Random bits

These are some of the reactions to the Ames Iowa straw poll, where Michele Bachmann won with 29 percent of the vote, and Ron Paul was second, with 28 percent. (more…)

Larry Lessig tweeted a link about this. In 2009, an IMF research paper took a look at the consequences of lobbying by financial institutions and mortgage companies in the U.S. (more…)

This parody of the photo session for the Newsweek cover of Michelle Bachmann focuses largely on her husband, Marcus Bachmann, a “gay reparative therapist,” possibly in need of some self help.

This is a link to Dr. Marcus Bachmann’s Christian counseling service: http://www.bachmanncounseling.com/

As Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and in various other roles as a close adviser to Obama, Austan Goolsbee was thought of as an influential member of the Obama Administration. What will change now that he is leaving? These are just a few data points from his recent and not so recent past.

In an interview with John Stewart last week, Goolsbee referred to the various bilateral free trade agreements as part of a bipartisan consensus of things to promote U.S. jobs.

In a 2008 flap about Obama’s real views on trade policy, and with regard to NAFTA in particular, Goolsbee was a campaign aide, and was caught assuring Canadian officials that “Mr. Obama’s protectionist stand on the trail was ‘more reflective of political maneuvering than policy.’” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html (more…)

Manon Ress on KEI rejection of OECD Statement on the “Principles of Internet Policy Making.”

This data is from http://www.intrade.com. Somewhat different data apparently available from intrade.net. According to Intrade.com, there is a 45.7 percent chance the GOP will nominate a Mormon (Romney or Huntsman), an 11.9 percent chance a woman will be nominated (Palin or Bachmann), and very little chance Gingrich will get the nod. I’m not sure if this is relevant, but Gingrich has had 50 percent more wives than the 2 Mormon’s in the race, and the same number of wives as the three front runners.

There is more diversity in the GOP field this year than ever before. The Intrade.com odds favor Mormons, women and blacks by 63 to 37 percent over mainstream Christian, white, male candidates.

Intrade.Net is a futures market for betting on all sorts of events, including election results. Below are the market clearing prices for the the top 20 candidates for the 2012 republican nomination for president, as of 4 pm EST on May 14, 2011.

Intrade predictions on 2011 GOP nominee for President

On May 3, 2011, I wrote this blog on the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The early comments were probably 99 percent hostile to the point of view I expressed. By May 4, comments were much more balanced.

On April 19, 2011, Dr Kumariah Balasubramaniam died at his home in Sri Lanka. My tribue on the Huffington Post is here:

Dr K. Balasubramaniaum with Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, taken at a regional HAI meeting on pharmaceutical patents and public health in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2003.