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My recent transition to a free agent has precluded me from posting updates lately which is why the election passed unremarked here. Finding new work is time consuming and more important than blog posts. Never-the-less, more posts will be coming soon. Also in the works, a new design for this site. So stay tuned.
13 Nov 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 13:47:51
Nolan Nixed by Niners
I've been waiting to type that headline all season. Nolan's management of the team has been a joke practically from day one. His handling of Alex Smith should ensure that he never get another head coaching gig in the NFL. You don't draft a QB at number one, start him before he is ready, change offenses on him every year, and provide no receivers for him to throw to, and then blame him for playing poorly.
Nolan should have been axed last season. The team underperformed and his way of dealing with the poor performance was to blame the players. Granted the team didn't have a lot of standout players, but he used the same excuse the year before AND the year before that. Nolan was the one drafting and signing these guys. At what point does it become his responsibility?
I liked Nolan when he first came to the team. My impression was that he would bring discipline and install a strong defense built around a strong corps of line-backers. But that never happened. Instead the defense kept falling behind. The line had trouble putting pressure on the QB without the blitz. The defensive backs provided little to no coverage on WR's, constantly giving up big plays on third and long. So much for his defensive expertise.
Nolan also had a hard time managing the clock in close games. How many times did the half end with the Niners moving the ball and one or more timeouts on the board? How many bad replay challenges did he make that cost the team precious time-outs? Who could he blame for those lapses?
So now the Niners have to start over. I don't know if Mike Singletary will be kept on after this season, and I don't envy him having to take over under such circumstances. Who knows? Maybe the team will play hard for him. Maybe not. At least they didn't put Mike Martz in charge. The guy may know offense, but he's really no better than Nolan in managing a team.
21 Oct 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 15:49:31
GOP Mudslinging Begins
It's the same old strategy. If you can't win votes based on merit, you attack your opponent with scurrilous accusations and rumors. Unfortunately, many voters are so stupid (yes, stupid) that this strategy works. Just this once, I'd like to see this strategy fail and see the oldest man to EVER run president drop even further in the polls.
I think it's time for Obama to also take the gloves off. If his association with Ayers is such a big deal, then what about the Keating Five? If his former pastor is such a big deal, what about Sarah's "exorcism"?
If electing Obama is risky, what about electing a man who would be the oldest EVER elected to a first term? He'll have a 1 in 6 chance of dying in office and leaving the country in the hands of a folksy, air head, hockey mom who thinks that being able to see Russia from her doorstep qualifies as experience in international relations. That's not just risky, that's suicide.
06 Oct 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:43:45
Bailout Bombs in the House
Voters don't like the bailout. They've told their representatives, and their representatives actually listened. Funny the difference an election year can make. If this had happened last year, they would have rubber-stamped this and moved on. Now the Simpering Simian has to come up with a plan that helps people, not the big financial institutions.
29 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 12:55:17
Bailout Boondoggle
This proposed bailout looks like yet another power grab scheme for the Simpering Simian. The broadening role of the Treasury department. The lack of over site. The lack of court review. It all adds up to a financial Patriot Act. At least Congress is giving it a little more scrutiny than they did in 2001.
What perplexes me is how this bailout goes counter to the whole "pure free market" system that the neo-cons have been championing for the past eight years. They deregulated the markets for these big companies. They allowed them to merge into even bigger companies. The even made it so that these big companies could shelter a big portion of their earnings from taxes. All in the name of a "pure free market".
So why is it a good idea now to bail these companies out? They put themselves in this position. If they had been a little more flexible with their borrowers, there might not be so many defaults. No one seems to be pointing out that little fact. Greed drove these companies to the state that they are in now. I say let them sink to the bottom as the free market system dictates.
The only problem with that idea is that these companies were allowed to grow so big, that their collapse brings too many down with them. A bailout may be the only way to keep the economy from spiraling into a recession more severe than the Great Depression of the 20th century. So if taxpayers are going to be called on to dig these behemoths out of their own graves, then the rules need to change.
Congress can start by re-instituting regulations that McCain and his cohorts threw out a few years ago. Next they can stiffen the antitrust laws to ensure that financial institutions can't just keep swallowing up their competition to the point that they become the only game in town whose failure could destroy the economy(see Bear Sterns, AIG, et al). Finally, they need to stop thinking from the top-down here.
These institutions got into trouble because borrowers began defaulting at unheard of rates. As I mentioned, if they had been a little more flexible with their borrowers, then there would have been far fewer defaults. So why not fix that problem by offering assistance to borrowers? After all, if people could pay back their loans in the first place, none of this would be necessary now.
24 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:41:57
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