About 10am CDT this morning CNN started reporting that former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe was on board the plane. Shortly after that, reports started coming out that former Senator Ted Stevens was possibly on board. About 2pm we learned that Stevens had died.

A coworker and I speculated that they were just looking for O’Keefe’s body, because surely we’d know it by now if he was alive. About 3pm we finally learned that O’Keefe was alive. Initial reports seemed to indicate that he only had minor injuries, but around 10pm tonight they announced he was in critical condition.

I understand the remoteness of the crash site and the poor weather, and the fact that getting information to the media isn’t the first concern, but it still seems like information was trickling out awfully slow.

I would imagine surviving a plane crash is something that weighs heavily on one’s mind. Especially when someone else doesn’t make it. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy survived a plane crash in 1964, less than a year after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.

The plane involved in this crash was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter, an amphibious plane. They haven’t been produced since 1967. The US Army was once the largest operator of the Otter, having 184 of them.

After leaving NASA in 2005, Sean O’Keefe was the chancellor of LSU for three years. He is currently the CEO of EADS North America. A subsidiary of EADS North America, American Eurocopter, produces the UH-72 Lakota Light Utility Helicopter in Columbus, Mississippi for the US Army.

Khayat is an interesting fellow. As an undergraduate at Ole Miss he was elected to the Student Hall of Fame and played on the football and baseball teams. He led the nation in scoring by a kicker in 1958 and 1959. As catcher, he helped the baseball team win SEC championships in 1959 and 1960. After leaving Ole Miss, he played for the Washington Redskins for four years and played in the Pro Bowl in 1961. After his stint in the NFL he returned to Ole Miss for law school. Three years after graduating he was hired as a law professor.

For more information, the Oxford Eagle has a couple of good articles.

In other Oxford news, we’re getting a Chick-fil-A on West Jackson. Presumably it’ll be open by the time the students return in the fall. Also, the Country Club of Oxford/Grand Oaks is being foreclosed on. Be at the courthouse steps on December 30th at 11am. You might get a good deal.

Bidding for my Oxford Eagle starts at $100. :)

I fear that Obama’s beliefs are pretty far to the left, despite the moderate image he tried to project during the campaign. History says I’m wrong. Most candidates move toward the center after they are elected. I hope I’m wrong and history is right. I’m willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt for now. Time will tell. It will be interesting to watch him assemble his cabinet and see which issues he decides to tackle first.

It’ll be interesting to see who the Republicans nominate four years from now. I suspect it’ll be someone we haven’t heard much about.

The good news for conservatives, and possibly even some moderate Democrats, is that the Democrats will not get their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That will help me sleep a little better at night.

Mississippi went 57/43 for McCain, as expected. We still have two Republican Senators. Wicker beat Musgrove 55/45. There was never much doubt Cochran would win. The representative for Northeast Mississippi will be Travis Childers, a Democrat. He beat Greg Davis, the former mayor of Southaven, 55/43, which was not unexpected.

To be fair, Obama and Biden are not Marxists. However, some of their policies (their tax plan in particular) do reek of Socialism. That’s one of the issues I have with them.

By the way, have I ever mentioned that Joe Biden is a darn good politician? I don’t agree with him on the issues, but I wish there was a center-right clone of him.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr0qxntmhAI

Obviously he can’t treat his campaign like a big joke, but if we’d seen more of this McCain he wouldn’t be as behind in the polls. McCain is a likable guy when he isn’t being “handled.” Unfortunately, when all is said and done, McCain will regret not being himself more during the campaign.

Obama was funny too, just not as funny as McCain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXS4Q7mUKQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5SWQJWm6Tg

]]> http://www.movl.net/blog/2008/10/the-real-mccain/feed/ 0 http://www.movl.net/blog/2008/10/the-second-debate/ http://www.movl.net/blog/2008/10/the-second-debate/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:32:59 +0000 bnp http://www.movl.net/blog/?p=256 I watched the debate last night, though not as closely as I’ve watched the others. I thought it was basically a draw. People that agree with McCain still agree with him and likewise for Obama. The debates are, after all, really for the “undecideds.” A few observations:

• Tom Brokaw really thinks a lot of himself.
• Obama had a smug grin on his face throughout the debate. I imagine knowing you’re in the lead (and pulling away) a month before the election can do a lot for your confidence.
• Several people have commented on how Obama pronounces Pakistan. Does he say it that way in an attempt to sound better informed? It’s not the preferred American pronunciation, and I seriously doubt that’s how the Pakistanis pronounce it either.
• A draw is really a win for Obama. He is currently winning, so he can afford to put things on cruise control to some degree. McCain needs a “game changer” of some sort, and this debate didn’t do that for him. It didn’t even get close.

I thought that McCain won the debate. I know that I’m biased in his favor, but I feel like I can be impartial when I have to. Apparently I’m wrong on one or the other. Most polls show that Obama won the debate. I felt that McCain held his own in the “financial” portion of the debate and clearly won the foreign policy portion of the debate.

I was particularly thrilled when McCain mentioned cutting ethanol subsidies. I had never heard him mention his position on that particular issue before. Do some research. Ethanol subsidies are stupid on several levels. He’s also right about nuclear energy. If we want to get off foreign oil, nuclear power plants are a no-brainer. Is it a perfect solution? No, but the technology is ready today and it’s far and away better than any other options we have.

I liked all the talk about cutting government spending. Both candidates claim they want to do it. Admittedly, neither party has been responsible when it comes to spending our (not to mention my children’s and grandchildren’s) tax dollars. However, I believe McCain when he says he wants to cut spending. Obama wants to provide health care for everyone, and there’s no way you can cut spending and do that.

Speaking of health care, I don’t want the government in charge of my health care, as Obama proposes. The government (and bureaucracies in general) get wrong way more than they get right, and I don’t want them messing with my health care. Fix social security and get back with me.

I liked the hard line that both candidates took on Russia. Obama agreed with McCain for the most part, but McCain seemed to know much more about the region and the situation. At times it seemed like McCain was schooling Obama and the audience in foreign policy. I know I learned some things, and I expect Obama did too.

A big deal was made of the fact that McCain got some of the details wrong in his story about Eisenhower. Ike’s second letter said nothing about resigning. It took responsibility for the failure of D-Day. Big deal.

I did think that McCain’s suggestion of freezing spending with the exception of veteran’s affairs, defense, and entitlement was stupid. It was obviously an off-the-cuff comment, and Obama rightfully pointed out that it was stupid.

It’ll be interesting to see how Palin does in the Vice-Presidential debate Thursday night. Some of her interviews haven’t looked so great recently.

The pictures aren’t that great for two reasons. First of all, I used my Fuji point and shoot instead of my Canon SLR. I did this primarily because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle Luke and the SLR on the walk to the Ford Center. Also, I was a little concerned the security guys might flip out if I pulled out the SLR. As it turns out, that fear was completely unfounded. There were only a couple of rent-a-cops around the Ford Center, and I saw other people with SLRs. Also, Luke wasn’t real thrilled about being strapped into his stroller. Now that he can walk he likes a little more freedom.

A large tent set up for the journalists covering the debate just east of the Ford Center.

I plan on going back up there in the next few days with my SLR. Hopefully they won’t move anything around until I have a chance to take more pictures. With a tripod and a little time, one could take some really nice pictures around twilight. They have some very interesting lighting on the exterior of the building after dark.

Earlier in the week, the was some concern over whether or not the debate would actually be held. The latest news I’ve heard is that the debate will definitely take place, but possibly without McCain. Early this evening one of the Memphis stations was reporting the McCain “advance team” had done a walk through of the Ford Center. Also, it was being reported that both parties had reached an understanding on the financial bailout. However, it turns out that’s not the case, so it’ll definitely be interesting to see if McCain shows up. If he doesn’t, a one man debate will be interesting as well.

A lot of Oxfordians, myself included, will be upset if the debate doesn’t proceed as planned, with two candidates.

The first hint was that gas in Oxford was still $3.79 at most stations. Then I started hearing talk of gas shortages in other states on talk radio. Apparently that’s the case in Atlanta. (The comments on that article are amusing on several levels.)

It’s strange that the situations are so different within the southeastern US. I’m not sure how to explain it. Refining capacity is still not back up to speed, but you would think that’d cause shortages all over, not just in localized areas.

Oil prices jumped up $16.37 a barrel today, so I expect prices will rise all over.

For the record, I agree with Dr. Paul completely on three of the four issues in the statement. We differ somewhat on the war in Iraq. I agree the we shouldn’t have gone there in the first place, but now that we’ve messed things up, I think we have an obligation to fix them the best we can.

I also completely agree with Dr. Paul that our current two-party system is broken beyond repair. We need a better system. The current system doesn’t give “third-party candidates” a fair shot. As the election gets closer, I’ll have to decide whether to vote for McCain, the better of the two choices we’ve been given, or one of the third-party candidates as a “protest vote.” Mississippi will almost certainly go Republican without my vote, so I better start investigating Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.

Only one of the three gas stations in Belmont had gas most of the weekend. It was going for $3.79; a steal as it turns out. I was topping off our tank every chance I got this weekend. Not only did we have to get back to Oxford, but we’ve got to go back to Belmont Thursday afternoon for my brother’s wedding and associated events.

On the trip home, it seemed that most stations had gone up around 30 cents a gallon. The average was around $3.99.

The big exception was the Pontotoc Wal-Mart, where we usually get our cheap gas on trips to and from Belmont. It was $4.29, up 60 cents from Friday afternoon. The station across the street from it was advertising gas for $3.89, but was out of gas.

Gas at Kroger in Oxford is $3.89, up 26 cents from Friday morning.

It’s being reported that refineries won’t be completely back online for eight to nine days. Most likely gas won’t be going up any more, barring worse news from the oil and gas industry. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for gas prices to go back down to their previous levels.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Lots of drilling and refining operations in Texas and Louisiana are shutting down in preparation for Hurricane Ike. I’ve heard that the wholesale price of gasoline went up $1.50/gallon today and that some stations had stopped delivery of gasoline until they saw what the market could bear.

Most people look at “price gouging” in a negative light. However, most free market economists argue that raising prices during an emergency is a way of efficiently distributing scarce resources. For instance, if gas stations in areas impacted by the hurricane leave their prices at current levels, most people will fill up their tanks whether they need it or not, just in case (thus the lines), and could cause the gas station to run out of gas. If gas stations raise prices to reflect its scarcity, only those that really need the gas will buy it.

Laws against raising prices during an emergency also reduce any incentive a vendor might have to prepare for the emergency by stocking up or going to extraordinary lengths to bring more of a scarce item into an impacted area.

I don’t think the government should restrict prices during an emergency. On the other hand, vendors that raise prices during an emergency will have to deal with the wrath of the community after the emergency is over, whether there is a law against raising prices or not. The general public doesn’t have a good understanding of economics, and probably wouldn’t care if they did.

This week several polls show McCain either tied with or ahead of Obama. However, this is likely a post-convention bump and will level out in the next couple of weeks. However, it’s likely once they do, McCain will still be ahead of where he was pre-convention.

The public seems to like Palin. I was beginning to question the pick after a few days of bad news on the Palin front, but she seems to have been the right pick, at least for now.

If you look at state-by-state polls and consider electoral votes (that is how we elect presidents) Obama still has a lead. CNN shows the count at 243-189 in Obama’s favor. You need 270 to win. They show Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire still up in the air. McCain would need most of those to win.

So, it’s not looking great for McCain, but a lot can happen in two months.

Obviously he didn’t win the Republican primary, but this week he has been hosting the “Rally for the Republic” in Minneapolis at the same time the Republicans are having their convention across the river in St. Paul. Some of the media are calling it a “counter convention.” CNN has a good article about what’s been going on.

Apparently McCain’s people are talking to Dr. Paul about backing him. So far it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. I can’t blame Dr. Paul for not wanting to endorse McCain. There are definitely some wide gaps in where they stand on the issues.

However, in my mind there is no doubt which candidate is closer to Ron Paul on the issues, and it’s John McCain. I don’t see how a Ron Paul supporter could even consider voting for Obama.

Yesterday I got a call from a fellow amateur radio guy here in Oxford. The St. Helena Parrish Emergency Operations Center in Greensburg, LA was looking for some hams to deploy down there for the storm and its aftermath. Unfortunately I had to decline because of Liam. It would have been fun.

Obama needed someone with experience, particularly in foreign policy. Joe Biden gives him that, and he seems to play well with the crowds too.

McCain chose Sarah Palin, the virtually unknown governor of Alaska. She’s a good choice in my opinion, though riskier than Biden. I think McCain had to take a risk though. Some say that if McCain wanted a woman he should have chosen Kay Bailey Hutchison. Palin is relatively inexperienced, though she is a conservative “maverick,” which fits with McCain’s campaign. A lot of the pundits don’t like the pick, but so far the public at large seems to be positive about the pick. Her stance on the issues and her reputation as a reformer more than makes up for her lack of experience in my opinion.

In addition to her inexperience, she is risky is because of an investigation into her firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner. She allegedly fired him because he wouldn’t fire her ex-brother-in-law. The investigation is supposed to wrap up in October, a month before the election. Presumably McCain believes her side of the story.

I’ll be voting for McCain in November. That will come as no surprise to those that know where I stand on some issues. McCain is certainly not perfect, but I can’t even consider Obama given some of his views. In the next couple of weeks I’ll explain in some detail why I’m voting for McCain.

While that is mostly bad news, the good news is that every increase in the price of electricity makes solar power that much more viable. So, between the price of its “competition” going up and technology bringing the dollar/watt ratio down, solar will be viable before we know it.

And that’s a good thing, because solar is cool. With solar, you aren’t paying a monthly bill to a utility company, you’re paying off a capital expense that increases the value of your home or business. And regardless of your position on global warming, I think we can all agree that the less junk in the atmosphere, the better.

Unfortunately I don’t have any hard numbers to crunch on this, but all signs point to solar power becoming viable in the relatively near future.

Incidentally, TVA is an interesting experiment in American socialism. Take a moment to read up on it if you’re not familiar.