It's been two weeks...

But I was on a mini-vacation, plus thanksgiving, so sue me.

and plus, I gotta be honest, there isn't much interesting of note - I stopped watching cable news, because I couldn't stand any more of the Peterson trial.

Had some very interesting post-election discussions with friends - insights on how, even though the republicans I know were glad they won, many were sad that it had to be an issue like gay marriage that did it. They recognize that dividing Americans based on hate of a group is a bad thing - too bad much of the country isn't smart enough to see it as well.

And, just because Joe asked for it, check it out - http://www.spitzer2006.com/ - It's an interesting site - not quite a campaign yet, but getting there. Anyways, sign up, be a friend of Eliot, check out the page often, and tell then Joe sent you. He deserves the points more than I.

Ok, I'm out - hopefully something to write about tomorrow in the news...

Monday, monday

Ahhhhh..... do you hear it? It's the sound of no Politics. It's great, honestly... I needed a break. Sorry for not providing daily reading material for you all, though.

Anyways, I have lots of thoughts running around my brain, but none of them coherent enough to write about (yet). So, therefore, I will leave you with some thoughts about this map:http://thechrisproject.com/images/map_nowvsthen.jpg

It's scary. One of my friends warned me of this, and I disregarded it... until today.

On a lighter note: The North kicked the South's ass... but it could be a lot different today.

Let the baseball free agent signings begin! The evil empire rises from the ashes...

NYS Politics

After some time off to play Halo 2 - beating my roommate handily, by the way - I'm back with more political news.

The big races of the next cycle all put the focus on the greatest state in the USA - New York, baby! Between the governor's race and Senate race of '06, we also have the hotly contested NYC mayor's race of '05.

Bloomberg's approval rating is back up to 49% after being as low as 30% several months ago. It's gonna be interesting to see if he makes inroads with the Latino community.

Governor '06 - I've been saying this for some time - Chuck Schumer is going to run, and win. Eliot Spitzer? Chuck gets to appoint his senate successor if he wins - so guess what deal is going to be made. Spitzer would make a good senator.

And finally the biggie - Senate '06 - Welcome back to Hillary-land. Or Hill-a-palooza, according to the NY Post. Many other names have been tossed out, but I think Pataki makes a run at her - the only way he could get close to a 2008 Republican nomination for President. No offense to Pataki friends out there, but he's been propped up by shitty candidates opposing him in his re-election races. Hillary's machine will wipe the floor with him.

You heard it here first. For the gamers who read this, I'll post some sort of Halo 2 story in the next few days.

Oh, Shut Up!

Not you. Keep reading.

I gotta say, though, I am quite tired of listening to Democrats whine about losing. You know what? People lose. Teams lose. The good guy, despite the movies, doesn't always win. Baseball teams play 162 games a season, and the good ones only win around 100. That's a 61% victory rate.

You know what these teams do? They go to bed, they get up the next day, and they go back to work. That's what Democrats need to do. Stop whining about losing, go sit in a room, and come up with a plan. It doesn't have to be perfect, or pretty - just has to be something. We lost, but it's neither the end of the world or a tragedy. People voted, and when people vote, shit happens. People in DC need to learn that we aren't gods - we can try and convince people to vote one way, but we cannot win or lose a race based on our skills.

OK, end Rant. Halo 2 will be in my hands in less than 12 hours now. Read the review at www.teamxbox.com - watch the videos, look at the maps, and prepare to be taken down... By me.

I'm back!

Blogger was down yesterday and this morning, so you get a random post now.

See the movie "The Incredibles". Looks awesome, has the new Star Wars Teaser Trailer.

Saw the death of a smart, funny TV show last night - Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (of SNL fame). The show provided a place for witty, intelligent comics to discuss social/political issues in an open forum. Very funny, very smart... Therefore it was cancelled. At least the final show was good.

Halo 2 will be mine on Monday at Midnight - look for a review here around 3pm on Sunday - www.teamxbox.com

Finally, a big thanks to all of you who have posted responses - good to know I have a few readers and am not typing this just for shits and giggles...

This sucks

And, no, the following rant will not be a partisan one, and will equally refer to both Kerry and Bush in unflattering terms.

The reason why this country is so divided and contentious is that, absent a compelling candidate on EITHER side, we have to resort to the lesser of two evils, mainly along the lines of how we were raised politically. If your were R's you likely voted for Bush - if your parents were D's, you likely voted for Kerry. Since neither was an interesting candidate, we get the electoral mess we have now.

The fault for this lies with the MEDIA. Since we have gone to a 24 hour news cycle, the media struggles for something to report on. Therefore they cover whatever minutiae they can, including ancient things from a candidates personal life. This leads to two types of candidates - the Bland and the Lying.

Kerry is bland - never did anything wrong, so they had to cover made up stories, like the swift boats. Bush is more the liar type, where he successfully got people to focus on terrorism rather than what he himself had done in life and on the domestic front.

Occasionally we get lucky, and get a liar who is a good candidate, like Clinton, but that's been rare. Gore and Dole were both bland bastards.

What we need is a straight talker type, who avoids bullshit, apologizes for mistakes, and ISN'T PERFECT. McCain and Dean (minus the scream) are good examples of the types we need to run - people who would actually present a compelling case for what should happen.

Anyways, as you can tell, I am sleep-deprived and pissed off. I'll have more for you later - though I may try and avoid anything resembling the news at all costs for the next week or so.

Deadlock

Here we go again. I am calling it a night at 3 am. Hopefully this will be resolved by the morning.

Didn't I say, like a week ago, that it would come down to Ohio?

Told you :p

Voting

I'll do electoral updates later on tonight - I'll be plastered in front of the TV with a computer nearby, but thought this story was interesting...

Went to Starbucks to get something to drink for lunch and was asked if I had voted yet. The guy who asked me might have been 22, if that. Good signs that poeple are, for the first time in a while, truly invested in this election.

By the way, for those of you wondering who I voted for - I voted Tom Kanick for Town of Chenango Highway Superintendent.

Prediction

Well, Ladies and Gents - here is where I lay it all on the line. I filled out my election game today, state by state, and here is how it went...

Kerry won with 293, Bush lost with 245. Kerry won by virtue of taking Ohio and PA, despite losing Florida.

Does this happen tomorrow? Stay tuned, but the over/under on a victory time is around 1am.

Polls, Polls, Everywhere

Everywhere you look, a new poll.

I'm tired of polls. They are no longer quite as accurate as before. Here's why -

Polsters admit it takes them 10 phone calls to get 1 respondent. No one wants to take that much time on the phone.

Most poeple 18-30 have cell phones, not landlines at home, and therefore are not reachable, due to federal law prohibiting pollsters calling cell phones.

So, despite all the math, the heavy statistics, and the charts (I've done them all in grad school), most of our polls oversample the elderly, the lonely, and the bored.

Watch out for tomorrow's election to not be quite as close as they say it will - that's all I am saying.