Further distancing himself from his Democratic opponent, Woodrow Wilson, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has declared that, if elected president, he will bring back Prohibition.
Or, he was signaling his intent to bring on Mitt Romney as a vice-presidential running mate.
Or, he was channeling Homer Simpson.
You decide:
I want to know whether he intends to use earmarks to veto the beers, or if he will only veto beers that contain earmarks, but not other beers. If he intends to use earmarks to veto the beers, will he dip his ear in ink, or will it be dabbed on by an ATF agent? If the latter, will it be okay if my beer contains one earmark, but not two? And why would I be putting my beer up to my ear anyway?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
Cool Workout Playlist
Now that Tina bought me a new iPod Touch for my birthday (Thank You Tina!), I came up with a 30-minute playlist for running. Songs are designed for a 5-minute warm-up, about 6:30 in fast jog / slow run, about 10-minutes of faster running (about 6 on my treadmill), followed by 9-minutes of warm down.
Playlist is:
Hells Bells - AC/DC (warm up)
Crawling In The Dark - Hoobastank (fast jog)
Paralyzer - Finger Eleven (faster jog / slow run)
Inside The Fire - Disturbed (run)
Afterlife - Avenged Sevenfold (run faster - sprint the solos if you can)
Children of the Sea - Black Sabbath (catch your breath with some Dio)
Over You - Daughtry (relax, walk it out)
The whole thing is like 30.4 minutes, which is the minimum cardio you're supposed to get each day (not that I do). The nice thing about keeping a fixed playlist for running, rather than mixing it up each time, is you soon get to know exactly where you are the run and how much longer you have to go. And at least for me, it's all about the light at the end of the tunnel.
It's All Up To Missouri
USA Today has a really cool electoral college tracker where you can assign states to Obama and McCain and see where each has to win in order to reach 270 electoral votes and win the general election.
I assigned states based primarily on history voting patterns, which resulted in several Bush states from 2004 swinging back to their historical Democratic-leaning trends.
My result? It all comes down to Missouri.
I gave Obama the following states: Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and the entire Northeast (from Maryland north, including D.C.). The result is 269 electoral votes.
Everything else I gave to McCain, including Missouri. The result - 269 electoral votes. A dead tie.
(I have no idea what happens in the event of a tie, and don't recall seeing that covered in the Constitution).
In 1992 and 1996, Missouri went for Bill Clinton. In 2000 and 2004, it went for Bush.
Now, I'm going to borrow a oft-cited (but substantively sophmoric) argument used by Clinton - that she has won the states Dems need to win the general election. On my map, the only legitimate battleground state is Missouri - a state that Obama won by a mere 10,000 votes (1% difference). Thus, Obama wins the only state that matters - the only state in contest. Giving Missouri to Obama results in a 280-258 win for Obama. Notably, it also results in the complete political marginalization of the South, which for years has been considered "must-win" territory for either party to win the White House.
Some states, like Michigan (which isn't really included in the primary results), California, Pennsylvania and New York all went for Clinton. But those states are unshakable Democratic locks, and have all gone that way for the past four presidential elections. Obama will win those without breaking a sweat.
Clinton's argument loses more luster when you view my map and realize that I have given McCain Ohio and Florida, both of which were obviously pivotal in the past two elections. Those are two of the big states that Clinton says she can win, and that Dems have to win. 'cept they don't have to win them (at least not on my map).
This year, as goes Missouri, goes the White House. And Missouri goes to Obama.
I assigned states based primarily on history voting patterns, which resulted in several Bush states from 2004 swinging back to their historical Democratic-leaning trends.
My result? It all comes down to Missouri.
I gave Obama the following states: Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and the entire Northeast (from Maryland north, including D.C.). The result is 269 electoral votes.
Everything else I gave to McCain, including Missouri. The result - 269 electoral votes. A dead tie.
(I have no idea what happens in the event of a tie, and don't recall seeing that covered in the Constitution).
In 1992 and 1996, Missouri went for Bill Clinton. In 2000 and 2004, it went for Bush.
Now, I'm going to borrow a oft-cited (but substantively sophmoric) argument used by Clinton - that she has won the states Dems need to win the general election. On my map, the only legitimate battleground state is Missouri - a state that Obama won by a mere 10,000 votes (1% difference). Thus, Obama wins the only state that matters - the only state in contest. Giving Missouri to Obama results in a 280-258 win for Obama. Notably, it also results in the complete political marginalization of the South, which for years has been considered "must-win" territory for either party to win the White House.
Some states, like Michigan (which isn't really included in the primary results), California, Pennsylvania and New York all went for Clinton. But those states are unshakable Democratic locks, and have all gone that way for the past four presidential elections. Obama will win those without breaking a sweat.
Clinton's argument loses more luster when you view my map and realize that I have given McCain Ohio and Florida, both of which were obviously pivotal in the past two elections. Those are two of the big states that Clinton says she can win, and that Dems have to win. 'cept they don't have to win them (at least not on my map).
This year, as goes Missouri, goes the White House. And Missouri goes to Obama.
New Political Math
Much like the Democratic primary itself, the bizarre death-spiral of the Clinton campaign continues unabated. Clinton and her cadre of hanger-oners continue to press the "we are winning the popular vote" claim.
Oddly, Clinton makes that argument using the primary vote from Puerto Rico. Apparently nobody has told Clinton that Puerto Rico doesn't count. The island gets to vote in the primary solely because the DNC wanted to throw a bone to various U.S. protectorates and territories (there's a primary in Guam, too). However, at the end of the day, in the only election that matters - the general election in November - Puerto Ricans can't vote. Consequently, nobody cares how they voted in a non-binding and irrelevant advisory vote. Counting those votes is sort of like a basketball team counting its pre-game warm-up shots toward the final score of the actual game.
Clinton should be happy that she managed to neuter the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC (and by extension, the DNC itself) by badgering it into giving her delegates that should never have been awarded to anybody. Apparently destroying her party's ability to run its own show is not enough. Seriously, her scorched-earth policy would do Stalin proud.
Oddly, Clinton makes that argument using the primary vote from Puerto Rico. Apparently nobody has told Clinton that Puerto Rico doesn't count. The island gets to vote in the primary solely because the DNC wanted to throw a bone to various U.S. protectorates and territories (there's a primary in Guam, too). However, at the end of the day, in the only election that matters - the general election in November - Puerto Ricans can't vote. Consequently, nobody cares how they voted in a non-binding and irrelevant advisory vote. Counting those votes is sort of like a basketball team counting its pre-game warm-up shots toward the final score of the actual game.
Clinton should be happy that she managed to neuter the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC (and by extension, the DNC itself) by badgering it into giving her delegates that should never have been awarded to anybody. Apparently destroying her party's ability to run its own show is not enough. Seriously, her scorched-earth policy would do Stalin proud.
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