The Tryptophan is Gone

And there are still two open Senate races.

Georgia and Minnesota still have unfinished elections, with an on-going recount in Minnesota and a run-off election scheduled for Tuesday in Georgia.

Following up on earlier posts, let us start with Minnesota. Democratic challenger Al Franken is down by about 280 votes to Republican Norm Coleman with 12% of the votes yet to be recounted and over 5000 challenged ballots awaiting a ruling from the state canvassing board (according to the Star Tribune).

Things are so close in this race that its really difficult to predict how it will turn out (straight from the horse's mouth so to speak). Franken could pick up some more votes before it comes down to the challenged ballots and lots of ballots are getting challenged, more and more by both sides as the recount continues.

The Star Tribune offers a graphic on what types of winning percentages on the challenged ballots as things currently stand each side would need in order to win. The bottom line is that it's still a bit of a steep hill for Franken to win, but there is no way to account for the quality of the challenges so who really knows what it'll end up looking like.

Down in Georgia voters will be returning to the polls this week to vote for either Democrat Jim Martin or Republican Incumbent Saxy Chambliss (Libertarian Allen Buckley who helped necessitate the run off by snagging 3% of the initial votes and thus preventing any candidate from reaching the 50% plateau is no longer on the ballot).

Early voting closed before Thanksgiving and no one has any idea how to predict what turn out will look like. There has been a lot of national media attention applied to this race and to the fact that President-elect Obama has not campaigned for Martin despite many other political celebrity appearances on both sides. The polling all shows a close race with Chambliss in the lead but again remains largely irrelevant in the face of unknown turnout, basically it doesn't matter who people say they'll vote for if they don't end up voting on election day. The general feeling seems to be that Chambliss will eke out the win despite the swell of Obama organizers flocking to the state to bolster the Martin campaign.

If want to keep track of all this on your own; Five Thirty Eight still has that election jones, the Star Tribune and Atlanta Journal Constitution both have god election pages up still for a local perspective, and when something definitive finally happens this site will be one of many to have the news...

Read This Now - I hate to say I told you so...

A little post-turkey binge morning reading, or afternoon / lunch reading at this point.

Paul Krugman on how we got into this financial mess, he starts out with a bang...

A few months ago I found myself at a meeting of economists and finance officials, discussing — what else? — the crisis. There was a lot of soul-searching going on. One senior policy maker asked, “Why didn’t we see this coming?”

There was, of course, only one thing to say in reply, so I said it: “What do you mean ‘we,’ white man?”

Fire in the Sky

If you've ever gazed up at the stars, especially if you were hoping to catch a shooting star you've got to see this...



As the voice-over says the video came from a police cruiser dash cam (man those things are great).

(thanks to my Dad for pointing this out)

Minnesota Update

If only all of the children in Minnesota really were above average, then we wouldn't have had to deal with someone like Norm Coleman as a Senator.

If you're still looking for your daily poll fix, Five Thirty Eight crunched the numbers (guess they're having trouble packing it in as well) this weekend and are predicting that Al Franken will pull it out.

One of These Things...

Is not like the other. Just having a bit of fun with the internets this afternoon and this photo from Salon's home page caught my attention because I'd seen almost the same photo earlier during a bathroom reading session (that means EW time)...
















So which hand is the Commish using to ram that dude's head into an aquarium?

A Kinder, Gentler Recount?

The recount is on (has been for a few days actually) in the Minnesota Senate race race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. When the recount got underway this week Coleman lead Franken by 215.

The squabbling has been intense, with challenged ballots and injunctions, but is pretty tame when compared to the Florida Fiasco.

According to Al Franken's staff after approximately 50% of the ballots have been recounted Coleman's lead has dropped below 100. The Franken camp also notes that the predominately Democratic districts have yet to be recounted so things are looking good.

The Star Tribune has Coleman leading Franken by 140 votes with 48% recounted and a little over 425 ballots challenged by the campaigns which will have to be ruled on by the state canvassing board beginning on December 16.

But don't wait for the board to rule, head over to the Minnesota Public Radio site and put in your two cents on how some challenged ballots should be counted...

(Franken photo from campaign wesite, Coleman photo from Senate website)

But That's So Rational

Reprinted in full from my new favorite Econ blog, NPR's Planet Money...

Corporate Jets So Bad?

Filed under: News

Imagine you're the CEO of a major auto manufacturer in danger of going bankrupt, countless jobs and arguably the financial health of the U.S. could hang in the balance.

Your day is packed packed packed with emergency meetings and phone calls, some just five minutes long. You're not sleeping.

You have to go to Washington DC to ask Congress for help.

Your company, like many other much smaller companies owns a corporate jet which you've used for years.

Do you really book a flight instead on a commercial airline? Wait in line for hours, risk flight delays? Is that really the best use of your time? And if you book that flight, won't lawmakers just say it's a cheap ploy?

Just asking.

David Kestenbaum

See below for a more emotional reaction.