part of me feels that it’s sad that a second place finish in one state’s primary is a “victory for liberty,” but at the same time this is the most success the libertarian party has ever had in the history of man. Ron Paul is interesting; part of me respects the man for standing by his ideas and beliefs and not wavering (although I’m not entirely sure that’s the case with the newsletters and all), but the other part of me is irritated by him. He has no problem taking advantage of the Republican Party’s money, human resources, clout, or media contacts, yet he seems to be as distant as you can get from the party while still being in it. He openly admits he probably won’t endorse the GOP nominee (he didn’t in 2008), which is fine, but I feel like some libertarian somewhere has to be a little peeved that Paul uses the GOP only as a catalyst for getting elected.
Jon Huntsman – I said if he finished top three he’d stay in, well, he’s staying in. No surprises here, he’s a weak candidate with a weak message. Seriously, what is the point of his campaign? He seems to make no effort to actually articulate a consistent message. Third is apparently a “victory” for him, but he stands no chance in any other state, he’ll be out after South Carolina if not sooner.
Newt Gingirch – What is Newt going to blame this dismal performance on? Romney’s attack ads? Obama? Mickey Mouse Games? I think it would do Gingrich a lot of good to just stop whining and run a clean positive campaign like he promised. During an ABC News interview in Iowa he said he was “committed to running a positive campaign,” and then he produced low blow hokey ads pointing out Romney’s “pious baloney.” He has shot himself in the foot in this campaign, he has no one to blame for this New Hampshire disappointment but himself.
Rick Santorum – Speaking of disappointments…remember last week when we all thought Santorum might have a shot at winning the Granite State? About that. He finished a not-so-respectable fifth. Considering he was in the top three for campaign stops in New Hampshire and was riding a tidal wave of momentum after basically winning Iowa, he should have at least beaten Gingrich. This is clearly the end of Santorum’s campaign. He can’t even capitalize and raise money, he’s currently running a $1 million money bomb that ends today, and he’s just over halfway to his goal. He’ll drop out after South Carolina.
Rick Perry – I know he wasn’t trying to win New Hampshire, but really? Not even 1%? When Buddy Roemer is within 1,000 votes of you, something’s wrong. Perry is all-in on South Carolina, so that’s really going to be a telling election. No one expected him to do very well in New Hampshire, but his performance was pathetic. If he doesn’t finish in the top three in South Carolina (or top two if Huntsman or Santorum drop out beforehand), he’ll be gone.
Essentially the take away from all of this is, if Romney takes South Carolina in 10 days, the election is over. I know there is a contingent of the right that isn’t happy about this, but honestly we have no one to blame but ourselves. I remember the last CPAC when Romney spoke, I was in the room at the time, and the crowd went wild, gave him a standing ovation. Could it be that it was simply Romney supporters packing the room? Maybe, but I doubt it. If there are so many republicans dissatisfied with Romney, why are they just now speaking up? Why not expose him and make it known before he decides to enter the race? They’re waiting until the last minute, it’s like sticking your hand in the Amazon River and quickly pulling it out right before the piranha bites you. The same happened in 2008, republicans stuck their hand in the water, and the piranha bit. Looks like that nasty creature is going to get us again.
–jb
Status Update Beta Test
Jan 8th
This is the beta test of my latest podcast, Status Update. It’s a social media and social technology show. We talk mobile tech, apps, Facebook, Twitter, and anything else in the social media world. Take a listen and let us know what you think!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Status Update Beta Test
Sunday January 8, 2012
Hosts: Jacob Bodnar and Jared Weseman
STORIES
CES is Looming
Acer Announcer Worlds Thinnest Ultrabook
Acer unveils cloud services, looks a lot like Apple
Acer also announces new 1080p, Android ICS tablet
AT&T Galaxy Tab being announced, is it a phone or tablet?
Social Media Companies Consider “Nuclear Option”
Would shut down services for a day in protest
Google Might Announce Nexus Tablet
Study finds iPhone 4S uses most data of all iPhones
Siri is the Culprit
Innovative Ways to Use Social Media
Cab Driver uses Twitter to get repeat customers
Quick Hits
Twitter Verification comes under fire after fake account gets through
Pantech to release a “waterproof” tablet
Rumor Mill: iPad to be announced in January, with new screen technology
App Drawer
Jared: Pocket Casts
Jacob: Wunderlist
This episode, while being a beta test, provides a good idea of what the show will feel like and cover. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please let us know.
Twitter: @StatusUpdateRTM
Facebook: StatusUpdateShow
Email: su at redtie dot tv
Iowa is Over. What’s Next? UPDATE: Santorum Jumps in Poll
Jan 4th
The Iowa Caucus just wouldn’t let go. I guess they had emotional attachment problems.
It might have taken until 2:45AM EST, but the Iowa Caucuses were finally decided, and Mitt Romney got a slight victory, and when I say slight, I mean slight victory, over Rick Santorum. A mere eight votes separated them. Quite remarkable, and it was a very entertaining process to watch. First we had no idea why the vote tallying was taking so long. Then it was rumored a truck from Story county was delivering ballots slowly, then that was found to be false. Then Fox News reported that two precincts remained, but they had no idea why they weren’t being counted, and it seemed the Iowa Republican Party had the same lack of information.
Then finally one of the precincts was counted. It was then announced that a precinct in Story county was incorrectly counted and the recount gave Romney some extra votes. And then finally shortly after 2:30 in the morning, the chair of the Iowa GOP announced that the Santorum and Romney campaigns had agreed on the vote totals from the final precinct, and Romney had won by a mere eight votes.
Take a breath, it’s over.
The lead up to the Iowa Caucus was nearly a year, and you sure can’t say the finale was anti-climatic.
But where do we go from here? That’s one of 50 states, and in the grand scheme of delegate counting, it is rather meaningless. So what does it all mean? Romney won, but does it really matter?
The answer to that is an emphatic no. There is something to be said about the fact that Romney has essentially been campaigning for the presidency since losing in 2008, so squeaking out a win in Iowa by a single digit vote difference isn’t much to email your supporters about.
On the flip side, it wasn’t until recently that Romney campaigned in Iowa, meanwhile Santorum had moved his family there and visited all 99 counties, God bless the man for accomplishing that boring feat. Santorum has the edge here in momentum – he was polling in single figures only a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden he’s now sitting in the top tier. Quite the ascension. But can he hold on? Can he convert this into a close New Hampshire race and possibly a win?
The latest Gallup Daily Tracking Poll shows Romney with a three point advantage over Gingrich, and Santorum polling at around 8%. Keep in mind, this does not include a full run of polling after the Iowa Caucuses took place, so this poll will not show the full depth of a Santorum bump, but this poll will indicate if any pre-Caucus media attention gave Santorum a bump. He did see a 2% increase from the previous poll, so I would imagine he’ll see a decent post-Caucus bump in the next few days.
But the national polls don’t matter; New Hampshire matters. Again, we won’t have a New Hampshire poll until Friday at the earliest that includes sentiment after the Iowa Caucus, but Santorum certainly has his work cut out for him. The last poll in the Granite State showed Romney with a 29% advantage and Santorum sitting at 6%.
The key is, can Santorum take advantage of the momentum? It’s already been reported that in one day he was able to raise $1 million, an impressive feat considering not more than a month ago he had to extend his $250,000 money bomb to a fourth day and still didn’t reach the quarter-million mark. But can he wisely spend that money? Reports indicate that advertising time in New Hampshire is largely purchased, so he can’t run commercials, not that TV ads won him Iowa anyway.
Santorum has one thing going for him; it’s his turn. This has been an election of bubbles. Every candidate not named Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have seen a rapid rise in the polls, followed by a loud popping sound, and a rapid decline in the polls. Santorum was on deck, and now he’s at bat. I don’t think it matters how he spends that money in New Hampshire or that he can’t buy ad time or visit every square inch of soil, he’s the flavor of the week, and he’ll be the flavor of the week regardless of where voting is taking place.
Will Santorum win New Hampshire? I don’t think so, Romney is up by too much, and with only a week left Santorum would have to do an awful lot of convincing. There are two debates between now and the primaries, and Santorum has not been quiet on the debate stage. If he can handle the pressure of being a few podiums over in the center of the stage, he might be able to weasel his way to the top, if not he could stall. But even a close second or third in New Hampshire would be enough to carry momentum to South Carolina, and that race is up for grabs right now.
There are, however, other candidates in this race. Here’s what’s next for everyone else.
Mitt Romney – It’s do or die time for the Mitt-ster. New Hampshire is his baby, while he did spend some time in Iowa, he has made it clear New Hampshire is his focus. If he doesn’t win the granite state he suddenly becomes very vulnerable. If he wins by the margin in the current polls, he’ll sail those New England Atlantic Coast winds to Tampa and take the nomination.
Newt Gingrich – Time to get angry, but not too angry. Being angry isn’t difficult for Gingrich, he could be sitting in a box of kittens and still be angry. This Romney PAC that may or may not be associated with Mitt, but let’s be honest it is, has been hitting Gingrich pretty hard over the last few weeks, now it is time for Gingrich to fight back. He needs to make solid well rounded negative points about Romney. Gingrich cannot play, as he would say, “Mickey Mouse games.” Gingrich is known for his intelligence, poise, and ideas, he needs to use those traits in his fight against Romney.
Ron Paul – It’s over for Ron Paul, impressive attempt in Iowa, but he needed a caucus victory to really make an impact. I actually think, based on poll numbers and his own hyperbole, that his caucus performance was rather disappointing. He was expected to place second with an outside chance of winning, instead he placed third by 4,000 votes. He has the enthusiasm from a dedicated fan base, but not enough broad support to win any state.
Rick Perry – He really needed to beat Gingrich in Iowa. That would have been a moral victory for the Texas Governor and would have at least provided some show of support. Perry focused hard on Iowa, but also has solid support in New Hampshire and South Carolina. After “reassessing” his campaign for a mere 16 hours, he said on twitter today that he would be headed to South Carolina for a victory. That’s a smart move by him, we have very little poll numbers from South Carolina since Gingirch’s fall, but we assume the state is essentially up for grabs. Perry has done decent there, and now that Bachmann has left, he might pick up some of her supporters, although they are few and far between. However, a disappointing performance in South Carolina will surely spell the ultimate demise of his campaign.
Michelle Bachmann – She suspended her campaign, which legally gives her the option to jump back in, which might seem like an option now, but after struggling in Iowa and to make any noise in the debates, it’s hard to see a scenario in which she jumps back in and has success. She’ll go back to Minnesota and focus on being a Congresswoman.
Jon Huntsman – New Hampshire or die, it is that simple. Huntsman has pulled a Santorum in New Hampshire, he’s all in. If he fails to take the Granite State, or fails to finish in the top three (he’s polling in fourth right now) he’ll immediately drop out. However, if he wins or comes in the top three, he’ll really have to fight to get in the top tier considering he has limited operations in other states.
There are two debates before New Hampshire, those will be critical for everyone. Romney will need to defend himself against inevitable attacks from both Santorum and Gingrich. Santorum will need to make some noise and prove he can handle the pressure of center stage. Gingrich will have to fire some verbal nukes towards Romney. And Huntsman will have to appeal to New Hampshire voters who are still not sure about which bubble to fill in on Tuesday. It will be an interesting debate and a critical one as well.
Until then, enjoy this crazy political climate. Elections are addicting to watch and see unfold, and they only come every so often, take it all in while you can.
–jb
UPDATE
Well, we have a New Hampshire poll. It’s a Washington Post poll and it indicates that Santorum might see a bit of a bump after his surprising Iowa finish.
Fresh off his near-win in Iowa, Rick Santorum has leaped to double-digits in The Washington Times/JZ Analytics Poll, taken Wednesday, more than tripling his support from last week.
He’s still in third, and he’s still 27% behind Romney, heck he’s still 13% behind Paul, but anytime you can triple your support you’re doing well.
Tomorrow we’ll probably get a better idea of if this poll is an outlier, or if a significant Santorum bump in the Granite State is the norm.
The Stimulus Didn’t Work
Dec 24th
Just saw someone post on twitter a link to a graph that somehow proves the stimulus worked.
Really? They’re still trying to prove this. It’s been two years, it’s pretty much agreed upon the stimulus failed, the reason for the failure is up for debate, but it failed, seriously, give it up.
Need proof. Here’s some charts:
The Unemployment Rate. Notice how it went up after the stimulus was passed, finally settled in around 9.5%, and has stayed there. Wasn’t the stimulus suppose to keep us from going over 8%?
How about the U-6 Number, the real unemployment rate. Continued to go up after the stimulus was passed, and has stayed their since. Noticing a pattern?
Or the labor force changes, the number of people in the labor force and how it has changed month-to-month. Not exactly the sign of a stable economy…
And finally, the change month-to-month of the number of employed people. Again, up and down, up and down, and remember, we have to add 125,000 jobs a month just to maintain a healthy level based on population growth, so this up and down change is no where near where we need to be, and you would expect the stimulus “working” would mean this number would at least be at the 125,000 stable level.
So please, liberals and democrats, stop with the “stimulus worked” spin. It didn’t work, it failed, tremendously, admit it, and move on.
–jb
It’s About the Cover Up
Dec 23rd
On a earlier episode of The Current I made the comment about how some big news story would break about Ron Paul now that he’s sitting comfortably in the top tier of the Iowa polls.
By the way, that’s a given in presidential politics, once someone his the top spot, something, anything, will hit the news media – whether they withstand that initial jolt of media spotlight says a lot about their campaign and potential to win.
Ron Paul’s big story that might do him some serious damage, are the dreaded Ron Paul Newsletters. Essentially, a series of newsletters were released under Ron Paul’s name during the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s. These newsletters were endorsed by Ron Paul – which is to say he allowed the writers to use his name, and he was financially compensated based on the sales of these newsletters. According to The New Republic, which provides several links to scanned copies of the newsletters, several issues even list Ron Paul as an editor, which Paul himself has denied since 2008 when these newsletters hit the news media.
In a recent CNN interview, Paul claims to have never read the newsletters, he said he didn’t even know about the incendiary comments until 10 years after they were published – which is obviously a lie because the newsletters were an issue in his 1996 House race. He says he disavows them and that he never had any editorial insight or overview of the newsletters.
The editorial oversight denial is also suspect, considering some newsletters list him as an editor, and in a CSPAN interview in 1995 he plugged the newsletters as more than just some publications written under his name.
There are obvious implications if it turns out Paul wrote these articles, but even if he didn’t, it’s very hard to believe that he didn’t at least read these newsletters when they were released.
Just think this through.
Ron Paul was part of an organization that published and distributed the newsletters (Ron Paul and Associates). The newsletters were marketed with Ron Paul’s name is giant letters in the masthead. In the CSPAN interview in 1995 he plugged the newsletters as if they were part of his larger plan to “educate” people. And most importantly, he profited from the newsletters (to the tune over over $1 million). So, it stands to reason that Paul probably at least read the newsletters, if not previewed them before they were released.
So I find it hard to believe that Ron Paul conveniently didn’t read, or know about, any of these newsletters which included incendiary comments from as far back as 1978 to as recent as 1995. This would also mean that over a nearly 20 year span not a single person even told Ron Paul that newsletters bearing his name contained content that could be deemed racist. That just isn’t believable.
I’m not sure if Ron Paul wrote this stuff, in fact my guess is he probably did not, but that does not excuse him from responsibility of the contents. There is no conceivable way that Paul was unaware of the contents, he had to have either read them or been told about them. Reading this racist content, in a publican that bears your name, and allowing the publication to continue without more scrutiny or oversight, is essentially an endorsement of the content.
But, as is the case with most political scandals, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. Ron Paul’s story is he never read them, he never knew of the content, and he disavows them. That’s clearly false. He must have known about the content. And I think from his body language and tense nature in the CNN interview, he clearly realizes this issue isn’t going away and his excuse isn’t going to work. The truth will eventually come out, especially now that the mainstream media has picked up the story.
So, Ron Paul should just tell the truth, whatever that may be. It is worse for this newsletter scandal to be true and for him to have lied. It’s better for it to be true and for him to be honest. The truth might look really bad; worst case scenario he wrote the columns, best case scenario, he didn’t write them, but knew about them and failed to stop them. But at least with the truth he could maintain his squeaky clean record of being a straight shooting honest politician. That’s the allure of Paul, it’s not his foreign policy stance, or even his tough talking stance on the budget, Paul’s main support is based on his consistence, honesty, and perceived integrity. If he lies for months about this story, that record is tarnished.
Politicians caught in scandals have made the same mistake over and over, they lie. The American people respect those who tell the truth, regardless of how ugly the truth may be. Paul and his team need to remember this, it’s not about the scandal…
…it’s about the cover-up.
Big Ten Championship Game Thoughts
Dec 4th
I don’t normally write sports on this blog, but I love sports, I’m passionate about college football, and there was a great came in the Big Ten last night that is carrying some controversy and I’d like to take the time to clear the air on a couple of aspects of it.
If you didn’t watch the Big Ten Championship game last night between Wisconsin and Michigan State – please do, it replays at 9pm tonight on the Big Ten Network. It was a fantastic game, just as exciting as the first meeting, and I’m not sure I’ve seen two teams as evenly matched as Wisconsin and Michigan State – that includes LSU and Alabama.
Both teams are clearly the best in the Big Ten, however only one of them will go to a BCS bowl. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
I want to begin by addressing the controversial call at the end of the game that sealed the deal for Wisconsin; the running into the kicker. Here is a replay if you missed it:
Running into the kicker is a minor penalty. It is described in the NCAA Rule Book Rule 9 Section 1 Article 16 a.2…
Running into the kicker or holder is a live-ball foul that occurs when the kicker or holder is displaced from his kicking or holding position but is not roughed.
I think that’s actually a perfect description of what happened in the above clip. The punter was still in his kicking formation, a Michigan State player ran into him displacing him from that position and knocking him over. It was a five yard penalty – rather minor, but ultimately a good call. These penalties are in place to protect the kicker – because as you can see from the clip above their formation is a rather vulnerable one. If they’re hit they could get seriously injured. I’ve heard some say the kicker purposefully held his position to draw the penalty, maybe he did, but it doesn’t matter, that’s the kicker’s space and he can hold that pose as long as he’d like. Furthermore, it’s the defender’s responsibility to avoid the collision, not the kicker’s.
Now, why was Isiah Lewis even near the punter? Consider the situation. You’re down three, the punter is lined up at his own 12 yard line, the kick was fielded at MSU’s 34 yard line. So even if a fair catch is called, you have good field position, and you have a field goal kicker with a career long of 50 yards – meaning you have to get to you opponents 33 yard line. So basically you just need to pick up 33 yards. Your offense has played exceptionally well, you have a senior quarterback, and some very good wide receivers. You’ve been in this situation before. Not to mention you have a great returner in Keeshawn Martin. In addition, it’s 4th and 5, which means there’s no margin for error because even a minor penalty, like running into the kicker, results in a first down.
So with all that in mind, why on God’s green earth are you even attempting to block this punt. Sure it would be an exciting way to win the game, it would have been HUGE. But there was too much risk – and too much working in your favor to aggressively go after it. So Isiah Lewis shouldn’t have been anywhere near the punter to begin with. That call to go after the punt was just bad coaching.
Now we get to the meat and potatoes; the bowl game. MSU feels they should be in a BCS bowl, Kirk Cousins made that painfully obvious when he said, “Michigan sat home tonight on the couch and watched us. We played our hearts out — you saw it. I don’t see how you get punished for playing and someone else gets to sit on the couch and get what they want. If this is the way the system is, I guess it’s a broken system.”
For starters, players should keep their mouths shut on this issue. Your response should be “that’s not for us to decide, we’ll play hard wherever we land.” I have no problem with the coach saying “we deserve a BCS spot,” but the players need to be better disciplined. Esepcially if you’re going to take a shot at Michigan for being “on the couch” and watching you. It was the same off the cuff slip that provided Michigan State with motivation to beat Michigan the past four years (little brother comment anyone?) Mike Hart made the same mistake; as a player keep your mouth shut and let the disciplined coaching staff do the talking.
With that said, I’m not going to argue the BCS system is flawless. It needs fixin’ – but we must play with the hand we’re dealt, and the fact is Michigan State is not being penalized for playing yesterday, they’re being penalized for losing yesterday. There’s a big difference.
Michigan State can’t sit there and whine about not going to a BCS bowl when they have three losses, regardless of when those losses occurred. Fact is, had they taken care of businesses against Notre Dame or Nebraska, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. If that had taken care of business last night, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. And they didn’t just lose to those two squads in the regular season, they got beat by an average of 24 points. Michigan’s two losses (to MSU and Iowa) came by an average of 11 points. It’s also worth noting that Michigan State lost to two teams that Michigan beat – although along the same lines Michigan State beat Iowa, so it pretty much cancels each other out.
However, the BCS computer rankings are more than that – they also take into account the win and loss record of your opponents. Without including Wisconsin twice (so essentially regular season games), Michigan State’s opponents went 71-73 (.493) on the year. Michigan’s opponents went 82-63 (.566). Michigan State played four teams that ended the season with a record below .500, Michigan played one. The two teams that beat MSU ended up going 17-7, the two teams that beat Michigan went 17-8. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Michigan played the tougher schedule.
Yes, Michigan State beat Michigan, but that’s not everything (although for Michigan State fans it certainly seems that way), if MSU had four losses and Michigan was 10-2 would we be making the same argument about how the Spartans beat the Wolverines and therefore should get the BCS nod? Absolutely not. I understand the frustration, getting to the Big Ten Championship game is a great feat, and they weren’t blown out, it was a close game, but to say Michigan doesn’t deserve a BCS birth simply because MSU beat them, is a weak argument – and that’s why the BCS computers take all this information into account.
With that said, if MSU were to get a BCS at-large bid, I wouldn’t think it was undeserved or Michigan should have gotten one instead. I think both teams are worthy of a BCS bid. Both teams had exceptional seasons in their own right, both teams would represent the Big Ten well, but with the system we currently have, Michigan will probably get the nod before Michigan State.
–jb
Kindle Fire Reivew
Nov 18th
I thought since I struggle each and every day with my amazingly slow and clunky Droid Eris, I should probably go out and get an Amazon Kindle Fire.
Bad logic? Maybe, but I did, so now I must share with the internets my thoughts on the product.
For starters, I read several reviews before I decided to go buy one, and as with any technology purchase, I had to try it out at the store before I decided to put down the $200. Some of those reviews, were in my opinion, unfair. One review claimed the battery life was poor without even testing it (most reviews found the battery life was actually better than Amazon quotes), and one review claimed it didn’t have a light sensor for automatic brightness. That last point might look correct, but a quick inspection of the Fire turns up a light sensor at the upper-left hand corner of the screen. However, it seems the latest version of the Kindle software does not allow for automatic brightness, but a demo unit at Best Buy had automatic brightness enabled. So I’m assuming this is a feature that will simply be turned on in a later software upgrade.
I’m not going to dive into the specs of the device, you can find all of that on Kindle’s website. What I will tell you is my experience with the performance of the device, and I’ll break it up into questions or talking points that people have put forth about the Kindle Fire.
Speed - The Kindle Fire does sport a snappy dual core 1GHz processor, however there’s been a big deal made about the 512MB of RAM as opposed to 1GB. I’ll admit, there are times when using the device I think, gee, it would be nice to have 488 more megabytes of memory, but most of the time the device is quick and responsive enough that you don’t recognize it’s smaller amount of memory. Launching applications is quick and easy, information quickly pops up, and the keyboard is very responsive. A lot of the Kindle Fire’s speed depends on your wireless network, because so much of the backbone of the Fire is on Amazon’s servers. For instance, I don’t store any music locally, I have literally all of my music stored on Amazon’s cloud servers and streamed to my device. Now let’s say I’m going on a road trip, I’ll certainly download a playlist or two, but when I’m in WiFi only, I don’t need to eat up the space.
Screen – The screen on the Kindle Fire is really one of the highlights of the device. It’s crystal clear, has good viewing angles, and amazing colors. The touch screen is a little iffy, there are times when I have to touch something twice or three times to get it to finally open, but I imagine that I’ll learn to simply hit the icon better, that’s something that will be corrected naturally. It is prone to smudges though, so I would recommend getting some screen protectors if that type of thing really bothers you (it really, really bothers me).
App Selection – Another question mark with the Fire was the selection of applications available for download. Amazon must approve any app for the Fire, so there are some applications that longtime Android fans love that won’t be available for you’re newly purchased Android Tablet. However, all the major ones are there. The big empty space are the Google Apps. I have a lot of my information on Google (Docs, Voice, Email, and Calendar), and unfortunately there’s no Calendar, Docs, or Voice app. The default Fire email client can handle your Gmail account, unfortunately it’s missing important features like labels. But I would kill for a Google Calendar app – or Voice app. Outside of those, I haven’t really found myself wishing there was something in the App store that isn’t in the App Store. You can even replace the default Kindle home screen with GoLauncher, although you lose some functionality. Amazon is always adding new apps, so if you are missing one, it might show up eventually. And you can always root your Kindle and get whatever App you’d like.
Web – The other big development out of the Kindle Fire is the web browser, dubbed Silk. It’s nice, but it’s basic. You can open multiple tabs and bookmark stories, but it isn’t noticeably quicker than any other browser. It’s nice, but not a reason to buy the device.
Space – Most of the reviews I read decried the space limitations on the Fire. It only has 8GB storage and no way to expand! Oh go cry me a river. First point, the average person isn’t going to use more than 8GB of storage (really 6.5GB once all the system files are added), so a normal person is not going to notice. Secondly, even if you did store music on the device, you’re probably not dumping your entire music collection onto the Fire, so 8GB is plenty of space. And third, the whole point of the Fire is to operate within the Cloud. If you buy music from Amazon they store it for you. If you buy a movie from Amazon they store it for you. Really, you get 13GB of storage, because you can get 5GB of cloud storage on Amazon for free. And if you pay $20/year you can get 20GB of storage and unlimited storage for music. Meaning you can put all of your music collection on Amazon’s servers and then still have 20GB available for other stuff (videos, documents, pictures, etc.) Compare that with Apple, where $20/year will get you half that space, 10GB, and any music you upload will eat into that space, where on Amazon your music is stored for free. So for me, space isn’t an issue.
But it doesn’t have bluetooth, GPS, or a Camera! – So what? Normal users don’t even think about turning on the GPS, and outside of streaming music there really isn’t much use for bluetooth either. I’ll admit, a camera might be nice, but I don’t notice it is missing. Remember tech enthusiasts, the Kindle Fire is marketed toward everyday people who can’t justify spending half a thousand dollars on an iPad, and for that it does very well.
Speaking of the iPad, can the Fire compete? Yes and no.
Yes, it can compete in sales. However, if there’s one thing I learned during this process it’s that tech journalists are insanely biased towards Apple products. There were some very unfair and rather whacky criticisms of the Fire, and yet the iPad is a perfect product.
The real story here is that the Kindle Fire and the iPad aren’t comparable. The iPad is a laptop/computer replacement, the Fire is a compliment to your computing life. It will not replace your main computer, but it will make your life a whole lot easier. And for $300 cheaper, who can pass that up? If you’re looking for a tablet look at the full picture – do you need all the features of an iPad? Probably not. The Kindle Fire has what you need, and it won’t break the bank.
But at the same time, they are similar only in category. They are both tablets, but one is for the power user or computer replacer, while the other is for a person like me, who will take the Kindle to places I either wouldn’t take my laptop or would begrudgingly take my laptop. It’s not perfect, but it does what I want it to do – and does it quiet well.
Perfect example – I’m going home tomorrow for the day, I wouldn’t normally take my laptop, I would just use my cruddy phone to surf Facebook and Twitter, now I’ll take my Kindle Fire…and be much happier.
The Current #199 – Paid to Protest
Oct 28th
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Current #199 – Paid to Protest
Thursday October 27, 2011
Host: Jacob Bodnar
STORIES
Occupy Wall Street Protests…still
Finally have a list of demands, and they’re ridiculous
ACORN funding the Occupy Protests
Occupy Baltimore revises sexual misconduct code
Drunk 11 year-old at Occupy protest
Thermal imaging proves no one stays overnight at Occupy London
Peter Schiff takes down Occupy protesters
Additional Reading: Why income disparity isn’t take big of a deal
Obama Announces Student Loan Initative
Details of the Plan
Analysis shows would save students $8/month
2012 Presidential Race
Perry Proposes 20% flat tax
Conservatives perfer flat tax to 9-9-9
New Perry campaign ad touts jobs
New poll shows Romney on top in first four states
FOLLOW US
Jacob’s Twitter
Jared’s Twitter
Facebook Page
Live Stream – Monday and Thursday
RSS Feed
VIDEO RECORDING
Watch live streaming video from redtie at livestream.com
