The Electoral College

Joe Lizura on set for a Starbucks fundraiser

9/29/12.  My daughter asked me the other day about how the electoral college worked and why there was one.  Today I saw a nice explainer piece on Yahoo, so I thought I'd share it:

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND HOW IT WORKS

Presidents are elected not by national popular vote but by an 18th century constitutional compromise called the Electoral College.

HOW IT FORMED

When framers were drafting the U.S. Constitution, there were two competing ideas on how to elect the president. One group said Congress should do it; the other said it should be a national vote of eligible citizens. There also were disputes over how much slaves should count in representation in Congress and over how power would be distributed between small and large states. The compromise became part of the second article of the Constitution, although the words "Electoral College" are not included. The electors pick the president and vice president.

VOTE TOTALS

Each state gets one electoral vote for each of its representatives in the House and Senate. The District of Columbia gets three votes. All told, there are 538 votes in the Electoral College. A candidate must have at least 270 to win. Except for Maine and Nebraska, states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state. In Maine and Nebraska, votes are apportioned by congressional districts. So in 2008, even though John McCain won Nebraska's statewide popular vote, Barack Obama won the 2nd Congressional District and earned one of the state's five electoral votes.

HOW IT WORKS

Each state's electors will meet on Dec. 17 in their home states and cast their votes for president and vice president. Congress will meet on Jan. 6, 2013, to conduct an official tally of the electoral votes. Vice President Joe Biden will preside and declare the winner.

PROBLEM AREAS

If no candidate gets at least 270 electoral votes, the election goes to the newly elected House of Representatives. Each state delegation in the House gets one vote, and a candidate must win a majority of the states to be elected president. This happened in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but four candidates split the electoral votes and no one received a majority. The race went to the House and John Quincy Adams, who came in second, was chosen as president. Three other times, candidates won the Electoral College even though they lost the popular vote — in 1876, 1888 and 2000.

This doesn't answer all the questions, so I'd also suggest going to Wikipedia and reading more as well, and that link is here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_college

It's good to read and appreciate how our political system works - remembering that our system is actually a Republic for of governement - from the Pledge of Allegence:  "And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation ....."

Joe Lizura
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Beach Boys not having "Good Vibrations"

Mike Love - Beach Boys

San Diego, September 27, 2012.  Okay, so yesterday I was surprised and saddened by the loss of Andy Williams, and today when I wake up I am dazed and confused about how the Beach Boys can fire themselves.  Alright, so they aren't exactly firing themselves, but one member of the Beach Boys is firing the other members of the Beach Boys, which will no doubt create TWO Beach Boys groups tourning as the original "Beach Boys" -- sound confusing?  Well here is the article from Spin magazine (on-line version) and a link to the story as well.  All I can say is don't penalize the fans because you guys are getting all grumpy with each other!

From Spin:

Mike Love refuses to tour with Brian Wilson, et al.

Mike Love apparently surprised his fellow Beach Boys co-founders Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, plus guitarist David Marks, when he announced on Sunday that all three were fired from the band. After the Boys wrap two London stops on their current 50th anniversary tour, Love will carry on with his own lineup. He cited greed, essentially, as the reason.

"You've got to be careful not to get overexposed," said Love in a statement issued the day the band's Grammy Museum exhibit opened. "There are promoters who are interested [in the o.g. lineup], but they've said, 'Give it a rest for a year.' The Eagles found out the hard way when they went out for a second year and wound up selling tickets for $5."

Love can do this because he has owned the Beach Boys name since 1998, after a series of hard-fought legal battles following the death of Carl Wilson that same year. Since then, Love has toured with his own version of the Beach Boys, featuring longtime member Bruce Johnston and a backing band including Love's son, Christian.

"I'm disappointed and can't understand why he doesn't want to tour with Al, David, and me," said Wilson, Love's cousin and the group's defining singer-songwriter. to CNN. "We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys."

As Rolling Stone reports, Jardine has gone as far as to petition his Facebook followers for signatures beneath a letter that reads:

"To Mike Love. In order to preserve the validity of 'The Beach Boys' as a whole, and not as a 'money saving, stripped down version' that only contains one original member, and one member that joined in 1965, we ask you to reinstate the three other members to the touring group for your final years performing. It's the right thing to do, and it's what the fans want!"
With the number of signees at 2,700 and growing, it'd seem that Jardine is right about what the fans want. And yet, Love insists, in the most codger-y voice we can muster up in our minds, that "the 50th Reunion Tour was designed to be a set tour with a beginning and an end to mark a special 50-year milestone for the band." Well, harrumph to you too, sir.

Lets see what happens,  Joe Lizura
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Andy Williams R.I.P.

Joe Lizura San Diego, California. September 26, 2012.  Well, it's late in the day here and before I go to bed I wanted to share a few thoughts about the passing of Andy Williams.  It's been sad lately with the number of very talented actors, singers, songwriters and comedians passing away - It's almost as though the "old guard" of entertainment, whom we usually forever remember as young, are slowly leaving us with memories that will never take the place of the real thing. 

Andy Williams is someone whom I always admired and respected as a very talented singer, actor and performer.  His musical work was second to none with 18 gold records and countless television episodes and specials.  I can remember very clearly the sounds of Andy Williams playing on my parents record player even though I was just a little boy. 

His Christmas specials and albums were wonderful and two of my favorite songs - Moon River and The Theme From "Love Story" will always be remembered as though I was still a youngster.  Yes, it was a bit of a sad day for me knowing that the world lost such a talented man.


Here is big part of the story from the San Francisco Chronicle that mentions just a few of his accomplishments:

With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

The singer known for his easy-listening style and his wholesome, middle-America appeal was the antithesis of the counterculture that gave rise to rock 'n' roll.

"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," he once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred - not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."

Mr. Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and clean-cut demeanor helped him outlast many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas television specials and becoming closely associated with the holiday standard "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

Mr. Williams, who continued to perform into his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo., announced in November that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.

The 84-year-old entertainer died Tuesday night at his Branson home, his Los Angeles publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.

He became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."

But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Mr. Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy nominations.

Mr. Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy Awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.

Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.

"The Andy Williams Show," which lasted through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams performing his stable of hits and bantering with guest stars.

He was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927. In his memoir, Mr. Williams remembered himself as a shy boy who concealed his insecurity "behind a veneer of cheek and self-confidence."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Andy-Williams-Moon-River-singer-dies-3897683.php#ixzz27eJZiCSl

 

- Yes, we lost a good one today, but we get to keep the memories.  R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

 

Joe Lizura

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Stock Markets are going up and up and you'd better watch out

Joe Lizura's thought for the day:  Nobody wants to be the one to yell "fire" in a crowded room, but the fact that the stock market has been soaring when the economy has been relatively stagnant can NOT be a good thing.  Let's face it, the NASDAQ is the highest it's been since the year 2000?  Let me ask a simple question, "Does the economy feel like it's the best and healthiest it's been so far this century?  If you answered no, then chances are there's trouble brewing.  So all I'm going to say is - watch out.  Here is the story today from the Huffington post:

NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 jumped to a more than four-year high on Thursday as a new bond-buying program in Europe was hailed as an effective way to contain the region's debt crisis.

Positive sentiment was also lifted by bullish data on the U.S. services sector and labor market, the latter especially notable ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls report.

The rally was broad, with materials, financials and industrials-- all groups tied to the pace of economic growth-- leading the way with gains of more than 2 percent. Advancers outnumbered decliners by a ratio of more than 4 to 1 while the Dow had its biggest gain in two months and the Nasdaq advanced to its highest level since 2000.

ECB President Mario Draghi, seeking to back up his July pledge to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, said the central bank's new plan of potentially unlimited bond-buying would address bond market distortions and "unfounded" fears of investors about the survival of the euro.

"We think this is a credible plan to addressing the issue, and while there are still political hurdles we expect those will be addressed," said Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Equity Research in New York.

U.S. companies added staff in August at the fastest clip in five months, according to the better-than-expected ADP report, while a gauge of employment in the service sector also improved more than had been anticipated. Another report showed new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level in a month.

Even with Thursday's encouraging numbers, economists think the payroll report will show only modest hiring of 125,000 jobs and the unemployment rate holding steady at 8.3 percent. Investors will scrutinize the details for clues as to when the Federal Reserve may provide more stimulus to prop up economic growth.

"ADP doesn't correlate perfectly with payrolls, but people are feeling better about the jobs market these days," Young said. "There was confidence we would see jobs in the mid-100's even before this."

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 217.11 points, or 1.66 percent, at 13,264.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 26.43 points, or 1.88 percent, at 1,429.87-- its highest level since May 2008 as the financial crisis began to gather pace. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 62.52 points, or 2.04 percent, at 3,131.78 -- its highest level in 12 years.

The ECB's program, which Germany's Bundesbank is known to have opposed, would focus on bonds maturing within three years and was strictly within the ECB's mandate. Draghi said only one member of the ECB Governing Council had dissented.

The ECB also announced that it will keep its main interest rate at a record low of 0.75 percent, holding fire af a pick-up in inflation last month offset pressure to breathe life into the flagging euro zone economy by easing borrowing costs.

Tech shares helped lift the Nasdaq to its best daily performance since July 27. SanDisk Corp climbed 8.3 percent to $43.97 and Micron Technolgy Inc added 7 percent to $6.63. The Dow was lifted by Walt Disney Co, which advanced to an all-time high of $51.75.

In company news, Supervalu Inc said it would close about five dozen stores as it works to turn around its grocery business, which lags Kroger Co and Wal-Mart Stores Inc . The stock was up 2.2 percent at $2.33.

Realty Income Corp plans to acquire American Realty Capital Trust Inc for about $1.93 billion as it looks to diversify its portfolio outside of the retail industry. Shares of Realty Income slipped 0.05 percent to $42.46 and Capital Trust rose 1.9 percent to $12.19.

Joe Lizura
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