A lot of Democrats harped on the Bush Administration regarding its policies. Well, in what is just shocking, shocking, the Obama Administration is doing just about the same stuff.

There's a report that Carol Browner (Obama Climate Czar) told auto industry executives "...to put nothing in writing, ever." Just one problem with that: It's a violation of federal law. Remember when Democrats howled at Dick Cheney meeting with energy producers?

Remember the story that adb_jaeger wrote about regarding the Washington Post asking for money and getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar? The Post's ombudsman demolishes the Post's backpedaling and notes that questions of impropriety were raised months ago and that both the publisher (Katherine Weymouth) and the executive editor (Marcus Brauchli) knew about this.

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An interesting article on Massachusetts' health care mess. Will this be coming soon to you, too?

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Congratulations to jpmassar who finished 627th in the Main Event. scsuhockey10 has T210k at the end of day 4. A total of 407 remain for day 5 (tomorrow).

Via PowerLine comes the story of the head of Spain's intelligence agency, Alberto Saiz. Mr. Saiz is accused of taking expensive trips on the Spanish taxpayers' Euros. He's accused of going on a fishing trip off Senegal. So he put out pictures.



Take a look at the man holding the fish on the top, and the man two to his right. They're different faces, as you can see. The man holding the fish is Mr. Saiz. In the bottom picture, you will note that miraculously Mr. Saiz has invented a cloning machine, and the face of the man two to his right has become his face. Sheesh, a possible entry for Photoshop Disasters....

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We have two more stories like this. Republicans complained while the porkulus, er, stimulus bill was going forward that there was a provision (earmark) to protect the salt marsh harvest mice in the Bay Area. That was a pet project of Speaker Pelosi. Democrats denied it, and were outraged.

It turns out that the Republicans were right.

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Congressman Glenn Nye (D-VA) voted against the climate bill. A Democratic party member sent him two emails and got two responses. In one email Nye mentioned you'll be happy the bill passed. In the second email to the same individual he mentioned you'll be happy he voted against it.

Fail.

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Big series for the Cubs this weekend: four games against the Cardinals. A sweep would be nice (by the Cubs).

I'm still somewhat recovering from the shocking news of yesterday. So, for humor, there's the California legislature.

For those who haven't been following it, the Golden State faces a $24 billion deficit (one-fourth of the state's budget). So what are the items that the Democratic-led legislature is debating:

- Cow Tails
- An apology to Chinese workers of the 19th Century

Here are two good stories on the problems:
Who Killed California's Economy (by Joel Kotkin of Forbes)
California Screaming (by Matt Welch of Reason)

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Greenpeace's latest publicity stunt: A banner on Mt. Rushmore. "And all involved planned to spend several weeks behind bars." Weeks? I hope they get a couple of years. That might teach them a lesson.

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The Midieval Warm Period was a lot warmer than today. And we all know that warming is evil. Of course, warming might not be happening, but that's another story.

That warm period has now been linked to the success of the Incas. (Links to scholarly journals contained within the post.) Also, note the tale of two graphs. Here it is:



The top graph is the one cited by agw proponents. It's false. The bottom graph is the actual average temperatures over time. Yes, temperatures have gone up (through 2000), but that's nothing compared to the Midievel period.

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An excellent article on the players who were shut out of the WSOP.

Then there's the mystery of Table 156 in the Amazon Green Section.

Here are those players:

LANDAU, MICHAEL
ERNA, SALVATORE
GASPARD, JEAN
HACHEM, TONY
MICHNIK, MICHAEL
HARRISON, AUDLEY
SEED, HUCK
MORRISON, KIRK
ODONNELL, KEVIN

Two are blameless (or not relevant): Jean Gaspard (won New Orleans WSOP-Circuit event, guaranteed a seet) and Huck Seed (won NBC Heads Up and guaranteed a seat). The others, though, may have gotten preferential treatment. Kevin O'Donnell (per the first article I linked to) was shut out...except he wasn't.

I have little sympathy for the players. After all, they could have bought in days ago...weeks ago...etc. But if the WSOP did give preferential treatment to certain individuals I won't have any sympathy for Harrah's, either.

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Finally, a link to a cartoon worth viewing.

It is with tremendous sadness that I report the passing of Steve "BIA" Nissman. Steve was found unconscious in his home and could not be resuscitated. Steve was 52.

That's the final number for the WSOP. Today's session received 2,808 players, supposedly a sellout (though the tournament information sheet said that 3,000 was a sellout). In any case, they did manage to exceed 2007, and the dropoff from 2008 was only 5%. Here are the numbers:

Day 1A: 1,287 (2007) vs. 1,297 (2008) vs. 1,116 (2009)
Day 1B: 1,541 (2007) vs. 1,158 (2008) vs. 873 (2009)
Day 1C: 1,743 (2007) vs. 1,928 (2008) vs. 1,697 (2009)
Day 1D: 1,787 (2007) vs. 2,461 (2008) vs. 2,808 (2009)

Total: 2007: 6,358 vs. 2008: 6,844 vs. 2009 6,494.


My estimate of 6,300 wasn't that far off.

Only 1,697 entered Day 1C today. That's slightly more than I projected, and brings the three-day total to 3,686. If 3,000 entered tomorrow (the maximum) the total would be 6,686. So we're guaranteed a decrease from 2008 and likely a decrease from 2007. Anyway, here are the numbers:

Day 1A: 1,287 (2007) vs. 1,297 (2008) vs. 1,116 (2009)
Day 1B: 1,541 (2007) vs. 1,158 (2008) vs. 873 (2009)
Day 1C: 1,743 (2007) vs. 1,928 (2008) vs. 1,697 (2009)
Day 1D: 1,787 (2007) vs. 2,461 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)

Total: 2007: 6,358 vs. 2008: 6,844 vs. 2009 ?,???.

I originally projected 6,300. Based on the current slippage the number now projects to 5,852. They'll have to do better than last year to reach my original projection.

That's how many people entered Day 1B today. That's even less than I thought, and brings the two-day total to 1,989. If 3,000 entered each of the next two days (and that's not happening) the total would be 7,989. I do think 2,000 a day is possible; that would be 5,989. Anyway, here are the numbers:

Day 1A: 1,287 (2007) vs. 1,297 (2008) vs. 1,116 (2009)
Day 1B: 1,541 (2007) vs. 1,158 (2008) vs. 873 (2009)
Day 1C: 1,743 (2007) vs. 1,928 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)
Day 1D: 1,787 (2007) vs. 2,461 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)

Total: 2007: 6,358 vs. 2008: 6,844 vs. 2009 ?,???.

Day 1A decreased by 14% from 2008; Day 1B decreased by 25%. We'll see what happens with Days 1C and 1D.

Many of my readers are to the left of me (politically). There are provisions in the Cap & Trade Bill that the Senate will debate next week that make it look like a repeat of the Patriot Act.

First, I will point out my bias. I don't think that agw is happening. I think climate change is natural, and that man's influence on climate is miniscule at best. I also think we should have an extremely limited government.

OK, on to Cap & Trade:

1. The bill is a huge tax increase. Estimates that I've seen show that this will be a $3,000 tax per household in the US. This will be through far higher costs of electricity, heating and cooling.

2. No one knows what's in the bill. The bill was voted on by the House with no one representative having read it. A 300-page amendment was added just before voting.

3. Details are beginning to slip out. One is that mandatory home audits are included in the bill. I've also seen that building codes will be national instead of local. That in itself makes no sense; for example, there's little earthquake risk in South Florida and little hurricane risk in North Dakota.

4. Mish has a post noting that job loss under this bill will be something over 1 million.

5. Even proponents of the measure do not believe that it will have an appreciable impact on climate change.

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This measure is a job killer. It's an economy wrecker. I doubt that any Senator has read it. It's being put on the fast track because if it's read, it's certain to be defeated. I urge you to contact your Senators and let them know that this measure belongs in the trash can.

Here are the numbers for 2007, 2008, and 2009:

Day 1A: 1,287 (2007) vs. 1,297 (2008) vs. 1,116 (2009)
Day 1B: 1,541 (2007) vs. 1,158 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)
Day 1C: 1,743 (2007) vs. 1,928 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)
Day 1D: 1,787 (2007) vs. 2,461 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)

Total: 2007: 6,358 vs. 2008: 6,844 vs. 2009 ?,???.

Assuming Days 1B-1D attract the same numbers as last year, that would be a total of 6,663; if the decrease by percentage is the same, then the total would be 5,889. Of course it's possible that the numbers will be up on days 1C and 1D (I doubt they will be on the Fourth of July)....

Only four levels are being played today -- there was a danger that the money might have been reached on Day 2 if that weren't the case.

I'll update this daily. In any case, it's possible that the number will be under the Stimulus Special (the $1,000 buy-in NLHE event that was held on the first weekend).

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So knowing the Day 1A number, what's your best guess? Mine is 6,300 (about the number in 2007).