Vancouver Whitecaps, with and without Davide Chiumiento

I thought someone should do some analysis on Davide Chiumiento's record with the team, seeing as there is quite a bit of unrest right now about the state of the team. So I took a look at the team's record with and without Davide Chiumiento.


Our home form with and without Davide is pretty similar:

w/ Davide: 4W-3D-1L-12GF-7GA
w/o Davide: 3W-1D-1L-7GF-6GA

If, in the next few games at home we get 1 win and 2 draws, that would be pretty good, and not totally unexpected.

---

The key difference with and without Davide Chiumiento is our away form:

w/ Davide: 2W-3D-3L-5GF-11GA
w/o Davide:  1W-0D-6L-5GA-12GA

Not a big difference in goals for and against, but a big difference in the loss column. Kind of interesting.

---

What I find most interesting is the record of our opponents as it relates to our home and away performances. With and without Davide, the opponents we've faced at home have been of similar quality:

5 of 8 opponents we faced with Davide are currently in a play-off spot. And 3 of 5 opponents we faced without Davide are currently in a play-off spot. No real difference there. 

---

But when you look at our away opponents, you find a significant difference:

Only 2 of the 8 opponents we faced with Davide are currently in a play-off spot. And we lost both those games. On the other hand, 5 of the 7 opponents we've faced without Davide are currently in a play-off spot. 4 of those were losses.

Put another way: our only wins on the road this season have come against Chivas, Colorado and Columbus, while our draws have come against Chivas, Portland and Philadelphia. See the pattern?

#bcpoli liveblog for the by-elections!!!!

Here we go:

Placeholder...

I am currently developing another site to house my writings, CV, etc, over at www.brentonwalters.ca. Right now it's just a placeholder Wordpress site.

Cheers,
Brenton

Elect Meena Wong, NDP, in Vancouver South

As some of you know, I am managing Meena Wong's campaign in Vancouver South. For the NDP, in case that was in doubt.

We are having our Campaign Office Official Opening this Wednesday, from 5 - 8pm. Please come on by and enjoy some wonderful samosas, chai, campaign material and friendly campaign talk.

Where: 6655 Main Street, between 50th and 51st on the east side of Main.
When: 5pm - 8pm. Come early, and bring a friend!

Find us on Facebook, at our event page: Campaign Office Opening!

I hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Brenton

Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun, anti-union hacks

Barbara Yaffe is a columnist in the Vancouver Sun. Halfways intelligent, she nevertheless has some serious ideological blindspots when it comes to unions. Her recent column merely parroted a report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a "conservative/libertarian think-tank" (their words, not mine) in Winnipeg.

The report claims public sector wages have outgrown private sector wages over the past 11 years, by a substantial amount. spartikus over at The Exile properly takes the report apart (The Fraser Institute B Team) and calls out Yaffe and the Vancouver Sun for their ineptitude.

Some interesting things I've read lately

Here's a quick blog entry to share some interesting things I've been reading:

John Hickenlooper, former mayor of Denver and the newly-elected Governor of Colorado, is a loony. This New York Times piece shares some pretty creative stunts he has pulled, both as an entrepreneur (micro-brewing) and as mayor and gubernatorial candidate. And he seems like a smart guy.

Actor and one-time Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson had a significant role in the Watergate hearings, as chief counsel to Republican senators. He asked the famous televised question about whether there was a recording system in the White House, eventually leading to Richard Nixon's resignation.

Primary Colors is a better book than movie. Thanks to Kurt over at your Daily Gumboot for the recommendation. It's a fascinating read, detailing (fictitiously) Bill Clinton's nomination race. I've submitted a blog piece inspired by the book to my erstwhile editor at the Mainstreet; watch for it soon.

Enjoy.

-B

Liberal insider blogs about Carole James...

... then deletes the page when he's wrong.

Brian Keiran is a Liberal insider-type that many of you will know more about than I do. He has a blog, writing about BC politics and such.

The other day he posted a piece saying that Carole James was likely done by last Sunday, November 21st. Surprise, surprise, she survived a call for a leadership review, with 84% in support of her. That piece that Keiran wrote is now deleted from his site.

Here's the page: http://briankieran.blogspot.com/2010/11/ndp-ghosts-rally-to-james-but-polls.html

Here's the deleted text:

If James makes it to sundown Sunday I will be amazed

by Brian Kieran

NDP leader Carole James has just endured a public flogging by her ex-whip. And, the only person who does seem to get it is James. Her caucus is in full revolt many hours before this weekend’s Provincial Council blood bath is scheduled to begin.

Today caucus whip Katrine Conroy, flanked by three of her socialist sisters including Jenny Kwan, pulled the pin because of James’ bungling purge of dissident Cariboo MLA Bob Simpson.

Conroy (Kootenay West) announced her resignation saying she does not have the support of her leader. This is pretty damning stuff. Conroy’s job as whip for the past five years has been to ride herd on caucus solidarity.

More damning still ... neither Conroy nor her solidarity sisters would offer reporters even faint praise for the ongoing legitimacy of James’ leadership.

This development has all but overwhelmed the impact of James’ endorsement yesterday by a host of NDP ghosts who came out of retirement to support their beleaguered leader.

And, proving that no good deed goes unpunished, a Mustel Group poll released today is chock full of grim foreboding for James.

The poll taken after Premier Gordon Campbell announced his long goodbye has the Liberals at 37 per cent support (up four points since September) and the NDP ahead at 42 per cent, the same level of support they enjoyed in September and when they lost the 2009 election.

In short the NDP is flat lining and has been unable to capitalize on the very public, messy and embarrassing Liberal implosion. To make matters worse, James approval rating has plummeted from 42 to 33 per cent since September and her disapproval rating has jumped nine points to 45 per cent.

This latest poll confirms what other pollsters have been tracking as well. (In my Wednesday posting below I cited similar trending by Angus Reid.)

The list of 16 prominent retired NDP MLAs supporting James’ leadership includes former premier Mike Harcourt and many members of his 1990s cabinet and caucus who were party moderates.

Sadly, their eleventh hour support matters little in the face Conroy’s resignation and polling numbers that suggest James’ leadership credibility is eroding rapidly just when it should be shooting through the roof.

Fun as shit

Here's a phrase that doesn't show up on the Google (but will now):

Kafkaesque as shit

If you haven't already seen xkcd, please go there now and scroll through the comics. The most recent one, referenced above, has given me a new www game: find the adjective phrase ending in "_ as shit" that is more common than the adjective phrase starting with "fucking _" using the same word. On their list, only annoying has more results for "_ as shit". N was confounded, and suggested we find more. So, below are words that are more commonly used on the www before "_ as shit" than after "fucking _":

dumb - 111,000 to 98,700

That's all I found, though I only tried a few other words. Have fun, and let me know.

The Sopranos and Bruce Springsteen

I confirmed this the other day, after telling it to someone then second-guessing myself:

Little Steven, guitar player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and host of Little Steven's Underground Garage, played Silvio on The Sopranos.

Here he is as Silvio, my favourite character on The Sopranos:

And here he is onstage with Bruce Springsteen:

Possibly the two coolest jobs ever. All due respect.

Language and resistance in the Basque region of Spain

San Sebastian in all its glory.

Last year N. and I spent three weeks in Spain and France, circling the border on trains and sampling food, wine, architecture and sun everywhere we went. It was a gorgeous three weeks, with far too many highlights to mention. It was one gigantic highlight.

After some time in Barcelona, we took the train to San Sebastian, on the Atlantic coast. It's a tourist destination, and the only place we found was a dump of a hostel, but the beach, food and architecture was enough to keep us there for a while.

In the bathroom stall at the public library, I saw this graffiti:

españolitos, go home!