Awesome Time

I was combing through the piles and piles of coverage surrounding tonight’s State of the Union address (9pm ET, live on C-SPAN and I’m sure everywhere else too), which will be George Bush’s last as President, and I found this neat little clip put together by the Campaign for America’s Future:

(h/t DownWithTyranny and C&L)

It’s always amazed me just how brazen he can be with some of the things he says. You can bet that tonight’s speech will contain much more of the same.

My grandfather had a friend who was fond of saying that the closest he ever came to a religious experience was hearing his first Frank Sinatra record. Old Blue Eyes’ stylings never made me feel the touch of God, but this morning, I think, for the first time, understood the essence of what Mr. Briggs was talking about.

That’s because I was fortunate enough to stumble across this, David Lee Roth’s isolated lead vocal track from Van Halen’s 1978 hit Runnin’ with the Devil. The song is the first track from the band’s self-titled debut album, and opens with the 10 seconds of honking car horns before morphing into a thumping guitar riff. In other words, could there have been a better way for Van Halen to introduce themselves to the world?

And just in case you had any doubt as the vocal mastery of David Lee Roth-and I’m not sure how anyone could after his inflection of “burning” into “boinin” made the song “Panama”- this .mp3 should clear that up.

I can’t believe I paid money to see Pirates of the Caribbean III. I really didn’t want to, but Pirates II ended on a semi-cliffhanger, so I really had to. NO WAY they planned that when the original movie came out. The original worked much better as a stand alone movie. I’m not going to go into detail, because I know all five of you that read this are probably clammering to see it, but suffice it to say that the first Pirates of the Caribbean has forever been tarnished in my mind because of Disney’s decision to “trilogize.”

tril·o·gize

verb, -gized, -giz·ing. (haha)

–verb (used with object)

–verb (used without object)

I know I shouldn’t care, because the first movie wasn’t really that good. And I know that this is probably the nerdiest blog post I could ever write without mentioning Final Fantasy, comic books, or Magic cards.

…It was just so bad. Not only was it epic length (~3 hours), but it had just about every epic/trilogy cliche possible in it. The most ridiculous part is when Keira Knightley, the chick from Bend it Like Beckham and newly crowned Pirate Queen, goes off on this Aragon/William Wallace-esque “there may come a day when the world of man comes to and end… but they’ll never take our FREEDOM!!!” kind of speech to get the troops all fired up before the final battle. PAINFUL.

You really can tell when a movie studio had no plans to make a trilogy until the original movie made bank. The first movie of the trilogy has a happy ending (Neo becomes “the One,” Luke blows up the Death Star), the second movie has a cliffhanger ending, and the third movie kills off a few of the big characters and ties things up in an unsatisfying way. There’s always a dropoff in revenue from first to second and another from second to third. That’s because the fans lose interest and the movies simultaneously get worse (Star Wars fans–Don’t kid yourself, Empire was garbage). Somebody who saw Empire didn’t return to see Jedi. Wanna know why? They didn’t give a shit. I probably wouldn’t have bothered seeing Matrix Revolutions if Phil’s grandmother hadn’t bought my ticket.

Any thoughts? I know I can’t be alone on this.

Today is January 21, which means that there is now officially less than a year until the end of the Bush Administration.

Granted, a year is still a hell of a long time, especially given the fever pitch of this election cycle, but it’s nice to take a moment and reflect that we have less than a year until our long national nightmare is over.

Of course, now we just need to hope (and make sure, by voting) that the light we see at the end of the tunnel is actually sunshine, and not the front of a train…

In honor of Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg commencing the eighth year of their ESPN radio morning show, the World Wide Leader staged a roast for them last Friday night in Las Vegas. According to the Atlantic City Press, it wasn’t just the backslapping circle jerk you’d expect. In fact, it was worse.

Take this nugget:

Luckily, rock-pop trio Lifehouse played a semi-acoustic set to open the evening, performing a 20-minute, hit-filled set that included “Hanging By a Moment,” “You and Me,” “Falling Even More In Love With You” and “Who We Are.” While short, the set was certainly sweet as frontman Jason Wade showed off his great vocal chops. It definitely added some value to the night

I guess “Train” was already booked. Does Lifehouse actually have a song called “Falling Even More In Love With You”? Or did the author just list “Hanging By A Moment” twice under a different name? I’m too lazy and ambivalent to Google it.

H/T as usual to Deadspin.

I am a non-partisan, issues-based voter, and I’m indifferent to most issues. I mean, sure, I have opinions, I just can’t seem to get as excited about Medicare benefits or an additional alcoholic beverage tax as other people seem to.

The result? I’ve never voted. To be fair, I was ineligible when then 2000 Presidential election rolled around, and I was registered to vote in PA while living in MD for about seven years, but there’s really no excuse. I’m lazy and indifferent. I plan on voting this November, but anything could happen.

The closest I ever came to voting was when (football hall-of-famer) Lynn Swann was running for Governor. As you may well remember, part of Swann’s campaign in Pittsburgh involved the endorsement of Isle of Capri in its bid for the local slots license, which would have meant $280 million in private funds for a new arena, which would have meant the Penguins would stay in town. And, if I needed any further reason to vote Republican, there’s always this. Governor Rendell, on the other hand, didn’t openly endorse any particular deal, but he was rumored to be chummy with Forest City Enterprises, who were campaigning for a Harrah’s casino in Station Square, and he was openly dubious about public funding for an arena (see: “Plan B”). I ultimately declined to vote. Swann ultimately got raped in the election. Don Barden (neither Harrah’s nor Isle of Capri) ultimately got the slots license, and proceeded to frustrate North Side residents with his intentions to build a 300-story garage on the waterfront. The Penguins managed to get a new arena deal regardless.

In retrospect, the Isle of Capri proposal was a really bad idea (except for the whole private arena funding aspect), and I’m glad that I didn’t vote. Proponents emphasized job opportunities and the fact that with private funding, more of the slots revenue could go towards development, but it involved putting a casino in the Hill. What a terrible idea. I’m supremely embarrassed that I supported it.

Furthermore, it seems now that Hill District residents are at risk of getting fucked over once again. Mayor Ravenstahl unveiled the plan for the Hill about a week ago, which included services and planned facilities (such as a new grocery store and YMCA) but included no revenue sharing agreement that would put dollars directly into the hands of Hill developmental groups. In essence, it would be totally unbinding. The proposal lacked even job guarantees for minorities at the new arena, causing even a die-hard Penguins fan such as myself to be dubious. Predictably, Hill District residents rejected the proposal (in dramatic fashion).

Seriously: Given the oft-recognized financial plight of our city, the predicted upcoming recession, and Mayor Ravenstahl’s (perceived) lack of sincerity, what are the odds that the new arena, which is scheduled to begin construction in the next few months, will materialize into any tangible benefits for the residents of the Hill District without something to make it binding?

I was going to write something longer about Gary Kamiya’s newest piece on Salon, but I can’t. Just go read it.

And while you’re at it, check out this piece at Group News Blog (which, again, I found through C&L) that deconstructs the Dem “Big Three” by their use of language.  Fascinating.

I came across an op-ed piece by William Poundstone in today’s New York Times that really opened my eyes on some methods for discouraging election fraud, especially when using electronic voting machines. Poundstone, author of the shortly-to-be-released Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren’t Fair (and What We Can Do About It), highlights a system proposed by Drs. Warren D. Smith, a math professor at Temple, and Ronald L. Rivest, a professor of computer science at MIT who helped invent RSA encryption (he’s the ‘R’).

With computing power increasing exponentially, it’s continually getting easier for someone with enough computer knowledge (and you don’t need much) to break into an electronic voting machine and alter the vote counts. Even more worrisome is that the manufacturers of these machines don’t seem to be taking the security of our votes as seriously as they perhaps ought to. Remember the Diebold e-voting scandal from a few years ago? Unfortunately, even a simple paper record of how you voted is no defense against a fraud-minded election worker. It also doesn’t comfort those who prefer to keep their votes secret, and the secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of a good democracy. Or your ballot could simply be lost…

Who better, then, than two of the country’s finest minds in the field of cryptography and information security, to talk about a way to keep our elections secure? What Rivest and Smith have come up with is brilliantly elegant, pleasantly democratic, and ironically simple.

You don’t encrypt the machines. You throw the doors open on the whole system and make everyone an enforcer.

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I was doing my usual morning surf of the news and blogosphere, and I came across this clip on Salon that I just had to share here. I’ve always thought Jacques Pepin was a brilliant chef, and it turns out he’s generally a pretty interesting guy too. Enjoy.

Here’s some minor food for thought:

The Iowa Caucuses, “silly” though they may be, are the first real look we have at how the American people may vote come November. Polls are all well and good, but this was the first time in this election cycle where people actually took time out of their weekday to go and vote for a candidate for President. Iowa has also often been talked about as something of a swing state, so I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to look at the results as a possible microcosm of how the rest of the country might vote.

Now, keeping in mind that this is to be taken with a big grain of salt, I combined the Democratic and Republican vote counts (according to Wikipedia) into a single chart, and the result is pretty startling:

(h/t Hubris Sonic at Group News Blog for giving me the idea, and C&L, always my first stop in the world of political blogs, for finding the post)

I realize it’s January, and it’s the Iowa Caucus, and every other caveat you can think of, but in a year where both sides were breathless about record voter turnout, the combined totals were roughly 2 to 1 in favor of the Democrats. That’s even more amazing when you consider the fact that the Democratic caucus’s process is much more time-consuming and arcane than the Republican caucus.

If these results from Iowa turn out to be any kind of indicator about how the rest of the country will vote in November, the Republicans are toast.

One can only hope.