Cold Feet

I'm really stuck now...as decided as I thought I was, now I am starting to get cold feet about voting for Barry.

I know it's just one vote and part of me feels like I'm being too melodramatic about it, but I'm very far from thrilled with casting a vote for Barack. The things that drew me to his candidacy...the perception that he's a thoughtful guy and a smart organizer remain. I don't think he's prone to rash decisions. He seems like a measured guy.

What pulls me back from jumping right in the deep end, though, is the fear that he's some kind of serious-ass bleeding heart that will explode spending and won't be able to offset the costs of any domestic plans by getting out of Iraq a whole hell of a lot sooner than McCain.

McCain's no angel and I really question his judgement...from fearing that he'll jump the gun and go after the next towel head that pisses him off to the knowledge that he picked someone like Palin to join him on the ticket. She's clearly a natural campaigner and the textbook case of an overachiever, but in McCain's own words, the real job of the Veep is to be able to take over and as much of a verbal loose cannon as Biden is, I think that these two individuals are best-suited for very different kinds of activities at 3 in the morning.

I trust Joe more than someone who can't name a newspaper she reads. Sue me.

I'll probably end up going with Barack, but I really need to sleep on this one. Luckily, I can see the polling place from the front door, so can wait till the lines are short.

With These Words, Paul Krugman Won My Admiration

As some know, one of my biggest pet peeves is the refusal of most people to acknowledge that "data" is the plural of "datum." (Hey, we all have our little quirks.)

So it's technically incorrect to refer to "this data."

Since the sin has been committed often enough, it's loosely-acceptable to practice incorrect English, but thank God the New York Times is kickin' it old school.

From his editorial on the economy today...

So these data are basically telling us what happened before
confidence collapsed after the fall of Lehman Brothers in mid-September, not to mention before the Dow plunged below 10,000.

Need New Router

Boy, life really has degenerated when a now-dead router has messed up my night. I got home to find that power seems to have gone out. It was already back on for me (but not for the folks using Cleveland Public Power...which is an odd shift, usually us Illuminating customers get the short end of the stick) but I had internet problems lingering.

After far too long on the phone with AT&T's service folks, we determined that my one-year-old Linksys router had bit the dust.

This fellow suggested a Belkin, so I'm going to go pick one up tomorrow and have a followup call scheduled.

Anyway, the psychic damage this did to me reminded me of this Pew poll...and the increasing list of "things" Americans can't seem to live without.

Praying for Rain This Weekend

When the summer months come, I'd almost-always prefer to be outside, provided the weather is agreeable.

I'm praying for rain, though, on Saturday, which would provide a good excuse to stay inside.

CSPAN is slated to be broadcasting the full Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting of the DNC starting at 9:30 AM. This is going to be a pretty key meeting because they're supposed to settle the Florida/Michigan dispute.

I don't have a really good feel for where this is going to go, but with the relative dearth of good primaries lately, this should help relieve my DTs.

I'm thinking that some banana pecan cornmeal pancakes might be in order...

The Cost of Addiction

Well, since I've become one of those iPod nuts recently, I'm finding the attraction to digitize my music collection irresistible.

There are at least two problems this introduces. First, I need one big honking hard drive to hold all of this.

The next problem is more commonly associated with certain chemical dependencies...paranoia.

I've invested quite a bit of effort in just getting a chunk of it digitized here and now I'm starting to worry about the house burning down or something and losing all this effort and value that's wrapped up in it.

So, I need to start researching some sort of online backup storage options...

Only for the Hardcore Junkie

For the last few weeks, anyone reading the strategy pieces about the Presidential campaigns has seen references to daily 'campaign conference calls.'

Well, I started to get annoyed by this. Surely there must be a recording of these calls and I'd rather here the paid guns talk themselves, rather than what the Times' staff thinks of what was said.

Finding these was a little bit more difficult than I'd have liked, but now it seems that CSPAN's Campaign Network seems to be collecting most of them.

Very cool.

I Got Burned

Dang, am I an idiot.

As readers/friends know, I'm kind of a bootleg concert tape junkie and a bit torrent site I regularly trade shows on had a scary message this morning when I went there to start pulling down some shows during the day (including seeding an excellent Bob Dylan show from 2006 in Chicago, taped by the legendary Soomlos.)

All that loaded on the site was a welcome message from our friends at Web Sheriff.

Oh, the humanity!

Turns out it was a prank by the site which, for the record, strictly keeps out any commercially-released material from trading.

Shame on You, Musings Author!

Well, I did it. I went across the street to my polling place and voted for Hillary Clinton on what is a very icy night here in Cleveland. Now that I think of it, the weather outside brought some kind of poetry to the moment.

The reader can decide if it was too cynical of me, but I've been able to rationalize it to an acceptable level here. If I were entering into a process that I believed to be completely pure, without primary actors who sometimes think long-run, not short run, and who never, ever showboat for the sake of other sorts of PR victories, I couldn't have done it.

Would Hillary be ashamed of me for doing this?

In Defense of Gaming My Primary Vote

The Obamakins came and left a flyer hanging to my door during the day today.

Luckily, the polling place is right across the street.

Unfortunately, that does not give me a long journey on which to make my decision tomorrow.

For all my complaining about late-inning undecideds, that's what I find myself as on this election-eve in Ohio.

No candidate completely satisfies me. Barry is probably the most attractive, I have the most information about McCain to trust him in the long run...and then there's Hillary.

I'd love to vote for her just for the theater of it all.

I think she's going to pick up Ohio, anyway, and I'd just really love to see the floor fight this summer if this thing keeps going.

Mike Murphy was on MTP yesterday and said almost as much. Paraphrasing, he said that if things keep going this way, when the Dems are in Denver duking it out, he'll be back at GOP headquarters getting drunk and high-fiving everyone.

While I can do without the former, the latter will definitely be fun!

And before my high-minded reader gets angry at me for apparently gaming the system, I'll offer that there are very few of these people who elect who don't do any short-term gaming when they place votes once in office. They may sacrifice one or two items now for a bigger win later on.

If Barry loses Ohio, but still comes out the winner, he'll be stronger for it. And if Hillary, the one who I really don't want to see in office, ends up the party nominee, she's much more beatable in November.

The only worry I have left is whether I can actually bring myself to vote for Hillary.

I've done some pretty shameful things in my life, but that would be a new low even for me...

Where Am I?

Well, I followed a friend's link on her Google IM to Electoralcompass.com.

I answered their short list of questions and here's where I seem to sit.

It seems to follow along with the level of irritation I have with candidates' positions...

You can click the image to enlarge.

C-PORN

I guess part of the benefit of posting this stuff up is that it's a way to clear one's conscience in a semi-public/anonymous way, depending on who the reader is.

This is one of the best weekends you can get in C-SPAN land...the weekend before the Iowa Caucuses.

My winter project is to organize and begin cataloging the bootleg music collection, so I've staked out a place in the living room where I can plug away on the organizing and simultaneously enjoy C-SPAN's All Politics Weekend.

Maybe I'll get really crazy and stay up after 9PM tonight, too.

The Liberation of Paris

I had trouble sleeping (or staying asleep, to be more accurate) and woke up around 4AM today.  When I flipped on the news networks, I was surprised to find that Paris Hilton had been released.  Honestly, I was not one of the people counting down the days or particularly looking forward to the Larry King interview.

And, ashamed as I may be to blog on her, I have to admit that sans makeup, she's actually kind of a cute girl.  The heavy makeup and slutty look just always kind of turned me off.  She'd can do more with less, IMO.

I know it's a standard refrain of people who just got out of the pokey for big or small brushes with John Q. Law to turn it all around, and maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I'll give her a fair shake.  More power to her if she makes lemonade from these lemons.

Teaching Today

In a past life, I taught undergrad classes and enjoyed it quite a bit. Since then, I've moved off to the real world, but have the opportunity to get my little fix a few times a year.

Today's the big day. I've been pretty nervous about it for some reason....moreso that usual. (And know that I blew off some weekend phone calls, Drs K and O....I will rectify that). But I'm usually good 30 seconds in. Just the buildup is quite nerve wracking!

So probably no posts till later.