redwavemusings

The immigration bill went down the tubes, and that may be OK since almost everyone could find something they didn't like in it. Most of the senators who voted it down were Republicans and the irony is that that result is just what Democrats wanted since they didn't want Republicans and the President to get credit for solving the problem of illegal aliens to any degree. This way they get to keep the issue for 2008 and probably lock up the rapidly growing Hispanic vote for that election. The R's missed a big chance to continue their trend of gaining Hispanic votes, and worse, they missed it in the name of Know-Nothingness, their myopic view on the subject, one largely in the tradition of Millard Fillmore. The fact is that Hispanic voters should and would identify with the GOP in large numbers, given a demonstration of even the slightest interest in their issues. Most Hispanic cultures are socially conservative, extremely family oriented, avowedly Christian and hard working. Aren't these all traits Republicans identify with? So it is monumentally stupid for Republicans to make these people feel unwelcome in the country and the party. Of course any bill that finds favor with both George W. and Teddy Kennedy figures to be a little wacky, so the bottom line is that they couldn't get it done. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the Administration had a noble idea on immigration, I fear it is off the deep end on Palestine. It's one thing to say you want to isolate Hamas in Gaza and cut off aid, but quite another to assume that you should then reward Fatah by freeing up the frozen funds for the West Bank. Let's remember that Fatah is also a terrorist organization, and despite what has been perceived as a softening in its position, has still not made its peace with the continuing existence of Israel. As a long time advocate for a two state solution, I now find that I am more attracted to a one-state solution, though in my case, it would take a somewhat different form than that suggested by Hamas or Fatah. Frankly, I now think that Israel should be the only state and that the Palestinians will never be entitled to a state. To the extent that Israel no longer wants to occupy the territories, put them up for bid. The highest bidding Arab state can have them. I bet no one bids. Not even a nickel. No one wants those people and for good reason, I'm afraid. Just ask the people in Lebanon how they feel about the Palestinian camps in their country. The problem is that Palestinians have become perpetual victims, and they seem comfortable in that role. Without international aid, they would all apparently starve. Once the aid is cut off, they merely languish. One should remember that before Israel received its UN mandate, Palestine was simply a desert and no one wanted to live there. The other night, I was at a fundraiser for Senator Hagel of Nebraska, who though quite charming and intelligent on the vast majority of issues, seems to have gone simply wobbly on the Middle East. Somehow, he implied that Israel deserved some part of the blame for the current mess because as it was dismantling settlements in Gaza, it had the poor judgment to build them in the West Bank. Frankly, I think the only mistake Israel has made recently, (besides the tactical ones in the skirmish with Hezbollah) was to dismantle the Gaza settlements. You don't get credit for any concessions in that part of the world. Senator Hagel, like many moderate Republicans and most Democrats, think the way you make progress in foreign affairs is to keep talking, as Jim Baker did with Syria when he was Secretary of State. What these critics forget is that negotiation only makes sense when you are dealing with sensible parties who bargain in good faith. Negotiating with Syria, Iran, Fatah, Hamas, North Korea, etc. etc is a useless waste of time. They simply pocket your concessions and move on. Worse, they mistake your willingness to talk and compromise for weakness, and that makes them more aggressive and subject to miscalculation (the point of a very fine column in Mondsay's WSJ by Joshua Muravchik). This is what makes Iran so dangerous and why Senator Lieberman reminded us this week that we should keep all (military) options on the table when dealing with that country. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Presumably, musings readers are getting pretty sick of my Middle Eastern rants, so maybe we should talk baseball instead since we are nearing the traditional half way point. In the National League, I am amazed at how strong the NL West is with the Giants bringing up the rear (too many flaws) and the three teams with such good starting pitching apparently headed for a long close race. Even the Rockies are not that bad (though they stopped winning after the Yanks left town). As good as that division is, that's how bad the Central is, with the mediocre Brewers threatened only by the hapless Cubs. The NL East is pretty interesting. The Mets are clearly the favorite (and deservedly) but they have some flaws and a lot of guys playing hurt. Still, with their starting pitching and the emergence of young Gomez, I think they will outlast the competition. It looks like the Phillies and the Braves will stay close just about all the way, with the Phillies starting to look like the stronger of the two. In the AL East, I never thought Boston was that good and expected Toronto to win but they got hit with a rash of serious injuries, and are only now hitting stride, maybe too late. I have said all along the Yanks are a 500 team, and that won't get it done. The AL Central will likely provide the wild card, either Detroit or Cleveland, both making the post-season. The Angels should win the West easily. So we are looking at three very good races, and possibly a fourth, if the Jays can keep improving.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before moving to the stocks, let's give a muted round of applause for the Supreme Court's decision chipping away at the McCain - Feingold campaign finance law, which I believe to be clearly violative of the 1st amendment. I say muted because the Roberts Court, as will be its apparent M/O, provided only an incremental victory and did not go as far as it could or should have. But it's a start.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Monday, I sold another 100 shares of Barnes Group (B), now a Jim Cramer pick by the way, at 32.50, originally purchased 7/6/98 for 13.625. Wednesday, I bought 50 more shares of Expeditors International (EXPD) at 41.82. It is very unsettling to watch Bear Stearns work its way through its two hedge funds' sub - prime mess. If there is one very safe bet, we will see more hedge funds in trouble.

You're not supposed to talk politics in social situations, but as you can imagine, redwave72 has a pretty difficult time avoiding the subject. The next time your friends seem to be quoting from moveon.org or the American Enterprise Institute, you should ask them what they read every day, and are they hearing both sides of these issues. Unless you do, I think it is easy to fall into the propaganda trap. Musings readers know I read WSJ cover to cover every day (though I am often behind) and that takes care of hearing from the neocons. I just can't take the NY Times very often, and since I need to get the Long Island news, I let Newsday handle the left wing by perusing that daily. If anything, it is even left of the Times (yes it's possible). You have to search a little harder for the right wing mouthpieces, and frankly I don't think the lefties I debate with have that much motivation. But if you do seek out the Journal, make sure not to omit its improving weekend edition on Saturday, which features the incredibly gifted writer Peggy Noonan, who used to write speeches for President Reagan. Pretty good combination since he delivered them as well as she wrote 'em. Anyway, whether or not you agree with Peggy's outlook every week, her prose is worth the $1.50 all by itself. Here's an excerpt from her take on the immigration issue from June 16: "What gets lost in the alarm, and will get lost in the fissures, is the old affection the whole country felt, and still feels , for its newcomers. Not shallow sentiment or softness but something more constitutional, more civic. " As in: I'm in Mass or in the deli down the street, or the bathroom of a restaurant, and I see a Hispanic woman, obviously hardworking, obviously so far not lucky, not yet. This is what I think: Hi Grandma. My grandmother was a bathroom attendant on the fifth floor of the A&S department store in downtown Brooklyn. She was an immigrant from Ireland. "When I see new Americans, I think I'm seeing her. And I am not alone. And I know what we feel and it is not antagonism. It is some kind of old civic love, some kind of connection that echoes back, that doesn't quite have a name but is part of who we are."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another way to evaluate what you are reading is to occasionally peruse the letters to the editor, not only for substance but for some measure of intelligence. The WSJ's letters leave little doubt about the thoughtfulness of its readers. I guess the Times is not bad in that respect either. Newsday's readers, on the other hand, leaving me shaking my head, like so many conversations at the local pub. It seems not a day goes by without some mindless call to impeach someone, usually Bush or Cheney, though they never specify an impeachable offense, high crime, misdemeanor or otherwise. Most of these folks still want to recount the Florida 2000 ballots.

Last Wednesday, WSJ published two thoughtful letters concerning the Fourth Circuit's decision overturning the Administration's position on enemy combatants. The first was by the brother of an FDNY captain killed on 9/11, criticising the decision (and supporting WSJ's editorial position). "It is reassuring to know that under the ruling by the Fourth Circuit court, if a Mohammed Atta were apprehended today, before he could murder several thousand people, he would be properly freed and ...the authorities who seized him appropriately castigated. Thankfully, the Fourth Circuit is there to protect our civil liberties and protect our right to die at the hands of terrorists who are not enemy combatants... The morning of September 11, 2001, my brother...called from his firehouse to his family and friends in New York before the second plane hit to warn them, "We are under terrorist attack!"... Regrettably he did not have time to consider their combatant status...He had an idea of what duty demanded of him - not nuance, not ambivalence, not legal technicalities..."

The second letter, published the same day,was from a lawyer who held positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations. "...The essential difficulty with the position of the administration and the Journal is that your concept of enemy combatant is unmoored to any recognizable precedent or principle under the Laws of War. it is a recipe for authoritarian rule with few if any discernible boundaries. Equally disturbing is your familiar disdain for our system of criminal justice. that system though far from perfect is one of the cornerstones of the liberty of which we are justly proud. We denigrate it at our peril."

Strong words, carefully chosen, that illustrate that intelligent minds can disagree about important issues. My own view is that the terrorists captured on the battlefield were prisoners of war and should have been treated as such. However, since Al Queda is not a Geneva signatory, and, in fact, repeatedly treats its captives barbarically, the Administration did not have to observe the strictures of the Convention and was entitled to interrogate those prisoners to prevent further terrorist attacks. Once those interrogations were over (and that should have been quite a while ago in most cases), the captives should have been accorded full POW status and kept in prisoner status (at our option) for the duration of hostilities (and who knows how long that will be). I think the administration just was politically stupid to insist on military tribunals and to hold captives indefinitely (as opposed to the duration of hostilities). If any captives were directly tied to terrorist acts (such as KSM), they could have been handed over for a civilian criminal trial.

If the Administration had adopted that approach, i doubt any constitutional questions would have been raised.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My favorite Democratic Senator, Joe Lieberman visited Iraq, so unlike many of his colleagues, his discourse on the subject would be informed, rather than merely political. He returned with a mixed report of progress and the difficulty of the task at hand. It led me to believe all the more that the troop surge idea was correct, but that what we got was merely cosmetic (about 20,000 additional soldiers when we needed 80,000 or more) and that Senator McCain has had it right pretty much all along - but has not had his way very often. Ironic that his presidential candidacy is tied to a Bush policy over which he has had too little influence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 6/20, I sold 100 shares of SGR at 45.43, purchased for 9.50 on 8/9/04. This bit of serendipity resulted from SGR's receiving a whole lot of Government paid for hurricane Katrina work. I remember wondering how to rationalize the success I knew my Gulf based stocks would have in the midst of such a horrible catastrophe. But clearly it would have made no sense to sell to relieve one's conscience. On the contrary, that's when Gulf based employers needed our investment more than ever. If it bothers you to make money that way, you can always give it away to charity. On 6/22, I bought 100 shares of CTX at 41.92. This is another one of those risky "average downs" I do, and not because I think we are at a bottom in housing. However, CTX is a quality builder and its valuation has finally reached my buy trigger point, especially since the debt to equity ratio is now reasonable.

First of all, let's clear up this Soprano's thing right away. Chase must be wondering just how stupid his viewers can be that they actually thought the ending was ambiguous. Tony is dead. In one of his typically moronic (i.e.hilarious) Malaprop filled conversations in a past episode, he had espoused the (apparently correct) theory that when you get whacked, you just cut to black, nothing else. And that's what the screen did at the end. Meadow's Keystone Cops parking imitation (how did she ever pass her road test?) delays her entrance to the diner, causing Tony to look up as the bell attached to the door signals her entrance (it tolls for thee) and the screen goes dark. Chase gets his last laugh by confounding all who had tried to predict the final episode closing theme by playing...nothing. The credits roll silently, leaving the viewer to wonder just who had executed Tony. The leading candidate seems to be the stranger who had just gone to the bathroom - a possible recall of the Godfather scene where Michael fetches the gun from the bathroom and eliminates The Turk. The other possibility, apparently not considered by many (any?) viewers is that Meadow does the deed! Motive? Her concern for her brother's welfare given their manipulative father. I agree it may seem far-fetched but it would seem to be the only other possibility. Why was she so nervous and flustered getting her car parked and running to the diner? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a growing consensus that if a Democrat wins the Presidency in 2008, as now seems likely, we will have a new approach to health insurance, perhaps one extending a Medicare like program to everyone. While the employer provided paradigm we now have is certainly flawed, I hope that we will move carefully before the government takes over one-sixth of the economy. For all its flaws, our system provides the best care anywhere, with little or no rationing of care. There is too much friction in the system and significant other flaws, but as we have seen in prior blog entries, we have a much bigger problem with our inability and unwillingness to pay for Medicare/Medicaid. Should we extend that system's bankruptcy to the whole system? I would rather first give these new programs being tested on the state level a chance to work or fail, but it looks like the politicians are ready to throw up their hands. If you think that a British style National Health Service will be an improvement, try watching Prime Minister's Question Time on C-SPAN sometime and listen to the almost weekly belly aching about the performance of their program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Presidential race is getting fairly complicated early. It now looks like Mayor Bloomberg, who is dropping his (nominal) Republican party affiliation, may make an independent run, and does anyone really know which major party he will take more votes from? Is Fred Thompson the real GOP front runner? The Dems hope so, since their worst nightmare is a run against Guiliani, who is very popular in the heartland. That's why you see the media being so negative on him (Newsday took him to task in a NEWS STORY, not a column, for quitting the Iraq Commission, supposedly to make lucrative speaking engagements). As I listen to my liberal friends repeat the mythologies of the left wing propagandists, I am forced to wonder how they will deal with all of the wild possibilities that may yet come up in the next 16 months or so. What if the Iraq surge works? What if the Middle East really blows up in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, who knows where else? Where will Iran and North Korea be with their nuke programs next year? Will there be an immigration bill and who will get the credit/blame. What if the Dems deadlock in convention and Richardson emerges as the candidate, as has been considered a possible scenario here before? Instead of dealing with the world's real issues, you get the usual catechism - Bush is stupid, Cheney pulls the strings (how would anyone not in the administration have any idea), Iraq was about oil or revenge, and the weapons excuse was a lie, not mistaken intelligence. Barack is very smart (maybe, but where's the evidence?), intelligence determines Presidential ability (if that's the case why did Nixon and Carter fail while Kennedy and Reagan succeeded?), global warming is real and is the most critical crisis we face (how would they know?), and oh yes, their favorite, Gore really won in 2000 (the next Florida recount he wins will be the first). So unfortunately, I have little hope that this election will be accompanied by meaningful discussion about the many important issues, even in the country's barrooms where you are most likely to hear debate that makes sense. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Much better to deal with stocks, where your report card is totally objective and you are graded five days a week. On 6/13, I bought 50 shares of EXPD as 41.98 for the taxable account, then watched my portfolio get straight "A's" for the balance of the week (I assume yours did too). Yesterday, I sold another 200 shares from the CNRD stash (taxable) at 12.65. These were still part of the 11/2/04 purchase at the bargain price of 1.95. I love just about everything in the WSJ, as musings readers know, but the left hand column on page C1, usually written by Justin Lahart and Scott Patterson usually just makes me laugh. They have the difficult job of presenting both sides of any argument, but that often leads to silly conclusions. For example, they speculated that the market must crack because the housing numbers are so bad, i.e down so much. But they are down from the bubble and that comparison makes little sense if you believe the bubble dynamics were divorced from reality. Better to compare today's numbers with pre-bubble housing starts and sales. They may be bad, but in that light, they are not really frightening. It's similar to comparing today's NASDAQ to the bubble peak and lamenting that we can't approach that high. Well, we all "knew" that the index made no sense at 5000 then, and it wouldn't now either. Small stocks have done great and might need a little breather, not a race to a new high. If the index gains 10% per year (not counting dividends) which would be a nice performance, it will take almost ten years to make a new high.

After 83 and 86 (both from the back tees) this past weekend, my disposition has returned to normal and so I can face this chaotic world with a little equanimity (there's a $5 word!).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Golf aside, the highlight of this weekend was seeing a couple of hundred Long Island high school kids perform a program of classical music at Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall. Last piece on the program was the majestic Ninth Symphony by Beethoven with my daughter in the Chorale. This work is quite a challenge for these students, but after a shaky first movement, the orchestra really got into a groove (sorry for the jazz metaphor) in that incredible second movement. For the fourth movement, assisted by a quartet of professional singers, the Chorale sounded magnificent, made up of four high school chorales and two other student groups. For a parent, it was a very exciting and fulfilling experience, and you could see many of the youngsters were really into it. Of course, for some of the kids, it was more of a "being there" experience, whether it was because they would rather have been hanging out with friends, or that they were simply overwhelmed by the difficulty of the task involved. My daughter claimed to have been mainly "lip synching.;" even if true, I was happy for her that she got to do whatever singing she did on that stage, and will always have that memory.

That got me to thinking about the state of the generation we baby boomers have raised. It's as different from us in the way that they think and pursue their future, as we were from our parents. And it is only fair to say that while we were trying to save the world (and its whales)and having very modest success, too many of us came up short in the area of providing a stable or traditional home for our kids to grow up in. This was such a contrast to our parents generation, where divorces were rare and most homes were very traditional. However, the kids in my daughter's generation have adapted well; there is no assumed family structure and no stigma attached to growing up outside a traditional structure. They are much more open with each other than we were, provide more support for each other, and are much less competitive in general (though the top group still over achieves, like many I saw at the concert). In short, I would expect them to find their way on their own terms, and though their expectations may be different, I believe the world is always improving in so many ways.

Unlike my liberal friends, who worry ceaselessly about environmental imperfections, global warming, poverty and war, and now worry about the seeming lack of awareness in young people, I choose to follow the Reagan path and believe that you have to maintain perspective about where you are coming from, and that we will continue to make progress in all these areas and each generation's world will be better, as long as we allow freedom to flourish and the incentives that are inherent in democratic capitalism to challenge and guide our efforts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tonight, the Senate defeated a "no confidence" vote on Attorney General Gonzales. This was hardly a surprise, since 60 votes would have been needed to pass it. The vote was scheduled merely as a political ploy to embarrass the Republicans, who, at this point, are frankly beyond embarrassment. The irony is that the problem with the firing of the attorneys and other questionable actions by the AG is not that they might have been illegal (a stretch in my opinion) but that they were further evidence (as if more was needed) of the politicization of the AG's office. This was a continuation of the precedent set by the perfectly awful John Mitchell, and then revived by Janet Reno. I'm wondering if, instead of the AG being a cabinet post, perhaps it should be a creature of Congress or the Judiciary. If the AG is going to serve at the pleasure of the President under the current politically polarized climate, we can expect continuing mischief out of that office, no matter how little "confidence" Congress registers in the incumbent.

On another note of administration low jinx, people are wondering how long it will take for President Bush to pardon Scooter Libby. The answer is that will only happen if and when his last appeal fails. For a pardon to be offered and accepted, Libby would be implicitly admitting guilt, and I don't believe either he or the President (or the Vice president) believes he is guilty of anything. So they will tough out the appeals, expecting to win the case before it's all over. If they do not, then the pardon will be done.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The market recovery on Friday was also a nice mood booster, and even today's sideways action was bracing for those prepared for a Blue Monday. On Friday, I bought 200 shares of PBCT at 19.57, and today bought 100 shares of HZO at 21.23, both for the taxable account. HZO is one of my favorite symbols. The stock is Marine Max, a retailer and servicer of recreational boats.

We'll get to the correcting, or is it crumbling, bond and stock markets presently. First, let's list all the fouled up situations that only got worse while I whiled away a few days on the Left Coast (and nearly froze my fanny)...

An immigration bill, supposedly bi-partisan, turned out to have not nearly enough of any kind of partisans to make it through the evenly divided Senate. Consider that to achieve this bill, its creators had to arrive at compromises concerning Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam (ERISA) such as border fences, amnesties, dumping family considerations as a qualifying consideration, etc. etc. In the end, the Bushies actually came out on the less Know-Nothing end and still put forth a bad bill with no chance;

The G8 meeting was a mess, Putin, who is popular in his country finally got under the skin of our President (whose popularity poll readings are about the inverse of his Russian counterpart), and we've still got all those Neanderthals in our country losing sleep over the Chinese Yuan and campaigning against free and fair trade, globalization, etc. all of which contribute to our economic growth, not to mention that of the Third World. Their answer to everything seems to be to raise taxes. We already work until June in some states JUST TO PAY OUR TAXES and half the country seems to want to raise them. As George Will often says, our people, no matter what they say, have an unquenchable thirst for government "services." Just wait til they get the Health Plan they want - there won't be enough taxes in the world to pay for a UK style Health Service;

After desperately seeking a bad agreement with the North Koreans (following the precedent of the prior administration), the Bush State Department has had to endure about a month of having none of the other side's concessions implemented, only to be followed by their most audacious missile test yet. It's not as if everyone involved doesn't know these people negotiate in bad faith;

The pundits have declared universal (i.e. government provided) health care to be the will of the people, and the maneuvering is on to make those who would preserve the better aspects of the present system (few as they may be) to be out of the mainstream. So now I will have to point you to the earlier series in the musings archives on our out of control entitlement systems and do another posting on health care and insurance. Ugh!;

We know that the baseball season is a long one (Ok not as long as hockey - is it finally over?) and there will be ebbs and flows, but to see the Mets and Red Sox playing worse, and the Yankees and Phillies playing a little better is not my idea of a good week. Incidentally, I got to see a fair amount of the Giants last week, and I think they can still contend in what has become an awfully tough division;

AND I missed the Soprano's episode last Sunday, meaning I'll be up with it until 1 AM tonight to catch the rerun; And, I can't break 85, which is probably the real reason my mood is a little ornery tonight.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That plus our severely correcting financial markets, which finally seem to have taken note of this blog's constant worries about just such a slump. I guess I predicted 8 of the last 5 corrections. Anyway, faithful readers know that my only reaction will be to return my asset allocations to their prescribed targets, and let the chips fall where, and as far, as they may. Which reminds me that it is time, once again, particularly since we seem to be acquiring some new readers, for the obligatory disclaimer. Redwavemusings is not an investment adviser and does not provide investment advice, good or otherwise. The securities and strategies mentioned here are for recording purposes only and may not be suitable for anyone else (or even for me).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 5/29, I sold 100 shares of B at 29.11 that I purchased for 13.625 on 7/6/98 for the taxable account. Luckily, this was only a small part of the position, since B was recommended yesterday by Jim Cramer. On 5/30, I bought 50 shares of EXPD, a new name, at 42.95, also for the taxable account. Finally, on 6/6, I took another taxable gain, selling 200 shares of KAMN at the opening for 28.87 (purchased at 13.75 on 5/24/99 - that's right, the last century again). Of course, the analysts must be watching my account because a Steifel analyst immediately issued a buy recommendation this morning for KAMN. But that's not having much impact in this market. Also to make it a perfect day, BMET, which I sold out of in April when it neared its takeover price, got a higher offer which its Board today recommended that shareholders accept. And that's why I include disclaimers!

Posting today from the City By the Bay and on the clock so this may be a short one. It's been in the fifties since I got here on Thursday, and no warmer weather is in the forecast, recalling Mark Twain's line about the coldest winter he ever spent being a summer in San Francisco. There are supposedly many beautiful areas in this city, notably by the Wharf, but I never see them since I'm working downtown and don't seem to have much free time for touring. The downtown is not so good. An awful lot of retail space is vacant here, and the beggars, social deviants, and mentally disturbed seem to be more in evidence than even in NY. One thing not in evidence at all is police presence. After almost three full days here, the next cop I see will be the first!

So people more or less get along, though there is no discouragement to the anti-social behavior of those who don't know any better. I guess they prefer it that way here. I find that the more time I spend in other US cities, the more I appreciate the job they are doing in New York, where the challenges are so awesome and yet things are actually running fairly well.

The jazz scene in San Fran is a little better than some, but I would say it is not where Chicago and certainly New York are. You can count on a decent trio or quartet nightly at the Jazz Bistro, and there is no cover charge which is nice, the bands depending largely on tip jars! Tonight, I expect to see the House Legend, Bill "Doc" Webster, who I saw a couple of years ago out here.

Food here has a great reputation, and sometimes it seems that it is deserved. Last night, we ate at Foreign Cinema, which I would recommend if you can stand the pretentious and eclectic selection of entrees. You pretty much can't go wrong in Chinatown here as well, and the meal I had at the aforementioned Jazz Bistro was more down to earth and bracing.

The bar scene is OK, but everything shuts down at 2 AM and I mean everything.

In sum, I would say that if you must come to SF, try not to make it a business trip, since the fun things are apparently out-of-town - the vineyards, and the coastal sights. It would have helped if the Giants had been in town, but they're away of course. And the weather is what it is, which is to say, like November in New York.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Got to get to another meeting (yes we're working all day Sunday too), and I'll catch up on the stock transactions in my next post. A quick check on last week's markets seemed to indicate that all is well on that front.