I'm just trying to keep what's in my safe... safe.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to academia. Some are great at math, and others think is pointless. I can’t imagine why anybody would not find studying matrices relevant or riveting. Others find subjects like history to be boring, and pointless. One of my weaknesses in school was economics. I took one microeconomics class in college and although I desperately wanted to be a great economics mind, I just struggled. Normally, on national economics issues, I would tend to defer to the great economists in America; like Ben Bernanke or Hank Paulson. However, the idea of a 700 billion dollar bailout leaves a bad taste in my mouth. My question is where are these 700 billion dollars going to come from? I know. Our taxes will have to sky rocket. In addition, if we bail out the banking and finance industry, then do we also bailout the automobile industry when they all file for bankruptcy? What about the airline industry? I can think of another industry (cough cough the newspaper industry) which could use some government help. I just think the bailout sends a terrible precedent that we will “rescue” failing industries. That goes against the basic rules of free market capitalism. According to recent surveys, only 30% of Americans actually support a bailout. However, I think the 7 out of 10 (including me) may be incorrect. Every financial expert I have spoken to, listened to, or watched on TV have all said there will be enormous repercussions if there is not a bailout. After one day of the bailout failing, they are correct. The stock market fell almost 800 points yesterday and the world lost over one trillion dollars in one day. Even though I don’t understand it, I think I am slowly being convinced that a bailout, although a terrible option, might be our only option. Thoughts?

1. I just started Season 2 of Weeds and the show is really growing on me? It is really well written, witty, and the acting is fantastic. If you can get by the first four or five episodes where the point is just to introduce the characters, then you will love the show. It is a great way to bide my time until Season 3 of How I Met Your Mother comes out on DVD a week from today.

2. What a terrible sports weekend for me. The Vikings lose. The gophers lose. But more importantly, if you were to say to me before the season, “Okay John, Going into the final series, you will be tied with the White Sox. The White Sox will then lose two out of their next three at home, they then would have to beat Detroit in a make-up game. How would you like the circumstances to be?” I would answer. I would want to play the Kansas City Royals at home. Wish granted! Unfortunately, both the Twins and White Sox are begging not to make the play-offs and the Twins could only win one game at home against the lowly Royals. Tonight, the Twins fly to the Windy City to face the Sox in a one-game playoff at U.S. Cellular Field. The Twins have no excuses if they lose this.

3. In terrible news of the day. Actor Michael Cera has says there will not be an Arrested Development movie. I am extremely disappointed. If you want to read the whole article: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Michael-Cera-Says-No-Arrested-Development-Movie-10363.html?loc=interstitialskip

4. What were everybody’s thoughts on the debates on Friday night? I actually thought both candidates did very well. Both sides articulately laid out their visions for the future. I only watched the first hour but I would call this debate a tie. However, I think when it comes to a foreign policy debate, a tie is actually a victory for Senator Obama as this is the debate that McCain was supposed to do well. Some critics think that debates are not important. They are incorrect. 53 million Americans watched the debate last week. To put it in perspective, the next closest was Monday night football at about 13 million. I am eagerly awaiting the Vice Presidential Debate this Thursday. However, in this debate, Biden has little to gain, but much to lose. All eyes will be on Sarah Palin.

In the case of an earthquake hitting Las Vegas, be sure to go straight to the Keno Lounge. Nothing ever gets hit there.

I miss Vegas. What a great couple of days. I worked a full day on Thursday and then Andrew and I were off to Vegas. We got pumped up by watching the Kevin Spacey movie, 21. Which I think is actually quite under-rated. Once we arrived to Vegas, we met Nimit and Anay in the MGM Grand lobby and it was almost time for the festivities to begin. We checked in, went up to our room, admired the nice view of The Strip, and despite being exhausted from waking up early, working, and it being about 1:00 am, we were ready to go see the sights. We ended up going to a bar called Coyote at the New York New York hotel. It had good music, a fun MC, and drinks weren’t that outrageous. We got back to our hotel at about 3:00 and I knew it was late when I turned on the TV and shows like Headline News with Robin Meade and other morning shows were on. Because of course 3:00 Vegas time is 6:00 Eastern time. We slept in for a while Saturday and then headed to The Paris buffet. I love French food so I thought the buffet was fantastic. We spent the rest of the time sight-seeing and checked out the new hotels. I really like the new Pallazzo and Planet Hollywood hotel. And classics like The Venetian and Bellagio were as elegant as ever. Friday night we went to this new steakhouse called Pampas at Planet Hollywood Hotel. The food was pricey but good. Friday night we went to this bar/nightclub at The Mirage Hotel called Jet. Serendipitously, not only did we stumble across free passes, but we also got VIP status and went to the head of the line. I would estimate the wait to get in was between 60-90 minutes. It was probably longer for four men with no women on their arms. The normal cover charge is $30 a person. However, they still made money off of us. A rum and coke there was $11. I could only afford two before I said it’s not worth it. After that, Andrew and I were tired and walked back to the hotel and Anay and Nimit went to the Hawaiian Tropic Bar for a while. Saturday was a day just to relax for the most part. We slept in, then headed down to the sports betting book for a while. Nimit and I both made some money. We did a little shopping, watched some TV, before eating dinner and heading over to UNLV’s stadium to watch ISU lose a heartbreaking overtime loss. After the game, we went to this tiny bar in MGM called Zuli for about 45 minutes before going to bed early because Andrew and I had to wake up at 6:30 am to catch our flight. All in all, it was a great weekend. I got home Sunday, caught the last bit of the Vikings win and then rented Season One of Weeds. So far, I am only so-so on the series but I will give it a fair chance as I only have seen a few episodes.

1. According to The Washington Post, it's been 40 days since Sen. John McCain held a press conference, "despite having promised to hold weekly Q&A sessions with the press if he's elected." Sarah Palin has never held a press conference since being asked to be McCain’s VP selection. Interesting. If you are wondering what I will be doing on a Friday night, I will be all snuggled up on the couch, with popcorn on one hand, the remote control on the other, and the first debate on the TV. 40 days and 40 nights until the election!!

2. I am heading to Fargo for the next three days. Wish me luck.

3. Fox News just continues to amaze me. As you know, I am become fanatical in daily tracking the polls in some key battleground states. Almost all of the polls show states like Virginia, Ohio, and Florida to be statistical ties. Except for Fox News. In all of their polling, McCain has at least a five percentage point lead. That must be a strange coincidence. Speaking of polls, Barack Obama has pulled advertising in all but 11 states. One major mistake he was making was spending a lot of money in states like North Dakota and Georgia which will never go for him. I wish he would have pulled out much sooner. The good news is he is catching up, albeit slowly, to McCain in battleground states like Missouri where he is only down five, and has made other states like Virginia and Ohio a tie. However, McCain is no slouch and he has made New Hampshire a statistical tie and he is only about three percentage points behind in states like Maine, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. If I were Obama, I would have Joe Biden spend all of his time making sure those states remain blue. Okay, so here is an update of the battleground states as of this morning regarding Obama vs. McCain.

States that George W. Bush won:
Colorado – Statistical Tie
Nevada – Statistical Tie
New Mexico – Obama has a seven point lead. He should pick up these five electoral votes.
Iowa – Obama has a seven point lead. He should pick up these seven electoral votes.
Missouri – McCain has a five point lead.
Indiana – McCain has four point lead.
Ohio – Statistical Tie
Florida – Statistical Tie
West Virginia – McCain has a four point lead
Virginia – Statistical Tie
North Carolina – McCain has a five point lead


States that John Kerry won:
Minnesota – Obama has a four point lead
Wisconsin – Statistical Tie
Michigan – Obama has a four point lead
Pennsylvania – Statistical Tie
New Hampshire – Statistical Tie
Maine – Obama has a four point lead

If Obama picks up New Mexico and Iowa, he will have 269 electoral votes. He needs 271 to win. Basically, there are myriad situations win which Obama could win and myriad situations in which McCain could win. McCain could give up Virginia, New Mexico, Iowa, Colorado, and Indiana but if he takes Pennyslvania and keeps the other states he will win. Obama could lose Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine, and New Hampshire but if wins in Florida he will win. I guess the bottom line is at the point the election is WAY too close to call. It’s amazing this whole election will come down to 17 states.

600,000 Americans have lost their job in the year 2008.

It’s hard not to read the papers and get sad for my fellow working Americans. Almost 100,000 Americans have lost their jobs in the past couple of weeks. I see headlines of Hewlett Packard laying off 25,000 people. Lehman brothers laid off 20,000. AIG is next on the chopping block and there is literally video on CNN right now of people walking out of AIG in a line with cardboard boxes of their personal stuff. Gannett, who owns USA TODAY, just laid off 100 people last week. 100 people is nothing compared to 25K. As usual, both campaigns are acting like buffoons and putting complete blame on the others. In reality, it’s hard to blame Bush, Obama, McCain or the rest of government for this one. A series of unfortunate events (i.e. the real estate crash) mixed with greed by top management has left many Americans out on the street. We will have to see how this plays out. Right now, John McCain is still doing exceptionally well in the polls. Recent data I have analyzed has suggested that even traditionally liberal states like New Jersey and Washington, Obama is only enjoying a couple point lead in the polls. In addition, former battleground states like the Dakotas, Missouri, Georgia, and North Carolina, Obama has 10-20 point leads in. There is no doubt that the momentum two weeks after the Republican National Convention is all with John McCain. The first debate is in two weeks and Obama is going to have to have a dramatic, decisive victory to regain momentum. The politico has a great article about how the “drill now drill baby” sentiment is very popular all across America, especially as our economy gets sicker and sicker. This plays right into the hands of the Republicans. Does Obama “flip-flop” and now do a 180 on his position on drilling and now be in favor of it for purely political purposes? Or does he remain with the “drilling is not the answer” crowd but realize only 30% of Americans agree with him. This is a tough problem for Obama. If I were him, I would suffer the wrath of flip-flop comments and get on board to drilling.

1. I saw two movies yesterday. The first movie I saw was the dark comedy, In Bruges with Ralph Fiennes and Colin Farrell. I thought it was boring and difficult to follow. I also rented Cloverfield. Cloverfield, at its most basic level is a movie about a giant monster that attacks New York City. I had very low expectations but I came away thoroughly impressed. Jim Winstead highly recommended this movie and he was right. The movie was suspenseful, exciting, and also quite funny. I would definitely recommend it. I regretted last year that I didn’t take more days of vacation when it was nice out.

2. Some friends and I are going to Las Vegas tomorrow. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

3. To plagiarize from the, Wisconsin Advertising Project: "Despite much talk about an expanded playing field, by and large, states receiving advertising in 2008 look similar to the states targeted in the 2004 presidential campaign. The Obama campaign aired ads in seventeen states from September 6-13, while the McCain campaign aired ads in fifteen of those same states." "McCain and Obama are roughly even in spending in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Obama is out-advertising McCain by nearly 3:2 in Missouri and by nearly 3:1 in Virginia. McCain has aired virtually no ads in Indiana, Montana and North Dakota. McCain's campaign is, however, out-advertising Obama by over 3:2 in Pennsylvania and over 2:1 in Iowa. McCain is also out-advertising Obama by a wide margin in Minnesota - a state where Obama has spent just $18,000." Said project director Ken Goldstein: "Where the campaigns advertise tells us a great deal about the candidates' electoral strategies. Post-convention ad buys give us the first insights into the campaigns' assessments of where they think they are competitive as the fall campaign heats up."

4. I am a depressed Vikings fan. There is no shame in losing to Green Bay, a team that went 13 – 3 last year, at Lambeu Field by less than a touchdown. They then followed it up by losing at home to the 2006 Superbowl champs, Indianapolis Colts, with Adam Vinateiri kicking a game winning field goal. What depresses me is that both of those games, the Vikes played terrible and they should have won. Now, Coach Childress is benching quarterback T. Jack for 38 year old Gus Frerotte. The Vikings have no one to blame for their quarterback issues than themselves. They had lots of opportunities the past three years to draft someone different (Jay Cutler, Aaron Rodgers) or trade for a solid quarterback like Byron Leftwich, Matt Schaub, David Carr, and Jeff Garcia. Yet, they remained loyal to Tavaris Jackson. And now, Jackson is benched for a slow quarterback with an arm that can’t throw more than thirty yards. Sigh.

Revenge of the Squawkeyes

This weekend sucked. It rained the whole weekend. I went to the Vikings game, which was fun, but then they lost on a game winning field goal. The Twins lost and the White Sox won. The Packers won. And to cap it off, I sat a sports bar on Saturday at a University of Iowa alumni association event as the U of I Hawkeyes beat my beloved cyclones 17 – 5. Naturally, I am looking forward to spending my Monday night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where no doubt all of my Vikings trash talking will be meant with the sort of taunts, only my Wisconsin brothers and sisters can dish.

FYI…
Countdown to the first presidential debate: 11 daysCountdown to the vice presidential debate: 19 daysCountdown to the second presidential debate 22 daysCountdown to the third presidential debate: 30 daysCountdown to Election Day 2008: 50 daysCountdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 127 days

John McCain continues to do better and better in the polls. Even in progressive states like Minnesota, according to Sunday’s Star Tribune, McCain and Obama are tied at 42/42 with 15% of Minnesotans undecided. The major difference across the country… White women — last month Obama led by eight points. Now he trails by 12 points. It’s that simple. A Democrat will not get elected president unless he has a majority of the women vote.

1. I’m not going to lie. I watched a lot of television this past weekend. Not just sports, but movies, and TV shows. I think the highlight was the SNL opening skit with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey as Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. It was clever and witty and it really cheered me up. Speaking of Fey and Poehler, Elyse and I watched their movie Baby Mama. I give it a B+. Steve Martin has a small, but hilarious, role as a hippie health store owner. I also rented the movie, What Happens in Vegas with Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz. I give it a B. It’s a decent rental. Not bad but not great. It was fine on a rainy Friday night. Also, I tried to get into the TV show Dexter. Dexter is a drama on Showtime about a forensic scientist/sociopathic murderer. It is by far the most gruesome, disgusting show on TV. Unfortunately, it was also entertaining and interesting. This frustrates me because even though I don’t plan on watching another episode, if the show were on network TV and they just removed all of the gore, it would be awesome. You can show someone getting stabbed or shot and know that they die and I’m fine. However, I don’t need to be graphically shown a man chopping up a person alive with a chain saw. I don’t even know how they filmed that! I did finish up season four of The Office. It is just as funny as it has always been.

2. The new Facebook sucks! Before, you had the option of keeping your old Facebook if you wanted to, or switching to Facebook 2.0. Apparently, now, we all have to use the new Facebook. I’m just about hit my boredom peak with FB. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-09-10-facebook-facelift_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

As the buildings fell, heroes rose.

My how time flies. I still remember where I was exactly seven years ago on 9/11/01 when the Taliban hijacked four American airplanes resulting in thousands dead and billions of dollars in damage. Early in the morning, I was in Mr. Kitt’s math class, when an announcement was made over the loudspeaker about an attack on Manhattan and that we should all turn on the TVs. Needless to say, not a lot of class happened but a lot of learning. Little did I know how that infamous day seven years ago would alter the landscape of the world so dramatically. Wars in Iraq! Wars in Afghanistan! Seven years later and there is still no end to sight. Thousands of American soldiers died for their country in the Middle East. These wars have bankrupted America with our national debt almost reaching half a trillion dollars. As a trickle down affect, schools are not getting appropriate funding, college tuition has skyrocketed, the environment is crumbling and yet study after study has shown there are actually more terrorists and terrorist organizations then there were pre 9/11. Fortunately, both John McCain and Barack Obama have agreed to take a day off from politics and remember that we really are not a red country, or a blue country, but a red, white, and blue country.

1. Earlier this week, Barack Obama went on Bill O’Reilly’s show for a half hour interview. I admire Obama’s courage but I couldn’t understand why he would set himself up for slaughter. To no one’s surprise, O’Reilly acted like a major jackass including repeatedly calling Obama a “Marxist”. O’Reilly twisted facts, and constantly interrupted Obama. To Obama’s credit, he remained gracious, humble, and just kind of let Big Bill pompously bloviate. Here is why I am wrong. I had no idea just how powerful and popular Bill O’Reilly is. And I’m being serious by the way. Yes, I understand that this is a slow TV time. People are sick of re-runs, weather is nice, et cetera. Last week, O’Reilly’s show (including the re-run of the show late at night) took in 11.8 million viewers a day! Out of all the shows on TV, regular and cable, O’Reilly came in at number three. He was behind Sunday Night Football and the Washington Redskins/New York Jets game. O’Reilly’s show was number one for all cable programs. The next closest cable competition was the MTV Video Music Awards which had 8.4 million viewers. Again, his rankings will drop significantly once prime-time TV returns in a few weeks, but still! No wonder why Obama went on O’Reilly. There are almost no better places to attempt get your message across. So much for a liberal media! Republican Sean Hannity’s show is the 12th most watched show last week. At least Obama did as best as he could, and survived the “No Spin Zone”.

2. My goodness you would think that Tom Brady died with the way ESPN and Fox Sports is moping around after the Patriots confirmed that he tore his ACL and MCL. I have news for you folks. He’s not a deity. He’s just a good quarterback. He hasn’t cured cancer, or stopped world hunger. He has however brought a couple of championship rings to New England. I have some propositions to appease those upset NFL fans. Maybe, the winner of this year’s super bowl should have an asterisk by it. Maybe all the players should wear #12 to honor Sir Brady for the next game. I mean c’mon!

This aint no disco

What a weird story involving Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young. The number three pick in the 2006 draft and that year’s rookie of the year is “hurting inside” and might retire from football. 2006 had arguably two of the top five collegiate football players of all-time, in USC running back Reggie Bush and Univ. of Texas quarterback Vince Young. Young might have been the best college football player I have ever seen. He singlehandedly beat “the greatest team of all time” in the 2006 national championship game. But now, several media reports, most noticeably Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer say that Vince Young is frustrated with the fans, the sport, and the media and is thinking of just hanging up his cleats. This is not the first time he has hinted at his disinterest in the game. At the end of last season, he suggested to media outlets he was thinking of retiring. To me this is a guy who clearly just needs a change of scenery. He is having knee issues and maybe he just needs to be placed on IR this year, get out of Memphis, head back to his home in Houston, and ask for a trade to be a member of a smaller market team where there is less pressure and he can just relax and learn to enjoy football again.

1. In politics as usual, yesterday Barack Obama said, “If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.” Republicans naturally are outraged. Of course Obama was not talking at all about Sarah Palin as Republicans have suggested, but rather about the No Child Left Behind Act. Republicans will shut-up very quickly if they do have a quick lexus-nexus search and find that in 2007, John McCain said that exact same quote about Hillary Clinton’s Health Care proposal. The hypocrisy is thick in Washington these days.

2. I do have to wonder… If Obama had asked Hillary Clinton to be his running mate (and she accepted; which is not for certain) would McCain have such a big lead (down to five points as of today)?

3. Professional athletes, and bands all of the time say they are going to retire but the draw of fame, money, or just the love of what they do draws them back. One person who I thought for sure had retired for good was Lance Armstrong. Apparently I am mistaken. I guess he confirms in the next issue of Vanity Fair that he is indeed going to race in the 2009 Tour de France. I guess why? He's not a young man anymore in a young man's sport. He has gobs of money, lots of fame, all of the cycling records. I guess he just loves the sport.

Yeah but our crappy is better than your crappy!!

I give up. I am convinced that the older I get the less and less I know about America. Barack Obama has outraised John McCain by millions of dollars. Obama is the charismatic, likeable candidate that Democrats have been clamoring for. Yet, my friends, according to the most recent Gallup tracking poll, John McCain is ahead in the national polls by a 49-43% margin. I understand that he is basking in the post-Republican National Convention honeymoon period and he probably isn’t really up by that much. Regardless, in a pro-Democrat/anti-Republican period of American history, Obama and McCain are in a virtual tie with 57 days until the election. It appears that John McCain threw a last second Hail Mary pass to Sarah Palin and she caught it and scored a game-tying touchdown. Almost exclusively because of Sarah Palin, the McCain camp has received millions of dollars in donations, seen volunteerism up among the McCain camp, and ignited the all important Evangelicals into action. However, I find it interesting that she has not done one interview since being nominated for vice-president. According to the McCain camp, she has been busy “cramming” non-stop. Think about it. What if she is asked about her thoughts on the political movements in Libya? How would she know? Joe Biden has been a senator for over three decades and John McCain and Obama have been campaigning for about nineteen months. I would expect that she will slowly be brought out the media, first being asked softball questions on shows like Fox News morning, and other pro-Republican media outlets. Make no mistake about it; I have enough faith in the American people that they will care more about her views on foreign policy than the proper way to hunt a moose. But the American public has disappointed me before.

1. The Vikings played one of their worst games I have ever seen. The offensive line was atrocious! The defense gave up 24 points and recorded not one sack or take-away. The special teams gave up a punt return for a touchdown. The team had twelve touchdowns. Tarvaris Jackson was miserable as usual. And yes, the officials were terrible in this game. Normally, I hate to blame a game on officials but in a close, five point game, some of the boneheaded calls by the officials made the difference. The problem for the Vikes is now they have Indianapolis and then Carolina. Yikes!

2. I am completely exhausted. After working about 140 hours in the past two weeks (including working the last two weekends and Labor Day), I am completely woofed. I had trouble getting up despite getting about nine hours of sleep. I am having a lot of trouble focusing and unfortunately it is only Tuesday. Thank goodness that the Las Vegas trip is only nine days away.

3. I really like the new Weezer single. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLbNhIJ9K2w

4. I think the other reason I’m crabby is the weather. For those who don’t know, the weather is about 20 degrees below its average temperature. 20 degrees! When I was in Fargo Sunday night, it got down to 39 degrees according to the local weatherman. It is early September and it has already dipped into the thirties! For the first time since April, I wore a jacket to work.

The Maverick

Oh I get it now. About two months before the election, the Republican political machine is starting to become crystal clear. Let me start out by writing that I thought John McCain delivered a magnificent speech last night. He was respectful of the junior senator from Illinois, while also laying out clearly why he disagrees with Senator Obama. I have always liked John McCain. I have found that he has been affable while being interviewed, but also tenacious for the causes he believes in. I am voting for Barack Obama not because I dislike John McCain as a person, I just disagree with too many strong issues to cast my vote for him. There is no doubt that this is a year that favors Democrats. Which is why it would take a Republican maverick like John McCain to actually win this election. McCain is not your typical Republican candidate. He’s much more like Teddy Roosevelt than George W. Bush. McCain is stubborn, hard nosed, and boorish at his worst; just like Teddy Roosevelt. Also, like Roosevelt, he is a former military hero. But let’s not kid ourselves, he is here to win. If that means that he has to dig deep in the trenches, play dirty, and slip on a pair of brass knuckles, he will do it. Again, the Republican political machine is now crystal clear. Sarah Palin will be used in a variety of ways. I highly doubt she will campaign much with Senator McCain. In terms of getting volunteers and donations, it is not the independents and moderates who give their time and money, it is the base. The base has been very unhappy with John McCain. They don’t like that he is moderate on many issues and has close working relationships with Democrat senators like Joe Lieberman, and my favorite Senator, Democrat Russ Feingold from Wisconsin. They don’t like that he is pro-environment. They don’t like that he is hardly an evangelical. They don’t like that he is in favor of stem cell research. But guess who they like? Sarah Palin. Governor Palin will be spending most of her time energizing the Republican base. As we know there are three keys to winning an election. Getting your base to vote for you, getting your opponent’s base to stay at home, and getting independents and moderates to vote for you. Palin will do wonders motivating her base to donate money, volunteer, and vote. Her speech alone resulted in huge donations to the Republican Party. She will also be used to get independent, moderate women to get out and vote. Obama is obviously aware of this and has spent the past week getting a coalition of women leaders to campaign for him. Senator Amy Klobuchar will be all over Minnesota for Obama. Hillary Clinton is on a jet to Florida as I write. Claire McKaskel is doing a tour of Missouri. Let’s get back to John McCain. With the base fired up and frothing at the mouth for the “hottest governor from the coolest state”, John McCain showed from last night’s speech that he will go after moderates and independents. He is the first candidate in this election to talk about education. His speech had a heavy focus on the problems with America’s education system. In addition, he spoke of health care and of tax breaks for the middle class. My guess is that John McCain will spend his time on traditional swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. I would think that Palin will focus her time on the states that are normally solid for Republicans but are statistical ties in this election (Indiana, North Carolina, Montana, and South Dakota.) There is no doubt that this will be another razor thin election.

1. Our good friend Michael Moore, a man I have turned my back on in the past three years, has an interesting idea. I was reading USA TODAY this morning and he has a new movie, Slacker Uprising, will be released for free online on September 23rd. Apparently he was greatly inspired by Radiohead’s new online album. I wouldn’t pay to see another one of his movies but I supposed I could waste 85 minutes on some lazy Saturday afternoon.

2. As much fun, exciting and interesting the RNC has been. I am exhausted. I’m tired of protestors destroying the city of Saint Paul and embarrassing their cause in the process. I’m tired of the late nights. And I’m tired of hearing about Sarah Palin 24/7. I’m ready to get back to business as usual and relax for a while. Unfortunately, that will not be the case this weekend. I am giving a work presentation tonight. I am off to St. Cloud for a wedding tomorrow and I head to Fargo on Sunday for work. Sheesh.

3. My sister for two season tickets for University of Minnesota gopher basketball. She will probably only want to go to a game or two at the most. Which means if anybody wants to go to a gopher game with me and see the fighting Tubby’s dominate Iowa, Illinois, or Purdue, just let me know.

4. A total of 818 people were arrested for protesting the Republican National Convention. That is a lot!

49 states has a nice ring to it?

Allow me for a moment to be insensitive. I am so sick and tired of hearing about Vietnam in politics. The war ended nearly forty years ago yet presidential politics has been dominated with it ever since. Was Bill Clinton a draft dodger? Did George W. Bush use his elitism and family power to escape Vietnam? John Kerry won a silver star for courage… or did he? And now I cannot hear a John McCain story without hearing about it? Let me start over. The sacrifices John McCain made for this country are so admirable, courageous, and heroic that we all owe him an enormous amount of death. For five years, he was imprisoned, beaten, and tortured. Most Americans will never truly understand what a horrific experience that must have been. However, to paraphrase General Wesley Clark, being shot down over Hanoi does not mean you would make a good president! While watching the Republican National Convention, I would like just one time, for a speaker to talk about John McCain’s views on the issues. Let’s hear how he would approach Health Care. Let’s hear how he would tackle global warming. What happened during Vietnam forty years ago has no bearing on what he would do as president. Americans shouldn’t be guilted into voting for a president. “Oh shucks honey, John did so much for America. I feel terrible, we really should vote for him.” Clearly, after watching many hours of the RNC, there are several themes. One, that John McCain is a war hero who will sacrifice nothing to protect America. Two, that Barack Obama is a weak leader. Three, the Sarah Palin will bring in a womanly, yet executive experience to the Oval Office. Four, Barack Obama is too inexperienced to tie his own shoe laces. This is very different then the Democratic National Convention which was about hope, and change. Unfortunately, as we all know, negative politics work. The McCain camp is being outrageously negative and let’s see if it works.

1. Did the McCain camp do any research on Sarah Palin? It seems every day there is new damaging material. Today I read that both Sarah, and her husband Todd are former members of the Alaskan Independent Movement or “AIM”. The AIM, to put it bluntly, tried to make Alaska their own country! I know this sounds bad but what is the Obama camp waiting for regarding attack ads. Palin is looking more and more terrible everyday. And I could care less about her pregnant daughter. And if John Kerry was a flip-flopper, he is looking as stubborn as W compared to Sarah Palin. She campaigned heavily for the “Bridge to Nowhere” when it was a good political move. Now, of course she is vehemently against it. That is just one of many examples of her flip-flopping.

2. Speaking of interesting timing. According to US Weekly, I see that Sarah and her husband Todd “eloped” in 1988. Seven months later, her first child, track was born. My goodness that is curious timing. I’m sure they eloped because they were just so in love with each other that they couldn’t wait another moment. It has nothing to do with the fact that she was already pregnant. Again, did John McCain not do any research on her? It seems like every day there is new damaging material. I cannot wait for her speech tonight! I think we all know exactly what it is going to be. It will be a direct reach to all the suburban mothers out there. She will talk of how laborious, but worthwhile it is serving her country and state as a politician while also being loving and devoting to her five children. The McCain/Palin ticket has an enormous opportunity to reach out to soccer moms in suburbs everywhere. The type of women who work full time, but also are the primary child raisers, cooks, and cleaners of the house. They are too busy or pre-occupied to follow politics closely. They might not agree on a lot of Palin’s viewpoints on issues like abortion, and creationism being taught in schools, but they admire her. They view her as a role-model for their own little girls. They admire how this wonder woman can juggle it all, while still being attractive for her husband. However, she has lots of questions to answer first. 99% of American women will not vote for Palin just because she’s a woman. I will be watching this speech and speaking to my female friends and colleagues to see how well she connected to them. She only has one chance for a first impression and so far the media has been attacking her alive. She has 67 days to convince America that she is more the everyday housewife and less the crazy, Alaskan, televangelist.

I will have plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead

Preparing and participating in the Republication National Convention (RNC) has been an amazing experience. It is has been over 100 years since the Twin Cities has hosted a convention and who knows when the next time will be. Needless to say, I worked long hours on Saturday, Sunday, and yesterday (Labor Day) preparing for the RNC. It has been a lot of fun being next to guys like Mitt Romney and Joe Lieberman but it has also been about five days when I have not had at least two energy drinks. My role in the convention has basically been the journalist gopher. I have delivered sweatshirts when they were cold, ran to Circuit City to get parts, and been the personal chauffer to last minute interviews with Cindy McCain. I know I have worked a ton recently but I just feel that this is a probable once in a lifetime opportunity and after all, there will be plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead. My favorite convention related event was on Saturday Night. The Republican Party threw an event for 10,000+ media members at the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis. Most of the real big time celebrity TV anchors weren’t there but I did see conservative radio host Bill Bennett and CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.

1. I have rented a few TV shows recently. First up was Mad Men. This show won 16 Emmy’s and the star, Jon Hamm, won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama. I give the show a B-. Mad Men is about a fictional ad agency in New York City in the year 1960. The acting and directing is excellent but call me cynical, one thing I didn’t like with the show was that there wasn’t a protagonist. Every character has major personality flaws and I can’t find myself “cheering” for anyone. I also rented Curb Your Enthusiasm. So far I give the show an incomplete. After watching three or four episodes, I find the show pretty boring but there have been many shows that I disliked at first (How I met your Mother, Entourage, et cetera) that now I think are excellent. If anybody has any TV shows they think I should try out, please leave a comment.

2. I really think the media is making a big deal out of nothing regarding Governor Sarah Palin’s 17 year old daughter being pregnant. I highly doubt any sane person is going to eliminate John McCain and vote for Obama because his running mate’s daughter got pregnant. That has nothing to do with how McCain would be as a president. I do wonder if McCain knew about this before he chose her. I wonder if Governor Palin knew. These things happen. 17 year olds get pregnant every day in this country from women who are liberal, conservative, poor, rich, black, white, and everything in between.

3. Cool link of the day: http://www.markstechnologynews.com/2008/08/video-amazing-fountain-creates-images.html

4. One of my favorite hobbies (when I am awake at this hour) is to watch Jon Stewart. One of this favorite bits is to have actor/writer Robert Smigel wear a dog puppet and interview people. By interview people, I mean Triumph The Comic Insult Dog will blast nerds, geeks, and social outcasts at places like Star Wars Conventions and the Westminster Dog Show. Last week, he was at Comic-Con. He’s awesome. http://www.comedy.com/embed/triumph-at-comic-con