Thought Sausage

After a discussion with Carson (aka Ian) this afternoon, it occured to me that I spend a disproportionate amount of time criticizing things on the left. While I never really thought of myself as a pro right wing person (I'm a no-wing kinda guy), I realized that I'm not helping my case.

Well folks the fact of the matter is that I never really bother talking about the fringe right because most of them are so whacked out of their god fearing, profiteer-war-having gords that, well quite honestly, I don't even know where to begin. At least with the fringe left, they make some attempt to base their positions in logic, which I can critique. But how do you argue with somebody who says abortion or stem cell research is wrong because their God (the same compassionate jehovah who ordered the death of all first born egyptian children in the fourth dynasty of egypt and called for the cannites to be wiped off the face of the earth...right after their women were "taken for wives"...that's RAPE in antiquity-talk) says each life is sacred? Or the republican senators in the southern states who say the homosexual agenda is undermining 'traditional family values' when their states consistently report the highest cases of domestic abuse in the country? Or is it really necessary for me to point out the inherent fallacies in the agenda of a party who, as little as 5 years ago had a speaker who praised a former segregationalist presidential candidate and said (in front of the country) that "maybe if (strom thurmond) were president, we wouldn't have all these problems we have today".

I do see some strategic logic in trying to base the war on terrorism somewhere other than America. How this is fair to Iraq is beyond me (as Saddam Hussein was actually somewhat good at keeping Al Qaeda out of his business since the Iraq/Iran war...not that saddam was a good person or anything). But as a lot of other people have pointed out, utilizing the war to leverage the fear vote when the majority of the country is opposed to the war not only doesn't work, but it furthers the inherent sense of distrust and suspiscion that has been dogging the current administration since 'the war on terra' began.

Nope, in all honesty, it just about gives me a migraine headache sinking down to the levels required to bitch about Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh (although I like the way he pronounces 'liberals', its like there's only one vowel..say it LIBRLS!) or Bill O'Reilly. The only sensible right wing people keep their mouths shut about social issues and pander more to economics. And at this stage of the game, even those people's "what the hell sensors" are going off every other week. They aren't out writing best selling books people my grandpa's age read because they are afraid of what 'the queers' are going to do to push AIDS to the forefront of the medical world next (as if Bill O'Reilly has the inside scoop).

So I just let those clowns do their thing. What the fuck am I going to say or do that anybody who would give me the time of day isn't already thinking/saying? Is there any post-copernican, post-freudian, post-darwinian person in the world who would pay attention to me that is afraid of the Lebanon-Israeli conflict because "that's when Jesus is going to come back"? If so, PM me and I'll set my arguments to "kindergarten". Until then, I figure most sane rational people don't need to hear one more rational person point out how idiotic this view is.

BUT-that's not to say I think the left is all peachy either. In fact, I know I've made that clear. Whoever doesn't have the power spends every ounce of energy trying to convince America that all their problems are caused by the other guy. Don't believe me? Look at the Clinton administration. Even though Newt was running his sideshow, the republicans would honestly have you believe that the reason America's economy was on the verge of a recession was because the president got his dick sucked by a hosebeast of an intern. Or if you son or daughter came out of the closet, it was because they were living under a "Sexually immoral" administration (god I wish I knew more gay people when the pundits were running that notion up the flagpole). Oh, and Clinton is late for every meeting. Even Larry King says so.

Nevertheless...I've decided to go an entire week of laying off the left and only criticizing (although its like picking on a retard) the cockammy bullshit the likes of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, or Rumsfeld, Bush, 'Condi' or whatever get-jesus-or-die special interest group says (NOTE-it has to actually cross my radar...I'm not going out looking for these dipshits).

Pray Tell my Head doesn't explode.

Let me go ahead and get this out of the way...I've never really felt like Mardi Gras is something I have to take part in before I die. In fact I don't really give a shit about it. Nevertheless, I am intrigued by the message and overall sentiment in this movie. I went ahead and ordered it. I'll post a review once I get it (however, I also just ordered season 16 of Law and Order on itunes so it may be awhile till I get around to watching it). Now, we use and abuse Mardi Gras beads fairly religiously on RAGBRAI, but I think the message this movie is attempting to communicate goes a little deeper than the beads themselves.

My initial sentiment here is that this movie will (accurate IM oh so HO) show how the people partaking in Mardi Gras are ignorant spoiled little bitches. And go figure...that's pretty much what New Orleans (at least the parts of it that weren't members of the band Down) French Quarter was before the storm.

This is what happens when I surf the web alone in Florida on a beach. To be fair though, I gotta give this one to 'ol Hank.

Couldn't have said this better myself. Kinda like that time John Kerry rode half a day of RAGBRAI and shit out cos it was like, hard and stuff.

Through the infinite wisdom that is the OMC overlords, we have ourselves a 3 day weekend this weekend to observe Martin Luther King day. So instead of like, sleeping or something, I'm just pulling myself away from the Roxbox and hitting the hay. I've tried to shake up my workflow a bit to help jog some new ideas. I made a whole shitload of 16 track audio files with varying drum beats, tempos, and so forth. Then I just jam away and pick out riffs/sounds that aren't throwaways. Prior to this, I built drumbeats around riffs and I think that leads to shit sounding less natural and contrived. This is somewhat like what I did in the late 90's when I'd jam against presets in an MC-505 until something usable came out. It sorta worked. I always did what I thought was the strongest shit when I'd jam something out with Ryan. So this is sort of my way of putting Ryan in a box (and now he never overplays! har har har). I did a lot of downtempo shit tonight and maybe something useful will come of it. Definitely felt like there were some things floating around in there that could turn into something.

In other news, Roly got his ass back to the US soil after being in the UK for the last month or so. So we celebrated that by getting retarded drunk the past couple days in various bars/clubs throughout Chicago. That went well....I guess...can it ever go bad?

McCain took South Carolina, which I think is a good thing. If Huckabee can't rally there (although he had a close one), he's going ot have a tough time on Super Tuesday.

I had an epiphany this week on the whole political landscape (at least with young yuppie liberals). The talking heads are all saying the big issues for voters this year are going to be the economy and Iraq. Yet, the big things that get hammered on are things like a candidate's views on gay marriage, their 'moral compass' and other (arguably) not-as-pressing stuff.

I believe when people can't see how things affect them in front of their face, they pay more attention to the novelty issues (and yes, to me, whether or not gay couples can get married is a novelty when compared to the health of the economy, our troops in Iraq and the health care situation). The net result is that the conversations had on the left don't seem to be straight-talk (to borrow one of McCain's buzzwords). They throw out buzzwords and pie-in-the-sky solutions without any evidence to back them up. SRSLY, even a glance at what Obama is proposing for federalizing health care shows that its entirely unrealistic and, if ever actually implemented would be a bureacratic nightmare. Any reasonable person could look at how NAFTA has been huge for promoting international trade and see how absurd John Edwards call to repeal it is. And all the leading candidates on the left that seem to think we'll "pull all the troops out of Iraq" in a year after being elected are ignoring the physics of war our 200+ years as a nation has taught us. While they're at it, maybe they can get around to getting us out of Korea and Europe since we're still holding a presence there because of wars that ended over 50 years ago. No the REALITY (that is, the one a single president doesn't have the authority or capability of altering all that much) is that we've entered a situation in Iraq where we'll always have a military presence there. The dialog needs to be about how that is going to be shaped, and less about nonsense ideas like how we're just going to 'pull out' of there. Any talk of pulling the troops entirely out as some sort of 'end goal' within a year is nothing more than pandering to people who really don't understand the situation. this same thing happened in the 04 elections with democrats too. It's like I -want- to be one of the cool hip liberal yuppie kids and support somebody like Obama because he's not a homophobe...but unfortunately, him accepting gays or not has very little to do with his position on things that have much larger effects on the future of our country. And, unlike the whole hollywood/liberal camp, I have a little bit better handle on how those bigger not-sexy issues will affect my daily life.

Am givin this my first listen though (although proper listen will be tomorrow @ work throughout the day to see how well it sits in my daily rhythm). So far so good I suppose. Lots of weird ambient noises and strange intros compared to other albums. Not sure what to make of that just yet. Definitely noticed the absence of Jason Isbell, but what ya gonna do? At least we got Sirens of the Ditch outta that departure. Lots more female vocals too. Not a bad thing, insofar. This one sounds, I dunno, more reflective? slower? somethin like that.

Anyway, it's worth more money than you're gonna pay for it, so go forth (also available on itunes and Amazon).

So that happened...prolly the only good news to come out of today. Heath Ledger went off to that brokeback mountain in the sky today. For shame, I was starting to like him, especially given that his role as The Joker looks like nothing short of a masterpiece. It certainly projects a different light on what's already the most anticipated (by me) movie of the summer.

Fred Thompson also dropped out of the race for the republican nomination today. Did he even campaign? Like did he do anything other than go on Leno and post a few Youtube vids? Pretty lame way to blow through 20 million dollars. I see the power play that went down here though. He most likely took votes of uber-conservatives and evangelicals that would have gone to Huckabee in South Carolina, so rather than risk splitting the Super Tuesday votes, he dropped out now to centralize those votes on Huckabee (who's clearly a front winner). This is the POLAR OPPOSITE of what I was hoping he'd do. Ideally, he would have stuck around through super Tuesday and kept that vote de-centralized. So that makes things all the much tougher for McCain in the next couple months (whom IM oh so HO, is the voice of reason amidst all this political gibberish---Guiliani's scandalous ass included). Meanwhile on the democrat side, their front-runners and only hope of actually taking control of the executive branch are too busy taking pot shots at each other to notice if they are alienating the independants or not. Jesus Christ how on earth do they get away with calling themselves the liberal/intellectuals? There are high school student council campaigns run with more tact and strategy than these idiots'. Democrats are making that same fucking mistake they've made the past 2 elections...they seem to think the race is between two democrats and ignoring the republicans completely.

Make no mistake, if its Huckabee, or if its McCain, the democratic nominee WILL be up against a very formidable opponent. FACT: Republicans vote..Democrats by and large do not. This in of itself will prove to be very crucial given the state of economic affairs. Furthermore, as dumb as Bush is labeled (and appears to look), he's gone round for round with Kerry and Gore in the debates. Both democratic candidates were supposedly primo debaters and ended up walking away the (arguably) loser in those things (I remember all my super left-wing friends getting all pissed cos those candidates didn't "go in for the kill"). John McCain and Mike Huckabee are way ahead of GWB in terms of debate skills. Based on what we've seen so far, either of 'em could more than handle their own against Hillary or Obama because they've both consistently taken the high road on personal attacks. Not only that, but as kooky and creepy as Mike Huckabee is with his southern baptist views...you can't deny the man has a social presence that is currently unmatched by Hillary or Barak. He's personable. Old folks will like that. And old folks vote. Hillary looks like she's all but cringing to be around people...Barak is good, but he doesn't have that good 'ol boy charm Huckabee does. And McCain, as I said is the one guy who pretty much is reasonable and not too far right or left, so I would wager he's got the best shot at securing the independants (at this juncture).

Point is..regardless of who beats who in teh democratic party...either candidate will have quite a challenge. They need to take a few notes from the way the republican campaign is being conducted and get back to the issues. Look kids, in these times of woe and want, straight talk works. Stupid pot shots like all the dumbass pundits take (on either side) are retarded and mind-numbing. Those pundits are figures engineered by the people running their programs for idiots who simply don't understand the issues and need personalities to inspire them to be excited or pissed (but at the end of the day, all they really need is for you to tune in and watch). Don't get me wrong, I have that demented part of my brain that gets pleasure out of getting pissed off at Ann Coulter just like everyone else. But Ann Coulter doesn't answer to teh same responsibilities or people a president does. We don't need a president who sinks to that level. Never did never will.

Had a time trial in swimming today. 30 minute continuous swim. I put away 2125 meters in that time. Slower than I was around mid September, but I totally wasn't prepared to be fair :-)

Oh, and I need to get on a bike trainer or somethin. It's been windy as shit on the rides home (yes, I commute daily by bike rain/snow/sleet/shine) lately and I am feelin it even in flat-ass Chicago! I'm guessing not-so-flat Alaska and southern Michigan won't be so forgiving.

Also began getting things in order with the financeers for this mortgage business. "CREDIT IS KING THESE DAYS" = exact quote from 5 different people. Not that I have bad credit, but jesus, ya really gotta throw that at me every time?

UPDATE: Better Than Creation's Dark is in fact, t3h Awesome. After a few solid listens I can't put the damn thing down. It's a total character driven album in the most awesome way. Some fuckin rockers, some mellow shit and total character all the way through. Makes me wanna buy it on vinyl (which i can supposedly do next month)

Today's schedule was pretty full. Early morning crossfit (as per the routine Monday through Thursday), then work (tending to said urgent matters from yesterday mostly) till roundabouts 6:30. I would have been home earlier except the chain on Bertha finally bit the dust, causing me to walk a mile or so home. I guess I can't complain...it survived two winters and countless rains with me not oiling it all but maybe 2-3 times. Then we had a pretty solid workout tonight, which was fun considering Chicago's weather gods decided to whip out a flash blizzard...nothin like sitting in a car after spending 2 hours in chlorine water to keep your windows perpetually fogged up. Come home, see that McCain took Florida, work on some drum tracks for a few riffs I've been tinkering with for a few hours till midnight, read up on what all went down in Florida's primary today, then type blog. In other words...this is why I'm the last person to talk about what good sitcoms and/or other primetime tele is on during the week.

But...what of that McCain victory? Must be a registered Republican to vote today...and he STILL edged out Romney (and kicked Huck's ass). Furthermore, the exit polls say the economy was far more of a concern to voters than the war in Iraq. And McCain STILL beat Romney (granted by a smidge). Things that ya go hmmm. The smart money seems to be saying this cements McCain as the guy to beat. Drew says I'm being presumptuous in calling McCain the Republican candidate...but I think as long as the pundits keep calling him the man who can beat Hillary or Obama, then, as fuckin' wacky as they are, the Conservative right is gonna line up for him. Plus now that Guiliani has announced he's going to endorse McCain, it may go to really push him next Tuesday (which is where Rudy has supposedly been spending all his time).

Hillary took the democrat side, but nobody cares since there were no delegates. Yawn.

Thanks Drew (and Mike...my bro) for pointing out Fred's similarities to Vigo (the Carpathian)...little too close for them not to be one in the same don't you think?

How the fuck is it a guy who is actually a warlock from the 10th century was able to snag himself a fine little thing like this?

Life is officially unfair

I guess this means now that he's probably out of the political realm, we're one step closer to her ending up in Playboy right?

Please vote for Obama and get that crazy hose-beast out of my life and sphere once and for all. Seriousy...the nation needs you to do the right thing

Sincerely

Dave McAnally

UPDATE: Apparently not enough people in Pennsylvania read my blog. This is you today PA.

No shit? Wow. The weather isn't exactly doing what I need it to. How the hell is it yesterday was like 30's? This doesn't bother me a bit when running, but moving along at 25mph engenders all sorts of unpleasant coldness. Ergo my cycle yesterday more or less sucked. I couldn't get the legs going. You'll have that I suppose.

Sorry it's been awhile since I've coined a blog on here. Between parties/visitors and general life, a lot has happened. First off, Ministry absolutely delivered the goods. Almost too good. At least past when the Metra heads out. So Jay had to cut out in the middle of Under My Thumb (yes the Stones cover, and yes Ministry just owns the fuck out of it). It really is too bad this is the end of the line for them. This lineup and the new batch of songs are so great live. Even Tommy Victor is good (and certain allegiances I've made require me to think of him as a giant asshole for reasons I'm not entirely aware of). Hemlock and Messugah were yawners. But Al 'n co more or less ruled the school and showed all the kids how it's done. Great time but sad to see it go.

Friday Sam was in town, and that, coupled with me still getting up around 6 on Friday left me with a completely empty tank circa 3 am or so. I'm told I "took a nap in the bushes" somewhere by Uptown lounge. This is most likely accurate cos I had mud on my pants the following day. Somehow I didn't end up in jail or mugged.

Work shit and then met up with swim peeps later on. That turned out to be fun/interesting/quizzical (is that a word? if so, does it apply here?). Suffice to say, more on that later perhaps.

Pretty boring Sunday until Roly decided some of us should take in Ironman later that night. I sorta had fair to middling expectations for this. After all, it's pretty hard to make a "seriously awesome" movie about an ultra fruity looking robot dude played by Robert Downey Jr. Turned out I was wrong. This movie actually is pretty cool (the costume even turns out to be alright, even if somewhat cheesy. Robert Downey Jr. is fucking awesome here. Ironically, the weak link in the movie seemed like Jeff Bridges. That seemed more a matter of bad casting really. He just wasn't right for the role. You can't play the Dude and then expect people to take you seriously as a bad bad guy. Not to mention it took a solid 20 minutes of him on screen until I figured out who the fuck he was. So take that for what it is worth. Was pretty decent. It's no new Indiana Jones or Dark Knight, but I pity the fool who saw that movie thinking it would be.

Meeting up with SEO peeps around the city tomorrow night in lieu of swimming. This is a meeting I was SUPPOSED to be attending once a month, but those people always saw fit to have it at 1pm on Sundays, and well, I'm beholden to nobody on that particular day at that time. So this time change is good (even if it does require me to skip practice).

Hillary took West Virginia. Not that that makes an iota of difference. Nevertheless, she's "vowed to stay in the fight". Yep..this is progress people.

Watched some of the RNC speeches last night. Fred Thompson went to great lengths to create a vivid image of how bad the torture McCain suffered in Hanoi was. Lieberman sounded like the good 'ol boy and Bush gave an ackward speech that, when stacked up against those two, revealed just how poor of a public speaker he really is.

That said, one striking difference I noticed between the DNC and the RNC themes are that the RNC spends much more energy rallying around the people, whereas the DNC rallies around their party. Perhaps this is because the Republicans have had the office for 8 years and Democrats need to "rally for the cause". Who knows.

What was painfully obvious is that the GOP is VERY good at mobilizing their base. Other than Ron Paul, they don't have issues with getting the party unified. There is no "Let's get republicans united!". It seems like all they have to do is pump up their candidates and the buy-in just sort of happens. Fred Thompson was there for the sole purpose of making people feel warm and fuzzy about John McCain (and/or put a tear in their eye).

Why does this matter? Because these people VOTE. Those old folks to like listening to Fred Thompson talk like some old southern Matlock-ish dude will be at the polls front and center. Always have, always will be. There's no concern about that. Just make them feel 'proud to be an American' and they do their civic duty.

The democrats have a problem here. Specifically, their base are liberal, typically a younger demographic and most of all, MOST of 'em don't vote. Sure, there's probably more of them, but what good is it when they don't vote?

Thus leads me to my point. And let me go ahead and say right away that I have no stats or research to back this up. This is total gut feeling. But I believe all the 'hate bush' and anti-GOP rhetoric that comes from Hollywood is actually contributing to the low voter turnout.

So let's say you need to reach young voters. Maybe the 18-21 demographic. Now, as we all know, when you are 18-21,you're basically a giant tool. If you happen to be that age, don't feel bad. I was a tool when I was that age, and someday you'll be my age looking back at what a giant tool you were when you were that age. 18-21 year old kids are exposed to TONS of media. The entertainment industry is most decidedly liberal (and anybody who thinks otherwise can just go ahead and shut the fuck up because you don't know what the fuck you're talking about). Furthermore, EVERYBODY has to have an opionion on the political landscape (regardless of how qualified or informed it is).

Let me just go ahead and say I think ALL of the entertainment industry is politically retarded. Michael Moore is a good propagandist, but he's not interested in facts. Bono doesn't know any more about how to rid the world of poverty than you or I do. And Al Jourgensen and Moby's hatred of George Bush has more to do with looking like a rebel than it does anything based in real facts. Most of these people not only do not have college educations, but live pampered lifestyles and haven't felt the pinch of a recession or had a son, daughter, brother or sister go to war in their lives. So that's how I feel about about that.

Nevertheless, these people and their ilk are VERY influential to young people. They are the faces and voices that tell kids what's cool, how to dress, who to emulate, and what are the cool things to say. This is basically the essence of pop culture. Now, when that pop culture spends an inordinate amount of time (such as hollywood has) giving interviews about how terrible Bush is, or how terrible some particular plight of some people is and how it is directly caused by Bush is in Rolling Stone, MTV, the Daily Show etc etc what are these kids supposed to think?

Here's what I think they think. They think (remember, they are tools) "gee, if PDiddy thinks Bush is an asshole and a terrible guy, EVERYBODY probably thinks like that! I better think like too!" This is why so many people hate Bush but can't name a specific policy, veto or law he signed in that instigated their hatred (HE WENT TO WAR FOR OIL!).

That leads me to my next point. If you grew up in an era of instant gratification, email and unprecedented accesibility to everything...voting is a huge pain in the ass. You have to register, take time out of your day and go to a poll (as far as I know you can't vote online), or actually "snail mail" (god remember that?) a ballot back to your precinct. Now put yourself back in the mind of this 18-21 Tool demographic. If the voting time rolls around, and all you are exposed to (what? You think most of these kids get their news from actual news or journals?) are what pop-culture influencers of your generation are sayin (BUSH SUCKS! FUCK BUSH! OBAMA IS THE WHITE KNIGHT SAVIOR, BUT STILL FUCK BUSH!)...what are you going to think? Are you going to think "gee I better get my ass out to the polls and make sure I get my say" or "Well, Obama has to have this thing shored up so no point in getting involved"? Tell the truth now

Paris Hilton was a microcasm of this very thing in 04. She was a spokesperson for Rock the Vote and talked about how "Voting is hot" (or whatever idiotic slogan she had) and how she "didn't like the war, and thought Kerry was a good choice" but then after the elections, it turned out she hadn't even registered to vote? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

So to the entire entertainment industry. Just shut the fuck up. No really. Stop it. You're not helping. If you feel the need to express your political views, say nice things about Obama. Talk about how great you think he is. Give examples of policies he's initiated in Illinois or in the senate that you're happy about. Make a case for how great Obama is. The GOP WILL get their base out. They will vote in droves. Their base is a generation that doesn't live in a world of instant gratification and doesn't give a shit what Moby, Rage Against the Machine, PDiddy or Paris Hilton think about, well, anything. If you REALLY support Obama, then you need to mobilize the young demographic. In fact, as this race is in a deadlock, that untapped resource of potential voters are your ace in the hold (provided you stop fucking things up). Stop giving them this false sense of a reality that the Republicans are so evil and vile that nobody in the nation would ever actually vote for one.

I've been watching this election with more of a marketing mindset this year than last. I've got my hard-wired differences with the democrats and republicans that don't really change from election to election. They put different people up, they basically talk shit about each other ultimately want to do the same things they always say they are going to do. Nevertheless, I've been watching the election process and the bump Sarah Palin's jump into the fray has given the Republicans. More specifically, I've been curious as to how Democrats will react. They came into the RNC with pretty good momentum and the entire scene was turned on its side. It seems like Barak is no longer the rock star and that particular honor has gone to Sarah Palin (for better or worse). Overall, I've been pretty disappointed with how the Democrats are responding so far. If I were in charge of their campaign, these are some things I would do:

-Shoot holes in the unity of the McCain/Palin ticket ASAP - With the Republicans pushing Sarah Palin as a politcal maverick and aggressive reformer, now is the time for democrats to attack the massive earmarks Alaska has, her spending in Wasilla and her alliance to senator Stevens. They need to show how Palin's record demonstrates the exact things McCain claims to be against. Since the Republicans are basically keeping Palin away from the spotlight, now is the perfect time to get McCain/Palin on the defense. Democrats have a great opportunity to force her and McCain into explaining the discrepency.

-Stop Talking about how "We Don't Need More of the Same" - Are we really in 2008 pretending hedging on a line like this will work? Here's a clue Democrats: anybody this line is going to resonate with is already voting for Obama and any undecided is hearing the same thing from the other side. It's a dead-locked zero-sum argument and it's a loser. Replace this talking point with some specifics. What exactly don't we need more of? What is it in the McCain/Palin ticket's agenda that supports that? We know McCain voted 90% in agreement with the Bush administration, but what does that mean for the future? Keep this 'more of the same' talk focused on the economy. Narrow the focus.

-Bring your A game for the debates - This is a problem for democrats. As Bush would say, "they misunderestimate". Year after year. It's pathetic. Govenor Palin and Senator McCain are already being branded as underdogs for this from what I can see, and if there is one thing the Republican Party is good at, it's holding their own in a debate. Do not assume you've got this in the bag beacuse Biden has the experience and Obama has the eloquence.

-Frame the battle around Education - I think this is a weak point in the Republican platform Democrats can hit on. And it sounds like this is an area a lot of moderates are concerned with. Show how open enrollment will lead to more closed schools because the system isn't set up for people to compete (I personally flip flopped on this after talking with my mom). This is also a great segue into Obama's education plan, which hasn't really been discussed in detail (although I suspect it'll be a hot point come debate time).

-Stop talking about how important it is to create wealth for the middle class and just talk about creating wealth. - This is a position the liberals in America take I whole heartedly disagree with. It hasn't, nor will it ever be, the governments job to figure out how to make the middle class more wealthy by comparison. This position is an insult to everybody who worked from the ground up to earn higher incomes (I pigeonhole myself in this category) and democrats rely on people's ignorance to this in order for it to work. They need to re-brand their entire tax plan around creating wealth and making everyone better off (even though it won't for the upper upper classes who will be much worse off). I think they could do a much better job of selling it through to Americans by cutting out this "Oh the most important thing we can do is make the middle class wealthy!" bullshit.

But of all these, the first up should be the McCain/Palin division. They really need to attack the republicans from how the records of Palin and McCain don't sync up at all. There's a lot of really powerful points to be made that not only SHOULD Palin and McCain explain, and since we know McCain only met Palin for 15 minutes before the RNC, there's a strong argument to be made against McCain's "maverick 'thinks for himself"" position. The Republican ticket seems to hinge on the unity of the party and how effectively they shore up the base. Shoot holes in it and do it fast.

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted what's been going on. Been a lot and a little.

Just got done doing an interval run out on the lake path tonight. I'm really trying to work at getting faster. the problem with working at getting faster is that it kicks your ass. I'm just beginning to ramp up for the marathon in January, but i want to do it in a way that I can actually finish under 4 hours. This summer was an eye opener to how shitty my run is. I'm looking at various training/coaching facilities in Chicago that cater to running. The Tri Club had a meeting last week where they introduced a bunch of them. Hopefully I'll have that hashed out by next week.

On another (sort of) downer...I've decided to back out of buying that Hummer. As it turns out, we got this here recession/crisis/hiccup thang going on gee gaw! You see, originally, the arrangement was that I would simply hand over my mustang, and they would hand me over the truck and the payments I was making on the Mustang would now go to GMAC and that would be that. In essence, it wouldn't really change anything money-wise for me. However, since said arrangement came to pass, GMAC seems to have drastically altered how they go about loaning money. That is to say, "we may require just a little bit up front in cash in addition to the car". How much is 'a little'? Oh you know, 5 fucking grand or so! Why is my definition of "a little" and the Hummer Dealer/GMAC so radically different? After mulling it over, I decided yanking that money out of savings (aka condo downpayment kittie, for whenever people besides Warren Buffet can get a mortgage) would not be wise given these times of woe and want. As a result I figured it would be better to chalk that $500 I gave them to order the truck up as idiot tax and keep on keepin on. The fact of the matter is that the Mustang is a perfectly good/stable/reliable/cool car. Doesn't exactly suit my needs, but whatever. Chicks dig it!

This weekend I'm going to Boston for my cousin's wedding. Good times...I havent' seen some of these folks in a few years and they are all good people. Good drinkers too...and Boston is a fun fucking down to party in. It'll be nice to go there and not have work going on.

Other than that...I'm back into lifting again. I want to see how much lean muscle I can build up in the off season (with respect to running of course). Getting up early is a bitch, but what the fuck ever.

Oh, and also...so Shelly and I are going to be going up to Milwaukee (and/or Madison?) for a couple days in a couple weeks. Unfortunately, this is occuring on a Saturday and Sunday. I have no idea what to do in those towns. Basically I'm up for anything (I haven't taken time away from work that hasnt' involved a race or cycling event in, like, forever, so just getting wasted and chilling seems great to me). Does anybody have any suggestions/ideas for things to do? And no fucking Paintball.

Craziness around here. Sorry I haven't updated lately. As y'all know, we have ourselves a president elect. I'm cool with him. It became pretty apparent to me late in the election that he was really in a better position to lead the country. I've said it before and I'll say it again- the success of Obama's presidency won't be based on how smart he is, or what he knows about war, economy etc, but rather his ability to bring those in the know together and get them to work towards a common good. Some of the names being bandied about for cabinet members support my feeling there. We'll see how that economic conference pans out today. One thing I can say for sure is that it's looking more and more like Obama will be bailing out GM, whether he likes it or not.

So we took in the festivities in Grant Park on Tuesday night. I'll say this, watching Obama speak on TV, and seeing it in person are two entirely different experiences. Boy howdy that dude's got the 'it' factor (whatever that is). There's little doubt we're in for some top dollar state-of-the-union addresses in the coming years. These pics are from my phone, but you get the idea of how vast it was

So that was that.

This weekend we had Travis's Halloween party, which was most excellent. They had an egyptian motif which I summarily fucked up on by going as a 'snow queen' (whatever the hell...it was the last costume they had at target). Friday I saw Jason Isbell at Beat Kitchen. Awesome show. Last time i saw Isbell was when he was with the Drive By Truckers at a place called The Mill in Iowa City amidst a crazy blizzard. We talked after the show and he remembered the gig, which was cool.

This weekend I'm going to the Quad Cities to see Metallica with my little brother. It's been over 10 years since I've seen 'em (wow really?). I'm due I guess. Plus the Death Magnetic songs sound like they will translate live very well. Other than that, despite the cold, I'm taking my mountain bike and intend on hitting the trails therein (Sugar Bottom this time if they are nice and open the trails for the weekend...I haven't been there yet, btu everyone who has sings its praises anytime they get a chance).