Obama Campaign

As an experiment, I attended an Obama campaign organization event for upper Manhattan. I would never go on my own, but Nilda luuuvs Obama and I went for her. Here’s my report:

• Flashback. In freshman year of college, I wore a sandwich board around East Halls to support Josh Bokee for USG president. Some exchange student from Australia came up and asked me why I would do that. It was at that moment that I decided I would not campaign for any candidate. Ever.
• Obama uses the internet better than any candidate before. The main method of communication for supporters is email. More importantly, everything is centralized on my.barackobama.com.
• Turnout was huge. The room, about the size of a classroom, was packed, with many people standing.
• They should pass a law against sinks that splash water all over your pants and make it look like you peed yourself.
• The event was organized by Mark Levine (Levine = Jew), the upper Manhattan city councilman or something, and one of the few NY politicians to support Obama. He was there with his Hispanic wife and two sons, and spoke Spanish to them. Nilda was sold.
• Look, kid, I know you're excited, but there's no need to be a dork about it.
• I thought the "special guest," former NY state senator Leichter, would be a tool. Turns out he was awesome.
• Any candidate who can convince Nilda to stand outside of a polling place on Super Tuesday – in the cold! – is a genius and should be President.
• There are a lot more older people here than I expected. I thought old people liked Hillary.
  No one is allowed to mention Hillary Clinton’s name, like Voldemort. Her supporters are referred to as "They" and Hillary is called "You Know Who."
• Upper Manhattan, 96th Street and up, has 6 delegates. This is a huge number, especially when considering that the state of New Hampshire has 9 delegates. Half of all the voting in NY takes place in the five boroughs.
• Obama supporters can’t decide whether or not they’re beating Clinton. They talk about Hillary’s organization and political machines, but stress Obama’s grass roots nature. They say Hillary’s leading in the elections, but that Obama has more delegates. They focus on "momentum" to avoid the issue.
• How can two people that ugly make a baby that cute?
• I like Obama. He’s faltered a few times in the campaign, especially in the early debates, and he’s got to learn how to talk to Hillary. But he’s got a movement behind him that is contagious and that could actually change the world. But I still ain’t campaigning for anyone.

Go, Tom Cruise, Go!

Here's a video of Tom Cruise discussing why being a scientologist is totally gay. Respect to Gawker for having the balls to keep the video up, after other sites caved to Scientolgy's pressure and took it down. Here's their intro to the video:

"Yesterday, for a few hours, the clip of Tom Cruise discussing his beliefs as a Scientologist appeared on Youtube, and was republished by Radar and Defamer. That video is no longer available, most likely after the Church of Scientology sent in a copyright infringement notice. Gawker is now hosting a copy of the video; it's newsworthy; and we will not be removing it."

Pepsi Commercial

Here's an interesting new Pepsi add scheduled to premiere during the Superbowl:



Thanks to Nilda for her first contribution to the blog that didn't incorporate the words "stupid" or "boring"!

Heath Ledger

I feel strangely impacted by Heath Ledger's death this week. It's not that I thought he was such a great actor, although he was great in Brokeback and looked surprisingly good as the Joker in the trailer for the Dark Knight. But it's a shame that he died so young and left behind a two-year-old daughter who will never know him. Mostly, though, I feel that since he's now gone, I have to respect him, and that just pisses me off.

Superbowl

Having been fantastically correct in my picks for last weekend, thank you, thank you, I'm picking the Patriots to win the Superbowl. While the Giants have been playing remarkably well, the Pats are a more experienced team, having been through the pressure of a Superbowl plenty of times before. Who knows what kind of mind games the next two weeks will play with Eli Manning's head.

But it should be a good game. Phil Sheridan had a great column on this in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Bad Ass of the Day

Vice Admiral James Stockton was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the United States Navy. A naval pilot during the Vietnam War, Stockton was shot down over North Korea in September 1965 and spent seven years as a POW, in the camp prison where John McCain was held (that's a bad ass for another day).

During his seven years as a POW, he was routinely tortured and beaten, and spent four years in solitary confinement. When his captors wanted to show him off to display how well the prisoners were kept, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor and beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition, so that he could not be used as propaganda. When asked who didn't make it out, he responded, "the optimists."

Stockdale was released in 1973 and received the medal of honor in 1976. He ran for VP with Perot in 1992 ("Gridlock!!") and passed away on July 5, 2005

I Just Had A Whopper

...and it was all that I'd hoped it would be. Thank you, effective Whopper commercials.

Football

I know I didn't do so well last week, but here are my picks: New England over San Diego, and (shockingly) the Giants over Green Bay. Who wants to go to Applebee's??

Cloverfield and 9/11

When there is a movie about an attack on NYC, and features main characters running for their lives and terrified because they have no idea what is happening, that is a movie about 9/11. This is not me reading too much into the story (wrong, Matt and Nilda!), and is definitely not unintended by the film's creators. Bottom line, Cloverfield is the first film to recount an attack on New York since 9/11 and there will be a lot of people in New York talking about 9/11 after the movie comes out.

A Lesson for Andrew

In lots of people's minds, the mystery of what killed the dinosaurs and other species — paving the way for the rise of mammals — was solved a couple of decades ago: a giant asteroid or comet slamming into the Earth, resulting in a dust cloud that shrouded the sun, cooled the planet dramatically and killed off plants and animals wholesale. It's a compelling story, but plenty of scientists never completely bought it.

A new book titled What Bugged the Dinosaurs, talks about how bugs that can spread disease were found in amber, against which dinosaurs wouldn't have had much resistance. The theory is that the dinos didn't all die in a massive epidemic; rather, the constant wear and tear of illness weakened the dinosaurs so that other catastrophes, like comets and volcanoes, could have finished them off.

This is combined with the Earth getting much warmer during a period called the Turonian, about 90 million years ago, when a "super-greenhouse" brought the ocean's surface temperature approached 100 degrees F, and alligators thrived in the Arctic.

Mercury

Here's a photo taken just two days ago from the MESSENGER satellite, which is only the second spacecraft in human history to fly by Mercury in human history (the first was 35 years ago). So for everyone just dying to know what Mercury looks like now...here you go. You're welcome, Irene.

Random

I was at the bank last Saturday and it seemed like they were playing "Sunglasses at Night" on the radio. I said to the girl at the counter, "Is this Corey Hart?" She said, "I don't, but I like it." My obvious response was, "Really?" She said, "Yeah, but the techno version is better." And she was right.

Remembering Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary passed away today at the age of 88. He and Tenzing Norgay were the first to make it to the summit, and that makes them bad ass motherfuckers.

Dowd on Clinton

Here's a quote from Maureen Dowd's column in today's NYTimes, which pretty much sums up how I feel:

"There was a poignancy about the moment, seeing Hillary crack with exhaustion from decades of yearning to be the principal rather than the plus-one. But there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us. But it was grimly typical of her that what finally made her break down was the prospect of losing."

Nicely put. Now make me a chicken pot pie.

NFL Playoff Picks

Though its a bit late, I had picked Jacksonville, Seattle, NY Giants, San Diego. Since all of these teams actually won, I'm posting my ultimate picks now, for posterity.

NFC
--Divisional--
NY Giants at Dallas = Dallas
Seattle at Green Bay = Green Bay
--Conference--
Green Bay at Dallas = Dallas

AFC
--Divisional--
Jacksonville at New England = New England
San Diego at Indianapolis = Indianapolis
--Conference--
Indianapolis at New England = New England

SUPERBOWL
New England v. Dallas = New England

I couldn't help but pick New England, after the season they just had. But something tells me that given how Jacksonville and New England have been playing in the past few weeks, its not unwise to pick Jacksonville over New England this Saturday. If that happens, I'm picking Dallas to win it all.

Celine Dion Is Amazing

Here's a post straight from Irene:

"Celine Dion is amazing. She is the most incredible performer that has ever lived, and I love Celine Dion. I celebrate her entire collection. If you didn't believe it before, this video is all the proof you need:



Once again, this is Irene, and I love Celine Dion."

Predictions for 2008

• The election will be between Obama/Richardson and McCain/Rice. Bloomberg will run as a third-party candidate. Obama will win.
• I will buy at least one piece of furniture, for which I will have very little input.
• One or more Supreme Court Justices will announce their retirement.
• The writer's strike will end in April, with new shows airing throughout the summer. At least three plot lines from new shows will include striking and/or standing around outside.
• Bush will publish a "Plan for Iraq" that no one believes will work.
• Daniel Day Lewis will win the Oscar for best actor.
• Lilah will call me "da-da."

Iowa

Man, Huckabee scares the shit out of me.