StrangeSox

It's the first time in my memory of GOP members kinda-sorta criticizing him and not running to apologize the next day.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Mar 4, 2012 -> 12:13 PM) I guess when drunkard Randi Rhodes falls on her face but blames Rethuglicans for it, and the liberal media and blogs run with it like a dog with a steak, anything can get traction. Now, if they guy currently in possession of the Obama videos has some sort of 'accident' before they are released....... Please just stop. This makes absolutely no sense.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2012 -> 12:13 PM) Really though, it's been what, 20 years, and nothing he has said has done anything to hurt his brand? He's going to get his $20 million+ a year, he's going to be on 2000 stations a day, and that's just how it is. Except now advertisers are pulling ads and GOP leaders are at least kinda-sorta criticizing the remarks. Does this mean anything long-term? Maybe, maybe not. But I don't see what basis you or Y2HH have for believing it's impossible.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2012 -> 12:07 PM) That doesn't mean that he lost his job because his show wasn't profitable though. His show was still plenty profitable thanks to making Goldline a household name...what really happened is that Fox sorta started pushing him out because everyone else started laughing at the network and his conspiracy-mongering was really ripping at whatever "Credibility" fox was trying to hold on to. He wasn't let go because his show wasn't profitable, he was let go because he was hurting everything else at Fox. He lost over a four hundred sponsors and Goldline was pretty much the only one left. His ratings were plummeting. Regardless, the point is that Rush isn't some constant, everlasting force that can't have his brand and influence damaged by his own horribleness. Hell, look at the GOP itself: this time last year, it looked increasingly likely that they would take the Senate and the Presidency while holding on to the House.

Updated paper from Saez on income distributions: http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf

The fact that Glenn Beck was under assault and losing sponsors was proof to his core audience that [blah blah blah], but he still lost his TV show and is nowhere near as relevant as he was a couple of years ago.

Well, he either doesn't understand how oral birth control works (it's fixed-cost) or he's intentionally lying to a dumb, gullible fanbase. It'd be great for him to go away, but he still wields a large amount of power within the GOP. Maybe this incident will be the tipping point where he's finally marginalized such that GOP politicians don't need to run and issue an apology if they dare to criticize him.

Not really an apology, still completely missing the issue at hand to boot, still doesn't understand how contraception works. edit:

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 3, 2012 -> 10:17 AM) Yes, yes, let's create the image that all "Republicans" are classless "misoginists" (sic). Politely, f*** off. Rush has been saying this dumb garbage for years and has received nothing but praise from the GOP for it until this last incident. Don't want the image of a bunch of classless misogynists, don't work so f***ing hard to portray it.

That would be this Krystal Ball . It's her real name. She ran for Congress under that name. Just in case you thought it was only Republican men guilty of classless misogyny. Something is really wrong with these people at a deep psychological level. One would hope this means that Ms. Kerns would need to start revising her resume. But why would she? This seems to be common discourse on what passes for the Right these days.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 06:54 PM) Didn't Maher basically not only lose advertisers but quite quickly lost his show? (and wound up on HBO where he didn't have to worry about that). Yes, he used to be on abc. Not sure how it compares financially.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 06:26 PM) Until it blows over and they silently reinstate their ads. Possibly, but there could be backlash when people find out. Beck and Maher have both lost shows over controversial statements.

I want to correct that boehner and santorum did not call for an apology but offered some very weak criticism instead.

Rush isn't backing down (and doesn't seem to understand how oral contraceptives even work), and many in the right wing blogosphere are standing by him. Fox News (and Drudge) is, of course, ignoring the story. But now several Republicans, including Boehner, Fiorini and Santorum(!) among others, are calling for Rush to apologize. This is a refreshing change, but it's still sad that they haven't condemned equally terrible things he has said in the past. Edit: quicken loans and sleep number have both pulled ads.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fredgraph.png?g=5qD

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 03:54 PM) I don't see any obvious reason why you'd want to do either of those operations to the data. To visually show correlation. Plotting dollar against oil price should show divergence, not convergence, if dollar value drives oil price. Inversing dollar gives a more visually intuitive correlation while having the numerator at 10000 keeps 1997=100. But one obvious effect is flattening of the line.

It's 10000/TWEXB. edit: because you still want the inverse to be normalized at 100.

It appears to end at or near the start of 2012. The chart isn't granular enough to really see the current year data.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 03:33 PM) It is not right. The dollar is not up 20% this year. Its down like 1%. That shows it almost flat for the year, but it's inverse.

It's indexed with 1997 being 100. Don't ask me why. edit: wait I'm not sure that's correct. edit2: Inverse dollar value

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) According to the arbitrator neither of the samples were reliable, therefore you cant judge me on something that MLB is not allowed to use. If the samples were reliable, I would have been found guilty. You can say whatever you want, but I never took steroids and only 1 test, of the 25+ that I have taken, found steroids in my system and that test has been found to have been done incorrectly. What is more believable? A) I never took steroids any other time in my career until the 2011 playoffs and was caught the 1 time I used them? B) I never haven taken steroids and 1 test was faulty. C) I always have taken steroids and the MLB test is so faulty I was only caught 1 time of the 25+ tests Ive taken. To me most wont believe answer C, and even if they did believe it, answer C suggests that the MLB test is completely unreliable. That leaves A/B, and I believe you would get at minimum a 50/50 split on it. That is the best you are ever going to do, unless you can absolutely prove the sample wasnt yours. Public perception is not a court room with standards of evidence. But to all of that: Marion Jones.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 03:19 PM) A mistake by MLB in their testing because I never took steroids, so I have no idea how the test came up positive. Im willing to take as many other tests as necessary to prove my innocence. I probably still wouldn't believe you, but I wouldn't think you were a huge douchebag.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 02:46 PM) The point is its entirely unnecessary to attack the collector. All he had to say was: "In order to ensure the reliability of the MLB drug program, MLB and the players association have instituted certain rules about how all samples should be handled. At trial it was shown that in this instance that protocol was not met and therefore the result was unreliable." Hes not admitting hes a cheater, hes saying due to lab error the results are unreliable, therefore even though he "failed" it doesnt matter because the test was never accurate in the first place. To take any other approach suggests that there must have been a scintilla of evidence to suggest that Braun felt he was targeted. But if he doesn't say anything, everyone assumes he really did test positive and got off on a technicality. Instead, he attacked the collector and insinuated that his results were tampered.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 02:48 PM) That was with Cam Newton throwing to him... something tells me Jay Cutler might have passed a bit more at the goal line. It was a fail. A big, fat fail. Olsen had plenty of speed to be a nice target in a 4-wide set if Martz wanted to have a TE that blocked. He certainly would have been a better WR this year than Roy f***ing Williams. Don't get me wrong, I thought Martz was a terrible fit from day one and forcing one of the few decent offensive players out the door because you're too inflexible is awful. But Olsen's been somewhat of a bust.