Back on Nov. 5

In true campaign fashion, I'll be suspending my blog until after Election Day.  Too much work to do to be sitting in front of my laptop.  

That goes for you all, too.  Please, please, please get out there and vote, and better yet, help your neighbors and even strangers vote.  The democratic process centers around voting, but voting really represents the final product of community engagement and of civic concern; it's important that we demonstrate all of these aspects.  

I know this election means a lot to most of my small readership.  Let it be known how much you value the outcome of this election not simply by voting, but by donating time and treasure to the candidate and/or cause in which you believe.  Let your voice be heard not just through casting your vote, but through standing up and working for the change you seek.  It is at once a simple and a challenging act, publicly voicing your support, but you won't regret it.  

If you're having trouble giving that last $10, making those phone calls, or knocking on those doors, I commend to you this video: 

Yes, we can.

Cub Scout Journalism

Couldn't resist:

H/T Ezra Klein

2 Minute Ads are Marathons, Not Sprints

They also take you by surprise.

Flipping through television, Barack Obama just came on before the 8 pm hour and spoke, directly at the camera, for a 2 minute advertisement.  No background music, no quick cuts: just the junior Senator from Illinois, explaining his positions.  It's arresting in its simplicity, but yet the tone isn't dour or depressing; rather, it's focused and (oh-so-slightly) optimistic.  

As much as anything, it reminded me how unaccustomed I am to watching long scenes with minimal frame changes.  I (and I imagine many of my generation) have grown accustomed to camera tricks, quick cuts, sound and sight cues--really, anything to keep us from tuning out.  If you haven't noticed this, try to watch a movie from the 1930s-1960s and watch how the films are shot. The difference is drastic.  For me, these distractions make me pay attention less to the actual message, which in many cases is just what directors want to have happen: if there isn't a story to tell, dress it up with flashy visuals and soundtracks, instead.

Certainly, Obama's team-- and probably Obama himself-- know that they do have a story to tell.  Moreover, it's an important one, and to cut through "SAAAAVE BYYYYY ZEEEEEE-RO," "Five dollar foot long!" and the like, they had to toy with the medium.  For a candidate poised to become president during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, it's only fitting that his commercials would invoke film techniques of an earlier time.

Looking forward to the 30 minute program tomorrow night.

Halloween Spirit

Enjoy.

And now: learn at home!

Citizens Bank (Water) Park

So the World Series is the last series in Major League Baseball's season.  Presumably, if they postponed a game, they could just shift a game into the off-day(s) scheduled into the series.  If they had to do it twice, they could simply shift Game 7 (if necessary) to October 31.  

Why, then, was Game 3 delayed for over an hour and a half, leading it to end at quarter to 2 in the morning, and why in Willard Scott's name are they playing right now?

"Appeal to their sense of duty."

Nice background piece from the times on the efforts of both sides to ensure fair elections via lawyer (and law student!) volunteers at polling places.  As for me, I'll be doing voter protection work in Richmond, VA on Election Day.  Can't wait.  

The long arm of the tubes, er, law

I wonder if they have internet in federal prison?

Sen. Ted Stevens may soon tell us.  My guess is that he would have to take an actual highway to get there, but once there, he may be able to connect to the omnipotent "series of tubes."

As a friend of mine passed along: this is the first time DC citizens have been able to take part in an election for senator.

Monday Update

Blogging from the ICC right now--revising my memo before a talk about post-graduate options for current Corpies.  Updates will be back in earnest after 11 am tomorrow, when my memo revisions are due.

Baseless Accusations

Just found out that my right rear tire is flat.  I hope it has nothing to do with the Vote for Change paraphernalia that I have in the trunk...

Live from New York, it's...

...Will Ferrell as George W. Bush!

Twitter

Posts will hopefully start appearing on Capitol Hilltop's Twitter feed, available on the widget down below.

Northern Virginia is most definitely "Real America"

Exhibit A: this story about the Tysons Corner mall Santa has been huge this week.

Everything that is right in the world:

The opening montage about baseball and America, with voiceovers from Obama and McCain, before Game 2.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for that stuff. Oh well.

Huh?

Watching Jeopardy! right now.  Some chump, in response to the answer "Nicholas Sarkozy" in the category, "Leader and Land," just blurted out "France!"  Has he not seen the show? More importantly, where was he in regular Jeopardy, when everyone phrased their responses in the form of a question?

(East Coast) Kind of Blue

Are you all reading FiveThirtyEight.com?  Good, that's what I thought.  Anyway, when I check in on that page, the map in the upper right hand corner always catches my eye:

When I look at it, I always get nervous that the light blue (read: Obama as a slight favorite) state on the Eastern Seaboard is on the Commonwealth of Virginia, a key state for Obama's roadmap to the White House.  

Then I realize that the light blue state is North Carolina, and   At first, I relax.  Then, I realize: North Carolina!  What a glorious day that Virginia is comfortably, for the time being, in the Dems' column, and North Carolina, home of Jesse Helms and the Greensboro sit-ins, is trending that way, too.

Photo of the Moment

From rural Missouri, courtesy of Nick:

Real Americans

I refer you to the entire Daily Show from this Monday if you haven't caught up on the latest kerfuffle.  Jon Stewart is out for blood, and employs a heavy rotation of expletives to draw it, but 1) he's a comedian and 2) he's onto something.

As an added anecdote: just now during Game 1 of the World Series, MLB and Fox showed the 7th inning singing of God Bless America.  A woman from the Air Force sang a wonderful rendition, but I noticed that the crowd was relatively quiet down there in St. Petersburg, FL, and I couldn't help but compare that to the crowds at Yankee Stadium--in the middle of New York City, the anti-Small Town--where the crowd belts it out.  I'm iffy on "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch as a continuing tradition (closer to jingoism on the spectrum, it seems to me, at least in 2008), 

But, knowing those New Yorkers, they're probably singing it ironically.  Commie hipsters.

Postmodern Oddities

As brought to my attention by my brother:

Because when I think of luxury cars, I think of David Bowie.  And when I think of buying a new car, I think of a song that references a tin can floating in a most peculiar wa, losing contact with the earth.   

Likely, the song choice is just an attempt to get boomers all nostalgic and look favorably about dropping 10s of thousands on a souped-up Ford Taurus, but it could be that Lincoln wants you to think that driving this model will bring you as close to breaking the earth's orbit as is possible without riding in a space ship.  

One problem: to anyone who knows the song, Major Tom's circuit goes dead--there's something wrong.  I don't want circuits to go dead or for anything to go wrong in a car, particularly my brand, shiny new Lincoln.  If I wanted that, I'd go find our old Saturn, whose right rear wheel well started smoking in a most peculiar way on my trip down to school.  And I'd have to guess that most people know the song well enough to know that it isn't exactly a celebratory song, nor is it an ode to technology.

Lincoln isn't the only company to do this recently, either.  Wrangler Jeans ran a commercial featuring CCR's "Fortunate Son," heard below (the ad isn't on YouTube).  As you play it, stop the at 30 seconds, the approximate length of the Wrangler commercial.

Right after "Oooh, that red, white, and blue," the voiceover read, "Wrangler: real, comfortable jeans."  U-S-A, U-S-A, right?  Right! 

Again, anyone who knows the song knows what follows after 0:30.   "It ain't me.  It ain't me.  I ain't no Senator's son."  So again, Wrangler tries to manipulate cultural memory--but it seems that those already predisposed to enjoying the song know that the song isn't about platitudinal patriotism, and it's odd--nay, wrong--to use the song in that fashion.

Note: Moreover, that cover version of Space Oddity is awful.  I've heard a lot about Cat Power, but man--this is weak sauce.   Treat yourself to the original version, unadorned with pitches for cars that use roughly as much fuel as a space ship:

Late Night Thought

At some point in college, I realized that the D-I football stars that I had grown up watching on TV were my age.  This past year, I've realized that I'm older than them. 

I've also realized that this is the year when political candidates just aren't that much older than me--they're older, but barely 1 generation away, as opposed to 1.5 generations away (Cheney, H.W. Bush, Dole, McCain). Certainly, the youth of Obama (and Palin, I guess) brings that into focus, and while I'm closer to my high school days than to age 47, it's head-spinning to think that only 25 years ago--1983, when my brother turned 2--Barack Obama was my age.  

To have accomplished so much both professionally and personally in a quarter-century is truly incredible (and maybe that's partially why I don't view Palin in the same light).  

Anyway, just a stray thought passing through my gray matter while reading about venue and forum selection.

Angelos!

There you are, Peter Angelos, raising money for Barack Obama.  If you have infected the campaign with the same incompetence that has ruined the Orioles, then... well, I don't know if my opinion of you can drop much lower, but you get the drift.

To be fair, he has never pleaded guilty to crimes connected to the Nixon campaign, like some AL East owners out there, so I guess my opinion of him could drop a little bit lower.

Then again...

...O'Reilly can do live TV.  (Warning: no-spin expletives.  Don't play at work)

Bill O'Reilly: Man of the People

4 years, $10mil.  

At least professional athletes have talent.

Being in 5 Places at Once? Brilliant!

It's all about local news coverage.

TMQ Shows Georgetown Some Love

In his lengthy, weekly column on the NFL, Gregg Easterbrook gives a shout out to Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz ('89):

Schwartz is one of the NFL's underappreciated figures: A smart guy who graduated from Georgetown University, Schwartz not only does a fabulous job but also belongs to that small club of NFL coaches who read the New York Times and books about intellectual affairs. 

Easterbrook runs the risk of being redundant--generally, "smart guys" (and "smart girls") tend to graduate from Georgetown--but still, always good to see Georgetown mentioned in a positive light.

On a related note to the title: the McCain campaign has been trying to say that Barack Obama is "flip-flopping" on his pick for the World Series.   Politico piles on, as well.  One problem: "showing some love" for the Rays, which is what Obama did at a rally the other day, does not mean what McCain and Politico think it means.  Easterbrook showed Georgetown some love in his article; he didn't say he roots for Georgetown football, think that Georgetown is the best school in the country, or anything like that.  Rather, he gave it the written version of a pound/fist bump/dap/terrorist fist jab.  Same with Obama: shaking hands does not equate to picking them, or even rooting for them to win, the World Series.  He's just showing some love.

RSS Feed

Technical update: I've fixed the settings on the blog so that you all can get full text in your Google Reader.  Sorry for the delay on that.

The Fringe

Note: many European nations have laws criminalizing the public expression of views or the tangible organization of the groups featured here.  What a sometimes-troubling society the First Amendment ensures, huh?  I'm looking forward to taking a class or two on free speech issues to help sort out some of the conflicting views I hold on this issue.

Sarah Palin

...was not funny on SNL.  No link provided, so as to save everyone brain cells.

"And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American."

-Colin Powell, Meet the Press, 10/20/08.

Amen.  For more on the topic, read some wisdom at Abedology.

Beautiful Baseball Writing

Via The Plank, excerpts from late MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti's "The Green Fields of the Mind":

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today ... a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

...

Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion. I am not that grown up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.  

Some people can't stand the poetic waxings of the David Halberstams, the Roger Angells, and the like about the national pastime.  I'm not one of those people.  Even George Will is sometimes palatable when he's writing about baseball.  Sometimes.  But the fact that baseball has inspired so many like-minded paeans over the years reinforces its place in the national psyche.   

God save Alexander Cartwright.

Rays!

Didn't call it too early this time.  Wow! Congrats to the Rays.  

But what is that song they were playing at the Trop after they won?

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Anybody else catch Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist?  I've been trying to put my finger on what's going on with that movie, but then I realized: there's not much there to put my finger on.  It's a wisp of a movie, a 90 minute, race-the-dawn, carpe noctem romp through Manhattan Disney, er, New York City.  In that sense, it's the pacing and structure of Superbad (sex, booze, all-night-madness, and the end of high school) meets the Gotham-worship of Sex and the City, with a dash of the "too-cool-for-school" of Juno thrown in.  The whole package, while not necessarily a "deep thoughts" movie, was very enjoyable.

Music was very good, too--I wouldn't mind listening to a playlist in that vein.

Also, at Regal, they sold "popcorn flavor shakers," such as cheese and kettle corn, for $1.50.  That's a new one for me.

Jumped the Gun

Of course, the Sox just came back.  Oy.

Joe Maddon: Related to Joel Madden?

I'm not saying... I'm just saying.  I was watching ESPN last night, and Joe Maddon, skipper of the Rays, was sporting a faux-hawk and boxy-framed glasses.  It then drove home that he could be the "cool uncle" of Us Weekly icon and near-namesake Joel Madden, of the not-so-great Good Charlotte:

 

Next time he does a press conference (in, oh, an hour or so when they beat the Sox (!) to go to the World Series), check it out.  I think he might be the first emo manager.

KKKlassy

As seen on the link blog to the left, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan:

Great to see racism alive and well in California.   In Civ IV, I remember reading about how the John Birch Society morphed into more "respectable" forms during the mid-1960s, especially in Orange County, CA.   Apparently, the Golden State is trying its best to uphold that tradition.

Joe the Unregistered Plumber

Turns out, Joe the Plumber is a registered voter, but apparently an unlicensed plumber.

My apologies to Joe.  Still doesn't change the fact that CBS laughed at his Sammy Davis, Jr. joke a little too loudly.

Also, this whole "Joe" obsession has reminded me of this clip from The Simpsons:

He's Funny, Too

Still waiting for the video, but until then, here's a choice line from Obama at the Al Smith fundraiser for the Archdiocese of New York:

"Contrary to the rumors you may have heard, i was not actually born in a manger, i was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Earth."

I was talking with Nick the other day, and it's true: he just seems like a guy you'd want to hang out with.  

Joe the Plumber: Unregistered Voter, and More...

I've been relatively quiet about the debates, but last night, I watched something different: a 90 minute informercial for Joe Wurzelbacher, or "Joe the Plumber" from Ohio.  To paraphrase Churchill: never has the life story of so few (er, one) been so important to the policies that will affect so many.  Forget middle-class tax cuts; give us Joe the Plumber tax cuts!

So, what do we know about Joe the Plumber?

1. Apparently, he's not registered to vote.  Talk about an inefficient allocation of persuasion resources...
2. He's never met McCain, and vice versa.
3. He's comfortable comparing Obama's tap-dancing to Sammy Davis, Jr. on national television.  (More tellingly, the CBS studio crew liked the bit).

(H/T to Gerry Canavan  and Talking Points Memo)

Look, I didn't wake up this morning hoping to put Joe the Plumber on blast, and I'll largely refrain from doing so, as it does not appear that he actively sought out to be the subject of last night's debate.  But the laughter I heard in the CBS studio after his "Sammy Davis, Jr." crack is ominous.  Much like with the bigots and kooks at the Palin rallies, it's not the ones who yell "terrorist" who are the biggest problem--they're a big problem, but they can be isolated, and they self-identify.  Rather, the people who quietly smile, laugh, cheer, and tolerate this kind of insensitivity that are the real problem, and have been for quite some time.

Thanks, Coach

I can’t stress this enough, and maybe it’s natural to compare him to Roy, but Greg is totally different. -JTIII

Oh, Coach was talking about Greg Monroe, 6'-11", top-rated recruit and probable starting center for the Hoyas? Whoops.

33 days until tip-off.  Can't wait.

Paul Krugman is Smarter than You

And now he has the Nobel Prize in Economics to prove it.  

He's also now that much closer to being Josiah Bartlet.

Hoya Homecoming

Maybe because it was my first true "homecoming" as an alumnus, but this past weekend's Homecoming festivities were very, very enjoyable.  Kudos to all those who helped organize the weekend's events; you made this "young alum" very happy and proud to call Georgetown home.

Good seeing everyone this weekend, and for those who weren't able to make it, hopefully you found a large piece of New York-style pizza to eat at 3 am.  

Hoya Saxa.

Hi, my name is Barack...

...and I'm running for president.  Can I count on your support on Nov. 4?

Image courtesy of http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/barack_obama_john_mccain_ohio_1.html

Change We Can Believe In

Do your part.

(Image courtesy of my absentee ballot.)

You Know You're in Law School When...

...you have dreams that incorporate discussions of subject-matter jurisdiction.

Worst. Week. Ever.

washingtonpost.com News: Worst Week Ever: Dow, S& P Each Fall 18%

	Inbox		X

That's a fun way to wake up.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

I turned on television about two hours ago to watch Game 1 of the NLCS (Phillies coming from behind impressively), and I have seen close to a half-dozen Obama ads.  I have seen no McCain ads. 

The past 4 weeks, I've knocked on around 150 doors or so in 4 different NoVa neighborhoods.  I have seen no McCain volunteers knocking on doors, nor have I seen any McCain literature on doorsteps, if I recall correctly (maybe one piece.  Maybe).

The thing speaks for itself.

Fireside Chat?

Via turneresq at Kos, Obama has apparently purchased 30 minutes of airtime on CBS and NBC for Wednesday, October 29 at 8 pm.  Here's hoping that Game 6 of the World Series is not necessary for that night, or I would be in a huge bind (although WS games have been tending to start closer to 8:30 than 8. 

What's the best part of this, though? The pre-emption of "Gary Un-Married" on CBS.  If this goes well, I wouldn't be surprised if CBS gives President Obama the weekly spot in its place.

Chutzpah

"You know the type:

loud as a motorbike, 

but wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight."

-Jay-Z, "99 Problems"

In the debate on Tuesday, what caught my attention (along McCain calling Obama "that one") was one of the times when Obama, in one of the nebulous "follow-up" question-and-answers from a visibly tired Tom Brokaw (this is like MJ returning to the Wizards, only with someone starting from a place of less excellence), took the opportunity to directly take it to John McCain.   Wow, I thought,  the nerve it must take to be 10 feet away from someone and just lay into them.   

Now, McCain did attack Obama on the debate stage, but something about Obama's resonated more: some combination of more directly addressing McCain, having them be issue-based, and having his attacks correspond with the "comparison" (i.e. negative) ads up on TV.  McCain's campaign, on the other hand, was in the larvae stages of Hate '08 on the trail, but the Ayers/terrorist/"Hussein" attacks were nowhere to be seen at the debate.  

Given the opportunity to integrate his debate performance with his campaign message, McCain passed, but the past few days, they've been at their old games.  Obama rightfully calls him on it when asked by Charlie Gibson:

If you're going to rabble-rouse, at least do it to the guy's face.

Cooking with eggs

Eggs partner well with, well, pretty much any ingredient.  In terms of meat, anything except poultry seems to work, on some level, with eggs (although plenty of people have turkey in their omelets--I just have trouble eating multiple forms of bird at the same time), and in terms of vegetables, the choices are seemingly endless.  They also do wonders with leftovers, such as the ones I had this week:

Tuesday: sausage, spinach, and egg scramble with wheat toast.

Thursday: Asparagus and sausage "hash" (really, both just chopped in smallish pieces and sauteed together), topped with sunny-side up eggs, side of "cheese toast" (happened by accident: I was grating cheddar down on the eggs and "hash," and some wayward cheese got on the toast. It was very tasty).

Dow Under 9,000

I imagine that if the dominant story of the day weren't related to economics, I'd be weighing in more often here, but instead I've mostly been trying to keep up with what's going on.  Looks like we're going to nationalize banks soon?  Fine with me--but as Matthew Yglesias has been pointing out over the past few weeks, in a situation that resembles the Great Depression, shouldn't we be priming the pump?

Mental Health Break

Just finished my memo, so I'm decompressing briefly before class. Enjoy.

Step by Step

We are coming closer to Marx's vision of controlling the methods of production.

Don't Call Them Devil Rays

How 'bout 'dem Rays? 

LCS Predictions:

Rays over Red Sox in 6

Phillies over Dodgers in 7

Roger Cohen

This is just the latest in a recent string of perceptive, quasi-literary op-eds from Roger Cohen.  I'm glad that someone else noted that Sarah Palin egregiously misappropriated "Never Again," a human rights mantra following the Holocaust, for use in the current financial crisis.  Frightening.

Dow Breaks 10,000...

... in the wrong direction.  I'm sure this will fluctuate through the day, but still--not a pretty sight.

Register to Vote

The deadline to register to vote in VA and in many, many other states is today, October 6.  If you aren't registered to vote, or if you're not sure if you are, go either here or here, and they'll set you up.

To borrow from "Game On," Season 4 of West Wing: no matter who you vote for, be sure to vote.

Oh, and tell your friends to make sure they're registered, too.

Cultural Insensitivity Alert

Harold Reynolds just announced concern about the "frailty" of Japanese players' bodies during the White Sox-Rays game as Iwamura was up at the plate.  2 pitches later, Iwamura hit a home run.

Fighting Racism

And I mean fighting it.  This (via Cogitamus, now on many other blogs) has been on my shared reader, but it needs to be main-paged.  Take the 7 minutes or so to watch this thing in its entirety.  To comment would be superfluous.  

As the old union chant goes: the people, united, will never be defeated.  This gentleman walks the walk.

It reads worse than it sounded...

...and it didn't sound good!

"Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate," -Sarah Palin on her plans for education policy last night.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

I think we're just reading it wrong, though--she's speaking in verse (as Slate helped out with recently).  Here are my interpretations:

Say it ain't so, 

Joe,

there you go

again

pointing backwards

again.

***

I say, too, with education,

America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that

and our schools have got to be

really ramped up

in terms of the funding

that they are deserving.

***

My grandma was,

my dad who is

in the audience today,

he's a schoolteacher,

had been for many years.

***

My brother,

who I think

is the best schoolteacher of the year,

and here's a shout-out

to all those third-graders 

at Gladys Wood Elementary School, 

you get extra credit

A Terrorist Handshake?

I really hope there is video of this.  Seriously, does McCain think Obama carries cooties?  

This reminds me of a few months ago, when Obama found Lieberman on the Senate floor, buttonholed him off the view of the camera, and let him have it about his absurd statements.  On top of everything else, Obama seems to have channeled his inner LBJ, as well, using subtle and overt forms of physicality to help get his point across.

(H/T: TPM)