Obama in Afghanistan

I've seen some of the photos with the troops. A lot of them actually. No one is saying it overtly, but I can imagine this is not what Obama is wanting in a photo Op. as a matter of fact, it can be said it is somewhat exactly what he's avoided in photo ops over the last year. I expect them to be used in the future in some way.

That unpleasantness aside, the coverage is more akin to a state visit from a president rather than a nominee, which makes all this more bizarre. Nominees generally try VERY hard not to go abroad during Presidential campaigns. I'm not saying its a bad idea, but they don't do it because SOMEBODY thinks its a bad idea. I am concerned that all this adulation will create some backlash...as if the press has anointed him our President/Pope.

Good and Bad...you decide!

OK, you should watch this. It is an interview from a couple of years ago with the President. It was conducted in the UK. it is worth watching just to see the depth here. I'm serious. we'd just found ourselves in a serious position in a serious war. The President is asked some straight questions and you will be shocked by his answers. Sharp as a tack, and completely informed. watch this and tell me if this isn't a President fully engaged in the how/what/why of the serious times he leads us through.

On another note, i found this interesting news footage about yet another American natural disaster.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Worth Reading

Sometimes I think the Harper's Weekly Review is worth reading in its entirety.
--

HARPER'S WEEKLY

Colombian military commandos infiltrated a settlement
operated by the guerilla group FARC and freed 15 hostages,
among them three U.S. contractors and the Colombian-French
politician Ingrid Betancourt. President George W. Bush
called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to congratulate
him. "What a joyous occasion it must be to know that the
plan had worked," said Bush. "That people who were
unjustly held were now free to be with their families." A
federal appeals court ruled that evidence against Hozaifa
Parhat, a Chinese Muslim held at Guantanamo Bay for six
years, consisted of nothing more than the reassertion of
his guilt in three top-secret documents. "Lewis Carroll
notwithstanding," wrote one judge, quoting "The Hunting of
the Snark," "the fact the government has 'said it thrice'
does not make the allegation true." Former inmates of
Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were suing contractors in four
American states for subjecting them to electrical shocks,
mock executions, and forced nudity, and the Iraqi
government announced that the United States had agreed to
strip private security contractors of their legal
immunity, though the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad refused to
confirm the statement. A survey found that Americans
feared terrorist attacks less than at any point since
September 11, 2001, and President Bush removed Nelson
Mandela from the terrorism watchlist. A poll revealed that
a third of Welsh college students believe that a
flirtatious or drunk woman is to blame for being raped,
and a survey of the National Assembly for Wales found that
3 of the 8 legislators who responded had been raped but
had not reported the crime. In Australia, where inflation
is at a 16-year-high, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry left
his post to look after 115 endangered hairy-nosed wombats
for five weeks. "I think," said an opposition politician,
"we all love the hairy-nosed wombat."

Bozo the Clown and Jesse Helms died, and the new waxwork
Hitler at the Berlin Madame Tussauds museum was
beheaded. Fifteen boys were killed and 90 hospitalized in
Eastern Cape, South Africa, due to botched circumcisions,
Ottawa firefighters sprayed children with
E. coli-contaminated water to celebrate Canada Day, and a
Dublin, Ohio, man was arrested again for using Saran Wrap
to collect and drink little boys' urine. Google co-founder
Sergey Brin explained that he had decided to raise his
company's on-site daycare fee to $57,000 a year because he
was tired of employees who felt entitled to free "bottled
water and M&Ms" (although a spokesman denied that he had
said this), and a judge ruled that Google subsidiary
YouTube must provide Viacom, which is suing over copyright
claims, with details of the viewing habits of everyone who
has logged in and watched a video. Psychologist Himanshu
Tyagi claimed that children raised to use online social
networking sites will "put less value on their real world
identities" and may be in danger of "impulsive behavior
or even suicide." British studies warned that eating junk
food during pregnancy might cause lasting damage to the
child, and that eating too much tofu could lead to
dementia. Researchers at Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable
Improvement Center found that watermelons have a
"Viagra-like effect," but a researcher in Oklahama pointed
out that this benefit may be offset by the melon's
diuretic properties.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average officially entered a bear
market. The cost of oil surged, and shares of General
Motors fell to their lowest price since 1954. Speeding
drivers in Holly Springs, Georgia, were paying police a
fuel surcharge to cover the price of their pursuit, a
Kentucky woman was arrested after trading sex for a $100
Speedway gas card, and Nevada brothels were offering
customers "double your stimulus" incentives that included
$100 gas cards. The United Nations brought female
excrement carriers from India to New York City to appear
on the catwalk alongside top models at a fashion show,
crowning one woman the princess of sanitation
workers. "This is the dream coming true of Indian
independence hero Gandhi-ji," said an organizer. An
unemployed former trucking company owner posing as a
federal agent was under investigation after he worked with
local police to search homes and make methamphetamine
arrests in a Missouri town, and a fake priest was caught
trying to take confessions in St. Peter's Basilica. It was
reported that a stone tablet inscribed decades before the
birth of Jesus described a messiah who would come back to
life after three days. "What happens in the New
Testament," said Bible scholar Israel Knohl, "was adopted
by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah
story." The George Washington Foundation unearthed the
founding father's childhood home in Fredericksburg,
Virginia, uncovering slave quarters and a Civil War trench
but no cherry tree. "I don't think we'll ever find the
cherry tree," an archaeologist said. Mercury was
shrinking, and Earth, said scientists who study radio
waves, is shrieking.

-- Chantal Clarke

I'd Be Much More Relaxed...

If I had a nice Eames Chair....or maybe even a dog!

B.I.H. Jesse Helms

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Sen. Jesse Helms, an unyielding champion of the conservative movement who spent three combative and sometimes caustic decades in Congress, where he relished his battles against liberals, Communists and occasionally a fellow Republican, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.

Jessie Helms got his start in North Carolina during the Civil Rights era. He would give his "commentary" for the local station after the national news would air footage civil unrest and oppression. He'd defend what had been put into a 'bad light'. He rode the worst in our national character into decades at the US capitol. He has the legacy of a shameful degenerate and left the world a worse place by his breath and shadow across our soil. My condolences go out to the family carrying his name. God bless America.

...And Another Thing....

This is maybe a little personal for me, but EVERYTIME i hear someone talk about Obama being some smug elite, i want to ask them to name for me that last President (Hell, i'll take a contender!) that was SOOO rich and elite that he had to take out student loans to go to school! I live as part of a generation that spends at LEAST a decade or two paying off the sheep skin that gets us 'through the door" and have a hard time listening to the well off cry and moan about the out-of-touch-snobby-power-elite BLACK guys going to school on STUDENT LOANS! Maybe somone in a past election wanted a President that they would like to have a beer with...I like the idea of one that knows what its like to pay the bills of going to school a decade after the degree is done.

If you EVER Hear Anyone Talking About Obama Being a Flip-Flopper...

Keep this handy little list at the ready! Provided by Steve Benen:

• McCain was against the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was for it.
• McCain was against torture before he was for it. Really for it.
• McCain was against crazy right-wing preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson before he was for them.
• McCain was against Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them.
• McCain was against shady Bush “Pioneer” Texas billionaire swift-boat financiers before he was for them.
• McCain was for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law before he was against it and began breaking it.
• McCain was against Grover Norquist, whom he called “corrupt, a shill for dictators“ before he was for him.
• McCain was against BJU because of its “hateful,” “racist and cruel” policies before he was for it.
• McCain was against ethanol before he was for ethanol and then he was against it again.
• McCain was against a Martin Luther King holiday before he was for it. …

Chris McMillian, My Favorite Bartender in the World

Mr. McMillan used to be the Bartender of the Library Lounge in the Ritz Carlton. Now, I understand he's at the Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel just off Canal St. in New Orleans. He's the sort of bartender that knows more drink recipes than you can name and knows their histories and stories. Many times he's kept the bar open way past closing for me just to chat about drinks or politics (his mother was an old-line union organizer) or the city. Not that I'm anything special, he's just a nice guy. the kind of person you would want to see at a cocktail lounge. watch the video. seeing him work is nothing short of watching someone craft their art.

[More at the link up top]

And the Lord Said, 'Let there be Eames'

I've always admired Eames design and I was lucky enough to have a little brother that FOUND a vintage leather Eames chair in a dumpster!

The Week for You...From Harper's

I like the use of "conquest" to describe the actions of the Iguanas in South Florida.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARPER'S WEEKLY

Oil reached a record $139.89 a barrel. Four Western
companies met with Iraq's Oil Ministry to finalize no-bid
contracts to tap Iraqi oil fields, and the Nigerian
government distributed billions of dollars of windfall to
corrupt state officials. Thirty-five countries and 25 oil
companies met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to try to fix
global oil prices, which have caused strikes, riots, and
inflation around the world. Many OPEC countries blamed
speculators for the price increase, as did some
representatives of oil companies and oil-dependent
industries. United States Energy Secretary Sam Bodman
blamed supply and demand, as did lobbyists for Goldman
Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the International Swaps and
Derivatives Association. Drivers in the Gaza Strip, where
Israel limits fuel supplies and black market gas costs $27
per gallon, used vegetable oil and turpentine as fuel,
producing toxic fumes that result in diarrhea and stomach
pain. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
cancelled four global-warming research expeditions, citing
the cost of fuel. American cowboys could not afford to
drive their horses to rodeos, and those who lived near the
border were filling their tanks in Mexico, where gas is
subsidized. Giant iguanas continued their conquest of
South Florida, surrounding Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commissioner Bob Kanjian at a golf course in Lake
Worth. "I had 25 to 30 iguanas," he said, "staring at me
while I was playing."

Breaking an earlier vow, Senator Barack Obama announced
that he will opt out of the public campaign-finance
system, in order to be able to spend unlimited amounts of
money in the last two months of his presidential campaign,
rather than merely $84 million, the amount to which
Senator John McCain will be limited under public-funding
laws. "It'll be like George Steinbrenner's Yankees in the
90s," Democratic consultant Chris Lehane said of Obama's
campaign, which could spend as much as $500 million,
"against the 90s Kansas City Royals." Al Gore endorsed
Obama, as did Donatella Versace, whose spring-summer 2009
men's line, which includes slim pants with a "slick
techno-fabric sheen," is dedicated to the
candidate. Ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
declined to endorse McCain, who has called him "one of
the worst secretaries of defense in history," and Air
Force veteran, comedian, and self-described "old fuck"
George Carlin died at 71.

Water gushed down the Mississippi from last week's floods
in Iowa and Illinois, overflowing at least 20 levees above
Saint Louis, and the Flood Museum in Fort Madison, Iowa,
remained under water. The federal government warned that
climate change will make rainstorms less frequent but more
intense in years to come. A polar bear named Ofeig ("He
Who Should Not Die"), recently arrived in Iceland after
traveling via ice floe from Greenland, was shot and killed
by the police after he panicked and threatened to attack
some journalists. A left human foot wearing a running shoe
was found in the ocean near Vancouver. Police were
checking to see if it was related to any of four right
human feet found in the area since August. "This might
take a long time," said Sharlene Brooks of the Delta
Police Department. "This is not C.S.I." A forensic
pathologist and an anthropologist studying what appeared
to be a sixth human foot concluded that it was an animal
paw and some seaweed stuffed into a sock. Kermit Scott, a
former philosophy professor who inspired Jim Henson's
puppet Kermit the Frog, died. A sweeping revision of
surveillance law, extending the NSA's domestic wiretapping
program and granting immunity to telecom companies that
have helped them spy on Americans, passed the House and
was expected to pass in the Senate. The bill, explained
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), "abandons the
Constitution's protections and insulates lawless behavior
from legal scrutiny." It was revealed that the Veterans
Affairs Department had tested an anti-smoking drug on
veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder but failed to
warn them that possible side effects included psychotic
behavior and suicide. A bomb in a Kia truck exploded in a
market in Baghdad, killing at least 65 people. "I feel
very tired and sad," said clothing merchant Salam Hashim,
who lost three friends in the attack. "I just want to
smoke."

-- Sam Stark

* * * * * * * * *
NOTICE

EVERY HARPER'S MAGAZINE ever published is now online and
free to all subscribers. Subscribe and gain instant access
at:
https://harpers.org/subscribe/order.php

Just Dreadful

I'm getting pretty sick of my insomnia. I went to bed a little after 3am twice in the last week. those were the "full" night's sleep. every other time was well after 4am. It's 7am now and i'm pretty sure my Sunday is now shot.

great.

Martian Umpire...

...finally starts to clean off home plate!

Mascot/Ump throwdown

We had an additional mascot today at the game today. He was pretty good. We're ahead 1-0 in the 3rd.

Separated at Birth?

For years now, i've thought that Tom Collichio (famous chef and judge on the Top Chef TV show) looks JUST LIKE Baseball hall of famer Cal Ripken Jr.

How Do You Get to ...?

Wow! this was a pretty good version of Superstition by Stevie Wonder...ON SESAME STREET! Check out the kinds in the background totally freaking out.

A Delta Boy Who's Awfully Proud of Himself

I bought a copy of Delta Magazine (about the MS Delta) Saturday. It is pretty much one of those magazines dedicated to cheerleading the region/state/city it's about. I'm not the biggest fan of this type of magazine, but sometimes they can be a great mirror back to the place you live. highlights of wonderful treasures you never knew were right under your nose. I still find myself shocked at the places i've never been (or even heard of!) after living in New Orleans for several years (and living a, let's say, active social life).

So, this issue has a picture of a BBQ sandwich on the cover. It has a GREAT map/guide of stops to make on a trip through the Delta (Hwy 49 or Hwy 61, your pick!). I've been to about 60% of the places and the rest seem like discoveries waiting to be made! now back to the picture. What finally hooked me to buy the magazine was that sandwich. i knew what it was. i knew what was on it. I knew when the restaurant was opened. i even knew the plate. When i saw that sandwich I got a warm feeling and had to buy the magazine.

Now i'm hungry for no good reason.

Don't Knock Over My Paperwork

this is perhaps the most angry i've ever seen someone get at work. as it starts out, you can see the guy in the middle of the screen (accidentally) knocks over the other guys paperwork. he starts to help pick it up, but evidently our man in the cubicle didn't care for his tone.


http://view.break.com/513310 - Watch more free videos

RIP Bo Diddley, RIP

McComb, MS native Bo Diddley died today. He was easily one of the most influential musicians in the history of Rock 'N Roll, creating THE rhythm for the genre. An era is slipping away...

AP:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

Here's a bonus clip with The Dutchess!

I was thinking...

This was one of my favorite commercials in recent years.

Burn After Reading

I can't wait to see the new Cohen Brothers movie. it looks great.

Kenji JOHJIMA on the case!!

my favorite player, Kenji Johjima, STOLE HOME PLATE today! woo hoo! i couldn't be happier (Tulane advances in the NCAA tournament today and that doesn't HURT!). the saturday is better than it started by a LONG shot!

Still gross

This year, at the MS Braves, instead of racing fans in inflatable balls, they have a running (blood shot) eyeball race. It is about 3x as gross as it sounds.

Sadly, Terribly Convenient for Tracking

A report just surfaced listing the FBI's involvement in detainee interrogations. One of the most enlightening parts of the report was the FBI's catalog of our government's role in torturing people. the link above takes you to an incredible chart from talking points. An amazing catalog of the betrayal of American principles and values. This 8 year long insult to the integrity of my home cannot end with enough speed.

OK, I'm Officially Sick of It.

Hillary Clinton needs to get the hell out of the way. I've been kind of quite about it lately, but i'm done. Hillary has been saying for over a month now that she's keeping in the race because she can't give up when she's this close. she can't give up when everyone hasn't had their say in the vote.

I'm sorry, but this has bound into the land of fantasy. She cannot win with the math of a month ago. it isn't better today. More to the point, she cannot win without tearing the party apart. seriously. anyone supporting hillary now (or for the last month or two) needs to explain to me how she can win without asking delegates to overturn votes that went to obama. How we can have a party together without taking earned votes away from the candidate. we can't. if we do, then we tear the party into pieces. I'm sorry, but this is how it is. The worst part, she is living up to the worst lights that people have cast her in over the last 18 years. People have defended her actions as take-charge aggressive, not manipulative and self serving to the point of harming others. It hurts to see her live out the caricature that others have drawn of her.

The part that annoys me most is hearing hillary say 'everyone deserves their time to vote'. as if it were about going through all 50 states. As if we EVER had a primary that was decided by direct vote, after ALL the states voted. No matter how nice it sounds, we have never waited to the end of the modern primary process to pick our nominee. It is not the nature of our process. it never has been. None-the-less, we have this vanity contest with a senator who cannot win and cannot seem to let herself quit. we have a multi-million dollar drain on our monies, needed for house and senate races, like the one we WON in MS- Dist. 1. instead, we're continuing donations to this farcical primary attempt. the race is over. it is costing money and may be costing votes. i'm done with it and i'm sick of waste. Right now Ronnie Musgrove is up 8 points in an attempt to take back a Miss. Senate seat for the democrats for the first time in a generation...yet we waste time and MONEY on this vanity project for Hillary Clinton. Because she came "so close". I'm sorry. I've worked races where we lost by 36 votes. i know what close is. It stinks. It's time to suck it up and go back to being a senator. every day and every dollar works against a Majority in the senate. a supreme court that is secure. a government i can live for instead of living through.

I'm done waiting. Hillary should quit now.

Well, we Lost.

But I had as good a time as I could have hoped for!

MSUSA!

More from the lounge!

Left Field Truckin!

The left field lounge is built on crazy old vehicles and home made stands. Every section has some crazy Mississippi State constructed stuff.

Left field lounge

MSU baseball basically has a 'left field lounge' that is basically like a party in the outfield for every game. Lots of fun, even if you are losing!

Last Game of the Season!

Our coach at MSU is retiring today. Ron Polk is the winning-est coach in SEC history for any sport!

IF You Watch Anything This Week...

You've got to see this. Olberman puts it out there as clear as a bell. all i can say is "wow". watch this and tell me what it leaves you thinking. seriously.

75% Democratic

OK, how big of a year is it for the Democrats? HOW bad has the GOP screwed it up? Mississippi has 4 congressmen and it just elected its THIRD (of 4) Democrat to congress! In this district (which is the whitest in MS, voting 62% for bush in 2004), they tried to 'tar' the democratic candidate by tying him to Obama and calling him a "liberal". If the go-to playbook doesn't work with Obama in Mississippi, then i cannot WAIT to see what happens in districts that aren't considered 'close'. I have to say, this may be the most important electoral indicator you will see all year.

Finally, time for the grown-ups to be back in charge.
--
Notes (and MUCH thanks from Cotton Mouth):

2008 SPECIAL ELECTION RUNOFF
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 1ST DISTRICT
----------------------------------------------------
CHILDERS (D) 50,401 - 52%
DAVIS (R) 46,160 - 48%
(414of 462 precints reporting)

(notes)
1. Lee County at +800 childers, we got +1,600 last time, 8 precints of 42 left in Lee
2. 38/38 of Desoto is in now, Lee still 42/42, Prentiss 0/15
3. Childers in comparison to 4/22 picked up 500 in Chickasaw, 400 in Yalobusha
4. Union and Webster a wash
5. Lafayette +450, Panola +700 with one precint left
6. Childers wins Lee by 1,800 , a little more than last time
7. Counties left to report: Prentiss, Calhoun, Clay, Tate, Itawamba, Pontotoc
9. Picked up 200 in Alcorn
10. Desoto hits, now 38/38, we are gonna win this thing, yehaaaaw!!
11. Prentiss only 3/15 in
12. Per MSNBC AP calls race for Childers

----------
FYI, THAT is a badass breakdown of the race region by region. you will be NEVER see anything like that at 10pm if you aren't friends with a campaign. That's incredible. those guys are top notch.

UPDATE!
------

more from Cotton Mouth:

entiss only 3/15 in 12. Per MSNBC AP calls race for Childers

MS-01: Resources for tonight Posted: 13 May 2008 06:16 PM CDT We will be posting results as they come in tonight, as are several other blogs. I am going to post links to a lot of cool stuff for MS-01 so that you can be prepared when the results start coming in. Phonebank for Childers MS-01 Resources: Mississippi Secratary of State's website has the official SOS returns for the April 22 election 2008 Race Tracker has district information Swing State Project has two very cool charts with the county by county results from the last go around. Live Blogging the Results: ( I will add more as I learn of them) Swing State Project Democratic Convention Watch Cotton Mouth Official Results: (will update with specific links as they come available) Daily Journal election results page District Map (Color Coded from April 22 results) Blue - Travis Childers Red - Greg Davis - Links to today's news articles on MS-01 TPM: All Eyes On Mississippi House Race Tonight - Commercial Dispatch: Voters don mud boots, head to polls - Daily Journal: Reaffirms endorsement - WSJ: A House Race Holds Clues for GOP

Greg Davis is trying to save us from scary liberals with liberal ideas Posted: 13 May 2008 01:16 AM CDT The Commercial Appeal's special election preview article came out early this morning. It was fairly standard but this one Greg Davis quote caught my eye. Davis told several hundred at the Civic Center rally, "Thanks for being here on the eve of the historic election. Voters have a choice. They can vote for my opponent's party that has the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and John Kerry, all liberals with liberal ideas..." You know, it is not like the last eight years of Republican rule have been a bed of roses there Greg. The man you brought in to campaign for you today is a principal architect of the failed policies of the current administration. I don't think people are too scared about Pelosi or Obama, they just don't want him or any his cronies anywhere near Washington. Today the GOP will learn a painful lesson. The days of the politics of fear and division are drawing to a thankful close in Mississippi.

WaPo's The Fix - Chris Cillizza's Political Blog on recent polling in MS-01 Posted: 12 May 2008 10:54 PM CDT The Fix, a political blog by Chris Cillizza from the Washington Post, featured this little nugget of information on recent polling. There is even a short video of Chris on the MS-01 race. Despite the onslaught of spending, knowledgeable sources on both sides of the aisle insist little has changed in the last 21 days. Childers is believed to have a mid single digit lead over Davis with Republican strategists turning pessimistic about their chances in the last 48 hours or so. If you are in north Mississippi, please go vote tomorrow and take someone with you, unless they are voting for Davis of course. The Republican strategy appears to be to bring in all their guns to get their vote out, and make the race so ugly that it repels a large turnout. Don't be complacent or fooled, go vote! UPDATE: The NRCC has fired $4000 a day for a daily tracking poll for the last two weeks, including today. Our friend Mitch at the Thorn Papers has been talking to little Republican birdies about said polls. A little bird just informed me that the Republicans' own internal polls are showing Childers up five.

Governor William Winter on Davis campaign: "I am appalled..." Posted: 12 May 2008 10:08 PM CDT Just released by the New York Times is another article surveying the effect of recent Davis campaign attempts to bring down Travis Childers by linking him to presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama. Many Mississippians see this as what it is, race baiting at is finest. Former Governor and hero of Mississippi politics, who gave us the monumental Education Reform Act of 1982, had this to say, “I am appalled that this blatant appeal to racial prejudice is still being employed,” said Mr. Winter, who lost the 1967 governor’s race after his segregationist opponent circulated handbills showing blacks listening to one of his speeches. Mr. Winter went on to win the governor’s office 12 years later. “I had thought we had gotten past that,” Mr. Winter said. “That was a tactic that was used against me in the 1960s.” Professors at Ole Miss noticed the blatant use of race by the Davis campaign as well. The chairman of the University of Mississippi’s department of public policy leadership, Robert J. Haws, said he had also noted the use of race in the contest. “Does this reflect a certain level of desperation?” he asked. Dr. Haws also said he had detected a “real reaction from people I know, Republicans” against the ads. What does Travis Childers think of these controversial tactics? Mr. Childers, 50, a court official in the district’s rural section, said voters believed that the effort to link him to Mr. Obama was about race. “When I’ve been out in the district, people tell me, ‘They’re trying to play the race card,’ ” he said. The Childers campaign is counting on that reaction, as well as an increased black turnout, focusing pre-election efforts on rallying African-American voters scattered through the small towns of the district’s 24 mostly rural counties. Mr. Davis, on the other hand, is counting on Mr. Cheney to help rally his base in DeSoto County, which has about 20 percent of the district’s population, abuts Memphis and is the fastest-growing in Mississippi.

Walk it Out

This is a pretty amazing sync of the a song from today with theses dancers from the Ed Sullivan Show doing a routine to a song called "Mexican Breakfast". WATCH!!

Glutton for PunishEnt!

My 2 favorite baseball teams are among the 3 worst teams in all of baseball. Oddly, it's not as bad as it sounds. I'm not much of a fair weather fan.

It's About that Good Judgement...

John McCain, fresh off rigging a sweetheart land deal in AZ for one of his supporters, has picked
former lobbyist for Burmese dictatorship to run GOP convention. One assumes how well he made the that military junta look (you know, the ones blocking aid from citizens after the cyclone killed 10s of thousands) and thought he'd be PERFECT for making the GOP look great this summer!

If you speak to a McCain supporter, ask them if they like the judgment he's had on actual decisions the man's made, versus just gushing how dreamy he must have looked in a uniform.

A Letter to the Super Delegates

I found this and figured i'd share. It's the letter from the Obama Campaign (in light of yesterday's primaries) to the Super-Delegates. Here is how it stands.

TO: Superdelegates
FROM: David Plouffe, Campaign Manager
RE: An Update on the Race for Delegates
DA: May 7, 2008

There are only six contests remaining in the Democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7 percent of the pledged delegates remain on the table. There are 260 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 477 delegates left to be awarded.

With North Carolina and Indiana complete, Barack Obama only needs 172 total delegates to capture the Democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates.

Conversely, Senator Clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the Democratic nomination, which represents a startling 68% of the remaining delegates.

With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.

We believe it is exceedingly unlikely Senator Clinton will overtake our lead in the popular vote and in fact lost ground on that measure last night. However, the popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee – since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. More importantly, the rules of the nomination are predicated on delegates, not popular vote.

Just as the Presidential election in November will be decided by the electoral college, not popular vote, the Democratic nomination is decided by delegates.

If we believed the popular vote was somehow the key measurement, we would have campaigned much more intensively in our home state of Illinois and in all the other populous states, in the pursuit of larger raw vote totals. But it is not the key measurement. We played by the rules, set by you, the DNC members, and campaigned as hard as we could, in as many places as we could, to acquire delegates. Essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller.

The Clinton campaign was very clear about their own strategy until the numbers become too ominous for them. They were like a broken record , repeating ad nauseum that this nomination race is about delegates. Now, the word delegate has disappeared from their vocabulary, in an attempt to change the rules and create an alternative reality.

We want to be clear – we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the Oregon and Kentucky primaries on May 20, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates According to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the Clinton Campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters.

But of course superdelegates are free to and have been utilizing their own criteria for deciding who our nominee should be. Many are deciding on the basis of electability, a favorite Clinton refrain. And if you look at the numbers, during a period where the Clinton campaign has been making an increasingly strident pitch on electability, it is clear their argument is failing miserably with superdelegates.

Since February 5, the Obama campaign has netted 107 superdelegates, and the Clinton campaign only 21. Since the Pennsylvania primary, much of it during the challenging Rev. Wright period, we have netted 24 and the Clinton campaign 17.

At some point – we would argue that time is now – this ceases to be a theoretical exercise about how superdelegates view electability. The reality of the preferences in the last several weeks offer a clear guide of how strongly superdelegates feel Senator Obama will perform in November, both in building a winning campaign for the presidency as well as providing the best electoral climate across the country for all Democratic candidates.

It is important to note that Senator Obama leads Senator Clinton in superdelegate endorsements among Governors, United States Senators and members of the House of Representatives. These elected officials all have a keen sense for who our strongest nominee will be in November.

It is only among DNC members where Senator Clinton holds a lead, which has been rapidly dwindling.

As we head into the final days of the campaign, we just wanted to be clear with you as a party leader, who will be instrumental in making the final decision of who our nominee will be, how we view the race at this point.

Senator Obama, our campaign and our supporters believe pledged delegates is the most legitimate metric for determining how this race has unfolded. It is simply the ratification of the DNC rules – your rules – which we built this campaign and our strategy around.

The Morning After

UPDATE: Clinton just lent her campaign $6.4 Million, leading me to believe it may not be over yet. Sadly, this is good for no one, including her.
--

To follow up from last night, I think Obama is gonna get the nomination this week, if not today. As of this morning, I’m still sticking to the fact that she's canceled all coming news appearances, including the morning shows. No one in a close race that plans to make a go of it cancels on free media. you don't do that unless you quit.

Which is good. she HAS to quit, or tear the party apart. Because she cannot win
Mathematically. without political insiders trumping the popular vote, it is impossible for her to win by people counted in the popular vote. She would have to override the will of the people with the consent of a minority of supporters (no matter how big a minority) which will send the party into chaos.

Which brings me to something else. I keep hearing that Hillary, whom i like, and her supporters keep saying "who tells someone that's 2% behind 'you should quit'". The problem is that sometimes you just lose by 8 votes (like in Guam this week). Additionally, Chaos is a proper word here. Have you heard of “Operation Chaos”? Rush Limbaugh and others have been advocating daily for ALL GOP'ers to vote for Hillary in the Democratic primary for weeks now. The theory was that Hillary is the weaker candidate to run against, so the GOP should help HER be the nominee. This means some of the support that pushed her was fueled by GOP people crossing over to vote for her because she's a better opponent for them than Obama. In some of the exit polling I saw showed a substantial percentage of Hillary supporters 10-18% were saying they don't feel she matches their views, etc. the only way that makes sense is crossover vote and when you win by a few points, that's a few Rush Limbaugh points!

I liked her until the end, when it came down to the teardown politics. This is not because I'm naive about how that works, but she had the slimmest of chances to actually win. She was edging into Mike Huckabee land. She was trying to lay waste to her opponent, leaving him too bloody to go on. This was done so the super delegates could feel comfortable tossing out the popular vote. They could feel he was too battered to go on in the general election. Even THAT would be ok if she had any chance to pull off a real win without a real party breakdown. I didn't like it because to win that sort of nomination, outside of trumping the popular vote and sending Dems into orbit, is impossible. In my mind, she’d have inevitably lost, ripped the party and left Obama with a knife in his back.

No thanks.

Obama Takes It!?!?!

Well, Obama walked away with the NC primary Tuesday. As of midnight, Indiana was too close to call. It seemed to be that The Entire race was coming down to Lake County and the City of Gary. Earlier on, they were about 20,000 votes apart. While there are still a few votes to count, NBC called the race for Hillary.

Nothing about this is good for Hillary. Her case for the nomination is week. More to the point, I've felt for s while now it was a fiction created by one part Media daydream and one part Right Wing lust. She could have made a (weak) claim to continue if she won both states today. A(n even) weaker claim if she won 2. The close win in Indiana may have been too close to keep her boat afloat. I think she is about to concede and save the party from certain disaster.

My rationale? You don't cancel all your upcoming tv news appearances (and the morning shows) I'd you're about to make that big final push. As I hear it, that is just what she did.

We may now have a democratic nominee.

How Bad is It!?!

Its so bad that the guy that struck out has a .000 batting average. Ahem...literally, my grandmother could do that...and she's dead!

Fw: Good Night Tonight!

I caught a baseball and a T-Shirt tonight at the Braves game. Pretty good, plus we're winning! There was a remarkably gay couple behind me tonight at the game. I don't know if I've seen a more enthusiastic couple with their boys at a baseball game. Pretty cool.

Oh.
Obama won Guam by SIX VOTES! Geaux big O!

I'm a Bit Speechless this is So Sad

This may be the saddest thing I've heard in a while. Eight Belles, the horse that won 2nd place in the Kentucky Derby today, broke both its front ankles as it crossed the finish line. the poor animal came crashing to a halt and had to be euthanized immediately, there on the track. what a tragedy.

View from the room

This is the view out my window. A little overly blue. I think I may buy a raft and float out to that island tomorrow!

Grim Leadership

Bert in 'O8!

Not a Fast Way to Cross the Street

The New Bay Bridge

Here is the view of the new bridge across Biloxi Bay from the 11th floor. The lights are very pretty at night. Especially if your camera doesn't stink.

What is Worse than a Blowout?

A flat spare. This dispatch comes to you roadside, waiting on my ride.

News of Note

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed into law a bill that allows disabled hunters to shoot from their cars.

Holy Smokes!

There's a lego version of the Holy Trinity.

Groovy stair climber dancing

Spiral

So Drunk, so crispy

God. I went to a vegetarian cookout. At least the mint in the julep's was fresh!

This Turtle.....

Had a full night....

So Drunk, so crispy

God. I went to a vegetarian cookout. At least the mint in the julep's was fresh!

No Mobile Homes at the Capitol Please

Please take no offense. I spent years living in mobile homes. My brother lives in one now. That said, can we not have one in the "front yard" of the capitol?!

NOTE on Changes

I'm working on a few themed versions of my blog that i will rotate in randomly. All of it is a work in progress. I've started with the Tulane Theme first. MS State would be up if I could find a decent Maroon to use! Others to come, hopefully switched by what's going on in the world (or at least my world) at the time.

Just Kidding

I thought this was pretty funny. Even if you don't, you've gotta be impressed with how hard it would be to recall/deliver these lines!

ha!

Top of the 8th and I had to go....

But we were ahead by 1 against a much better team!

Governor's Cup

MS State v. Ole Miss at the local stadium. It appears we have a sellout crowd!

New Orleans Bathroom Graffiti

Um, not only true, but also pretty toned down for a barroom bathroom stall...

Oysters in New Orleans

Finally I get some lunch today. I like sitting at the bar.

It seems....

The Green Eye won. Ahem. I'm still not so sure about these running eyeballs.

Are those Eyeballs?

Yes. Someone decided s good way to promote their eye doctor business is to sponsor a running eyeball race at the baseball game. Kinda gross actually.

This Foul Ball....

...Actually almost hit me in the foot! Haw!

Close to the Action

My seats were so close, I sorta had a strange view of the game. Here you can see the batter socking the ball down and putting us down by one.

First Minor League Game of the Season

I really like our minor league team in Mississippi. It is in the town where I attended high school. It is a great park, and it costs no more than going to a movie. I could spend a few days a week out here (and sometimes do). I love baseball season.

We Win!!

I don't talk about a lot of my work here...I don't really know why. it's right along the lines of what i always type here. I mentioned my current project here once before. I've been working for a year to end a program called face-to-face. it, quite literally has cost the state more than $50 Million dollars and, in some places, tripled the infant mortality rate. It has cut 80,000 qualified citizens from Medicaid--virtually all women and children. all needy. My job was to end "face-to-face". I've worked politicians and interest groups and the press in every corner of the state, all for a full year.

Well, I got the word, just a minute ago, that the bill that will end the program will pass into law. we won, and the point of the last year of my life is almost complete. Just need to avoid a veto from the governor now (which will let him avoid a lawsuit from me) and we're really done. whew. i'm exhausted.

...I guess now i need a new job! heh.

One Thing I Like...

...is how people over explain things. This is perhaps somewhat of a Southern behaviour in some examples, but it isn't confined to the south. examples?

talking on the telephone line.
a walking stick.
Finish up.
Get up on it. (heck, i guess "get down on it" too).
Drinking Glass (were we mixed up).

and my favorite phrase, generally yelled at a strange dog snooping where it shouldn't and uttered by someone with a worn voice of at least 60:

"Get up dog, get up from around here!"

Memphis Loses The NCAA Championship....

...and I threw up on myself about 5 times. Ugh. I've felt sick for about an hour now, just watching the game. I still like memphis about 500x better than Kansas in every way possible.

30,000 Without Power in Jackson

If you didn't hear, Mississippi was hit with 6 powerful tornadoes. Jackson got quite a bit of damage. I was at lunch when it hit. I had placed an order and was sipping on my coke when i looked out the window and the tree outside the window was bending at a 45 degree angle. a Semi Truck in the parking lot was swaying and about to tump over. the power was out and the restaurant crew moved all of us to the back of the building in the bar/kitchen area. a funnel cloud was directly over the building and would end up touching down just after it passed us. we got extensive damage. billboards by the restaurant were sheered down and thrown into the interstate. a car lot just walking distance from my location had about 40% of its cars blown out by the twister. it was a pretty intense few minutes. when it was done, whole sections of the city were out of power and 30,000 are still without power as i write this. trees where crashing through houses all over town and a good friend of mine just happened to be home. he looked out the window and saw the tree outside starting to give. he ran out of the room just before the tree broke through and crashed into the room. had he not moved with quickness, he would be dead now. it was a terrible disaster, and it is an amazing feat that (as of what i've heard) no one was killed. many parts of the city were hit MUCH harder than they were during Katrina. Friday was a terrible way to end the week.

FINAL FOUR!!!!

OK, with the exception of when MSU almost beat Memphis, i've been pulling for the Memphis Tigers all the way, all year. they are just awesom and that school deserves everything they get. They won tonight and i hope to see them win the whole thing Monday.

That said, Kansas (ugh) was beating the CRAP of Univ. of North Carolina...until now. they were being beaten worse than any team in final 4 history. UNC is within 5 now. creezus, this is AMAZING.

I've Got a List of Demands

So, i've been taken over the last year by the number of songs i've come to really like and came across via a commercial. this time (link above) it was a nike commercial. i never get inspired by nike commercials, but this thing really took me. its a song called "List of Demands" by Saul Williams. (Song here--after the commercial up top, that's the one to watch. also, live version with NIN here)

I've been sorta taken with the song because, well, i've spent the last few years being remarkably angry and a bit direction-less. for the entirety of my adulthood, virtually every success i've had came from the proper direction of my anger. I've spent a good while with all the anger and none of the direction. i'm tired of that. it just makes me bitter. i'm tired of being bitter, as it isn't my nature. This song has reminded me to start being myself again. i can't wait.

Only on Airplanes

I'm having a nice cool Ginger Ale. I really like this stuff, but only seem to drink it on Airplanes. I must be a damn fool.

Also, while "Gingervating" is a pretty nice word, I may have to start dropping "Ginvigorating" into conversations soon.

More Pics from the Baseball Weekend.

Now, this is the good stuff. it was taken by my pal, Dr. Wagner. click the link above. he did some fantastic shots! I will post some from the Mississippi State game we saw the next day. I actually took some of the photos that day. well see if any are as good as these Dr. Wagner took Saturday!