aliens? you're really serious? asassination, really?

The vast majority of people who go and see Indy 4 are probably going to be utterly satisfied by what they see. They'll get lots of explosions, Harrison Ford donning his iconic fedora, and space aliens. Yes, space aliens. I thought Indy 4 was pretty much the epitome of everything that is wrong with "summer blockbusters". Whereas the first 3 Indy films grounded in some sense of reality, from the opening frames of Kingdom you'll be like "wait a minute, how can a couple dozen KGB agents take out an entire top secret military base? Everything in this movie is supernatural. From Cate Blanchett's psychic mumbo jumbo to aliens with skeletons made out of crystal, the entire film feels like George Lucas read Chariots of the Gods and decided to throw Indiana Jones into it.

You may say "well, even Raiders had the supernatural Ark", and you'd be right. But the earlier films only tossed in a spattering of supernatural elements. Raiders was more about Indy fighting Nazi scum and it was only the last scene where we finally got to see the power of the ark. Kingdom is nothing but CGI overkill in set piece after set piece of ridiculously over the top scenarios. I love Indiana Jones, but watching him stand and look upon a giant mushroom cloud that he just lived through by hiding in a lead lined refrigerator was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen (that whole set piece, by the way, was recycled from the original draft of Back to the Future). The film is just so void of any charm or substance. Cate Blanchett plays a stupid villain. Shia LaDouche is put in scene after scene of Lucasinian banal comedy. Oh look, Shia just got hit in the balls by a tree branch! How funny! Oh look, Shia is swinging through the trees with the help of CG monkeys! How cute! Harrison Ford fares no better. Does he do anything in the last third of the movie? Almost every scene involves some sort of nostalgia shout out in place of actual development. And Karen Allen? She shows up to say "Shia's your kid" and have some unfunny comedic bantering and then basically disappears from the film.

"But there is action", you say! Too bad we've seen all of it before. Everything in this film was done and done better by Raiders without being a glorified ILM demo reel. And even then, I can't say that the CG was that good. Every shot in the film has a fake gloss to it, even down to horizon backgrounds. Its like George Lucas decreed that no film should ever have a normal, realistic sunset. Kingdom is two hours of bad acting, dialog, comedy, structure, pacing, plotting, coherency, and set pieces. It's pure spectacle excess that places its illogical storyline and massive plot holes front and center. There's no fun here. It's just an empty, hollow excuse to capitalize on a franchise that should have stayed finished.

Now that that is off my chest, what else am I doing? Way back when I quit Bear Eats Fish one of my major reasonings was that we only ever played the same 10 songs over and over again. I had multiple new songs written but it got to a point where nobody really wanted to spend the time to practice new stuff so we'd just play through our set a couple times and then head our separate ways, always with big plans to work on new material that would never come to fruition. Since we're having a BEF/THC reunion show late next month, I've been trying to remember some of my old stuff and have 2 completely new songs ready to go. I plan on forcing us to practice them :)

So the big news story of the past weekend is Hillary Clinton invoking RFK's assasination during an interview session. The quote exploded all over the internet and it has effectively given many Obama supporters the justification to unload on Hillary in a fashion that wasn't occurring before. There's a lot of bad blood between both groups of supporters. Hillary's forces are straight out pissed that she's lost, something they never would have foreseen since, you know, they've got that whole concept of entitlement. Barack's idealistic supporters are infuriated with the constant barrage of negative comments such as Hillary praising John McCain and saying he's ready to be president while implying Barack isn't, Bill Clinton's South Carolina Jesse Jackson moment, etc. Her assassination reference comes on the heels of her meltdown about the Florida votes being equivalent to civil rights, slavery, and women's suffrage and reports that Bill Clinton is trying to force her onto the ticket. Rightly or wrongly, that last report about Bill Clinton has been seen amongst Obama supporters as nothing less than blackmail, a sort of "Put my wife on the ticket or we'll make sure her voters don't vote for you in November". So you can see how Obama supporters were already in a heightened state of agitation when Hillary decided to drop her assassination remarks into the boiling political landscape.

First let me say that I don't honestly think that Hillary Clinton is waiting around for Barack to be assassinated. Hearing her comments, it is extremely easy for people to come to that conclusion though. For better or worse, the political climate is crazy right now. You can't expect any candidate to go through a 15 month process, with the media focusing on every single thing, and not say something stupid. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for a politician running for president to constantly be on guard about every thing you say. It almost seems like they have to constantly be self-censoring themselves just to make sure nothing comes out wrong and infuriates some group of people. But all these candidates are human and stuff is just going to come out wrong sometimes. I can give Hillary the benefit of the doubt on this.

But should she get off easy? You'll remember that when Barack said his now infamous "bitter" comments, Hillary took that opportunity to try and destroy him, turning herself into a Republican and pulling a page from their playbook. A lot of Obama supporters want him to give her the same non-courtesy, seeing it as a way in which to literally destroy her political career and permanently taint the "Clinton Legacy" within the Democratic party. A lot of people want this as revenge for everything she has done in this primary and probably more subconsciously as a way to permanently separate the Clinton's from the democratic party of the future, led by Obama. Piling on and keeping the story alive would definitely please the sadistic part of me. Karma is a bitch, after all, and I won't deny that with all the emotional highs and lows of this campaign, a part of me would like nothing better than to see Hillary knocked off her holier than thou soap box.

But of course, we don't need to pile on. Obama did the perfect thing by saying that it was an unfortunate statement, that he takes her at her word that she didn't mean it, and that the world should move on. He doesn't need to make this an issue because Hillary has screwed herself over on this one. Every Obama supporter in this country, myself included, lives with the frightening possibility that he may be assassinated. For a rival candidate to even mention an assassination, even in a historical context, is just stupid plain and simple. Hillary could have pointed to any number of Democratic primaries that lasted into June. Why did she bring up RFK's death as one of them? The reason there is such cynicism towards these latest statements is because she is the definition of "say anything, do anything" politics. Everybody remembers Tuzla and every Obama supporter thinks she's nothing but a habitual liar, so of course when she comes out with a pseudo-apology, people are going to look at it skeptically whether that was how she meant it or not.

A word of advice to Hillary Clinton: when you're in a historical race with an african-american candidate, don't ever use the word "assassination" in any context. You're just asking for trouble, especially in our hypo-politically correct world. Personally, I think the fallout from her comment is going to be felt far into the future. In the short term I think it will make a lot of those Hillary supporter holdouts shift to Obama. I think it effectively ends any leverage Bill Clinton was using to try and force her into the VP slot. The long term consequences may heal over time but that rift with the african-american community was probably damaged beyond repair. A future run for Senate or Governor of New York will now depend on whether or not the NY african-american community will forgive and forget. At least she's got a few years to work on penance.

But Hillary has a bigger problem. She absolutely cannot be perceived by the media and public as the person who took down Obama's presidential aspirations. This is an election year that the democrats should have no problem winning. If Hillary is seen as keeping her loyal voters from Obama in some way out of spite, there will be hell to pay in the future. The party is in transition right now. Half loyal to the old guard, half to the new. Whether Hillary likes it or not, Obama's people will be running the party in the coming decade and the last thing she wants is a party establishment that would like nothing better to muzzle her at every opportunity. And believe me, the grassroots liberal wing of the party won't forget and will probably salivate over the chance to take down her political career when the opportunity arises. They probably still will even if Obama wins the presidency.

So fair or not, what Hillary's "assassination" remark will do is force her into doing whatever she can to get Obama elected. People like to talk about the idea that Obama's sheen isn't as great as it was when he got into the race, but in relation to the Clinton's reputation, it's downright sparkling. The Clinton's have badly damaged their credibility and perception with millions of democrats across the country. They have effectively caused a rift and brought about the divisiveness that Obama and his supporters have been trying to end on a broader level. If Hillary goes out blazing, history will not treat her or her husband kindly. She has to help Obama succeed, else face the long prospect of being a leper in her own party. But this is also conditional on Obama giving her the olive branch. Telling, and convincing, his supporters to take in the person they've considered the enemy for the last 5 months.

Time will tell whether he'll embrace the Clinton's when this is all over, or tell them to screw off and take his chances.

Man, its been a while...

Yeah yeah, I haven't posted here in a long time. I'm insanely busy right now and am taking a quick break and just wanted to post some thoughts about the debate tonight on ABC.

I missed the entire thing because I was at a talk about God showing beauty in monstrosities (it was damn interesting, by the way). However, I'm watching clips and post-debate reaction and it seems the consensus is that it was the "pile on Obama" debate. The first 50 minutes didn't deal with any policy issues, but rather Obama and the Weather Underground, Obama and his lack of a flag lapel pin, Obama and Jeremiah Wright, and more Obama "bitterness".

It was pretty much fast ball after fast ball trying to knock Obama off his game. Hillary pounced on every response. The liberal blogs are flaming and ready to burn ABC headquarters to the ground. My response? Calm down. The fact that Obama had all these questions thrown at him is pretty strong evidence that he's on the path to the nomination. The Republicans are going to bring all of this up and the best way for Obama to get it out of the news is to address it all early. Let him get roughed up a bit. It's better to be pummeled now than to be pummeled in an "October surprise", y'know? The rumors have been out there for weeks that Obama has tons of superdelegates locked up and ready to endorse him. They won't do it until after North Carolina. The only way he loses the nomination is if he starts losing the states he's supposed to win, such as North Carolina, Oregon, and South Dakota. Relax Obama supporters, he's fine. He's the frontrunner, you've got to expect this treatement. Besides, there's been 20 debates already. Everybody knows where Hillary and Barack stand on the issues. We've gotta get the controversies out of the way.

There's also another reason for Obama supporters not to worry. When pressed on whether or not she believes Barack can win in November, she said "Yes, Yes, Yes!". Kinda hard to make the argument to superdelegates that Barack can't win when you just told a national audience that he can. Also, for as much "baggage" as Barack has, it doesn't even scratch the surface of what Hillary has. I mean, if you're Hillary Clinton, how do you explain to a superdelegate that you can win an election when only 39% of people think you are honest and trustworthy? How can she explain her "Screw em" comment to southern working class voters? The only candidate that potentially can't win the presidency is Hillary and everybody knows it. Half the country hates her. She's gone so negative on Obama that it's become apparent that she will lose the "Obama vote". Could her "Girl Power" rallying cry carry the day? I thought so, but now I'm not so sure.

Also, though Obama is going through the motions right now, being "vetted" as the pundits like to call it, John McCain is going to get his day. I predict the democratic nomination is going to end in 4 weeks. After North Carolina, you're going to see the party leaders end it. The reason is two-fold: first, no democrat wants to see Hillary fight this out until the convention. The reason being that it will be nothing but negative press until August. If that happens, John McCain continues his free pass, but as soon as the democratic race is over, everything will get quiet and the press will go in their predictable cycle and start paying attention to him and his policies. I guarantee you, you'll be hearing about the "Keating 5" this summer and everything else McCain has said and done the 10,000 years he's been in office. And his health records. And the rumors about his post-tramatic stress disorder from being tortured in Vietnam, etc. etc. McCain's not going to coast.

And during that time, Obama will be building his coalition, raising 500 million dollars, and preparing for the fall election. Then the media will hype his convention speech, he'll deliver it, it'll kick ass, and we'll get into the real race.

That's my prediction. Calm down Obama fans. You're invested in your guy and when the "Big Bad Liberal Media" piles on, the natural reaction is to lash out and be protective of your candidate. But everything's alright. Every0ne knows he wasn't going to win Pennsylvania. He's still going to lose it, but he's still got a grip on the nomination.

Unless he loses North Carolina...then he'll have a problem :)

Obama is about to have the worst week ever.

This is when we find out how tough a presidential candidate is: when the shit hits the fan. Do they come out swinging, or crumble meekly in a corner?

Barack Obama is about to have the worst political week of his life. He's going to lose Texas and Ohio tomorrow which will lead to not only Hillary proclaiming she's the reincarnation of the "Comeback Kid", but also scrutiny as to why Obama can't "close the deal" (putting aside the fact that he was down 20 points in both states as of 2 weeks ago). Not only will he have to deal with a gloating Hillary campaign, but the press is going to show no mercy in other areas. The Rezko trial started today and this conspiracy about NAFTA and the Canadian government pretty much assures that the entire week is a lost cause.

Barack hasn't really had to deal with anything too severe so far. Let's see how he deals with Hillary moving forward.

Meanwhile, somewhere John McCain is laughing hysterically as he taps some lobbyist ass.

P.S. I'm in a political blackout right now. I plan on turning on the television about 8pm tomorrow night to see what's happened. It's not gonna be good...

Do the Kennedy's still have "it"?

Obama pasted Hillary in South Carolina. Ted Kennedy, supposedly disgusted by the Clinton attacks on the future of the party, is going to endorse Obama and campaign for him. It's a big pickup. Obama also scored about 878 newspaper endorsements today and a potential VP candidate in the female governor of Kansas (I don't know much of anything about her, but apparently she's a "rising star" in the Obama vein, and she'll be the Democrat rebuttal to Bush's SOTU speech).

We loyal Obama supporters have new life and enthusiasm after the results of SC, no doubt about that. But I still think the nomination is Hillary's to lose. I said that if Obama lost Nevada, he'd be toast. I still stand by that, although this rash of endorsements gives me pause. Obama's biggest problem now is that there just isn't time to be able to cut into Hillary's huge leads in all these big states coming up on Super Tuesday. Though the nomination won't be decided on that day, if Hillary builds up a sizable enough delegate advantage, there's nothing Obama can do other than to hope he can remain close and have Edwards send his delegates to him and hope that the super delagates, which Hillary has a commanding lead in, break his way for some reason.

And that's where Ted Kennedy comes in. The Kennedy's are Democratic royalty. The name is gold and Ted is pretty much the godfather of liberal ideals. In other words, his opinion carries weight with old school democrats, minorities, and union members. This will be his last go round in terms of impacting an election. He's gone all in and is supporting the young upstart over the establishment and he's going to do everything he can possibly do to see that it happens.

Think about it for a second. If Ted Kennedy swoops down as the "savior" of Obama, not only will the Kennedy name be revered by the next generation of Democrats, but he'll go down in history as the man who changed the party forever. He'll be the man who laid the hammer to the Clinton dynasty single handedly, crushed it, and assured that the name "Kennedy" will always usurp the name "Clinton".

But can he do it? This is going to end one of two ways: either Ted Kennedy will show Democrats that he is still relevant and is the true leader of the party, or he'll flame out on the campaign trail in embarrassment. He's drawn his line in the sand and it's going to be fascinating to see what happens in the next 10 days. Can the Kennedy name once again impact democratic politics? I think there is a lot riding on the line here. None of which I've heard anybody talk about.

Even more fascinating, can Ted Kennedy convince Al Gore to join the party? Whereas Kennedy has more of an impact on Obama's perception and gives him some "inside Washington" support, only Al Gore can have the sort of impact that would really make a ton of voters re-evaluate Hillary Clinton before Super Tuesday. Remember, there is a huge amount of democrats that were actively calling for Gore to get into the race. Everything he touches right now turns to gold. And he's got an incentive: Gore could potentially play kingmaker and crush his old boss at the same time.

Obama has got to get that endorsement. Preferably on Tuesday, so as to completely overshadow Hillary's underhanded sneak attack in Florida by making a speech, thus putting pressure on Howard Dean to seat Florida at the convention (which is another reason the Clinton's are pissing off the establishment at the moment, and Dean in particular).

p.s. rumors are swirling that Obama might open a campaign office in Omaha and Lincoln for the Feb. 9th caucuses. If so, I'll probably be knocking on your door telling you to vote for the future :)

Barack needs a xenomorph to visit Hillary

So I saw Ridley Scott's Alien on the big screen this past tuesday. It was great. Nothing like seeing the famous chestburster screen in a theatre full of people. Next up on my list of free movies this semester is Mad Max, Blade Runner, and Robocop among others. What I absolutely can't wait for is The Thing. That film is part of my Holy Trinity as far as movies are concerned (the others being BTiLC, and Halloween) so to see it in a theatre is hugely exciting for me. According to my mother, she took me to it when I was 6 months old. Unfortunately, I don't remember any of that experience :)

Obama is dropping in the polls in South Carolina, which leads me to think that Bill Clinton is single handedly beating him in this race. You know what the interesting thing is? Before Bill got personally involved in the way he is now, Hillary lost to Obama straight up. It was only when Bill Clinton started being the attack dog for his wife that Obama started losing. One South Carolina poll showed Obama's support amongst white's down to 10%. Unbelievable. It's ironic that John Edwards is actually keeping him afloat in South Carolina by splitting the white vote with Hillary when he's hurt him in Nevada and New Hampshire. Obama's support is coming almost solely from blacks in SC. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes another New Hampshire scenario: a voting bloc that tells pollsters one thing (I'm voting Obama), and then votes Bill Clinton when they get to the voting booth. I'm sitting back and watching all of this with a big blank stare on my face. Bill Clinton has decided to run for president again and Obama really can't do anything to stop it. He's got to hope that something dramatic changes the dynamic, because he's toast. I'm beginning to think he won't even win South Carolina now.

New York is destroyed tonight

In a few hours I'll be watching a giant monster destroy New York. At least, that's what I hope to see. Hopefully the hand held nature of the film will allow for some real glimpses of the monster and not some "blink and you'll miss it" crap. A lot of people are saying Cloverfield is good and a lot of people are saying it's hollow disposable garbage. I'll find out tonight which camp I fall into.

Because I'm watching Cloverfield tonight, I'm going to miss the Democratic debate. In any event, below is the video that everybody is calling a "historic" speech by Barack Obama (it seems that that label is thrown around with him quite often, actually). I question the "historic" tag of it, but it goes to what I've always said that he's such a better speaker with a prepared speech in front of him. Whether you agree with what he says or not (Jeff, I can see your eyes rolling at the Scooter Libby Justice comment :) ), what can't be argued is that he does have a really magnetic and powerful presence when he speaks. I do find it great that he doesn't just pimp the black community (poor choice of words, sorry), but also tells them that the black community has been just as intolerant of King's vision as white's. C'mon South Carolina, don't bow to the Clintons: Vote Obama.

P.S. I won "Backloader of the Year" at Gallup's awards ceremony. I'll let your imagination try to figure out what that one means :)

There is no truth....or snow....

Orangutan Island is kickass. The show follows a group of orphaned Orangutan's that have been saved and put together in close proximity with each other on a small island to coexist. The show is just fascinating. These animals are solitary by nature but put them together and they start using tools, helping each other, and testing their human constraints. In one episode, a group of Orangutan's from a neighboring island not only tested the electric fence, but started dismantling it when they found it unexpectedly shut off. I can't believe their are dickheads that go around killing them. Anyways, it's a good show and I recommend taking a look.

The professor of my Christians and Pagans class is bizarre. Just bizarre. He explained to everyone in class today how to prove that snow falling from the sky is just an illusion (objects can't move an infinite distance in a finite amount of space), how red is actually green and vice versa, and that there is no such thing as truth. Every fundamental institution and way of thinking is apparently not real at all. We're trying to wrap our heads around Cicero's "on academic scepticism" and it's mind-numbing. Seriously, try reading this. It'll give you a migraine. Luckily, my friend Jeff is in the class with me, so at least I have somebody to bitch to :)

My african-americans in film class is very interesting. Especially since one of the requirements is that we do a visual presentation of some kind for our final (i.e. a video). Luckily, one of my friends from past film classes is in it as well. I'm thinking about trying to convince him to make a blaxploitation film with me :)

My other english class started out like shit. I thought it was going to be terrible. Then we read Rip Van Winkle and had a fun class discussion about it and I was like "Okay, this might not be so bad". Then I found out that for the next two weeks we're going to be reading gothic horror/supernatural stories from the 1800's. Wow! I'm looking forward to that. Science in the Classical World is my "easy" class at the moment. I don't foresee any difficulty in that one.

Tomorrow night I'm going to a big awards forum at the State Theatre for my job. I've been hearing murmurs that I may be receiving something. I hope that's not the case. In any event, they are catering some place called The Green Gateau. Anybody ever eaten there?

Go Barack Obama! I have a feeling this caucus won't be close, but I'll cross my fingers. Hopefully when the awards thingy gets over a 9, I'll come home to a victory. I'm decidedly pessimistic about it though.

Hillary's anti-democrat shenanigans...

Well, the 800 pound gorilla in the room has finally begun to throw its weight around: race is now an issue in the Democratic primary. Make no mistake about it, this was all the Clinton campaign's doing and as a democratic voter, I am seething with loathing for Hillary. Everybody in their right mind can see as clear as day that when Obama talked about Martin Luther King in his speeches, it was in the context of dreaming for bigger and better things, not in a "Clinton hates black people" kind of way. Of course, the sad reality of the world we live in is that race is still a huge issue in this country. Hillary's people are smart, and they want to exploit that issue to their advantage.

By doing so, Hillary is pushing all her chips into the middle and daring Obama to do the same. The underreported storyline throughout all of this is that Hillary Clinton has no more opportunities to be president after this election. Let's assume that whoever wins stays 8 years, which both Bill Clinton and George Bush did. Hillary would be 68 years old by the time her next opportunity came around. I don't mean to be sexist, but voters aren't going to elect an old woman to be president. Therefore, Hillary has to do everything she possibly can to knock off Obama. The problem though, is that she is alienating democrats everywhere. I've already gone on record as saying I would not vote for her in the general election if she wins the nomination. Now I feel like joining democrats in trying to prevent her from getting into the white house. I can only speak for myself in this, but Hillary's recent tactics have been so low and unseemly that I would contemplate voting for the Republican just out of spite. I can only assume that many democrats around the country feel the same way.

As we were talking a bit about on Dead Politics 4, there is a huge change going on in both parties right now. Democrats are flocking to Obama in a way that hasn't been seen in a long, long time. Whether enough go to him to overtake Hillary is unclear, but my generation of Democrats have clearly seen the light, and that light is not the wife of an ex-president. Hillary's actions are what is causing this divide. There is an unwritten rule in Democratic primaries that our candidates are supposed to be "above" the political attacks that characterize the Republican side of things. You don't tear down another person in your own party purely for political gain. You don't bring up divisive issues of past admited drug use, or worse, race in an attempt to win. The Democrats are supposed to be the party that showcases the fact that race belongs in the past, not drudging it up in an effort to enflame racial tensions. What Hillary and Bill have been doing absolutely disgusts me as a proud democrat.

So the question now becomes: Can Obama transcend the race issue? Race is the ugly topic below the surface of America that nobody wants to talk about. There are deep seeded anti-black roots that are all over this country, not just in the south. Hillary bringing up race is obviously a southern strategy to get every state except South Carolina. Personally, I think Obama can do it, but he needs some help. He needs Colin Powell, one of the most respected black men in the country and who hinted at an endorsement but backed away, to actually step up to the plate and endorse him. He also needs, as I've been saying over and over, the endorsement of Al Gore. Those two are probably the most liked and respected people, arguably, in their parties and a major news event, particularly with Powell, would change the dynamic of the race. I don't know if it's going to happen, but I'm not sure that Obama has a viable counterattack to Hillary. Idealistic speeches can't overcome centuries old racist undertones. He needs to have some big name, respected politicians come out and say "This is bullshit, what Hillary is doing. We won't support her because she is pissing on what the democratic party is supposed to stand for".

Perhaps Obama has some magic up his sleeve and maybe Karma will come back to bitch slap Hillary across the face.

p.s. I will be donating to the Obama campaign this evening because I feel strongly that this is the guy to make things happen. I also feel that by contributing a small sum, I'm at least making the effort to give a big middle finger to Hillary. I hope my contribution is put to good use.

"Change" and looking forward hypothetically...

Hillary Clinton has always fallen back on the notion that, nationally, she is way ahead of Obama. That was always the silver lining. Losing Iowa and/or New Hampshire would suck, but in the end, the national support would win her the big delegate states. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Stories today have been littered with Hillary's so called "demise". I, for one, am not willing to just concede Obama's inevitability. After all, Hillary was inevitable 2 months ago, and as we all can see, politics can turn on a dime. You never really know what's going to happen in the future. It could be just as possible that Obama does something stupid, or Hillary's rumored "dirt" has a big impact, or world events shift the electorate's priorities. In other words, Obama supporters can't just assume the nomination is theirs.

But this is the first time that national poll numbers are showing Hillary sinking and sinking fast. Which seems to tell me that the "Obama Wave" that the press seems so enamored by (Tom Brokaw said he hasn't seen anything like it since the days of Kennedy) is happening nation wide. The sheer immenseness of the Democratic electorate flocking AWAY from Hillary tells me that, her support was never that strong to begin with. Democrats are, at their heart, idealists. We want big things, big changes, and bigger than life politicians we can feel have our best interests at heart. But I think this is the first time, in my lifetime at least, that there is a Democrat with the resources to compete with the "establishment" candidate. Let's not forget that Obama, even when way far behind in the polls this past summer, raised just about as much money as Hillary. Even back then, signs were pointing to the fact that Democrats wanted "change".

What is this "change"? Everybody is jumping on the "change" bandwagon, donkey and elephant alike. Hillary is struggling desperately to tell voters that she is change. Mitt Romney has evoked Obama by telling Republicans that he is the only change candidate on their side, thus the only one who could beat Obama in the general election. Likewise, Huckabee and Edwards are chanting the mantra of "change, change, CHANGE". Let's not forget, that Obama and Edwards were, from the very beginning, the only candidates who offered this slogan. Obama's success has come not from just preaching "change", but from incorporating "hope" into his speeches. Obama has a way of making people believe that better days are just around the corner. That there truly can be an end to the horribly polarizing divisiveness of our country. He brings that across far better and more emotionally evocative than any other candidate. Now, whether or not he can deliver on that message is a different debate. But in the minds of Democrats across the country (and independents, and Republicans), that message is resonating in a way that has even the most hardened political pundits and insiders shaking their heads in disbelief.

Obama, by all accounts, is supposed to cruise to victory tomorrow. Gallup has him winning by 13%. I think it will be a lot closer than that, but who knows? There are two important things to look at tomorrow if he wins.

1) Did he win the Democratic vote? The common thinking is that Obama will overrun Hillary because of the large numbers of independent voters in New Hampshire. That could happen, but if he doesn't win the registered democrats, expect Hillary to go on the attack immediately. She'll frame it in a way that tells the upcoming states that don't allow independents to vote "Don't let outsiders determine our party nominee". That's a solid base rallying cry and it will may even enflare the paranoia and conspiracy theories that Republicans are "infiltrating" the democratic primaries in order to affect the outcome they want. Of course, Obama will counter that one of the entire points of his candidacy is that he can bring independents and republicans into the democratic ranks. But if he wins amongst registered democrats (he won 32-31 in Iowa), Hillary won't be able to use that as a line of attack.

2) Can he replicate the youth and 1st time voter turnout of Iowa? I think this will be the most important thing to look for tomorrow. Obama's candidacy is predicated on the notion that he can DELIVER new voters to the party and finally accomplish the democratic "holy grail": bring young Asses to the voting booth. The amazing thing about Iowa is that he did it. Now comes the real test: can he replicate it? If the polls show tomorrow night that more record turnout among youth and first time voters skew heavily in favor of Obama, then Hillary is toast. Why? Because no matter how strong her base may be in New York or Florida...it won't be enough when Obama's youth support come out in droves to offset Hillary's 65 year old grandmother's. Young voters are also far more forgiving. If Obama does have a screw up that the media magnifies, it will matter a lot less to a 25 year old kid with an iPhone than it would to an older voter. At the very least, the young voters would keep Obama competitive in the later states. However, if Obama does not duplicate his success in Iowa, then Hillary is certain to jump on the fact that Iowa was a mere aberration and that he only won New Hampshire because of the independent vote, and things will change as soon as they get to the closed democratic primaries.

Will an Obama victory tomorrow end the Clinton candidacy like some pundits are predicting? Probably not. There are rumors that Hillary doesn't have much money, but I don't put much stock in those. Hillary supporters can raise just as much money in a crunch as Obama supporters, probably moreso. What I think is troublesome for Hillary is that she's going to have to do a Rudy Giuliani, only focus on Feb. 5th, strategy. There's been a lot of talk about the delegate count. Hillary currently holds a commanding lead in "superdelegates" and that if she can pull out New York, California, and Florida, it won't matter if Obama runs the table. Looking at the numbers, this is actually a somewhat apocalyptic scenario (Hillary will automatically win Michigan since Obama ain't on the ballot). If Hillary does rely on her establishment buddies to secure her an insurmountable delegate count, that will have terrible consequences for the Democratic party.

If Obama is running through states with an overwhelming grassroots support and bringing new voters into the party, and Hillary tries some strange, seemingly underhanded tactic to win (putting aside that it is a perfectly sound strategy well within party rules) by calling in all her congressional and senate favors to throw their support her way even in the face of a huge movement against her...the party will disintegrate and she will have no chance in hell of winning the nomination in November. Obama supporters are nothing if not insanely passionate about the guy and if Hillary is perceived to be doing it more for the Clintons and not the party, there will be a rebellion against her by democrats in the general election. If this nomination process gets to that point (which I don't think it will, but I don't put anything past Hillary Clinton; I'm just talking hypothetically right now) you will see a nightmare scenario where the party fractures and it would probably kill any chance for the Democrats to ever get the youth out in huge numbers. You don't invest this much and then watch a politician sneakily come in the back door for the nomination, even if it is perfectly legit to do.

Wow, this went really long. These are just some of my observations about what may or may not happen. Believe me, I'm definitely stoked beyond belief that Obama has done as well as he has. It's sort of a validation for me on a personal level since I've been singing his praises for the past 4 years. But I'm also realistic and I know this could change at any moment. He very well could lose tomorrow in an upset and then the entire dynamic is changed.

But for now, I'm going to revel in Hillary's misery :)

It's ON bitches!

Ha! Obama completely blew away expectations tonight in a historic vote, crushing Hillary by 9 points in Iowa.

Not only did Hillary lose, but she got 3rd place! On top of that, Obama actually got the much maligned "youth vote" to actually get out and vote! Over 50% of his support was from people under 30. That is amazing. He also beat Clinton in the female vote. It was pretty much the worst case scenario for Hillary in every respect.

Here's hoping those New Hampshire independents see the light and forgo voting for John McCain (the only Republican I think could beat Obama or Hillary, for that matter) to back Obama. A McCain loss, and another Obama decisive victory will put major pressure on Clinton.

By the way, the much maligned Des Moines Register poll that was released this week that showed Obama up by 7% on Hillary, completely opposite to what all the other polls were saying...was actually the most accurate of them all. They predicted a huge independent voter turnout (though not as big as they expected), and showed Hillary up 1% on Edwards. The final vote showed Edwards up less than 1% on Clinton. Remarkably accurate for the second caucus in a row.

Gallup didn't do an Iowa poll, but they are doing a major New Hampshire poll this weekend that is supposedly going to be all over the news come Monday. We're actually staying open later on saturday and sunday to do it.

Oh happy night!

It's now or never....i think?

Well, this seems to be "it". The general consensus amongst the pundits is that if Obama wins the caucuses tomorrow night, it will catapult him to the nomination. If he doesn't, then we're stuck with Hillary as our nominee. It seems that every single poll has a different leader and other than the Des Moines Register poll, which shows Obama way ahead, every one is within the margin of error. On a pure fan of politics level, this is incredibly fascinating and exciting. It's literally a toss up. I was watching Hardball earlier tonight and Chris Matthews said he hasn't seen anything like this since Kennedy-Nixon. Usually in the last week, someone pulls ahead. Not so this year. Even on the Republican side it's too close to call. I'm going to go out on a limb and say John Edwards won't get nearly as much support as everyone seems to be saying he will. In fact, I think he'll finish at least 5 points behind the winner.

Tucker Carlson had an interesting point of view earlier tonight. When talking to some campaign manager, he said he thought the entire caucus process was undemocratic. By its very nature, the caucus excludes people. Soldiers overseas, people who work night shifts, single parents who can't leave their kids to caucus for 2 hours at night, etc. Carlson's argument stems from the fact that people just can't get out and vote like they can in a primary. It takes time to caucus. You've got to rearrange stuff in your life. It's not a secret ballot. You have to get in front of people and argue for what you believe in. Because it is so "difficult", you end up with a small amount of people who make the decisions for everyone.

Now, I can see Carlson's point. However, I think it brings up an interesting argument to the bigger debate of whether or not there should be a "test" in order to vote. I've said in the past that I believe everyone should be able to vote. However, I do believe that people should be able to answer some basic questions. As of now, I'd be for a weighted voted system: everyone gets to vote, but their vote isn't worth as much if you don't know what the hell you're voting for. Come to think of it, that's definitely another area in which I'm not "Leftist". I don't know a single liberal who would even consider a "test" to vote :)

Anyways, my point is that I think a caucus is sort of a "test" in a sense. The people who caucus are far more knowledgeable than the average primary voter who just drops their ballot in a box and leaves. Caucus goers have to interact with the presidential nominees. They have to actually get in front of their friends and neighbors and argue why their nominee is the right nominee. Isn't this a more democratic way of doing things? I'm not quite sure. It would be a good topic to talk about on the Dead Politics podcast. Obviously, one argument against this would be "well, that Iowa soldier in Iraq might really want to participate but can't for obvious reasons". Of course, there's plenty of people in primaries who have stuff come up as well. I don't know, it's an interesting thing to talk about.

One thing's for sure, I'm gonna have my popcorn out tomorrow night :)

I'm watching Leno and he's knocking stuff out of the ballpark. The Tonight Show and Conan are hamstrung by the writer's strike, whereas Letterman has struck a deal with them, so Leno and O'Brian are relying on themselves to do jokes and come up with bits. I have to say, Leno did a fair job. I can't wait to see what O'Brian does.

Sweeney Obama Cheaters

Sweeney Todd has been getting rave reviews and I'm getting anxious to go see it. I absolutely love the broadway version with Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. It's great and has hilarious tunes. I'm not a big fan of Tim Burton, but this flick looks really nice. I also like the fact that Hans Gruber has been getting so many big roles lately. Dude has the perfect villian voice. He looks a bit too much like an Trent Reznor as an old man in the Harry Potter movies though...

A kind old woman quizzed Obama on his Islam ties today. Even when he explained, she still felt the need to verify that he was a Christian by making him define what a Christian is. This exchange shows that Clinton's goon squad's tactics are working. Planting the question of Muslim in voters' minds doesn't work as well with younger people, but it DOES work great with older voters who tend to be far more prejudiced towards those sorts of things. In other words: The voting bloc Hillary is depending on. If Obama cracks the older vote, then he's won Iowa.

It's going to take a miracle for Florida State to win its bowl game against Kentucky. 36 players aren't going to be playing, most of those because of an academic cheating scandal. What an utter embarrassment. I mean, it would be one thing if these players were cheating and WINNING, but sucking and cheating together stings all the more. And it's not like this shit doesn't happen all over the country. Alyssa had a class a couple years back where the professor let the football players take the same test after the rest of the class take it (thus knowing every question on it) as a matter of POLICY. Which probably explains why there were dozens of football players in that class. Unfortunately for Florida State, they've had, shall we say, a shady reputation of past problems, so they're always going to be under the microscope. I wouldn't suspend these dipshits. I'd gank their scholarships.

It's over

The semester is finally over! I had to drag my ass out of bed to do my philosophy final at 8 this morning. Is there anything worse than trying to write an essay on the nature of the meaning of "Is" in artistic identification? Bill Clinton has a famous quote saying "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" in regards to the Lewinsky affair. The context obscures the fact that there is a difference in how 'is' is used (I used too many is' in that sentence).

There is an "is" of identity. "Cicero is Tully" is an example of this. The names refer to the same person. Tully is Cicero and vice versa. On the other hand, there's an "is" of predication such as "Grass is Green". The 'is' refers not to something that is the same (Green is not the same thing as Grass), but the state of something. I mention this because a famous 20th century art critic named Danto claimed there is a third type of 'is' involved in artistic identification. The theory goes that you must have an intrinsic knowledge of the history that goes into art in order to be able to recognize something as art.

The example Danto uses is an imaginary person named Testadura. Testadura looks at, say, Warhol's Brillo boxes and says "That's not art. Why is a recreation of a Brillo box so great? I could do that". Testadura represents someone who just "doesn't get it". Another example would be a Jackson Pollack painting where the paint is just randomly put all over the canvas. Is that art? Testadura would say no because a chimpanzee could do the same thing. However, Danto argues that there is an artistic identification that Testadura just does not have. He doesn't understand the evolution of art, the history of technique, application, and dynamic. Warhol's Brillo boxes would not have been art 50 years before, yet they are now precisely because the artist can see how things have evolved. In other words, Testadura is just ignorant to the fact that there is something more to art than just what we see with our own eyes. Danto argues that there is more to it than that and only certain people have access to the trait of artistic identification. Anyways, I had to write about that. Now I'm finished. Yay.

Christmas is coming up soon. Alyssa is gone all weekend visiting her grandparents in western Nebraska, so I've got the apartment to myself. I think I'm going to do some cleaning. Every once in a while I get in this mood to just clean everything like I'm possessed. Other than that, I plan on watching some movies. Stupid ass Netflix sent me an e-mail saying that three movies are being shipped from the east and west coast. I mailed these back on wednesday, so instead of having movies to watch this weekend from my local Omaha distributor, the bastards won't get me my movies until next week AFTER Christmas. I hate Netflix!

Gallup is showing Obama tied with Clinton in New Hampshire. I still think Hillary will pull out the nomination because I think most undecided people are ultimately going to go with the person they "know" rather than someone new to the scene, regardless as to whether or not Hillary would be good. That's sad, but probably the truth of it. As I've always said, this experience and exposure in the primaries will only help Obama in a future presidential run if he falls to Hillary. Still, I hope Santa brings a victory :)

The Toll of a Campaign?

Ah yes. The famous Drudge "Unflattering photo". The photo of Hillary has been on the top of Drudge's page all night. No link accompanying it. Just this bad picture with the headline "The Toll of a Campaign". What is the point of this, exactly? Nothing more than to take a pot shot at Hillary Clinton. Openly mocking the way she looks to the millions of visitors to the site who will no doubt see this pic and laugh. Is this news worthy? Nope. In fact, I'm pretty sure that you could find just as many pictures of all the candidates looking tired and worn out right about now.

Is there an agenda behind this picture? Probably. Drudge is part of the anti-Hillary conservative psychosis who seem strangely obsessed with bringing her down. Don't get me wrong, I don't care for Hillary, and by comparison, Obama has been getting nothing but positive stories on the site, but this is just a little tacky, don't you think? Drudge, Rush, Hannity and the club would like nothing more than to see Hillary beaten in the primaries. That would officially end the "Clinton Era" of Democratic politics. Considering the fact that Hillary has recently gotten some momentum back because of the Des Moines Register endorsement, it's not surprising certain interests are trying to make her look stupid again. After all, the conservatives want Obama to win and it looks like they'll do whatever it takes to help him climb that extra mile. If they can take out a Clinton in the process, that will make it all the more sweet. Perhaps they should focus their attention on the wackjob they have leading their own primaries because even Hillary would crush him in the general election.

I Am Legend sucked ass. Terrible CGI monsters. Terrible ending. Terrible just about everything except for the shots of a desolate New York. After the movie got out, my girlfriend and I couldn't stop talking about all the stupid shit that this supposedly "genius" guy did. The religious element brought in out of the blue in the last 20 minutes of the film didn't work at all and I'm still wondering why the hell Will Smith didn't get in the wall opening with the other two. Pull the pin, throw the grenade, jump inside, shut the door. Nobody in his position would do what he did. Stupid.

What also sucked is that they didn't show the trailer for The Dark Knight before our print of I Am Legend. Instead, we got 10,000 B.C. , which I'm predicting is going to fail horribly. It looks like Apocalypto, only with wooly mammoths. By the way, what the hell is up with all the atrocious CGI in movies lately? The Mist suffered from the same poor CG. Here's an idea...it might be sort of radical, but hear me out: use practical, real fx work. I seem to remember it working pretty well The Thing. I know, I know, it's cheaper and easier to chug out some shitty CG monster in a fast amount of time, but you lose so much with unrealistic fx. If you're dead set on CG, then you have to spend the time doing it right, perfecting it so as not to draw attention to its own fakeness. Give me a Tom Savini, a Rick Baker, or a Rob Bottin over ILM any day.

Gender and Communication final today, World Politics on Tuesday, and Philosophy on Friday.

I Am Kickass?

I've been anticipating seeing "I Am Legend" all year long. I love the story, I love the the Vincent Price version "Last Man on Earth", and I love post-apocalyptic stuff.

Checking Rotten Tomatoes, it's currently right below a fresh rating at 59%

The general consensus seems to be "Will Smith is awesome, the CGI is god-awful, and the ending is sappy". As I was walking home from work tonight, I passed by a stream of people who were getting out of a showing and all these guys were like "That movie was fucking sad!". Everybody was chatting about it like it was cool, so I've got high hopes that this is one of those films that kicks ass but the critics are too proud to rate highly, for fear of looking like they enjoy a big budget Hollywood flick. I think I might be going to this with Alyssa tomorrow night after work if it isn't snowing badly.

Speaking of work, I heard a bunch of people around me doing USA Today surveys and asking questions about the presidential elections. I'm not sure if this is just a general nation wide survey, or if Gallup has started individual states yet, but soon I should have a better idea as to where Obama actually stands. One of the latest in state Iowa polls shows Obama with a commanding 9 point lead over Hillary. That seems a little overly optimistic. Still, he's gotten nothing but great press since Oprah and Hillary has looked like a shrill, vindictive bitch the past week or so. If you want to see a campaign in absolute desperation mode, you have to watch Hillary's campaign strategist try and weasel his way out of the negative publicity in this video. Mark Penn wobbles back and forth and actually uses the "Cocaine" word when denying Shaheen's attack (Shaheen himself didn't even say cocaine when talking about Obama's past drug use). Keep your eye on Joe Trippi who looks at Penn in utter disgust.

Mark Penn: sleazeball.

There's some news out that the Halloween 6 producer's cut may finally be coming out on DVD in the future. I hope so. I've always wanted to see it.


Dog Soldiers miraculously showed up in my mailbox this afternoon (along with Hollywood Gothic by David Skal) and I watched it with some Subway and Doritos. I had seen this, gosh, probably 5 years ago, but didn't really remember much of it. I think I was distracted at the time. Anyway, watching it again, I liked it more than I thought I did. I was pleasantly surprised to see Kevin McKidd in the lead role. He's one of my favorite actors going right now (still mad I missed Journeyman this year). There's just something missing in this film for me. It's got so many great elements that I like, but I can't shake the feeling that it doesn't all come together like it should. Some of the editing is bad and the werewolves seemed to be under-utilized to their full potential. Still, I like it, just not enough to give it a glowing review.

B-

Woo hoo! School's almost out!

Oh happy day! Writing papers doesn't bother me...except when they have to be 15-20 pages long. I've got 3 finals next week and then the semester will be over. On sucky thing is that my last final is next friday at 8 in the morning. I'm so close to finishing school I can taste it!

Hillary Clinton apologized to Barack Obama earlier today for her drug story hit job on him. Anybody that follows politics in any meaningful way, even superficially, doesn't believe that she had no idea this was going to happen. I've said before that I used to think the portrayal of her as some great evil were overblown, but I'm really beginning to despise this woman. I think I'm starting to understand why so many conservatives hate this woman. Regardless of whether or not you support Obama's views, I don't think anyone can honestly say the guy is some conniving force of evil. In the unfortunate event that Hillary is elected in the primaries, I'll be writing in Obama as my selection next November. As for that picture....don't they say the Sith always come in pairs?

:)

I was supposed to get Dog Soldiers from Netflix last week. It still hasn't arrived. I've reported it, but that's one less Christmas horror film that I'll get to watch this weekend. I think I might head to Audio Visual this weekend to see if they have the Silent Night, Deadly Night collection on VHS. 5 for $5 is where it's at

There's been a interest in my idea for Super Smash Casters. The idea is that all the different horror podcasts will play Smash Bros. Brawl each week and trash talk the hell out of/promote each other each week. I think this could be great with the proper planning. Looking forward to it.

I was doing some investigation into illegal immigration with my professor and came to an interesting "bigger picture" point. Most people know that European populations are declining due to lower birth rates. The long term effects of this are devastating as the population grows older and there are less working age people. But did you know, the same thing is happening to the population here in the U.S.? Our country is essentially "break even" in terms of birth/death rates. Ironically, the U.S. is not having the same problem as the European countries. Why? Because immigrants both legal and illegal are replacing the affected population. Therefore, in a bigger picture future scenario, the U.S. will hypothetically be less affected by a power reduction precisely because illegal immigration is continually renewing a working class population. Weird, huh?

I have no idea if this is true or not, but just goes to show, the government is everywhere :)

Crunch time

I've got 7 days to write 4 papers. 3 of which need to be about 8 pages, the other needs to be 15-20. This is going to be the suckiest week I've had in a long, long time. On the brightside, I think I aced two more exams this afternoon and had a fun time reading to my Gender and Communication class the sex tips offered by Seventeen magazine, which included telling a girl what an orgasm was. In case you're wondering, Seventeen magazine claimed an orgasm was "Like a sneeze, only it feels great!"

A couple polls that came out have shocked some people. In one, Obama is essentially tied with Clinton in South Carolina, and the other shows him within 6 points of Hillary in New Hampshire. People are wondering why he isn't attacking the crap out of Hillary, but his message seems to be catching fire. Is it too little, too late? We'll see, but it's ads like this that bring people to his cause, I think. It's kind of weird to see a non-attack ad in a race this close.



Kudos to the person who put this together. They hit up that swelling orchestral score for max "goosebump" points. It reminds me of his big speech at the DNC a few years back that put him "on the map". I've already heard accusations of "cheese!" in regards to the ad, but at least it's positive while still taking a high road swipe at Hillary in the process, which is always a good thing :)

Find out what all the hype is about at BarackObama.com

Braving the cold for a Nintendo Wii

Batman Begins was fantastic. Arguably, the best part of it was the last scene where Commissioner Gordon gives Batman the joker card, thus tantalizing us for the inevitable kickass sequel. Heath Ledger was cast as Joker, much to the chagrin of many people? Clear pics are finally coming out and I've gotta say, Ledger looks pretty great as the Joker. There's a real sense of menace or something here. Not like Nicholson, who played it as over-the-top as only Nicholson can do. But the problem with Nicholson was that he never seemed psycho enough. I suppose that fits with Burton's world, but now that Nolan is doing a more "realistic" Batman world, I have a feeling that the Joker is going to be one scary mofo. Good to see he's still rockin' the purple, as well.

Tomorrow morning, I'm heading off with my mom to stand in front of Toys R' Us at 6 a.m. in hopes of getting a Wii. I decided to tag along for moral support. She's picking one up for my step-sister and her husband, and I figured I'd be a good son and hang with her. Then I figured "Geez, I should just buy one myself and sell it on eBay". So that's what I'm going to do if I can get my hands on one. Supposedly, Toys R' Us is getting 21 Wii's in tomorrow morning and if I can, I might as well pick one up for my misery standing in the cold and sell it for a nice profit. Yay capitalism! :)

Frank Rich has an interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about how Obama could be the Republicans' worst nightmare if he gets the Dem nomination. My pal Jeff seems to have this same view as he was trying to convince me that Obama would fare much better in the general election than Hillary. I'm still not completely sold on that line of thinking. It's one thing to have all these nice predictions a year ahead of time, but for the vast majority of Americans, they still have no idea who Barack Obama is. Most Americans wake up and start paying attention to the election when there are only two choices left, Democatic and Repbulican, and then it's a whole new ball game.

Nevertheless, all these glowing Op-Ed pieces are popping up because Hillary is dropping in the polls. The latest Crapmussen is showing her lead in the single digits in New Hampshire. These daily polls are fun to digest on a superficial level, but wake me when Gallup starts polling in these states. I'm still ecstatically restrained, but could the snowball be getting bigger and could it be rolling faster?

Next week is going to be insane. I've got to write 3 long papers and 1 extremely long paper (15-20 pages). Then I've got to finish the Outpost Doom script. I've got a lot of damn writing to do in the next couple weeks.

"So you're saying there's a chance....."

Obama supporters are all aflutter. First it was the news that a recent poll showed him winning in Iowa. Now it's a New Hampshire poll showing Hillary dropping by 7% (though she still holds a big lead).

Working in the polling business, I know that one can't get overly excited by these numbers. One-shot polls are great for the weekly news cycle, but you need to string together sustained weeks to create a trend one can feel confident about.

Still, this is great news for Obama supporters. If nothing else, it will galvanize them to feel that their support is actually having some effect. The more positive exposure these polls bring Obama, the more voters will take a closer look. There's quite a big difference between Hillary and Barack. If Hillary become the nominee, I might just take the next election off. I used to think she wasn't the evil incarnate that Republicans made her out to be. I still don't believe that, but I don't trust that woman at all. My gut tells me that if Hillary is elected, nothing is going to change. For better or worse, at least with Obama, I get the feeling that this is a pretty good guy who really wants to change how things operate. He's a fresh, positive alternative to Hillary. For example, Hillary wants to mandate health care to all Americans, forcing everyone to buy it, whereas Obama wants to require it for children, but not mandate it for adults. The idea is that if you get employers to pay more, then more people will be willing to voluntarily get health care if it's cheaper. That's a sensible solution, in my opinion.

Obama can exploit the health care debate to his advantage. I think most people don't really understand the difference between their plans. Obama needs to take a page out of the Republican Handbook and hammer home the fact that Hillary wants to FORCIBLY REQUIRE YOU TO BUY HEALTH INSURANCE (Edwards wants to do the same, populist poseur that he is). I'm probably at odds with most liberals on this issue. I believe in "Universal Healthcare" if the definition is you have the OPTION to buy into it. It should be a public good, but nobody should be forced to HAVE to have it. It's a complicated issue, but one I think Obama can really stick Hillary with.

You know what the really sad thing about all of this is? Why the hell are there so many John Edwards supporters? I mean, he's basically taking the same "I'm not the establishment guy" shtick that Obama is, but he's so obviously a weasel. Edwards is getting 22% in Iowa. Imagine if his supporters woke up and joined Obama.

Hillary would be pissing her pantsuit with Fear! :)

Still, I'm ecstatically restrained at the moment. When Gallup starts doing surveys in Iowa and New Hampshire later this year, and the results are similar, then I'll start doing the cartwheels. Until then, Obama needs to take this new exposure and use it to slam Hillary into the ground.

Interesting paragraph from the NYT article: His aides also circulated an article in which Mrs. Clinton was quoted as saying that she had not yet proposed any punitive measures for people who do not get health insurance. An aide to her said that a Clinton White House would work with Congress to create an enforcement mechanism.

Enforcement mechanism? WTF is that all about?

"God hates faggots"?

I suppose one of the downsides of going to a public university is that you get extreme religious wackos that feel the need to preach to you about the fires of hell as you walk to class. For the past week or so, there has been a group of Christians standing in front of the Union, yelling out to everybody about how Jesus hates "faggots" and that pretty much the entire college is one giant Satan love orgy. This isn't a new phenomenon, by any means. Christians are constantly out and about on campus, railing against various things. I don't have a problem with that, but I do have a problem when they are walking around holding billboards that say "God Hates Faggots". First of all, doesn't their God love everybody? What disturbs me the most is that there is always a huge contingent of students sitting around listening to their hate speech.

So what I'd really like to do sometime is get a group of people together, dress up like the gods of ancient Greece, and preach right next to them. I'd like to stand right beside one of these douchebags holding a lightning bolt and telling the audience not to piss me off else I'll fry their asses. I'd like a girl to dress up as Aphrodite and preach how awesome sex is and how it's a natural part of life. That would be funny and great all at the same time.

Speaking of annoying Christians (I don't mean to dog on this, but I have yet to have a Muslim come up and annoy the piss out of me), I get off work a couple weeks ago on a friday night. Every weekend, there is a couple Christians who stand on the corner of our downtown theater holding a giant white cross and yelling at people who walk by. The way the walk lights turned out, I just happened to walk right by the guy. Oddly, there weren't that many people out that night so I was the only person on the corner with him...except for two little girls on the opposite side, standing by the light pole. These girls could have been no older than 7 years old. They were a ways away from the lunatic with the cross, and of a completely different ethnicity. I figured they were just waiting for their parents to pick them up from a movie. So I'm standing there, waiting to cross the street and one of the little girls says "Here you go" and hands me a small business card. I didn't really look at it and I said "What is it?". The girls looked at each other and said "Um...it's just an IQ test". The walk light turned and I started across the street. Naturally, I glanced down and it was your typical "Are you going to burn in hell?!" propaganda.

That wasn't what pissed me off. What pissed me off was the fact that not only did this asshole carrying a cross feel the need to invade my personal space by yelling that I was going to burn in hell as I walked by, but he had a couple little girls trying to whore his message to passersby. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure he instructed them to LIE about what it was they were handing people. I seriously wanted to walk back over there, ask the little girls if Jesus loves liars, and then break the cross over that dickhead's face.

As you can tell, I've been pretty angry lately. So angry in fact that I told an annoying little girl to shut the fuck up here at my apartment "complex" who was getting on my last nerves. Argh!

In other, somewhat less angry news (but still unhappy), Hillary Clinton is crushing potential Republican candidate Rudy "9/11!!!" Giuliani in Ohio and Pennsylvania. As of right now, Democrats are way up in Senate races, Governor races, and the Presidential race. It's weird, because much has been made of the low ratings of congress, which the Democrats control, but those low ratings do not seem to be transferring to individual races. It leads one to believe that there is a huge Republican backlash sweeping this country right now. It's almost like voters are in the frame of mind that "we don't give a shit who the opposing candidate is, as long as it's not another Republican". I guess that would also explain why the Democrats in congress aren't really worried about anything even with historically low approval ratings. The Republicans in congress are getting just as bad reviews by the American people. It is quite possible that come next November, the average Republican in America will wake up to see a Democratic President with a fillibuster-proof congress staring them in the face.