Figure of Speech

Thursday night at the local Democratic HQ we had a watch party to see Obama accept the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. During this event I gave a speech to those in attendance, about 80 people, on our need for them to volunteer, so I figured I might as well get a post out of it, so here you go:

Good Evening everyone, thank you so much for coming tonight to share in this historic moment. It’s incredible to get to see so many of the people we’ve worked with along the way, and even more exciting to get to talk to so many new people.

These fresh faces are going to be the focus of my comments tonight. Allow me an opportunity to apologize up front for any statement that may come off as though I’m preaching to or lecturing to you, I promise you that is not my intention. If this is the case it can be attributed three factors. The first of which is my belief in your ability to affect change. The second is my firsthand knowledge of how rewarding it is to volunteer for this campaign. The last and most vital is the importance of making sure we do absolutely everything within our power and abilities to elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States of America.

I am completely sympathetic with what you’re going through. Your heart is telling you that you have to get involved, you have to do something. But your mind keeps getting in the way and discouraging you, telling you that you don’t know enough about politics or that you don’t have the time, or that you’ve never done anything like this before. Well, the truth is folks neither have any of us. We’ve never had a candidate that motivated us to take part. Never in my life, for any candidate, for any office, in any election, have I made a monetary donation, made a phone call, registered a voter, or knocked on a door, but I stand here today having done all of those things, often in other states. I didn’t do this for some dream of a political future or for a line on a resume’, I have done it and keep doing it because I have pledged 100% support for Barack Obama and am scared to death of the consequences should I not do my part. I love that my brother jokes that I’m doing all this work and he’s just going to vote for McCain and cancel out my vote. And he’s right about our votes canceling each other out, but he can’t cancel out my voice, he cant cancel out the number of pro-Obama voters I’ve registered, he cant cancel out the number of voters I’ve personally persuaded off the fence, and while he waivers in his support for McCain he cannot cancel out my faith in Barack Obama.

Maybe what’s holding you back is that you just cannot stomach letting go and investing your entire self into this campaign, for fear of the heartache that comes with losing. And boy do we know about the heartache of losing in Northeast Ohio from our beloved Browns, Cavaliers and Indians. The list of what we’ve endured reads like titles from a horror series, Willie Mays’ “The Catch,” Michael Jordan’s “The Shot,” John Elway’s “The Drive,” Earnest Byner’s “The Fumble,” and the extremely gruesome “Jose Mesa”. I myself cannot live through this kind of heartache and heartbreak again, but here’s the difference: no matter what I did watching, special seat, lucky shirt, morning in church praying, or offering my soul to the devil in the closing seconds, there was absolutely nothing I could do to alter the outcome of those games. I couldn’t come off the bench and make a tackle, couldn’t get the big hit, or block a shot. But in this contest I don’t have to be and more importantly refuse to be a spectator. I am a player and I can say with pride, but without arrogance, on Election Day that I helped change the course of history and saved this country; saved it not just from John McCain and not just from four more years of failed Bush policies, but saved our government and democracy from becoming unrecognizable to our Forefathers and Constitutional Framers.

We know from 2004 just how important Ohio is to winning the White House. And we know how important every vote is. And we know that every door you knock on, every phone call you make, every mind you change, every rumor you refute, every voter you register, every voter you drive to the polls, brings us one step closer to ensuring Ohio is delivered into Barack Obama’s column. And if you help us deliver Ohio for Barack Obama, there is no doubt in my mind we will deliver Barack Obama to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I promise you folks it is so much easier than you think. It’s like anything else unfamiliar, you just have to try it once and your fears are washed away.

I’d like to close by paraphrasing the great American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead….Do you know why you should never doubt in the ability of a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens to change the world?

Because, it is the only thing that ever has!

OH-IO

FIRED UP! READY TO GO!

****Editor's Note Thanks to Ron Severtis who was busy but still found time to help me tweak a few areas.

Jesus of Suburbia

Back on February 24th, of 2007 I wrote a post titled, Personal Jesus, about a coffin that was found in Jerusalem. Many believed it that it may be the resting place of Jesus Christ, while religious wackos dismissed it before hearing any of the science behind it, because well science is made up and the Bible is all fact.

Turns out the fanatics were right this time. The picture above shows what was found hiding inside the coffin and as you can see its far from the Messiah.

Vegas Two Times

After weeks of speculation and days of procrastination Jay Vegas-on-the-Lake loaded up his car to begin is journey back to being Jay Vegas. He managed to stretch out his last night in town to about 7 last nights in town, due in no small part to his friends begging him to stay, "One more day," "through the weekend," or "until we can see Step-brothers." It wasn't quite the 7 straight days of drunkenness we experienced in '96 when he first moved out there, which included a party at his house, my 21st b-day party, a party at Narducci's, a relatively decent get together at Silva's and God only knows what else. Nevertheless, it was pretty fun.

On Friday before leaving Jay B. was kind enough to indulge me in this photo opportunity oh him throwing away a free pizza. he had done the same thing about 13 years earlier, except it wasn't a giveaway pizza from a gas station, it was half of a 16" Capo's garlic pizza. I was working accross the street from Capo's at the time at Sports & Sports, this pretty much meant I was eating Capo's 7 days a week, up from the usual 6 for the summer. If I was going over Jay's or Marty's to hang out I'd bring whatever I didn't eat for them to enjoy. Well Jay didn't want it and just couldn't handle the stress of the box sitting on the table in his garage so he walked it down to the curb and placed it in the trash. Even though Marty or Valentic would be around soon and once we started drinking there would no doubt be a hungry mouth. Anyway, Jay has never really lived this story down, in his words it's been, "beaten into the ground," so I have to thank him for allowing one more shot at him for this story.

I did tell Jay via test message that his leaving would be a lot like when Goose died.

Jay, Godspeed and I hope things work out in Las Vegas.

****Editor's Note Yeah we took the Capo's pizza off the top of the rubbish that night and ate it anyway after a few Beast Lites.

Lime in the Coconut

Friday started off Armstrong weekend and since Rob took one photo all weekend that left me to try and report on the events of late Friday, early Saturday and reeeaaally early Saturday. I started the night off going out to the Old Firehouse Winery with Jay B., Denny, Cagoots and others. We finally manged to hear some good music there provided by the Four Kings. They're a cover band that specializes turning the songs you know into funk tunes, even songs like Sweet Home Alabama. This was kind of a surprise since 3 of the 4 Kings are black and the song has some racial undertones if you know its history. Stemmy and Rob didn't make the GOTL until close to 12:30 due to the Dick Shine softball tourney in Cuyahoga Falls.

We enjoyed one big beer there together before heading down the Strip to Sportsterz. We had a couple 16oz. BL's before heading back to town for some more beers at home and some Sausage and Peppers that I had made earlier and were waiting for us in the crock pot.

Due to the generosity of the local Bud distributor we aqquired some Bud Light Lime hats and that became the theme for the weekend. We wore the white hats with all white polos. Underneath we had matching lime t-shirts which rob had doctored to include names, numbers, and the greasy weasel logo. The polos as always came off on the second tee and we went with the sleeveless lime tees for the remainder of the round. My cart partner, Stemmy, and I also wore matching black and white checkered sweatbands. To the right you can see how it looked sans polo, I did wear my hat straight though for the record.

Rob chose to stick to our "Fruit" theme by trying on a peach colored polo of Karen's. As you can see he looked FABULOUS!.

Sometime around 4:30 the idea of taking the rest of the beer out to the golf course then and staying up all night was tossed out by me as a joke. Unfortunately we spent the next hour talking about it. I kept repeating the line from Glengary Glen Ross, "Are we talking about this, or are we talking about this?" We flipped a coin and decided not to go, then we went to bed, then we got back up and talked about it some more. Ended up with roughly 2 and a half hours of sleep and 18 holes of picturing my couch every time i blinked.

My round was all over the place with a handful of pars, a birdie 2, (which one me a "closest to the pin prize" on a 190+ yard par 3), a lot of easy par puts missed and a few of 7+s sprinkled in, earning me a 101 for the miserable round. I did get some payback on Stemmy this year hitting the cart on one hop with an errant 60 yard wedge shot. FORE!

We have tentatively decided on an OSU theme for next year, and apparently I get to be an "O" in this scenario. It's gonna take a lot of gym time and starvation to take the "I' away from Rob or Shanny.

As always thanks for a great time boys, can't wait for next year.



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Now playing: Sugar Beats - (Lime in the) Coconut
via FoxyTunes

George Carlin (1937-2008)

WARNING: ADULT POST

It's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted and many of you have let me know that it's been too long. I have had so much to discuss, but just haven't bothered to sit down and put thoughts together. But I awoke at 5:30 and had a text message on my phone that saddened me deeply, It was from Jay B and said George Carlin died. Carlin was/is one of Jay's heroes as well as mine. Honestly going back as far as I can remember watching things I probably shouldn't have on HBO I've been laughing hysterically at Carlin's comedy and thinking about the message behind the jokes.

Carlin had been around a long time starting as most comics did 40+ years ago in a suit and tie. Then he tossed that away and went to the jeans and sweater and long hair and beard that you recognize today. Doesn't stand out much now but in that time it was a big deal in comedy. I listened to Artie Lang and Richard Belzer discuss this transformation toda. They said it wasn't as big a deal as Dylan goes Electric, but for comedy it was. He revolutionized Stand-up comedy, and was voted Comedy Central's #2 comedian of all time behind Richard Pryor, (not to shabby a guy to be behind). He was the first SNL host, had appeared on the Tonight Show 130 times,and was selected to receive the Mark Twain lifetime achievement for humor award in November.

Carlin was once arrested for his "7 Dirty Words" routine, which later led to a 5-4 Supreme Court Decision that the Federal Communications Commission had the right to sanction what was on the public airwaves. Carlin's bit itself was dubbed "Indecent but not obscene."If you didn't know prior to this the FCC sole resonsibility was to make sure that 2 stations in Pigsknuckle, Arkansas were broadcasting on frequencies that might interfere with each other. (They didn't seem to mind a certain local hillbilly music station, owned by clear channel at the time, using a signal .2 of a frequency lower than 98.5 WNCX out of Cleveland leaving Ashtabulans unable to listen to Howard Stern. But that's a whole other gripe).

So as I sat around today and laughed all over again at a bunch of classic Carlin videos, from "Football vs. Baseball" to "The 10 Commandments" to "Warlike people" I knew that I was going to break one of my rules in this post for my hero, I was not only going to allow bad language, however these videos are so genius, and the funny thing is they are strictly dissecting the words and meanings and not used to be dirty. Here is an updated version of "7 Dirty Words" and "The F Word" (I don't believe it's Carlin's voice, but he did write it). Enough of an explanation anyway, just enjoy. And when you're done why don't you can go outside and play hide and go fuck yourself!

Rest in Peace George, you've left us plenty here to laugh and think about and because of that you will NEVER truly be gone.

Happy Worst Day

In the sports world there have been a few events that I could write about. For example there was finally a close Elite 8 game Sunday evening as Davidson came up just short of a huge upset and stepping into the Final Four. There was Wrestlemania XXIV Sunday night which showed us, what appears to be, Ric Flair's final match. While this really deserves its own post, it will have to wait or be skipped. Yesterday was, for the most part the opening of the baseball season if you don't count some ridiculous 6 am games in Japan and the Sunday Night opener. The Indians won 10-7 in a game that was pretty fun to watch.

But now my complaint. I HATE TODAY! I understand it but still I hate it. I, Hell we, waited 163 days to watch some Tribe baseball and we got it, all the pomp and pageantry, all the hope and thoughts of warmer days ahead, and all the sights and sounds of Major League Baseball. Then what do they do after baseball has finally arrived, after a long cold winter, they take a day off!!!

They do it because Opening Days are usually sellouts or close to it, and since it's early Spring/late Winter the give the teams a buffer should home openers need to be rescheduled. Still I don't care, I don't like it. You count down the days till pitchers and catchers report, till all players report, till Spring Training games begin, and mostly until Opening Day...and then they take a break!!!

It just stinks, if your team wins its first game you want them to play again because you're excited. If they lost it you want to erase the memory quickly. Instead all you have to do is blog about how you hate the day after opening day.

And this wasn't even in my list of things to complain about this week.

Death of the Corn

Here you can see the 2008 Corn King, Ricardo Pugliese, as he is prepared for burial. Ricky was the first to lose his tournament life this year, while others, mostly Kovacs and Orlando, remained on life support to out live the Jerk.

Rick's death brings great joy to many as no one brags about winning, (though it doesn't happen that often anymore), or runs their mouth on draft day as much as he does. Matter of fact he was already laughing at all the supposed excuses everyone else was going to use, leaving himself none. On one hand he can use the excuse he had the lowest pick in the first round, but there are still teams left taken in later rounds, so that holds little water. Plus he took Duke with that pick, now I love Duke, but my words when he took the Blue Devils were, "Dammit, i was hoping to get them in the 2nd round." Plus, he didn't have the worst picks overall, I believe that distinction went to Mark O.

Anyway Jerk, enjoy being the biggest loser...you've earned it!

Radio Ga Ga

"Quiet you numbskulls! I'm broadcasting"

Last weekend was Big Friends Weekend, and I should have blogged about it already, but because of Good Friday falling in the middle of it, giving me an extra day off, I also had an extra day of drinking. Thus my desire to blog was dulled. It took another week because I have been fighting some sort of chest infection since Saturday afternoon.

BFW hit a new high, or low, depending on how you look at it. Local sports radio host Joe Pete Jr. broadcasted a special edition of "The Sports Report" from Rick's basement, as you can see in this picture of Joe with his "cans" on. The show featured certain individuals being called out on the air for not being present due to lack of manhood and a controversial call from Donnie V. "The Bopper" managed to tick off the shows biggest sponsor, Domino's Pizza, by saying on the air during a call in that he was picking up Salvato's Pizza on his way over and not Domino's because he wasn't eating cardboard. Needless to say the Domino's owner was not happy and expressed his displeasure in an immediate text to the host.

On the plus side, as far as I know we kept the language polite and WFUN didn't receive any fines. Of course, they also came during the 2 hour break in TV coverage.

It should also be noted that for the first time in at least a decade no one referred to it as Big Great Lakes Weekend. Since the dealership lost a deal to Rick's employers Paquet Auto Group they were all banned from coming. Yes, Bopper came anyway.

So hoping I feel better soon I have a few things to blog about over the next few days, mostly complaining so that should be fun. There may also be a Can of Corn Trophy winner tonight, if nothing else I will at least try to post his name, (even if its mine) along with a embarassing picture of them.

Primary Obstacle

So here's to unfulfilled blogging promises. I canvassed in Conneaut yesterday and didn't finish until 7:30 (OOH EXIT POLL NUMBERS ARE COMING IN!) then I had to pick up Mattie ands take one more crack at convincng Bonita to vote for Obama. I think she still voted for Hillary but I think I at least convinced her that he isn't a Muslim Terrorist.

Speaking of which, a lady I met through the campaignhas a kid who goes to Geneva's Jr High. The child's math teacher told the class that Obama is a terrorist, because he is a Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists...allegedly. As far as allegations go this is a supposedly educated person who did about 5 things wrong in one sentence. But I'm not going to comment until I hear what others have to say.

As lies like this continue coupled with the incompetence of the Ashtabula BOE and city officials my need to attack ignorant people has subsided because I just cant take any more.

Polls close in two hours so I'm not going to bother stumping for Barack anymore. I just hope all of you exercised your right and responsibility to vote today.

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

So Its been an incredibly long time since my last post, and its not because I haven't had anything to post about. The problem has been time and motivation. One of the topics I wanted to post about was the Flogging Molly concert Karen and I went to in the middle of February. You may remember it was about the worst weather of the year; snow; rain; cold; ice... It was bad enough that my niece wasn't allowed to go, and that was probably the right decision. I am hoping to have some pictures soon of Jay B's birthday bash last night, but until then I'll post about what I'm currently doing.

Right now I'm sitting in Barack Obama Campaign Headquarters in Ashtabula. It is located in the rear of the E-Comm Cafe on Main Avenue. The young lady pictured (left) with Senator Obama is our Field Organizer from the Obama Campaign. I spent yesterday knocking on doors for Obama. I was a little nervous, but it was a great experience. I canvassed the West side of Station Ave, so I saw some familiar faces and was invited in to sit and chat at a few homes. The goal in Ohio is to knock on 1 million doors, from 10 AM yesterday by the close of the polls on Tuesday. My plan is to go back out tomorrow after school again.

In the meantime I came to HQs to make phone calls. There was also a goal of 1 million phone calls, that was already met yesterday and raised to 1.5 million. I came here because there was a problem, i thought, with the website. You log in and it automatically generates an Ohio call list. The problem is the site is OVERLOADED!!! There are so many people logging in to make calls that the site can't handle the traffic. So I decided to try and wait it out a bit and post.

Guess that's it for now. I promise another post tomorrow before the Ohio Primary Tuesday, it will be my last Obama pitch for a while. Remember to get out and vote Tuesday, if you cant for some reason. GET TO YOUR COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS BY 4:30 TOMOROW! You can vote early in Ohio.

Super Obama Girl

A Perfect Sunday

Well the Patriots have one last team to spy on this year, they can peep the UNDEFEATED '72 Dolphins pop their annual bottles of celebratory champaign. I've been waiting all season to write about this, and now I can. While I would have had no issues with the Patriots winning the Super Bowl, I am tired of the Dolphins getting blasted for celebrating each year when an undefeated team has it's first loss. I do not feel this is in anyway classless. I am sure that anyone of these players would be the first to congratulate a player for besting one of their individual records.

But the undefeated season is a team accomplishment , it sets them apart from every other team ever, (except the 15-0 1948 Browns), more importantly it keeps their bond strong. These guys love getting together every year to celebrate their accomplishment, and I don't blame them for not wanting that to end.

I also believe the Patriots will have Coach Shula and his boys worried again next year. Until then Great season New England, but not good enough.

Super Freak

First off I need to handle a few things. We, (Karen, Mattie, and myself), want to express or gratitude to all of you who made a point to send your sympathies for Karen's Dad. Whether on the blog, by phone, by text, in a card, or in person they were all greatly appreciated and helpful. I also owe a special thanks to Stacy Silva for setting us up with a cheap hotel room for the week, don't know what we would have done if we didn't have a place to get away from everything.

Second, the President's State of the Union address. I sat in the hotel and took notes, problem was it was hardly worth writing about. The only thing more boring than this lame duck's speech was the snoozer of a Democratic rebuttal. The one thing I thought was interesting about it was that W continued his trend or renaming things. Last year global warming became global climate change as he finally admitted it existed. This year the term Pell Grants for kids became the new code word for school vouchers.

Now on to the purpose of today's post. We have two "super" events coming up. The Super Bowl in a few hours and Super Tuesday in a few days. My question for all of you is which are you more excited and/or intrugued by?

I am definitely Super Bowl coveraged out! I've had two weeks of it, which is way too much, and just want it to be over with. It really is completely ridiculous, Tom Brady's foot, Plaxico's prediction, WHO CARES? Let's make a big deal about the Giants thinking they're going to win, honestly what are they supposed to think, "We've got no chance, were just going for the sunshine and to watch commercials."

On the other hand Super Tuesday is going to give us a great insight into who our Presidential candidates will be and which direction our country will head into over the next 4-8 years. So obviously my vote is for Super Tuesday, of course I'll be watching both anyway. And incase you're wondering the Ohio Primary is March 4th.

Father's Song

I apoligize in advance if any of this doesn't make sense or if someone feels it is a misrepresentation, please know I write this with tears running down my face and hands trembing so hard it is difficult to type.

Yesterday morning we got the unfortunate yet inevitable news. Karen's father, Robert Dudley, had passed away at 5:07 AM. I like to think he went peacefully in his sleep, but I know in my heart he fought until his final breath. He had finally succumbed to the pancreatic cancer that he had been courageously battling for almost a year. He was diagnosed February 2nd, and at that time we were told he had a month maybe three. So while we are extremely grateful for all the extra time we got with him, there of course is no amount of time that could have been enough.

He spent his last day at home with his family gathered around him, especially his five children, with the sounds of his grandchildren playing not far from his bed. The best way to describe Bob was as a Dad. Thee Dad, the one whose lawn had to be perfect, who didn't like people messing with his vehicles and whose main goal was keeping his kids safe, really the kind of amusing fatherly traits you'd see from a television or movie father. And sure his kids, myself included, did much to frustrate him and worry him at times but there was nothing, I mean nothing, that made him happier than to be able to help one of us out. For example, when Mattie was a baby, Bob bought her first winter coat because he knew we were struggling financially, well he also bought her winter jacket this year and I'm pretty sure everyone inbetween. He didn't have to anymore, but he wanted to do it. We'd pick it out and all he'd ask was to see what it looked like before he paid for it. He also seldom let us drive back home without filling our gas tank. Not to mention filing our taxes for us each year, including last years when I sat and entered the information while he stood behind me and walked me through each step.

I have plenty of good memories, one that comes to mind was when he and I drove all over Canton to different Italian Deli's so that I could find the exact ingredients I needed to make a pizza to go along with the steaks we had bought to grill for Father's Day. I also have plenty of us sitting in the living room watching movies, specifically Good Morning Vietnam.

The hardest part so far has been sitting with the whole family, including some of his brothers and sister, in the living room and talking about him. I just kept sitting there waiting for Bob to appear at the bottom of the steps, form his room and say hello to everyone. Then of course check the thermostat and fiddle with the window blinds.

I could tell plenty of stories but what I really want to say is that I/we will miss you Bob and thank you for everything you've done for us.

Here is a link to his obituary from the Canton Repository. You can leave a message for the family there if you wish.

Calling hours will be held at Paquelet Funeral Home from 4-8 with the funeral being held at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church at 10 on Monday. Arrangements have been made through Silva-Hostetler Funeral Home.

On a side note, I want to take a second to sincerely thank my cousin Christopher Silva for treating Karen's family as though they were his own and doing whatever he can to make this process easier.

Fisherman's Prayer
God grant that I may live to fish,

until my dying day,

And when it comes to my last cast,

I then most humbly pray,

When in the Lord's safe landing net,

I'm peacefully asleep,

That in his mercy I be judged,

As big enough to keep.

Reverse Psychology

Spuncie, Jay Biz, T-Money, and Best Steve
taking part in Budweiser's new aluminum bottle ad campaign

Sunday was the big day, Championship Sunday. Doors open at one and close when everyone leaves. Between still feeling the effects of the previous nights activities, and the amount of caffeine in my system from an Alka Seltzer Morning Relief and a Red Bull, I was a bit of a mess the second I walked in the door. Luckily there was plenty of beer to help put me right again. The best thing is that it fell on the Sunday before MLK day, giving me plenty of recovery time, which I needed.

I wish I could report that I won the raffle this year but I'm not as lucky as Jay B, who was the odds on favorite to take home the prize again. I did turn on my cellphone at 3 am to find a text msg from Ray Kovacs that I won 75 bucks for a square for the 3rd quarter of the Packers game. That pretty much covered my day.Here's Jay B calling his shot, and prematurely and incorrectly
declaring himself the winner for 2 straight years

Again I will go on record that this is the best event of the year. It's almost entirely people I know, it's 30 bucks for all the food and beer/booze you can consume, and you have a chance at winning money!!! I have to get my ticket for next year now.

Old School

Went out Saturday night for a little tune up before the St. John Championship Sunday Reverse raffle. We started at the Locker Room, where I ate nope not wings, I am now hooked on the Italian Sausage on a pizza. It's a 7" link served on a mini pizza that doubles as a bun. It's incredible.

We left there for the Crows Nest and ran into Kelly, Celeste, and Jill. We stamped it our official 15 year class reunion. Especially since this will be the only time this year these 3 will be out past midnight. I tried to push a weekend at Put-In-Bay for our class reunion, but there were way too many excuses. Anyway it was a good time.

Readers Poll: Is Celeste getting too much blog coverage of late?

Buckeye of the Tigers

I had to admit to people yesterday that I was more excited about the New Hampshire Primaries today than I was the National Championship Game, and I think it is obvious now that I had good reason. More on that later.

A few thoughts about the game: First yes OSU lost but who wouldn't have taken a BCS Bowl appearance in September. I'm a realist they weren't one of the top two teams in the NCAA, they are't in the top 2 of Buckeyes teams over the last 3 years. Still they played for two straight BCS Championships, and 3 in 6 years. That's puts them in the top echelon of college football programs.

Second, it was great to see the Buckeyes score quick and early but I'm pretty sure that also led most of you to a feeling of impending doom too. I looked at someone at the bar and said, "I had this feeling last year too." Which turned my thoughts negative.

Finally, I am not happy that all signs, especially UM's hiring of Rich Rodriguez, point to OSU having to change their style of play and the athletes they recruit. Where are the NFL ready bruising linebackers going to go if not the Big 10 (11, Gotta include the 11 when the 11th school is Linebacker U).

Fuel

As reported on this blog last night, somewhat in detail, last night was a truly historic event in our country's history. So important in fact that our local news paper ran a front page story about Celeste pumping gas!!! Where was the story about the kick off of the Presidential Primaries? Below the fold and it was an artcle that was picked up off of the Associated Press wire. Adding insult it contained 2 stock photos of the victors.

I understand that the price of oil is a big story right now, seeing as how it's over $100.00 a barrel for the first time. But this was presented as a local interest story. I don't know if it's just more of the usual cluelessness of the Star Beacon, or if it's just another example of a story about fear trumping a story about hope. I'm guessing a little of both.

Knowing how Celeste feels about the current administration, I'm guessing she'll agree with me. I ended up not reading either articles. The online edition didn't have any quotes from Celeste, but I was hoping there were some, because I'm willing to bet she'd place some blame on the White House. Either way here is your chance Celeste.

Keep On Barackin' Me Baby

I waited a little while because in the words of President Bartlet's communications director Toby Ziegler, "You don't want to tempt the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing!" but the Iowa Caucus has been called in favor of Barack Obama, based solely on my $25.00 donation probably. Currently Edwards is 2nd and Clinton 3rd with 7 delegates separating them with 90% of the caucuses reporting.

I think I went into watching this with the belief that Iowa shouldn't go first because they aren't a true representation of America, but my mind has been changed. These people take this extremely seriously, and the event is an awesome testament to our democracy. I mean some of these are held in peoples houses!!!

If NBA games were decided this way, I might start watching them.

An additional success was that the Democratic voter turn out nearly doubled the Republican turnout, this was a red state in '04!. More encouraging is that the percentage of young voters in the model increased from 17% to over 20%. Interesting note 17 yr olds can caucus as long as they will be 18 by November.

Congratulations to Mike Huckabee for easily winning the Republican side. Of course he is totally unelectable on his last name alone.






"Thank you Chuck Norris!"

Iowa Cauceyes

I am behind with the Holiday Season posts but I promise I will get to them soon, problem is continuous posts about hanging out and drinking get boring That was not the sole purpose for starting this blog, though it definitely was part of it. Tonight there is something more important that another Christmas overindulged in booze, food, and debt. The Iowa Caucuses are tonight, kicking off the U.S. Presidential Primaries.

The Iowa Caucuses, "Gathering of Neighbors," are not just the first of the primaries, they are quite different from the others. They're even different amongst political parties. The Republican Party members vote by secret ballot, but they write their choice on the ballot. In Democratic Party the voter is his/her own vote. You go into your caucus hall and stand in your choices designated area. If your choice doesn't receive the mandatory 15% you can then choose one of the candidates who have.

Tonight could prove to be very exciting on both sides, but of course I'm more interested in the Democratic side. I have been following the polls and it's been mostly pointless if you are hoping to predetermine a winner, as they are each different. Not to mention the unpredictable fall out after caucusers regroup themselves.

What has been great to watch is the rapid decline of Hilary Clinton. She was well ahead at one point and the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. Now she is either trailing or in a statistical tie in most polls, either tied or behind Barack Obama, and with John Edward on her heels. Its very possible she could leave for New Hampshire with the bronze. With Barack trailing by only 4%, (with I believe a 5% margin for error), in New Hampshire the momentum gained here could help him win there 5 days from now. Of course, neither of these victories will guarantee anything, but it sure would be a great start.

Maybe more importantly the Iowa Caucus will help solidify the black vote for Senator Obama. I don't claim to know how all black folk think, or that they vote as a mob, but I do believe that until white America, (and let's face it Iowa is white America), declares Obama electable, many blacks will ride the fence and/or lean towards Mrs. Clinton.

I have been a supporter of Obama since he threw his hat in the ring, I am currently reading his book, "The Audacity of Hope," and I am convinced this country needs him as our leader. I truly believe he wants to be elected President because he wants to effect change. Whereas, many of the others want the power. As many of you probalby found out through an email last night I made my first ever presidential campaign donation last night. I took the $25.00 i would have probably lost on the West Virginia game and sent it to the Obama Campaign.

Well, I have five minutes before the caucusing begins so I have to go get ready, I am very excited that this is the beginning of something BIG.