Stefan Hayden

I don’t really have much to say about Obama. Some are angry and some are happy. The things I find interesting is the disconnect that seems to exist between what people seem to think the Nobel Peace Prize is and what they say they are.

It seem most people think of the sciences when it comes to the prize. Einstein figured out how the universe worked and then got a prize. He did something big and got an award. But that’s not how the the Nobel Prizes say they work. they say that they have always given prizes to people who have done good work or to people who are in a position to do good work and show promise. Until now I don’t think anyone has cared enough about the piece prize. But currently people are acutely aware of what Obama has done in his under a year in office.

Either way I think Obama handled it well. He’s humbled and hopes to do great work. I couldn’t agree more.

It’s amazing how many ways people can screw up voting. I’m not sure how they ever passed a standarised test either.

Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. I’m sure she would be great. But it seems like a bad idea to drain congress of all the big name democrats just to fill up cabinet positions.

This is the kind of news I expect to see a lot of from Obama: Obama Transition Co-Chair John Podesta announced the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history. And by expect I mean I’ll be pissed off if I don’t see it. I want to make history, I want to reform goverment, I want to get it done.

New York Times Election Map: How Things Changed. Great series of info graphics. After all the talk of “real” and “fake” Virgina Obama really out preformed Kerry from 2004.

Acording to ballotpedia the NJ ballot questions (1 and 2) went the way I thought they should. In other news ballotpedia is a pretty awesome site.

Nate Silver has a great hour-by-hour guide of what to watch for on election night.

They are kinda of confusing and long so I will not be posting them here. Blue New Jersey has a post that says vote no and no. The Times of Trenton has an article that says vote yes and yes. The best over view is this League of Women Voters pdf (ick) that seems to have a fairly unbiased breakdown of why you would want to vote either way.

I am voting Yes and No.

Yes to the first question that seem like it will close a loophole in the law that lets the state take on debt without public approval.

No to the second question which would put more control to municipalities with join court systems when it come to choosing judges. This will probably stop more towns from joining court systems together (and thus cost more money) but all so lessens the impact corrupt apointies would have on local areas. I like my judges to have though a vetting process as possible and I think letting them go through the state senate would be best.

Mark Begich’s Website is better too. Maybe it’s time to make a donation in light of recent events.

I’ve been hesitant about calling people for Obama. Currently my dislike of calling people is out weighing my want of Obama to be president. How sad is that? Any way here is a good 101 video of how to phonebank for Obama. I still need more encouragement but it’s a start.

This is a good breakdown of Obama and McCain’s tax cuts. Are those tax brackets though? It doesn’t seem like it.

Either way the one bias the graphic has that I can see is the “average” at the bottom. Average of what? The bottom 60% has as much weight at the top 1% that makes no sense.

Lets refactor the averages and exclude the top 1% and I think we’ll get something that is a bit closer to a fair look at an average. A real average would have to take the population of each segment in to account but I think that math is beyond me.

After you remove the top 1% these are the new numbers are Obama gives an average 2.5% cut and McCain gives a 1.6% cut. While the numbers are close McCain’s cut clearly skew to the riches people while Obama’s skew to the poorest.