By far the coolest political video I've ever seen. There are a lot of things about Obama that I don't agree with (immediate withdrawal, for one), but man is it hard not to like this guy.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --
I've been watching the "fascinating" Iowa Caucus coverage. The Iowa Caucus is an event that comes before their nomination convention, and winning it carries no immediate delegates. Basically, everyone shows up to a public place, stands next to the fold out table of their favorite candidate, and raises their hand. It comes across as one step above a straw poll, just held at a much more crucial time. I guess its a little more formal than that, but.. I feel sorry for the people who had to work tonight and couldn't attend -- basically, they get no voice.
We sure do put a lot of stock into it though. It's seen as the ultimate spring board into the New Hampshire primary (the first actual primary).
To give you an idea of just how small the Iowa Caucus actually is -- the total state wide turnout is less than just the Republican turnout in Miami Dade County in '06. Or try this -- there have been more absentee ballots requested in the state of florida by Republicans already for '08, than the entire turn out of both parties in Iowa. (I use republican numbers just because that's what I have access to, serves as an illustration for both parties).
Here's where it gets even crazier -- over $50 million was spent in Iowa just on T.V. ads. Compare that to 2004, when $9 million was spent on TV ads in Iowa. Most of the campaigns have hundreds of people on the ground in Iowa. Hillary Clinton's camp said they had 5,000 people just to drive people to the polls (I'm sure they were volunteers, but.. just pointing out the amount of focus put into it).
So much attention, and so much money, for absolutely zero delegates, with New Hampshire right around the corner (the 8th?). Only one candidate rejected the notion of Iowa outright -- Rudy. He spent today campaigning in New Hampshire and Florida instead of Iowa. In years past, this would have been seen as completely crazy. This year the primaries are so close together, it's only a little crazy. If it works, will Iowa start losing importance? I mean, the entire thing seems incredibly silly. Why are we still doing this in 2008? Isn't it supposed to be the future?
Anyway, the biggest story of today is that a black man won an Iowa Caucus. He didn't just win. He spanked Clinton and Edwards. Iowa is a state thats something like 95% white. We're not a perfect nation, we have our share of problems, but it would seem to me that we're certainly making progress.
The next story is Huckabee. Huck was outspent 10:1 in Iowa by the Romney campaign. Romney has been on the ground for over a year in Iowa and has spent the most money there. Losing after that much effort seems like it speaks volumes. We'll see if voters in New Hampshire agree.
Speaking of Huckabee -- Anyone see Chris Wallace call Ed Rollins (Huck's chariman) out onto the carpet? Ed went on about how Huck didn't go negative and how that helped him win, then Chris asked him if the blog post on townhall.com was true and that they were planning on going negative in south carolina but making it look like they weren't (sneaky politician crap). Ed admitted that the blog post was true, and then man, I thought Ed's head was going to explode. Chris basically proved that Huck's campaign wasn't all that innocent in how they went about the whole pulling-the-negative-ad-but-we're-still-going-to-give-it-to-the-press-anyway thing. As far as politics go, thats about as good of TV as it gets. I'm sure a dozen people will post it on YouTube tomorrow.
Bill recorded this video from Gavin and my season tickets. I feel almost honored, because now, he's internet famous ;) The video's gaining traction. I'm watching the Miami game on ESPN, and they just made reference to it!
At the risk of getting all scholastic, Emo started off closely tied to the post-hardcore world of Ian MacKaye. How did we go from Fugazi, to this? When I was in highschool, it meant Jimmy Eat World or Sunny Day Real Estate. To give you an idea, Sunny Day toured with the likes of Soul Coughing. Emotional infused music, sure... But this looks more like goth for kids who can't afford doc martins.
Anyway.. I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry (hah) at this video. On one hand, it shows all the weirdos in the "emo" world and what the scene has become. On the other, it shows adults completely missing the joke. The whole "emo points" thing is making fun of emo kids. Its been all over the net in some sort of form or another for awhile. Media, especially local media, just loves to dramatize teenager angst, don't they? I'm surprised they didn't try to link it all to some sort of video game....
I guess it's just all part of the same cycle. Kids have to fit in somewhere and the ones who are different (be it creatively, socially or some sort of family structure) tend to lump together. For my age group, the controversial clique was goth.. these days.. it's emo. Anyway.. give them all 10 years and I'd wager that they out perform their jock counterparts 10-1. ;)
First, I was born and raised a Hurricane fan. I don't intend to be just another person piling on the hate right now.
But my god. Butch Davis's work legitimizing the Hurricanes as a respectful college program has been completely erased, both in terms of play and behavior. How is Larry Coker still there? Ten years later, and all of the sudden SI looks like they were right.
UCF losing to Pitt by 50 doesn't seem so bad anymore. I'd rather have that than the garbage going on down in Coral Gables. It's college athletics. These are 18,19,20 year old kids. A fight in a sporting event, sure, that's one thing. Full on assault with potentially dangerous weapons and stomping players heads? Send these kids back to the streets of South Florida where they came.
And don't get me wrong, FIU is just as much to blame for this as Miami is. In fact, more so, they started it. But the reactions of Lamar Thomas in the press booth just epitomizes everything that was wrong with Miami when the program was on the verge of being shut down. How did he not mature any in the last ten years? You'd think after single handedly losing the national championship for Miami back in 1994, he'd be a bit humbled. If not then, his sub-par NFL career should have done it. But hey, being a local sports announcer for your alma mater instead, is, you know.. pretty cool too.
Fire Coker, Fire Lamar, pull these kids scholarships and focus on winning football games against teams a little bit better than FIU. Please.
YouTube Founders Celebrate - I guess that answers that. Purchased for $1.65 Billion (holy cow), and they're filming a video outside of... fridays? Seriously? If we ever sell one of our companies for that kind of coin, we're taking everyone to Sizzler.
Netscape Blog: Another thing to come out of Blogsmith CodeJam this past week was the the Netscape.com blog. Props to Craig and Andy for getting it out the gate.
Studio 60 online: I'm not a huge T.V. guy, but seriously.. Studio 60 is amazing, and what's cooler is that they stream it online. (hat tip, TV Squad)
Battle over YouTube: I know, I know -- everyone's sick of the conversation already. But seriously. We're staring down the second coming of the tech bubble.
Speaking of online videos: It's not hosted on YouTube, but this is the type of content we're talking about being worth $1B? Surely, nature's humor is worth something, but... (gracias, sorta, to Paikai for the send ;)
Just a quick video flashback to one year ago at the Marshall game. The day the UCF student body woke up.
UCF vs. UF is today. A lot's changed since 1999, the last time these two teams met. A new coach, a new league, and an entirely different set of kids. Hopefully O'Leary fixed some things this past week. If we play a perfect game, with just a tad bit of luck on our side, this could be the game that turns us into this year's BCS buster.
Rikky Walsh is a friend of mine from back home. The Besties is the band he's in these days up in Brooklyn. Their CD is really a lot of fun and if you're ever feeling blue, it'll make you smile. Check it out.
Here's their new music video. Thanks be to YouTube.
I've been watching the "fascinating" Iowa Caucus coverage. The Iowa Caucus is an event that comes before their nomination convention, and winning it carries no immediate delegates. Basically, everyone shows up to a public place, stands next to the fold out table of their favorite candidate, and raises their hand. It comes across as one step above a straw poll, just held at a much more crucial time. I guess its a little more formal than that, but.. I feel sorry for the people who had to work tonight and couldn't attend -- basically, they get no voice.
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