Disqus - Latest Comments for jimhu

Re: Joey Fishkin on “Shenanigans” After Section Five

jimhu — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 12:18:48 -0000

The comment from Beaumont resident Robert deserves to be promoted from the depths of the thread. He also points to the Beaumont Examiner, where searching "school board" gives more context, including complaints about how the plans promoted by the BISD are being gerrymandered to disenfranchise Hispanics, who supported the 5/2 plan that was blocked by pre-Shelby preclearance.

Re: Time for a blog hiatus

jimhu — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:18:15 -0000

I've enjoyed hanging out here... if you restart, won't my RSS reader notice?

Best of luck with the new job!

Re: Election Day notes

jimhu — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:50:49 -0000

1) Get well, Becky
2) Brendan, pay more attention to taking care of Becky and less to us on the blog!!
3) add "more than usual" to #2 above.

I voted for McCain-Palin here in Texas where the Presidential votes are irrelevant, for divided government for the House and Senate, and for Dems and Libertarians for the elected judges.

If the expected result holds, I'll be all about Hope and Change. Hope that Obama won't be as bad as I fear (which is NOT as bad as his more vocal detractors fear, but bad enough), and Hope that in the places where I'm most worried, his intelligence will lead him to Change his mind.

I still think Biden is hopeless, though.

Re: College football Week 10

jimhu — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:55:27 -0000

Via Wikipedia. Minnesota last year was 1-11 with their sole win being over Miami of Ohio at home. It took 3OTs to get that win. The Gophers notoriously lost to 1-AA N. Dakota State. They weren't blown out as often as WSU this year, but then their new coach was inheriting a team that went 6-7 and went to a bowl the year before... and blew a big first half lead against Texas Tech.

WSU was 5-7 in 2007, so perhaps it's not that different. And the Gophers' 2007 loss to ND State is less shocking when you look at their 2006 season and see that they only beat them 10-9.

Re: College football Week 10

jimhu — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:08:17 -0000

I don't think you can evaluate a new coach on one season, no matter how dreadful. Look at the turnaround at Minnesota this year. Of course, losing by throwing with 26 seconds left from deep in your own territory in a tie game, instead of playing for OT may be an indicator that there are still some coaching issues there, but still, it's been quite a turnaround so far.

Re: College football Week 10

jimhu — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:18:29 -0000

That Texas-TTU game was amazing. I confess that I snuck off during the start of the last Texas drive to watch McCain on SNL, though. Got back as they got to the red zone and scored... and I think everyone who has ever watched Tech simultaneously thought "left them too much time".

So... what's the BCS ranking going to look like tomorrow?

Re: College football Week 10

jimhu — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:22:38 -0000

Lots of heartbreakers while you were away. Wisconsin chokes against Sparty in part by giving them a gift timeout to set up the winning FG, Minnesota loses on a pick 6 that went off the receiver's hands, The Noles fall to the Ramblin Wreck by fumbling what would have been the go-ahead TD into the end zone.

Right now, Texas fans are in shock. But there's plenty of time in that game.

Re: We're here!

jimhu — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:33:44 -0000

Happy Birthday and enjoy your new home.

Re: Awake in Mississippi

jimhu — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:27:32 -0000

I hadn't processed that you were coming this far south. I see that you will still be passing several hundred miles north of College Station.

Drive safely!!

Re: Will the Phillies doom John McCain?

jimhu — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:36:30 -0000

Good point. I bow to your superior political junkie/geekdom

Re: Will the Phillies doom John McCain?

jimhu — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:17:38 -0000

I'm not sure that this would have much influence, since if McCain closes the gap in PA, it will be among the Pirates fans in the West, I think. Obama is way ahead in Philly already, isn't he?

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/college-football-week-8-open-thread.html

jimhu — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:22:52 -0000

aaargh!!!! UCLA beats Stanford on a very late TD.

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/college-football-week-8-open-thread.html

jimhu — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:01:39 -0000

Nah, no one expected them to be good, did they? Being disappointed in UDub is like being disappointed in Texas A&M... it's just the crushing of our unrealistic hopes despite our rational selves knowing all along that our teams would suck.

By contrast, the Badgers were at #8 before losing 4 in a row, and Clemson was supposed to win the ACC.

oops - missed the smiley. never mind

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/college-football-week-8-open-thread.html

jimhu — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:38:56 -0000

Which team is more disappointing this season: My Wisconsin Badgers or Clemson?

Re: About those ACORN allegations...

jimhu — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:06:19 -0000

I'm not an actual conservative, nor do I play one on TV, but I'll take a shot at a rebuttal. Whether it's substantive, intelligent, or specific I'll leave for you to judge.

I don't address all the points, but I blather long enough on the couple I do address, I think.

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/liveblog-and-livechat.html

jimhu — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:46:02 -0000

Thanks for the long answer... your reply may deserve being promoted to a post, IMO. ;)

I need to think about your analogy. I'm wondering about a sports analogy based on instant replay in football vs. your choice of baseball. In other words, if it's that close a call, why presume that a SCOTUS justice has a better sense of the just outcome than the original trial court? I suspect this analogy is flawed, but I have to do some real work for a while!

Re: Not Voting Today

jimhu — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:31:30 -0000

Meant to reply to this yesterday but got busy... yes, of course issues shouldn't trump the other stuff completely. But ignoring issues completely is also problematic. I also agree on disliking the McCain comments you cite in your penultimate paragraph. The only good thing about his idiotic claim that he knows how to fix the economy is that the President doesn't actually run the economy.

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/liveblog-and-livechat.html

jimhu — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:28:21 -0000

Brendan, as a lawyer, what do you think of this Volokh post on Obama's answer on judges? I didn't see the debate live (I teach Wed evenings), but I noticed that fairness bit when I watched the replay. Reading your CoverItLive replay, it looks like it happened while you were zoning out from the predictable abortion answers.

IANAL, but I don't like O's view of the role of judges as reflected in that sound bite.

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/liveblog-and-livechat.html

jimhu — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:24:35 -0000

I was wondering the same thing. Yahoo answers cites this WSJ piece from Obama's economics advisors, but I'm not seeing the answer there.

It seems to me that any business tax on net income is likely to generate zero revenue, since - as many recording artists have learned in their contract deals - there are too many ways to make the net profit zero. So I suspect that Brent is right (but have no link to back him up).

Re: Not Voting Today

jimhu — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:15:19 -0000

I apologize if I implied that Obama is an irrational choice for everyone. I was referring to Brendan's earlier characterization of it as heart vs head, and he's defended on the same grounds you bring up about reasonable doubts about McCain's erratic behavior. That's fine, and I accept that; I admit to being bothered by it, but not to the extent you two are. From previous discussions, I suspect you agree with O on issues more than Brendan, who agrees with him more than I do. Various other regulars fall all over that spectrum. And I suspect that the issues/character evaluations we all do are not independent of one another. If you like one on the issues, you tend to be less critical on character and vice versa.

I don't pretend that my choices are 100% rational either, btw. But I hope we're all more rational than the people who got set up by Howard Stern's "reporter"

Re: Not Voting Today

jimhu — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:05:22 -0000

Or both? Brendan, it seems like your reply isn't really disagreeing with my take on why you are voting for O, i.e. why McCain sucks worse than you thought a year ago.

I actually think Palin should have been defensible, based on what I watched of her pre-pick appearances on CSPAN and with Maria whatshername on one of the NBC cable channels (MSNBC or CNBC, I forget which). Maybe the pick was not defensible in the context of McCain's earlier emphasis on experience, but I think Palin is actually qualified for veep based on having some experience in some important areas (eg energy) and based on taking on the Murkowski/Young/Stevens gang in Alaska. The big mistake of the campaign has been to pretend that she's not inexperienced on lots of other things in order to maintain the fiction that this wasn't hypocritical wrt their criticisms of Obama on the experience angle. Having made that choice, they tried to make her fake it on her weak areas and it showed. So if there's are real disqualifier for Palin, IMO, it's not that she's the airhead people want to paint her as. its how she went along with the campaign's decision to fake it instead of taking a more humble approach showing that she knows what she doesn't know (as in that last question in last week's debate). It's hard to know how much that reflects Palin's own overestimating her qualifications vs. her wanting to be a team player and defer to McCain. So I think it is a fair shot at McCain's judgement that they went that direction (as in our "your lying to himself" point), but I'm reserving judgement on whether Palin is the "patently, obviously unqualified person" per se. I suspect we'll never test the proposition. She won't be the same person in 2012 if her career survives 2008. She may be better off if they lose.

But I'm not at all convinced that Pawlenty, or even Romney, are stronger in Palin's weakest areas, and I think she has strengths in areas where they are weaker. Or does running the Olympics count as foreign policy experience?

Re: Not Voting Today

jimhu — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:41:51 -0000

Maybe the 0.0001% is the nagging voice of rationality (recalling your original heart vs. head comments) trying to claw it's way out of the frame you've put around the campaign. Maybe it's been tweaked by the stories about ACORN, Annenberg, and Ayers, or by Obama's remarks to the Ohio plumber about redistribution.

Of course Obama isn't a socialist* or a terrorist. But he isn't the candidate I thought he was right after the 2004 convention either. I was never going to vote for O based on issues (war, trade, card check, etc.) and his associations (Pelosi and Reid, not ACORN, Wright and Ayers), but I did think he was a positive change for the Democrats... largely based on rhetoric about getting people together, one America vs. two, and so on. And of course, during the primaries he was running against Hillary. Plus, being the kind of libertarian hawk who was a liberal back when I was your age, the whole post-racial self congratulation aspect of Obama appeals to something deep inside me.

But now it seems to me - as indicated by your ranking Barr ahead of McCain (even with the smiley), it seems like the best reason to vote for O is based on McCain's deficiencies as a candidate. I'm trying to remember the posts where you discussed where you like Obama on policy and I'm mostly remembering posts where you ripped McCain. That could be my faulty memory - the latter are more memorable. Above the noise of wingnut crap, there is a signal in the attacks on Obama that has led me to believe he's not the reformer I hoped he was, and that if he hasn't embraced the more toxic parts of the left, he's certainly trying to exploit them in a way that looks to me like a mirror to the uglier aspects of the R Southern strategy post LBJ.

In my attempt at fairness, I will point out that my support for McCain is largely symmetric to your support for Obama: a big part of it is my dislike of the current incarnation of the Democratic party, not positive aspects of McCain. Before the election, I did a lot of posts about how dreadful McCain-Feingold is. He's gone populist in ways I find unpleasant. And as a candidate he has been erratic. I think he undermined his anti-earmark promises by supporting the version of the bailout that finally passed. And I don't like many of the folks in the party he's associated with either. But unlike some of your "real conservative" readers, I view many of the ways he's parted from his party (immigration, judges, torture) as positives. And I'm still closer to him than to O on war, trade, card check, etc. And at least McCain would have divided government.

As I wrap up this too long comment (sheesh, I do have my own blog for run-on venting), I also wonder if another difference between us has to do with the importance of "leadership" relative to issue stances. I think the McCain theme of "not ready to lead" is misguided. Obama is ready to lead, IMO. I just don't like where I think he'll lead us. That might be preferable if McCain is so unsuited to lead that it doesn't matter whether he's preferable on issues.

Or maybe you prefer Obama on issues too? I'm inferring that you have reservations based on how long you vacillated.

* OK, I admit I'm not completely sure about him not being a socialist. But I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt for purposes of this comment.

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/liveblog-title-suggestions-needed.html

jimhu — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:02:36 -0000

hmm.. my suggestions aren't pithy and they don't use POW or ACORN. Since O is accusing M of bring erratic, how about:

ACORN vs Squirrelly

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/liveblog-title-suggestions-needed.html

jimhu — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:46:46 -0000

My sense is that most people think Obama just has to run out the clock, which means that this might be even more of a nonevent than the town hall (which could have been subtitled, in hindsight, Boring with Brokaw).

So how about:

"WTF?! did the Phillies and Dodgers get rained out?"

"I'd rather be watching the Project Runway finale, but my blog audience expects me to do this"

"Auburn vs. Mississippi State, part II"

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/college-football-week-7-open-thread.html

jimhu — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:56:15 -0000

Check out my screencap of ESPN's scoring summary for the Arizona-Stanford game.