And yet...
Schumer says this plot highlights the changing face of terrorism.
"We have to expand our awareness that there is a new kind of terror that is homegrown, indigenous, less sophisticated, but harder to track down," he said.
He would definitely be a better president than any of the 11 Republican candidates. Or Ross Perot, Bob Dole, or George Bush Senior.
Soon the terrorists will no doubt be targeting the nation's smoke detector supply. I'm glad Bloomberg is addressing this issue early.
Does the second sentence fragment of 2 mean those named 3 would be better than any of the 11 on offer, or that the subject of the first sentence would be better than those 3? Or both?
BTW, is there an actual place where I can actually bet actual money on the outcome of the election, or just weird Internet gossip sites?
6: Tradesports, Iowa Electronic Markets.
Seems like dsquared is always talking about a site called Tradesports that makes book on upcoming news events and political contests -- perhaps you could look into that.
Has anyone here used such a site?
I mean, there are some things that seem inevitable in this realm, unlike in the stock market.
Current price of the IEM Democratic Winner-take-all contract (paying $1 if the Democratic nominee wins the popular vote, not necessarily the election) is $.65.
I imagine those things are lousy with opportunistic insider trades, for which reason I haven't gone near them with any actual money.
Since these futures markets are a zero-sum game, playing them with any substantial amount of money would be foolish, unless you either (a) have a financial interest in the outcome, and want to hedge against an unfavorable one, or (b) have insider information.
However, you can put at most $500 into the IEM, so it's not like you're going to go bankrupt. I don't think Tradesports has a limit.
7
Tradesports is now just sports, Intrade has political markets.
13
"... (a) have a financial interest in the outcome, and want to hedge against an unfavorable one, ..."
You could still hedge even if your interest in the outcome is just emotional.
Emotions are not particularly fungible, so it seems to me.
16: That's exactly it, I wanted to put some money on Clinton winning the Democratic nomination, to salve my wounds when it happens.
Huh. Well I've been wrong before.
Well, the Clinton contract is trading at $0.485. That's a pretty steep price for emotional salve.
You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life!
This is exactly the sort of thing I like about Bloomberg. I also like the crabby nasel accent in which he says such things.
The problem with Bloomberg is that after Giuliani I find myself seduced by the fact that he's recognizably human, and even sane, and forget that I still disagree with him about most things.
I like his national alliance of mayors work. I read an article in the NYT a couple of days ago about how Bloomberg has become Public Enemy #1 in NRA propoganda.
It only takes a few billion dollars in fuck-you money for a politician to act sane. I blame democracy.
#24, that same article characterized Bloomberg and the NRA as being in a mutually beneficial relationship: Bloomberg gets to show he's tough on guns to the largely pro-gun-control NY electorate, and the NRA gets a politician it can demonize to rally its members.
I didn't read the article very carefully, GB, but I would say that Bloomberg is going a little beyond "showing he's tough to the largely pro-gun-control NY electorate." For starters, he can't be elected mayor again. Who the hell knows what Act Three is going to look like for him, but it's probably not going to be governor until Spitzer decides to make a break for the Presidency. Secondly, he really seems to be committed to this notion of cities exercising a broad power to enforce their laws and statutes. Maybe too broad a power---as Virginia recently decided, when it passed a law making it a crime to videotape clandestinely gun purchases---but it's a very interesting vision of society that Bloomberg seems to be defending.
Top ten initiatives of President Bloomberg's first 100 days in office:
10. Federally limit all hot sauces to a maximum of 50,000 Scoville units. There is simply no legitimate need for anything stronger. Also, sauce makers will no longer be able to use misleading trade names like "Joe Bob's Ass-Kickin' Death Sauce."
9. Push through legislation establishing National Fire Drill Day, along with stiff penalties for heads of households whose families don't complete the drill in time. Times will be monitored by repurposed field agents from Homeland Security.
8. Pressure Hollywood to digitally erase all cigarettes, cigars from all films made to date; replace with CGI carrot or celery sticks.
7. A new tax on fast-food companies. Tax revenues will be used to hire government employees to stand at the entrance of every McDonalds nationwide and ask patrons, "Do you really want to eat here?
6. Abortion legal? Heck, in certain cases it'll be mandatory.
5. Building on the success of his NY ban on smoking in bars, a nationwide ban on hitting on women in bars. That sort of thing belongs in the office.
4. ISP's required to automatically terminate all internet connections every 25 minutes, so users will be able to rest their eyes, go outside, and get some goddamn exercise.
3. Historic "Guns or Butter" debate replaced with new, heart-friendly "Guns or I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" debate.
2. Put federal air marshalls on every commercial flight; require them to inspect the entree for trans fats.
1. Count votes in all future elections with Bloomberg's own proprietary, highly-reliable data service, so we know they'll be fair.
6. Abortion legal? Heck, in certain cases it'll be mandatory.
5. Building on the success of his NY ban on smoking in bars, a nationwide ban on hitting on women in bars. That sort of thing belongs in the office.
Whoa, that Village Voice article paints him in a somewhat bad light. I may rethink my endorsement.
It took me a while just now to figure out what I'd meant. For a moment, I had the experience of reading the blog as a normal person.
You could use Intrade to short yourself, if you were a primary candidate running on your own money. So you basically bet you won't win the nomination. If you lose the nomination, you win the bets, so you don't end up out of pocket. If you win, you're the candidate for the general election, and you get massive amounts of money from the next round of fundraising, so you can pay off your losses anyway.