New Baltic governments

In Finland, after the surprising surge by the conservative National Coalition (Kansallinen Kokoomus) in the March parliamentary elections, KOK will be incorporated into the new government. If all goes well in upcoming talks, the government will be formed by Finnish Center (Suomen Keskusta), the party of PM Matti Vanhanen; the Kokoomus; and two smaller parties, the Swedish People's Party (Svenska folkpartiet), which is always in government, and the Greens (Vihreä Liitto). Helsingin Sanomat provides more detail on the coalition negotiations.

One might expect that the new government platform will have something to do with lowering some taxes, increasing competitiveness, and perhaps doing something in the direction of a guaranteed minimum income (giving recipients more flexibility). One question HS brings up is what position will be awarded to wildly popular Sauli Niinistö, the 1994-2001 party leader and '06 presidential candidate (who almost defeated incumbent Tarja Halonen and relegated PM Vanhanen to a distant third). Niinistö served as finance minister in both Lipponen SDP-led governments (1995-2003), but that post apparently will go to current party chair Jyrki Katainen. Possiblities include foreign minister or speaker of the Eduskunta. (Apparently, the latter is a fairly prestigious position; the previous holder of the office was ex-PM Lipponen himself).

Governments in Finland tend to be supermajorities so that no small party can hold the coalition "hostage." The last government, KESK+SDP+SFP, met this criteria as Keskusta and SDP together held 108 of the Eduskunta's 200 seats. This time, KESK and KOK together hold 101 seats, a razor-thin majority; SFP holds 9, and the Greens 15, giving the coalition a total of 125 and not allowing either Greens or SFP to hold out on any particular issue.

SDP leader Eero Heinäluoma has criticized the Greens for participating in the government; this really just seems like sour grapes, especially before a platform is out. Hence we will have to see what comes of the negotiations. (Who knows... maybe the notorious Vanhanen's purported liaisons with a Green MP had something to do with it? Don't take my word for it, check out all these links in Finnish I can't read).

Meanwhile, in Estonia

The Center Party (also KESK, since Estonian and Finnish are family members) has been kicked out of government in the new post-election scenario. The new government (already sworn in on 5 April) seems rather awkward at first glance, incorporating the conservative Pro Patria/Res Publica Union and the Social Democrats as well as the free-market Reform Party of PM Andrus Ansip.

I have absolutely no idea what has led to the formation of this government, and the only suggestion I would have is that perhaps the Center Party's reportedly more pro-Russian (perhaps better to say less anti-Russian) stance got it booted from government, along with personal rivalries and the close finish between Center and Reform. This was probably more galling for the Center Party, which had the most seats of any party in the previous coalition; Reform surged ahead of Center to become the largest party in parliament. Hence electoral calculations (rather than policy) may have played a role, though that's pure conjecture.

As far as policy goes, it appears the government will cut the flat tax from 22 to 18 percent. The new government also reiterated its determination to remove the Soviet war memorial from Tallinn.

Update: This blog has a lengthy analysis of the Estonian government formation.

I am not talking about garden implements!

The continuing controversy over broadcaster Don Imus's comments has had a beneficial side effect for me: I can spell a new word! Maybe.

The New York Times reports that Imus's offense was to call the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed ho's." Now, if we break it down, "ho's" is the plural form, and we come up with the singular form ho' (the apostrophe cannot, of course, be part of a pluralization, unless done incorrectly). This would make sense, since the word omits the following "r" sound of the original ancestor word. However, were the singular to be spelled ho, then ho's is a clear grammatical error.

AP, via ESPN.com, disagrees with NYT, however, using the plural "hos." This form seems to leave open the dangerous possibility of pronouncing the word "hoss," as in "Ol' Hoss."

How, exactly, are these cases decided at a newspaper? Majority vote? Or is the word ho' really in somebody's Style Guide?

Addendum: In no way do I condone the comments Imus made, by the way, but I haven't followed it closely so I have nothing to add to that discussion; there's plenty in the mass media. To me, honestly the more interesting aspect is this linguistic one.

Who wants Howard to run?

A poll done in Australia at the end of March (posted here at Angus Reid) says 55 percent of Australian voters want John Howard to lead the Coalition into a new election.

The only question is... which voters? Only 38 percent of Australians say they'd vote for the Coalition. If I'm a Labor voter, I may want to see Howard running. Just like as a Conservative Party member I wouldn't want to see Gordon face a challenge...

Shots of Cougar Field

The Houston Cougars played the UAB Blazers this afternoon in the finale of a three-game C-USA series, the Cougars emerging victorious 10-3. The crowd was tiny, due perhaps to (1) Easter, (2) unseasonably chilly weather and (3) a simultaneous Astros game; tickets were $7, perhaps a little more than I'd like to pay but not bad (the red reserved seats lower are $10). Given the paucity of fans, I was able to claim a first-row bleacher seat right behind the plate and keep score, something I hadn't done in a couple of years. (As for the "chilly weather," I thought it was pretty much perfect, but I assume many locals would disagree).

I took the opportunity as well to take a couple photos of Cougar Field, next to Robertson Stadium on Elgin St on the UH campus. It's a nice field and looks just like a comparable lower minor-league park from what I can see. Quite a contrast to Husky Ballpark, which looks temporary (because it is) and is in a beautiful but horribly windy location on Lake Washington...

A modern scoreboard sits in right field.
The grandstand with an enclosed press box and a roof on the upper seats.

In the game itself, the Blazers struck in the top of the first, but Houston scored four in the bottom of the first and knocked out the UAB starter. UAB had very little patience at the plate, letting the UH starter out on 5, 9, 16, 9, and 8 pitches in the first five innings. He finished having thrown 76 pitches in 7 innings. Cougar batters showed a good eye and walked seven times, which was key in the victory. The linked article above provides an overall summary.

As I left, fans were already arriving for the bigger sporting event of the night, David Beckham's Galaxy debut against the Houston Dynamo... I will probably be back next weekend, however, as Houston hosts crosstown rival Rice in a three-game series.

Phone solicitation!

What is it with the inability of phone solicitors to deliver their lines with some sort of emotion? I've received two calls so far from Obama For America, and while I'm sure the operators are volunteers who are convinced of the mission of the campaign, they don't convey it to me! What they are able to convey is that they've been sitting next to the phone too long. (They also thanked me for my donation in February. What donation?)

At any rate, I just get annoyed by donation calls, being newly out of college and not particularly affluent, and I wish they weren't so necessary. Can't say they haven't been effective despite it all, though.

Most... ridiculous... writing... ever

Well, not quite, but check out this blogger on conservative National Review, about the British soldiers.

Choice quote:
"In any case, there was no evidence of torture or mistreatment in any of the filmed cases I have seen. They look just fine. You can't fake that."

Wonderful. Also, via Daily Kos, check out the article from The Guardian which explains how Blair turned down flat American offers to use military ops to pressure the Iranians.

What lies beyond the northern border

Word is that the Washington Post will close its Toronto bureau. In and of itself, not that big of a story, except that there will be no more American newspaper correspondents based in Canada. At all. Yes, there's been a lot of cost-cutting at paper media, but there can't be just one correspondent to our north?

Of course, since Canada is the same as the U.S. anyway... just change the tagline from "Los Angeles" to "Toronto" and it'll sound right, won't it?

Medal of Honor goal almost reached!

The Seattle P-I reports that fundraising is almost done for the memorial to honor UW's Medal of Honor recipients.

Congratulations are due to those who have been behind this effort from the beginning. Medal of Honor winners have done a great service to their country and represent the UW showing the same courage, selflessness and model character we would desire of all alumni.

I had a longer post witten, but really, no need to dredge up past controversies...

Change afoot in Turkmenistan

Once a week the Turkmenistan Project (part of George Soros's Open Society Institute) posts digests of the news from that Central Asian country. The news of late has been very positive, on a relative basis. Since the death at the end of last year of president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov and the inauguration and then "election" of Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, the country has already been opening up:

• Berdymukhammedov has abandoned daily recitation of the oath to the leader, which is now for special occasions only, and replaced the word "Turkmenbashi" with "President";
• The year of secondary schooling dropped under Niyazov has been readded, 23,000 teachers rehired, and foreign languages put back in the curriculum;
• Pensions which had been dropped to veterans, agricultural workers and others as well as maternity benefits are being restored;
• The Academy of Sciences will reopen;
• Health clinics outside Ashgabat (closed by Niyazov--actually by Berdymukhammedov when he was Health Minister under Niyazov, not that he had a choice) are to be reopened;
• Internet cafes have opened, and seem to be relatively free in terms of content, but are too expensive for most Turkmen;
• The president has restored communication with Azerbaijan after eight years of silence and is restoring ties with others as well.

While it is certainly more boring to read the digests than it was when Turkmenbashi was ruling, the Turkmen people have every reason to celebrate. The negatives: the blatantly rigged election (inevitable) and the detention of an opposition leader in Bulgaria after a Turkmen request to Interpol. The goal of Berdymukhammedov is probably to establish a stable authoritarianism as elsewhere in Central Asia, but really, who knows?

Price discrimination at Dodger Stadium

The L.A. Times reports on price discrimination in baseball:

The Dodgers sell tickets in the field box section for $20, $30, $35, $37, $40 and $45, depending on whether you buy on game day, before game day or as part of a full-season, partial-season or group ticket package.

What's the ticket price? The Dodgers offer you 104 answers in all.

Inevitable as prices climb higher. To put those higher prices in perspective, with some numbers from when I was tiny and not yet aware of baseball,

In 1987, the Angels sold tickets for $8, $7, $5 and $3 and the Dodgers for $7, $6 and $4, with every seat on the same level at the same price.

Hmm. If I count the Dodger increase as 500 percent ($7 to $35, $6 to $30, $4 to $20), that's 8 percent every year for 20 years. And they wonder why you can't get kids interested in baseball anymore... maybe if they could go to more than one game a year there'd be a better chance.