Dow Jones Historical Data

So, here are some Dow Jones numbers at the start and end of some past President's terms for the sake of future ridicule of the current squatter now in the White House:

John F. Kennedy (+12%)
Start: 634.37
End: 711.49

Lyndon Johnson (+31)
Start: 711.49
End: 931.25

Richard Nixon (-17%)
Start: 931.25
End: 777.30

Gerald Ford (+13%)
Start: 777.30
End: 959.03

Jimmy Carter (-1%)
Start: 959.03
End: 950.68

This is the man the Right loves to knock at every turn for having failed so miserably, but most notably, with the economy. If the current situation holds I don't want to either hear crap about Carter any longer or I want to see them lampoon George W. Bush equally.

Ronald Reagan (+135%)
Start: 950.68
End: 2,235.36

George H. W. Bush (+45%)
Start: 2,235.36
End: 3,241.95

Bill Clinton (+327%)
Start: 3,241.95
End: 10,587.59

George W. Bush
Start: 10,587.59
End : ????

I should also point out for the younger people out there that today's stock market hits are nothing when viewed against historical drops. Several times in its history the market has had much worse days and periods. In 1975 it dropped by half in one short period, for example.

Is It Perhaps Two Movies About Two Ghosts?

On Saturday the family went to see "Ghost Town", the new movie starring English actor Ricky Gervais with Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni.

Most people under 30 know Gervais as he often a guest on shows like, "The Daily Show". His biggest claim-to-fame is that he created the hit TV show, "The Office", for English TV and plays the lead role of Michael (Steve Carrell in the US version).

This is being called his formal introduction to American audiences. It could be worse.

The movie isn't anything special or anything bad. It's just a typical romantic comedy with some nice laughs and an okay story. There's nothing in it that will surprise or challenge you. The tagline is about as exciting as it gets, "He sees dead people... and they annoy him."

Everyone involved is pretty decent in it. In fact, the one stand-out is another tie-in to the "The Daily Show" in the form of Aasif Mandvi who plays Gervais' dental partner. Mandvi has been showing up in bit parts quite often of late and he's pretty talented.

The other movie of the week is a bit different. It's "Slacker Uprising"--the latest film from documentary luminary Michael Moore. This one is available now, for free, to watch online. Moore released this to everyone as a 20th anniversary present for his first movie, "Roger and Me".

It's probably all the same that he did it this way as I don't believe this movie would gain an audience in mainstream release. It's essentially a recounting of his attempt to help John Kerry win election in 2004 over George W. Bush.

The movie is fairly dull throughout which is entirely unlike Moore's previous efforts. It's as if he really wanted to fade into the background this cycle. The one emotion that does come to the surface is sadness. You watch this and see all the effort that went into drumming up support only to see it all come to nothing. It makes you feel like this election will be more of the same.

On the plus side I doubt there will be much press fuss over this film. Nor is it likely to energize the conservatives to rail against it. On the downside I expect a few conservative venues to ridicule the film and suggest that this is proof positive that the nation is over him or that he's lost his edge.

Fearless Leader Gets A Hint Of A Clue

Well it appears President Bush has finally caught on that something big is going on over on Wall Street. In a session today he stated, "The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy, and I share their concerns. I've canceled my travel today to stay in Washington, where I will continue to closely monitor the situation in our financial markets and consult with my economic advisors."

So, he canceled some plans and will consult with the same people who got us into the mess in the first place and the same ones who have been entirely unable to admit there's been a problem all along. That should help greatly shouldn't it?

How about saying something like, "The economy is in the toilet and has been for some time so I'm firing everyone starting with Secretary Paulson on down." Now that would impress the American people more than a canceled trip.

The other part of this that rubs me entirely the wrong way is that, once again, our government spits in the face of the idea of helping out its citizens but thinks of nothing to put $85 billion dollars out there to help AIG out of mismanagement. Why is it that mismanaged corporations with lobbyists can get help for incompetence but none of us can?

These people either need to believe in the free market or not believe in the free market. They can't have it both ways.

Oh, and right now the idea of private savings accounts in place of Social Security sounds about as appealing as a spoiled milk cocktail.

One Stayed Up But The Other Plummeted

I nearly forgot to mention one of the better movies I've seen this year. It's been a busy week so I didn't have time to write that my son and I saw "Man On Wire" last week. This is a documentary that you really need to want to see to find it. It was only playing on one screen at a badly-aging theater in Philadelphia. Why that's its only venue I don't know.

The movie covers the extraordinary true-life events of wire walker Philippe Petit culminating in his stunning walk between the two World Trade Center towers in 1974.

The documentary is presented in a very compelling fashion that grabs your attention almost at once. You can't help but to pull for the quirky Petit. He and those involved tell the story in a manner that keeps everyone in the theater glued to the details.

I can say that its 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is fully earned and that's with over 100 reviewers rating it. You'll be taken by the story, captivated by those telling it and laugh at the jokes along the way. You'll also learn quite a bit about the details of wire walking with respect to the surprising depth of mechanical, physical and mental preparation needed for such endeavors.

The one distracting element of the movie is, not surprisingly, the other main stars of the movie--the World Trade Center towers. I suspect this movie was conceived some time ago and held off long enough to allow people to come to terms with their absence. Even now most references to it in the movie beg you to recognize that they are now as much a part of history as the event of the movie itself.

This week I dragged my son to see, "Burn After Reading" which is, to be frank, what I wish the producers did to the script before moving on with their lives.

The latest movie from the famed Coen Brothers is a total snore. There are some blatant jokes along the way and the story itself has a few moments of interest but overall it just doesn't work. In fact, the movie seems to draw great pleasure in pointing out that the entire affair makes no sense at all and that we, the viewers, are supposed to get that.

Frances McDormand does her typical great job with the material at hand. Brad Pitt is so idiotic that his character is entirely unbelievable. It's as if the producers forgot that we liked the realism of the characters in "Fargo". George Clooney does a decent job but his jittery style mainly distracts. There's also a well done performance from always-reliable John Malkovich. The last main character is acted by Tilda Swinton who plays Malkovich's wife and, most unbelievably, Clooney's lover. Sorry Tilda but that dog just won't hunt and neither does most of this movie.

Very Non-Plussed By McCain's Speech

Okay, so now both of the conventions are over and anyone really being objective would have to admit that the Democratic convention was the more positive of the two.

John McCain's speech last night underscored everything that's wrong with the Republican side of things right now. First, it was a boring speech. It was hard to keep myself engaged in it. Second, the right is continually assailing Barack Obama for not providing any details on his plans. Obama's speech, as I noted last week, was impressive in large part because he came right out and detailed what he had in mind item-by-item. Meanwhile McCain's speech told us absolutely nothing.

Furthermore it showed the same blind hypocrisy that the Republicans have turned into an art form. His speech was all about crossing the aisle, ending attacks and being civil to one another. Had this man not seen the previous days of the convention? Those were all loaded with snide commentary, full-on attacks and insults.

Several pundits called this one of the worst speeches they've seen in all their time covering these events while they lauded Obama's speech as one of the best. For me that gives Obama an edge going into the debates.

On a side note, I think I may be prohibited from voting for McCain simply because I don't believe I could deal with Cindy McCain as First Lady. She is just flat-out scary! I can't recall the last time I've seen someone so fake. I swear Disney created her out of plasticine and various parts left over from one of their animatronic labs. When she came out in that orange dress the other night standing next to Laura Bush I thought I was having a dream while on some strong drug. It was like a bad Barbie dress day grown up. When she speaks or even moves she does so in such a robotic fashion that she just doesn't look human. Worse, what she says comes off as complete fabrication. This woman strikes me as a disaster waiting to happen. If she gets in, mark my words, it'll be worse than what we dealt with when Nancy Reagan was in there. I'm done with First Lady's that know all about "fashion". It says "snob" of the highest order to me especially when you know you're going to stand out the way she does. The word was that her yellow outfit above was $300,000. This is the change we want? We want someone in there that talks about all the poor people they identify with while telling you that in a $300,000 outfit for one evening's use? Thanks but no thanks.

Two Duds And A Surprise

This past weekend we saw a total of three movies.

First up was an indy film that got solid reviews called, Transsiberian. It stars Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Ben Kingsley.

The official synopsis describes it like this: "A Trans-Siberian train journey from China to Moscow becomes a thrilling chase of deception and murder when an American couple encounters a mysterious pair of fellow travelers."

The problem is that we didn't find anything at all thrilling. There really isn't any sort of a chase and even the murder is sketchy. The so-called mysterious pair they encounter are transparent from the moment they appear on-screen.

Ben Kingsley shows up in the first scene and then you don't see him until the second half of the movie.

Bottom line is exactly what my friend Dave said about it--"Man that was a LOT of movie for that story." They could have told this one in 15 minutes because we've seen it all before. This one could be in my worst five for the year.

We then made a huge mistake by once again going over to the local AMC theater to see the horror movie, Mirrors. The AMC theater has done nothing but annoy us from the beginning. It's a huge tease. Wonderful looking building, 24 screens, lots of concessions, great seats, great audio but then reality sets in. The costs are outrageous and it attracts a high percentage of inconsiderate idiots. Every show there has about a 50% chance of being ruined by something.

Anyway, this one was no exception. A horror movie needs the right atmosphere and having kids laughing hysterically at plot points that aren't funny and being loud doesn't help.

So the synopsis on this one says, "An ex-cop (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes a night security guard at a long-closed department store that was ravaged by fire. He discovers that the store's mirrors harbor a horrific secret that threatens him and his family."

It was interesting for about 15 minutes and then you realize there is no story. It's just a series of poorly strung-t0gether elements to get you to the next ridiculous horror moment. Nothing in this movie makes any sense at all and the scariest moments all have to do with non-scary things like birds flying off at the "wrong" moment.

In one weekend we saw two of the worst movies of the year.

Finally, on Labor Day I saw Mamma Mia again. This time for a sing-along version. The hilarious part of this was that it seemed quite evident that no one else in the theater was aware that this was a special sing-along version. The fact that all the words to the songs were at the bottom of the screen with changing coloring to denote when to sing them seemed entirely lost on everyone. We were singing but no one else was. In fact, the couple directly to our right kept looking around the theater to see if anyone else was singing and then got up and moved. Their loss.

At the end of the movie I turned around and asked the whole theater, "Okay, how many of you had no idea this was the sing-along version of the movie?" Nearly everyone admitted they had no clue. It seemed to explain a lot to them.

We all had a blast and this, I think, remains my favorite movie so far this year. It's far from perfect but it's just such a feel-good time for everyone.

Okay, That Didn't Last Long

Well, the varnish on VP candidate Sarah Palin didn't last very long. In one of her first public remarks as a candidate she told supporters that she blocked the building of the infamous "bridge to nowhere" that reeked of pork barrel spending and helped expose the largess of such projects to the country.

This sort of commentary was designed to present Palin as an outsider to Washington politics and an opponent of these types of projects and spending. If only it were so.

In 2006 while running for Governor of Alaska she stated, "We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge, and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative."

Turns out she also hired a Washington lobbying firm to secure $8 million federal earmarks for Alaska. That certainly sounds like a typical Washington politician to me.

Her communication director said, when asked about her support for the bridge, "It was never at the top of her priority list, and in fact the project isn't necessarily dead … there's still the potential for improved ferry service or even a bridge of a less costly design." She changed her mind, he said, when "she saw that Alaska was being perceived as taking from the country and not giving, and that impression bothered her and she wants to change it."

That pretty much says it all to me. It wasn't that she didn't want Federal money or that she saw pork barrel spending as wrong. It was only a problem when the public relations behind it became negative. In other words, politics as usual.

The problem is the contrast to the words of John McCain when he describes it. He had this to say on Fox News Sunday:

"She, as governor, stood up and said, we don't need it, and if we need it, we'll pay for it ourselves. Now, that's guts. I saw that, and I said, this, this is what we need in Washington."

There's just no way her actions and those words go together. Sorry.