Appreciation
Unlike last week, I think I've been taking some time this week to appreciate what's been happening for me the last few weeks. I essentially spent the last hour of the Sportsbeat on the air on Friday, which was a really cool experience, because previous to that I'd only been on in short spurts. My parents, of course, thought I did very well, and my uncle, who listens to the station often, called them and told them I did a really good job. I also heard the same from people at the station both right after the show and when I went in for a bit on Saturday. The time at the station has been a really rewarding one for me, and I am sure it will be high atop the list of the things I've done this year, when I compile them, as John did last year.

I also want to post a link so you can read my Marquee stories for Chicago magazine. I didn't write anything this week, as I had more really large projects to work on at work, but the four previous weeks, I have a story, including one on Shakespeare that was the lead on last week's edition. Its been a really fabulous opportunity, both to work at a highly regarded magazine, but also, from a practical sense, to get real clips and give myself more of a shot with potential employers.

I believe Ron Zook's agent owes me commission.

I was surprised, really, by the Kerik withdrawal, because, usually, the GOP is much better at vetting its people than we are. That he would have this skeleton is not surprising, but that it had seemingly not been thought of by anyone who makes decisions regarding Cabinet appointments is scary.

Charlie Weis is a good hire, but not a great one, for Notre Dame. There is some school of thought that says they needed a really big name, and Weis, though highly thought of in NFL circles, is not really that big a name. Now, coaches with NFL experience have seemed to do well in College jobs lately, Pete Carroll especially, but for all of the bluster coming out of this place, you'd think that Rockne had just been resurrected.

Remember, it's not arrogance, it's excellence.

Laughter
When my dad drove me back on Saturday, I moved this weekend and he needed to bring down the van, I was reading a trade paperback I bought a couple of years ago called "The Golden Age". Its about this alternate reality that the superheroes that inhabited the World War II-era of DC Comics were put in. There's a line in it during a conversation between Alan Scott (The Original Green Lantern) and Jonathon Chambers (Johnny Quick) that really stuck with me. Both, in this world, had retired from their super-hero identities and were frustrated with the lack of action in their lives and the new stresses they were encountering in the "civilian" world. Johnny Quick had been a guy who, like nearly all comic book speedsters, basically laughed at life and didn't take anything seriously, that's what happens when you are literally able to run away from problems. The line, which was delivered as exposition, was "Alan looked into Johnny's eyes, and saw how much the laughter's left them." With Karen moving on in her life, which I obviously don't begrudge her, because I want her to be happy, I can't help but think how much the laughter in my eyes, the joy in my life, has gone away in the past nine months, most of which has been my own doing. I talked to Susan on Sunday, and we're trying to see each other when she comes home for Christmas, and that conversation is what got me thinking about this. I wondered whether anyone who hasn't seen me for as long as Susan has would recognize me as the same person.
I'm not the same person, which is the reason I've had such a hard time getting over what happened was not just my being upset about losing Karen, it was because I lost a part of myself as well. And that's only been compounded by my depression, the way I've shut myself off from people and from social situations during the last months. While I am not exactly the most social of people to begin with, the last few months I've been so totally cut off, so obsessed with my own grief that I've lost sight of the rest of my life, that there will be a future for me, even if it isn't with Karen.

It's time for me to get the laughter back.

I'm really disgusted by what Notre Dame did in firing Willingham. Notre Dame is supposed to stand for something, not just be a football factory. Notre Dame is supposed to value its academics, its supposed to be the place that values integrity. And in firing Willingham when they did, and for the reasons they did, they have revealed themselves to be nothing more than a football team with a University attached .

OK, So...
In contrast to the admittedly very heavy and dark tone of my post yesterday, I wanted to write about Ron Turner getting fired, and the way the jobs in the Big Ten should be ranked.
Turner's main problem has been simple, as a guy who came in as an offensive coach, he has not developed a quarterback since Kurt Kittner left, which has really been the downfall of the team over the last two years. That, coupled with the poor performance of the present junior and senior classes in general, led to the firing. As far as successors, many of the local commentators have been talking about getting some pro assistants, as well as smaller school coaches like Jack Bicknell of La. Tech or college assistants like Chuck Long. Let me be the first to offer up a possibility: Ron Zook should be the next head coach at Illinois. Zook made a lot of mistakes at Florida, but if he could do one thing, it was recruit like mad. Recruiting was one of the things Ron Guenther said was the reason Turner was gone. Zook will not have the burden of replacing a legend as he did at Florida. He can get the talent to make the team number one in the state again, because right now it clearly is number two to Northwestern, which is on the brink of going to another bowl game. While this might not be the coach some in the media would think, I believe, if you really examine the needs of the University of Illinois, that Zook may just be the best (reasonable) pick for the Illini.

This gets me to thinking: If by some horrific accident, all the Big Ten Coaches needed to be replaced at once, how would you rank the prestige and quality of the jobs:
1. Michigan. If you didn't think I would say this, you're fooling yourself. They have, clearly, one of the top 5 traditions in football (ND, U of M, Alabama, USC, Oklahoma), the ability to recruit nationally and in every state in the Midwest, the knowledge that the fan and alumni base keeps them on TV every week, and one of the top venues in the nation.

2. Ohio State- Much the same as above, though Ohio State is more centered, recruiting wise, on the state of Ohio, which, lucky for them, produces a ton of talent.

3. Penn State- while I acknowledge their current difficulties, the state is simply to talent rich, the tradition of the school to great and their geography, situated nicely between the eastern and western parts of the state and right in the mid-atlantic region, make it a great job.

4. Wisconsin- When one considers where they were before Alvarez, it almost boggles the mind how good they have gotten. The state isn't as talent rich as the others listed above, but they have the ability to get players- especially on defense and at running back to be good for a long time.

5 (TIE) Purdue and Iowa- the only reason I put these schools together is because their recent success is tied so closely with their current coaches. Both schools have tradition, but are also capable of falling on their face if they make a bad hire, or have a couple of bad recruiting classes.

7. Michigan State- Nick Saban left because he found it too hard to be "little brother". State is the only school in the Big Ten with another "Superpower" program not just in the state, but also in the conference. Its a great job in a lot of ways, there's a lot of talent in the state, and MSU has always recruited FLorida better than Michigan, which seems to focus more on Pennsylvania and California, but there is a ton of politics at State that just aren't involved with the Michigan job.

8. Illinois- Good recruiting base in Chicago, but you lack the tradition to capture the imagination of kids.

9. Minnesota- There's only one reason they are this low. The lack of an on-campus facility. They look minor-league when they have to deal with both the Vikings and Twins getting priority at the HHH.

10- Northwestern- You're the great academic school of the conference (And when you have a conference with Schools like Michigan, Wisconsin and Purdue, that's saying something) and you're the only private one. You are in the center of the Chicago area. These things can sometimes hurt you, but you have some natural advantages.

11. Indiana- You're always second fiddle to basketball, always. Hoosier football has never been a big deal in the state, and with both Notre Dame and Purdue, its difficult for IU to gain a foothold in people's consciousness.

Dread
That's what I've been feeling about seeing this day on the calendar. Now its here. Knowing what I might have been celebrating, it hurts tremendously. I know I should be over this at this point, but its just been hard. Its hard to get over something when you really don't want to, and that's been me for the past nine months. I've been stuck. I've let loneliness creep in so much that at night, sometimes, I feel as if I am suffocating on my own grief. This has been my decision. I haven't gone out at night, I haven't made an effort to put myself out there while I am in the city. Part of the reason is because I don't intend on being here much beyond Christmas, when I will be done with classes and my internship. I won't have any ties to keeping me here, and so I've wanted to minimize the ties I have here. Now I don't really have much beyond the people I work with at the magazine and John, and the people at the magazine will be spreading across the country as well. I know I can make the effort, its just that I feel the need to get into a comfort zone, and right now, the city seems crushing. I feel invisible, and, for the most part, I've done a good job of doing this to myself. Its very difficult, I've been finding, to divest myself from what I hoped would come to pass, and to come to grips with reality. Work has been a distraction, but when I don't bring work home with me, I can get into trouble, and it almost seems that it has been happening more as this day approached. I know I need to get over this, maybe I will soon.

The week has certainly been an eventful one. I thought Stern gave out punishments that fit what went on Friday. Artest, everyone knew, was a ticking time bomb. It was Stephen Jackson who just looke dtotally out of character. He went nuclear on Friday, and this from a person who was not involved in the series last year.

Michigan certainly didn't look good on Saturday, but thankfully, Iowa certainly did.

I want to congratulate everyone involved with Quick Change Room. I enjoyed myself a lot. I also want to thank Bohne, Andy and everyone else in their suite for letting me stay the night on Saturday.

The New Alamo
That's what I was worried Fallujah would turn into, especially in the Muslim world. We seem to have done a good job of avoiding that, as well as the other possibility, Fallujah becoming the Arab Masada. Masada, if you didn't know, was Herod's former palace, which was built into an enormous rock/mesa. The Romans laid siege to it for many months following their capture of Jerusalem in the Jewish Rebellion. The remaining Zealots, as well as the Assassins, were held up there, and when it became clear the Romans would take the city, the population inside committed mass suicide. It became a symbol of holding out at all costs, and strength. The general of the Tenth legion said "We have won. We have won a rock."Maybe we still will get that. That's a very scary possibility.

Thank you State, very very much.

Powell quit today. No one is surprised by this, though I must admit, the selection of Rice to replace him is disappointing to me. She has proven herself to be a largely incompetent NSA and so giving her a promotion does not make much sense, but then, this White House has shown itself capable of a lot of things that do not make sense.

If I am out of step with a country that wants to criminalize abortion and legislate against love, then I 'm glad to be out of step with America.

A paper in Florida put out an article today about how much the city vote in some states overwhelms the rest of the state. It was supposed to be an analysis piece, but unfortunately, it makes things seem as if Democrats in cities overwhelm the wishes of the state, because the city somehow don't count as part of the state.

Arafat is gone. I am torn about this, on the one hand he was the most important figure in the last 50 years of Mideast history, because he was the representative of the Palestinian cause, and ultimately made the world aware of their plight to the point that they had to pay attention. On the other, he was a terrorist who convinced his people that terror was the only way to win their freedom. Its odd when you consider how Arafat and the PLO failed to play well in America, how well the IRA, and Arafat's obvious equivalent Gerry Adams, did. Now, there is an obvious constituency for the IRA to appeal to, but still, both groups were terrorists, but one was viewed favorably, while the other did not. Part of it is that Arafat was so obviously and unabashedly militant, with the fatigues and head scarf, while Adams always appeared in a suit. Funny how things like that change our perception.

Just a thought
One of the reasons so many red states voted so overwhelmingly against gay marriage, and why the people there fear gays so much, is that voters in those states probably do not know anyone, personally, who is out, and therefore humanizing. One of the ways we might be able to alleviate this problem is for gay college students, along with their straight friends, to cross the country during the summer and talk to people in these states. Now, these people would obvioulsy have to be extremely brave, as they would have to risk potential Matthew Sheppard-like events in some states, but that's why we include straight friends, people who surprised people could turn to and see someone who is accepting of this person's sexuality, whiuch doesn't mean something is wrong with either of them. They could also go into African-American communities, since the stigma is that much greater among blacks.

Ohio State= Dirty like a landfill

Other than Donald and Goofy, are there any original Disney Cartoon characters in the same league with Warner Brothers?

Watch out for the Black Dog.

Other Stuff

I, like John, have decided to take a break from the election for a bit, instead, I'll just give you a few thoughts on completely immaterial matters.

1. The Michigan-Michigan St. game Saturday was among the great sporting events I've ever seen. The way Michigan St. carried the play, especially before Stanton got hurt, was very surprising, and the performance of their running back was great as well. Braylon Edwards' performance late, though, was among the best late game performances ever. His long reception broke Michigan out of a slump and set up the field goal to make it a 14 point game. His two consecutive touchdown catches were absolutely astonishing, easily just as good as what Larry Fitzgerald did last year. The overtime's were so incredibly nerve-racking, especially because Michigan Mike Hart, who has to be kicking himself for being born the same year as Adrian Peterson. Braylon's touchdown in the third overtime, not too mention Avant's in the second, were just amazing. I really give a lot of credit to Michigan State, who could have just died in the overtime becasue they blew that lead, but agin they didn't. Now we just need them to get back up in two weeks, and beat Wisconsin, sorry John and Karen.

2. As part of fact-checking an article, I happened upon Shula's Steakhouse's 48oz Club, which, as one might guess, is for people who finish their 48oz steak. One guy I found, a Jeff Pallies, seemingly ate three, that's one more than 2, in one day, and potentially at one sitting. That's 144 oz, 9 pounds of meat.

3. I'm starting to look for jobs, so far my interest has been peaked by jobs all across the country, from Idaho, to D.C, to Vermont, to an AP job in Honolulu.

4. Ok, I lied, one last election related thing. I saw the episode of Seinfeld last night where Susan died from licking the toxic envelopes. The "Jerry" plot of the episode, though, reminded me of the election, and what might happen. Jerry's (Republican America) life gets saved by Janeane Garafolo (Bush), who's character is exactly like Jerry in every way. Jerry is smitten, because he's finally found the one he's always been looking for, himself. Kramer (Democrats and liberal America) is freaked out by this and doesn't like Janeane/Bush. Then, Jerry decides to ask Janeane to marry him (re-election). Then, as their sitting at the coffee shop Janeane orders cereal for the third time that day, Jerry realizes how weird it is and regrets it. In the next episode we see the two of them break up, happily, acknowledging that they hate each other. This works in a lot of ways, except we have to live in Bush's America, and we can't break up after one episode.

Napoleon
I had other thoughts on some of the things I said before. I do not know that we are doing things so badly, we did after all, win 49% of the vote, but obviously something is missing. Slate suggests that we need to start defining issues in moral terms for people, the economy for example. We won when Bill Clinton said he wanted to reward people who worked hard. The President uses small business as code for this. We sort of did this with outsourcing, but we can do it better.

I read Talking Points as well and Josh had a very good point. The very best thing the conservatives do, and have for two generations, is create a religous fervor using outreach from the alternative media and undermining the rest of it, and then using grass roots organizations, think tanks, and others to get their message out, both in their own and in the normal media. We can't just let the machinery of warfare- Americans Coming Together, MoveOn.org, Media Fund, Air America just wither on the vine. We need to start getting behind these things now. We won't be smothered by the conservatives in defeat, we will smother ourselves if not careful, and the machinery we may well need soon will die in its infancy. We must not let that happen. By keeping the machinery we give ourselves a much better chance next time, whoever the candidate is.

BAYH/RICHARDSON '08

What Exactly Happened- Double Dagger

I think myself and probably most of you reading this are in a huge state of depression right now. Obviously, what happened yesterday, given what we wanted to happen, is extremely disappointing, and I'm not just talking about the Senate and House, I half expected that. I just thought that, especially with the early exit polling, combined with the long lines, would mean huge turnout and a Kerry win. I know everyone is disappointed. I am as well. I'm disappointed not in the candidate, I thought Kerry did everything he could, though he made some mistakes. I am disappointed that the youth vote did not turnout in the disproportionate numbers we thought it might, I'm disappointed that turnout itself will not exceed 115 million. If it had gone over that, Kerry probably wins.

I am disappointed for, and in, the country. I think that we had a real opportunity this election to become hopeful again, to choose a fairer and more cooperative path in the world. Instead, we chose fear and intolerance at home and a repudiation of multi-lateralism abroad. Europe and the Middle East have to be shocked at this result. Britain as well. I think they hoped that we would elect the right guy, but we didn't. Hopefully, Bush will try to govern more from the center, but that is a fool's hope. He knows has a larger majority in both houses on Congress, and what he will see as a popular mandate. The Tax cuts for the wealthy will be permanent, as will the shift of the tax burden to the middle class. We may get a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, we may well get a draft, and invasions of Syria, Iran and anywhere else that opposes us. As a nation our willful ignorance of the world will continue. Darfur will only get worse, which we breed more hatred for us in Africa. Barring drastic shifts or unexpectedly brilliant success in Iraq, there will still be chaos there. If I sound pessimistic, its because I am, I'm frustrated that the votes we needed didn't come in, that millions registered and didn't bother to show up. I'm pessimistic about the future of Roe, because with possibly 4 judges leaving the court, 3 of which would be likely backers of Roe (O'Connor and Ginsburg are both not in the best health and Stevens, though healthy, is in his 80's), it would not be surprising to see Republicans use the electoral win to try and overturn it on the bench. Bill Frist used the term "mainstream judges" this morning, and Republicans will try to make that a synonym for destroying the right to choose. I'm pessimistic about losing the promise of stem-cell research, though the initiative in California passed. I'm concerned we will see new laws to discriminate against gays and lesbians across the nation, no matter the stink the Republicans made about Mary Cheney.

Now comes the look at the future. In 2000, we had a very different world and nation, in a lot of ways than we have now. In other ways, it’s the same, bitterly divided nation. Kerry won all but one (maybe two, if Iowa goes to Bush) of Gore's states and picked up New Hampshire. The exit polls showed that Values were the number one deciding factor in Ohio, and were also important in Florida. Its difficult to imagine, barring Americans waking up to find a gay person in each of their households or a sudden and dramatic shift on Abortion, that Democrats will have a hard time winning in 2008 without fielding a candidate who can at least talk about these things. Hillary Clinton, though I love her to death, does not have this ability. She does not possess the ability to communicate with "regular folk" on values. Her husband did. The two men I can think of who do on our side are Evan Bayh of Indiana and Barack Obama. I wouldn't touch John Edwards with a ten-foot pole. He failed to deliver any rural voters, the voters he supposedly was going to get for us, not in droves mind you, but enough to be competitive. Edwards failed this election. Gephardt would have been better, as would Bob Graham. In 2008, Obama will still be just a pup, though he may be a possibility as a Vice-President, Bayh is the man I think should be the standard bearer. He's centrist enough to appeal to Red States, and while we might prefer someone a little closer to our liberal hearts, the rest of us will have to do our best to swallow the pill the DLC will feed us after this election. On the other side, I think of six immediate names, Rudy Giuliani, Jeb, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, George Pataki and Bill Frist. None, other than maybe McCain are possibilities I like very much, especially, and obviously most of all, Jeb.

We will survive this. We always have. We survived eight years of Reagan and four of Bush 41. We can survive the next 4. We as a party, and the left as a movement can't spend the next two years navel-gazing; we have to decide what went wrong, not think about, but decide what went wrong, and fix it. If we need to be less overtly anti-Bush, so be it, perhaps the sound and fury may have turned off some voters who went the other way. The fight must continue. If we can't win nationally, we need to do the conservatives have done. If you're really pissed and angry, good, you should be, now we have to use that to do more than write placards and march, we need to build a giant grass roots effort, dress rehearsal in 2006, with the show in 2008. Channeling the anger is better than simply being angry and then dropping out of the system.

It won't be fun, but we have to do our best to survive the next four years.

GOTV
Today has been pretty maddening. I was sick with the flu the last two days, and therefore haven't seen a thing on the web or anything since I left home. Obviously, right now, things look like we might be experiencing the heaviest turnout in decades, which is gfreat, no matter who wins.
Still, I , along with most of the people I know, want Kerry to win. The early exit polls, especially in the states like Pennsylvania and Florida have looked good, but I am still nervous. Obviously, I think everyone is. Last night, before going to bed, I saw a short segment on Chicago Tonight, which WTTW puts on every weekday. It featured two panelists of three who were likely to be sympathetic to the GOP cause, and both had iffy feelings. One said that in watching the presidebt speake in New Mexico, that he seemed to see a man who had been given bad news. The other, an editor at the Trib, said that soemone had called him, a friend who worked with Karl Rove, and asked him if he could see any scenarios in which Bush won without winning Florida or Ohio. To be frank, I can't. To offset that, Bush would have to take Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan, and I don't think that is likely to happen.

Still watching different websites has not been good for my psyche. Looking at Salon and Talking Points, I see good news for the President, but when I look at the Corner, which is the blog at the National Review, I see only bad signs, though I suppose that is to be expected.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this turnout possible, you did God's work. Now we just have to hope it goes our way.

The Rock

Wonderful time being had across New England right now. Sysiphus has put the rock at the top of the hill, Tantalus has gotten something to drink. The Red Sox have won. While I admit the series itself was a bit anti-climactic following the Yankee series. 86 years of ghosts and frustrations will take it any way they can get it. If this is a vindication of anyone, its Bill James, because this team, more than any other with the exception of the A's, was put together with Sabermetrics in mind. Guys like Kevin Millar and David Ortiz were cheap, but Boston knew that if they wanted to put together the Sabermetrically perfect team, those would be two guys who could make it happen.

Now everyone's full attention has to turn to another sporting event, well two. One, we all have to root hard for the Packers on Sunday, even though I know a couple people who read this may be doing so anyway. I say this because everytime the Redskins have lost a game before an election, and this goes back almost 70 years, the incumbent party loses. (It also should be pointed out that the last two times the Red Sox won a World Series in an election year, the Democrat won, but the Democrat was Woodrow Wilson). The other is of course, the final race to the pole in the presidential race. Given the topic of discussion this week, and the reporting done by a Minneapolis TV station that you may see being nationally broadcast today, the reports from Iraq and about the missing explosives do not bode well for Bush. This puts him on the defensive in the last week, which I am sure is something he and Karl Rove didn't want to be doing. Meanwhile Kerry's appearing in front of one of the largest crowds in the history of the state of Wisconsin with Bruce Springsteen, just outside Miss Laura Kraly's back window. In addition, you have Rudy Giuliani going off script and, while appearing on behalf of the President, saying “No matter how you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?” Bush has spent the last 18 hours saying that Kerry was questioning the Troops, which he wasn't, and then his own surrogate goes on the Today show and actually does blame the troops.
Its going to be a fun, and nerve racking, 5 days.

The Nation
As I watched Game 6 last week, I may have officially become part of Red Sox Nation when I was at the Zone in the ninth inning. The classic shot of Red Sox fans, especially in games 4 and five last week, was of course those people watching the game thru their fingers. That was largely me on Tuesday. During the eighth and ninth I had taken a composite NBA schedule that was available their and nearly wore the ink off by rubbing it together in nervous anticipation. I was awed by what Schilling did, and what he did on Sunday as well. The man obviously has a huge pain threshold and frankly, may be one of the great teammates ever.

I am obviously rooting for the Red Sox, so this weekends two games were great. They do need to get better defensively, obviously, but that will be difficult when they ahve to put Ortiz at first. Manny literally falling all over himself in left certainly doesn't help.

As far as the Yankees are concerned, they just completed what has to be considered one of the freat failures in team sports history. It's not just that they lost 4 straight. They lost 4 straight when it mattered most, and when victory was literally withing the Hammer of God's grasp in the Ninth inning of game 4. My guess is they will go after Beltran, which won't help anything. This is a time when George is letting his ego get the best of him, and is not really looking at the makeup of his team. This team's offense was great, or atleast it was until game 4, but what it needs more than anything is a left handed starter and a reliable left handed reliever.

Horse race stuff is interesting: The Gallup poll was at something like 9 points for Bush last week, and now its at 5. The Washington Post tracking poll now gives Kerry a slight edge. From state to state though, things are not as encouraging. The Zogby polls showed Bush gains in a lot of battlegrounds, which there is not much time to reverse. Still, the story about the munitions dump, coupled with the gaffe from the Hannity interview may hurt Bush yet

Wow

I didn't get a ton of sleep yesterday. I stayed up to watch the whole Red Sox- Yankee game, plus in the morning, a car parked near my apartment was having "alarm trouble", meaning it was going off for about thirty seconds for every minute. That pretty much sucked, I have to say.One word about the series. I don't blame Terry Francone. Schilling's ankle was far worse than they obviously expected. The relief pitching all simutaneously melting down in game three is not his fault either. The one move I really fault him for is staying with Mark Bellhorn for so long. I realize that Pokey is not exactly Ryne Sandberg at the plate at second, but he's far closer to Bill Mazeroski defensively, certainly more than Bellhorn. At least two plays last night would almost certainly have been made by Reese, plus a few that were not even attempted at the Stadium. Bellhorn has not produced offensively, so why not improve the defense? Of course, if Bellhorn gets a big hit tonight, I will be the first to agree that I am a moron.

If the Yankees are Pedro's daddy, does that make Bill Mueller Mariano Rivera's?

Rmember, before any potentially Democratic voters get despondent, particularly with the Gallup poll, remember that Gallup showed Bush with a 13% lead last time, on Oct. 26.Now, Gore did not exactly run a terrible campaign, but he didn't run one good enough to make up a 13 point gap in a week and a half either. Besides, if by the weekend the tracking polls show movement to Kerry, then will all the pundits say the race is Kerry's?

I agree with a lot of what John said about the Packers, though they certainly didn't seem to need anything yesterday as the crushed the Lions. I agree that Slowik needs to go. The defense is a gimmick, and gimmicks typically don't work for very long. Right now they are either blitzing everyone or blitzing no one, putting everybody in coverage. There has to be a happy medium. THe secondary is obvoiusly the issue. Darren Sharper has looked like he's been playing in sand so far this year, and the corners are young and need the safety help, and he's not providing it. I would say that they need to invest their next first round pick in either a defensive end, possibly David Pollack or Marcus Spears, or perhaps someone bigger like Dan Cody. Put Kampman and KGB on one side, becasue Kampman is much better against the run, and get KGB going on third down. If none of those ends are available, or they don't want to reach, I would take a safety, and moe Sharper to strong. Keep Bubba Franks. Take the heir to Favre in the Second round, someone like Dan Orlovsky of UConn, Kyle Orton of Purdue, David Greene of Georgia or Alex Smith of Utah. The big names like Andrew Walter, and potentially Leinart and Rogers will be gone already anyway. They also should look at drafting another corner, or adding Depth at DT and along the O-line.

The Lions need to add another defensive end opposite James Hall, since it has become obvious that Kalimba Edwards is not going to be a big time player. They also may need a safety badly, because both their safety's are old and slow. Shazor would look good, but if they end up drafting really low in the first round, I would hope they would take David Baas out of Michigan to play Left Guard.

The Grand Slam

I felt, watching the debate last night, that John Kerry beat President Bush. Granted, I myself am not an objective viewer, but I found Kerry to be both incredibly human, in talking about his mother and in talking about his faith, while simultaneously having a significantly greater grasp of the nuts and bolts of the domestic issues than the President. In listening to the reactions of the people at MSNBC, which have genearally been to the right of everyone else, meaning they went hard saying Cheney won last week and some said Bush won on Friday, and I got the impression that they felt it was a draw, which I think goes for Kerry. He had the momentum, and I think showed very interesting parts of himself. Bush was persona #3, the frat boy with faith, the one Al Gore faced in 2000, not the smirking monkey of #1 or Yosemite Sam we saw in #2. A couple of thoughts on other things:

I've really been surprised by the indignation with which Republicans have gone after Kerry for bringing up Mary Cheney during the question about Homosexuality as a choice. John Kerry did not "out" Mary Cheney. Mary Cheney was onstage at Case Western Reserve last week with her partner, people who follow this race know she is gay. I think Kerry was simply using her as a real life example, especially of someone who might be conflicted because of a conservative upbringing. Check out Andrew Sullivan, a gay man himself, for his thoughts on the subject.

Josh Marshall, as well as David Frum of Washington Monthly, pointed out something very interesting about the Osama Bin Laden quote the President used in 2002 and denied saying last night. Its not that he either lied or forgot that is interesting, instead its the emphasis on the fact that since the Taliban was gone, there was no reason to worry about Bin Laden. In IR at Albion, we learned all about the differences between state and non-state actors. Republicans like Bush, and perhaps the Neo-Cons in the Pentagon and at State seem to believe that states, and only states matter. NSA's- Non-State Actors don't. Bin Laden, without the support of the Taliban, was no longer important, Bush seems to have been thinking. Well, its very possible Al-Qaeda was responsible for the bombing in the Sinai last weekend, that they were responsible for Madrid, and may or may not be plotting something here. Obviously, NSAs do matter. The insurgency in Iraq, whether being carried out by Baath loyalists, foriegn terrorists or simple home-grown guerillas, is proof the NSAs matter. The first question last night was whether our children (meaning people of my generation) and our grandchildren will be safer in the future. The only real way to do that, in my estiamtion, is to acknowledge that the era of states as the only actors in the world are over. This also does explain why Iraq became the focus of the administration so quickly. They needed a state to go after, and Iraq seemed the logical choice. So what if we're engaged in a war against religous extremists, let's attack a secular Muslim state, while the Mullahs brutally rule over Iran, and Saudi royal money flows into Wahabbist schools? The Iraqi's just made an easy target because Saddam had been so arrogantly flaunting the world for a decade.

Fun stuff. Anyone in the Ann Arbor area, stop by Scorekeepers at 310 W. MAynard, across from Borders, tomorrow for the radio show. I actually hit my lock last week, bringing my record to a scintillating 1-5.

Tonight

Ok, so I haven't posted in a week, and I'm sorry, various computer problems kept me from updating Monday and Saturday, so here I am today.

Tonight is the last great event of the campaign, or at least, scheduled event in the campaign. Looking at various tracking polls, especially Slate's election scorecard, this is getting extremely tight as we come down to the wire. The Slate site had neither candidate winning enough for Election, Bush at 270 and Kerry at 268. Ohio and Wisconsin were put in the Kerry column. Still, right now this is all sound and fury. If Kerry wins tonight, decisively or not, he probably wins the election, especially since all the talk over Thursday and Friday, and then going into Sunday morning, will be about how he's won every debate and has massive momentum. That the momentum thing is true is obvious, Bush's rather sizable lead of a few weeks ago has evaporated in nearly every poll. Bush needs a decisive win tonight in order to give himself the appearance of a momentum shift, but because of the moderator format, I don't know that he can get it, short of an enormous Kerry gaffe with no such gaffe on his own part. Both debates last week seem to have crystallized in people's minds as either, a draw in the case of the Veeps, or a slight Kerry win, if you believe the polls now coming in from Gallup and other organizations.

What I find curious right now is who both campaigns seem to be targeting. Bush is rallying the base right now, which may or may not be a sound strategy at this point. By all indications, turnout is going to be very heavy, which traditionally favors Democrats, perhaps the President wants to see if he can't change that paradigm. Kerry seems to be focusing his messages squarely to the undecided voters, hoping to get them in his column now, as opposed to remaining undecided, obviously. It seems that he's been doing a good job of that the last two weeks, so he perhaps should keep it up. I don't know that playing to his own base is really needed at this point either, they seem incredibly motivated.

I think the Red Sox win tonight, thanks primarily to the little man Pedro has now.

I know John will think I'm wrong, but I think the key to stopping the slide of the Packers might come this off-season. The Board of Directors needs to go to Mike Sherman and say "You either relinquish the GM job, or you're fired". With the McKenzie fiasco, the inability to find a competent backup QB, and the rather abymal drafts of the post-Wolf era (save Nick Barnett and Javon Walker), Mike Sherman the GM has failed Mike Sherman- Head Coach immensely. I would use the second rounder thay got from the Saint's for a QB, since, unless Leinart or Rogers come out, there arren't likely to be a lot of QB's in the first. Either that, or sign Drew Brees.

Anticipation
Ok, so I can't tell you what I think about what will happen tonight. I have read a lot of articles suggesting that this format does not fit Edwards style, and I agree with that. The question, though is will it matter. Dick Cheney is the Administration. He is the living embodiment of all this administration is. Extraordinarily partisan and secretive, ruthless beyond anything we've seen from President's not from Whittier College. I don't know if Cheney is the real puppet master or not. I think we on the left underestimate just how smart and how involved Bush really is. Still, Cheney is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most powerful Vice-President in the modern era, and probably ever. Edwards is going into this battle with six years of experience in Government. He is on the short end of the gravitas stick here. But still, I feel that his skills as an orator are such that he can cut into Bush/Cheney, and make the appeal that way, by talking about Haliburton, by bringing up Valerie Plame, and then Haliburton again. It will be exciting to watch.

The playoffs have opened and it is good. I expect both of the teams that won today to be victorious in their series. I am very interested in the way the Twins compete tonight, a lot of people have picked them in this series, despite a lack of success against the Yankees. If Santana is lights out tonight, wow, good stuff.

Kakistocracy
The Vice Presidential debate comes tomorrow. A lot of people remarked, in the days following Edwards' nomination, how interesting a contrast would come in the debate, with Dick Cheney, the dour CEO, against Edwards, the sunny trial lawyer. The important reason the debate will be interesting is the contrast in the jobs of the two men. CEOs and Trial lawyers live in different worlds, and when they collide, you often see extremely interesting debates and conversations. I would expect the same tomorrow. Cheney is incredibly well versed, and his demeanor, well his demeanor is one that conveys seriousness all the time. Edwards is almost Clintonian in his ability to connect with the common man. That's why the Republicans did not want a town hall debate here. Instead, we again have a sit down format, as we did last time.

The polls, predictably, have narrowed a great deal. The shocking shift, is of course, the Newsweek poll, which showed an 11 point Bush lead after the Republican convention, and a 2 point Kerry lead now. While not all that is a result of the debate, a lot of it is simple attrition in the last month. Still its obvious the debate has changed a lot of people's mines about John Kerry. The trick is now to at least get a draw in the next two debates, enough so that momentum does not shift back to the President. After today, there are 29 days til the election. One debate Friday, plus another the following Thursday, and then the final furlong, to use a horse racing term. Its getting into nitty-gritty time. Everyone needs to do what they can, especially in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa, to get Kerry elected. At this point, its difficult to see a landslide for anyone, this is where the ground game becomes important.

Style Points...Going Old School
I really want to blog on two things tonight. First is obvious, the debate, second, well, that really doesn't matter in the larger scheme of things, but I think its interesting.

I listened to the whole debate. I came home from Chicago, and at about 7 eastern time, after I had grabbed dinner, I started listening to Hardball on MSNBC on my radio. Most everyone agreed that Kerry had to win , or at least be good enough to slow Bush's momentum. Most everyone seemed to agree that it had to be Kerry's night, or else it was basically over.

As the debate came on at nine I really wanted to listen for the way each person was speaking, to see how much substance they were conveying. One person on MSNBC said before the debate that he felt that Kerry needed to avoid speaking in long drawn out paragraphs and be more down to earth. I don't know that he did that, but then, I don't believe he really needed to do that. I felt, especially early on, as Kerry was speaking in these very articulate and obviously knowledgeable statements, that he was hitting on major points that connected with people. He knew what he was talking about on every issue, and it showed. The president, early on, and this continued throughout, kept fumbling for words, or worse, taking empty pauses that he was unable to occupy with a facial expression that could win him support (I should mention that I've been watching a lot of the post-debate stuff on all the networks, yes, including a little bit on FOX News when nothing else its on, or the other 2 cable networks are just putting on spin people. I thought that the analysis afterwards was right on. Kerry did win. He did not deliver a knockout, but then he didn't have to, he just needed to close the gap effectively, and I think that we'll see in the next few days, as all the Sunday shows put out there new polls, that the gap between Kerry and Bush will tighten, perhaps significantly.
A couple more points on the debate; Kerry looked far more Presidential than Bush did. Its amazing what happens when that seal is gone. Kerry was ram-rod straight throughout, Bush slouched. Bush looked annoyed, pensive or simply like he didn't want to be there in a lot of the shots I saw. Kerry didn't have any obvious Al Gore type of moments, where he was sighing during Bush's responses. He made notes, he smiled, he looked as if he was enjoying himself, but also as if he knew he was, at least for tonight, the better man. The radio test, which is, minus the cameras, I felt that Kerry won purely on substance, and on style. He was far more articulate, and far more substantive than Bush, especially towards the end. Someone on the post-show on MSNBC said that he felt like Bush had come with 35 minutes of material for a 90 minute debate, which I felt was accurate. I think that tonight, providing that Kerry has another really good showing next Friday in the second debate, served notice to the American people that John Kerry is someone capable of leading the war, and that he is worthy of the office. (By the way, The Daily Show grabbed this, but did anyone notice when Bush referred the Al-Qaida as 'a group of folks' . I think they might go beyond that.

The second thing has to do with getting baseball back in DC. I think its great. Major League Baseball's sad and shameful ownership of the Expos will be over soon, as will the fact that DC hasn't had a team in 33 years. Two points about this, a lot of folks, especially the Northern Virginia people keep saying that Washington lost baseball twice. That's not quite accurate. Both times the Senators left, in 1960 for Minnesota, and in 1971 for Arlington, TX, the owners simply got a ton of money to get them there, it wasn't that attendance was bad or anything. Second, they're doing a great thing by putting the new stadium in the Southeast part of the city, which really is the worst part of town. It should push economic development and be a big boost for the area. RFK is within a short Metro ride from downtown, and a really good temporary stadium, too. As for the name, I really like the idea of Mayor Williams' of calling the team the Grays, after the team from Washington that one 9 Negro League titles. The other names I like, as I heard them on PTI today, are the Generals and the Nationals, Federals works the same way. I think maybe they should leave the Senators in the past, besides, they want to make a point that they have no Senators, no voting power in Congress. I have my own suggestion, the Washington Power, that way, members of the team would be "Power players".

That is lame.

Happy Birthday Robert, and also, happy birthday, belatedly, to Karen.

Big Bads
I talked with Coach Hanlon on Friday about the difference between good and bad Michigan fans, suffice to say, I've never seen him as mad as when I even brought up the subject. This certainly makes life easier for me when I write my story for Dave coming up. I have my own thoughts as, well but I'll save those for later. On a weird note, we lost the transmitter right after I got to the studio, and we literally did an hour at Scorekeeper's while we weren't transmitting very well, just for the people at the bar.
We got maybe 6 calls after a big Michigan win on Saturday, very disappointing.
It was my grandmother'sbirthday Saturday, I hadn't seen her in a while. it seems that she's doing ok, but obviously there is a big hole there, one that will always be there. My parents and the rest of my family have done a wonderful job of doing what is best for her and keeping things relatively normal.
I am really looking forward to the debate this week. Both parties have been practicing teh bigotry of lowered expectations in the last week. This race is not over, it really isn't. This week, becasue it is the first debate, and becasue it will focus on foreign policy, which is the heart of this campaign, it is John Kerry's opportunity to close the rapidly decreasing gap with the president. Remember, there is no presidential seal on that platform Thursday, Kerry gets even with Bush on that fact alone. We have two men who have never lost a one-on-one debate. I think Kerry will win, but the 'wingers will spin it that since Bush spun to thoughts together, he held his own. Kerry doesn't need to crush Bush, he just needs to start pulling even. Remember, there are two significant political truths to remember: 1- In races involving an incumbent, late undecideds almost always break to the challenger, 2- Kerry is traditionally a great "Closer" to speak in horse racing terms.
To John- My friend, I realize these aren't great times right now, and I know that you're frustrated with nearly everything in your life. Just remember, there's a lot of people in this world who love you, who can give, and want to give you the support you need. Whatever you want me to do, I can do my friend.

M

Ok, so it has been a while, but not for lack of things happening. Last Saturday we got a lot of rather odd calls, given the rather odd game Michigan played. These games seem to happen to Michigan a lot, especially after losses, they struggle, but find a way to win, you know they will, but you can't help but be nervous.

On Sunday, Robert and I set off early, as we had to pick up Meghan and then make our way back to Chicago. We had a bad patch of traffic on our way out to Indiana, and then I had to take Robert back to school, which adds like 40 minutes to the total trip. Meghan and I made it back fine, I dropped her off, and then went back to my place.

Monday was my very, very long orientation at the Trib. I was there, literally all day, when really, just an hour or 45 minutes with an HR Person would have done it. It really got tedious. I then had class, and hopefully I'll be starting to do a couple of articles at the Torch soon.

Tuesday and Wednesday sort of blend together at work, because I was assigned a really big task right away. I had to verify the numbers on this enormous chart the magazine is running, and physically adding everything together took time. My fellow interns seem nice. One looks a lot like Jean. My dad came out Tuesday night, as he had to supervise the deconstruction of his companies booth at the Tool Show. We had Mexican, which was really good, but not quite Lopez good. I am trying to eat a bit healthier, so my lunches at work are changing. At OCC, I basically just ate fast food everyday. At the Trib, I am trying those Naked Food Juices. I liked the first two I had this week, plus, it cuts down on how much I pay for lunch.

Today I left work early, becasue they didn't have a ton for me to do. I had to track down a couple of books at the Harold Washington Library, one I couldn't find, the other, I couldn't check out. On the way home, my car had some problems, though I think some of that has to do with the amount of traffic there was as I left Chicago. I may take it down to the repair shop my Dad uses. If they think it might be serious, well, things might need to change.

All in all, its been a very hectic and interesting week. I like where I work, and they days seem to fly by. Still, I feel a bit disconnected from the city. I haven't talked to John in forever, and class just seems off. Maybe part of me stays in Ann Arbor every week, while still another part is looking for what is to come ahead, after I finish in December. I hope it works out, obviously.

Equivalency

Today was mainly me doing two things- checking in as to how much my ticket would cost, and then going to work at the station. My ticket will cost me 175 bucks, but thankfully I was able to give myself an extension on it until next month. Money is tight right now, especially because I just had to pay for my registration, which was $126. I just need to pay rent for the one month though, and then I'll be fine, especially once my refund comes from Roosevelt.
My thoughts have slowly been turning towards what I wasn't to do, or more accurately, where I want to go after I finish in December. Its not really all that silly, considering that I really should be starting to put together resumes and a portfolio for people. My mom told me that my Uncle Rob knows someone at the Los Angeles Times, which I think would be a lot of fun. Obviously there would be a great change of scenery, but I actually have more friends in LA (Susan, Colleen, Alex, Adam) than in Chicago (John). Besides, it might be fun to do something different. Besides, what I really want to do is be in DC again, because that's where I feel I am most at home intellectually and spiritually right now. Maybe that will change, maybe I'll enjoy my time at Chicago Magazine enough that I will want to stay. Maybe I'll want to work here at home, either in print or radio. We'll see. But right now I have options, and for the first time in forever, I am actually feeling a little bit happy about it.

I've decided what I need to do about something else too...

Better By You, Better Than Me
Ok, here's the quick rundown of the last few days.

Thursday- Last Day at OCC. Not really a tearful goodbye, but I was glad for the experience of working there, and obviously, for the money and steady job it provided. I got out of work at 1, went down for my drug screening, and then headed home. I stopped in Albion along the way to see who I could see. I ended up making a night of it. I stayed for the rehearsal of The Country Wife, featuring Andy Groggel, Michael Joseph Bohne, Audrey Coleman, and Karen Green, with Stephanie Mann as SM and Chelsea Sadler as ASM. Bohne then invited me to attend Euphonics rehearsal. Suffice to say, I was very proud of the way they sounded. Obviously, all the work that the founding members put in, especially those night in the first semester when we worked on Crazy Love for two months are being paid back ten-fold.

Friday- Went out to the bar again. I met Andy Mignery, who is married to Anna Fisher, who I went to High School with, see my reunion post. The turnout at the bar wasn't that great. I got eviscerated in NCAA 2005 by a guy named Archie, who came last week too. After the show I went out to Albion, where I got to hang out with some of the people who still knew me, plus I was able to see my nephew for the first time in months.

Saturday- Ok, so this is where the bad stuff happens. As I leave for the studio, I get pulled over by the Sherriff's. My registration expired, and I haven't fixed that yet, so I got pulled over and ticketed. I got to the studio right after Notre Dame's first touchdown, and the same nervous feeling came over me as it did when I watched the Oregon and Iowa games at Karen's last fall. Turned out I was right to have that feeling. We started getting calls in the 4th quarter from people saying Lloyd should be fired, and that he was too conservative. The last part was probably true, but the first part, well, that's for idiots. During the post-game manned the phones, which was akin to manning a suicide hotline. While the network post-game show was on, and then when our own show came on, we got a ton of calls form people who, when they couldn't put their frustrations on the air, aired them to me. I tried to be call, but probably just ended up being condescending, but then, I learned a long time ago not to get upset over things I can't control, obviously some people didn't get the memo.

Sunday- My parents met me in Jackson, as they were returning from Chicago where the tool show was. Also, thank you to them for putting my apartment together. We ate and then they sent me off. I left just in time to hear the Lions game, and basically heard the whole thing, minus the last 2 minutes, on the radio, either the Lions Network, or the Bears' one. I was surprised the Lions won, in that nearly everything they did to beat the Bears, forcing turnovers, blocking the kick, usually happens, to them. I have really been surprised by, and sort of angered with, the treatment of David Terrell by the media the last few days. People are dwelling on the taunting penalty he got in the 3rd, and then forgetting that he caught 5 balls for 126 yards. He was the Bears only real receiving threat most of the game. I think that maybe they all want to perpetuate the idea that he's an underachiever, to the point they are actually downplaying him playing so well.

Monday- Not much today, I went to class, which was ok, and then came home. To day I;m going to go to the Marlins-Expos game at the Cell, seats are general Admission for $15, I'm trying to decide whether to sit behind home plate, or try to get a bleacher seat, thus giving me a better opportunity to catch a home run. The Lions just lost Rogers for the year, but because of Roy Williams and Tai Streets, should still be ok. I was really impressed by the Packers last night, but not really surprised by the way they won. Their line is one of the two best in football, along with Kansas City, and they handled the Panthers D-Line well. I'm not so sure how the defensive strategy of blitzing all the time will work in the long run. I don't know that without Mike McKenzie, they have the corners necessary to shut-down big plays.

I will blog about the last few days tomorrow, just take this as me telling you I'm still alive.

Hitting the Fan
Tonight is the interview with Ben Barnes, former Texas Lt. Governor, that I told you about last week. His interview with Dan Rather will be part of a larger package about George Bush's National Guard Service that runs on 60 Minutes. We also had the release of additional documents yesterday, saying that Bush did indeed have a large gap in service, and that he missed a medical exam he needed to keep his Pilot's certification. He said in 2000 that this was because the plane he flew was obsolete, but the plane's continued in operation for more than a year. The Boston Globe details that Bush reneged on Commitments to continue with Gaurd training, but was not punished for it, on two occasions. He also said that he would join a unit in Massachuesetts that he never joined.

The Kitty Kelly profle of the Bush family comes out in a couple of weeks, too. She alleges that while his father was president, W did Blow at Camp David. I don't know if this is true, though presumably, Ms. Kelly has enough evedence that she could win a lible case.

I'll be watching tonight. I have to get my drug screening tomorrow after work, then I'll be on my way home. I am planning on stopping in Albion on the way back, figuring I'll be just in time for people to be at the Theatre, so I'll stop by and he who I see.

Fighting
I haven't received my things from the Tribune yet, they sent me forms via email today, and they said they are sending me form so I could get a necessary drug test.

I am a bit torn as to what to do for an important thing coming up, I know I want to do something though.

I talked to Susan on Sunday, it was really good to talk to her, as we haven't been able to connect with each other for a really long time. Its good to know that she and Laura are doing so well in the Theatre work. Its also good to know that Colleen is doing well and that Adam, despite a setback, is going to be fine.

Kerry seems to be fighting back, which is good. I read a Newsweek article online that lacked about the tension in the campaign recently, because Mary Beth Cahill, his campaign manager, made a big mistake regarding the Swift Boat Vets, thinking it would blow over and the Kerry needn't concern himself with it. This, combined with a lot of other things, contributed to a bad August. Now the question is, can Kerry, a man who's best when his back is against the wall, and is among the finest closers in politics, get momentum back before and after the debates? He is a skilled debater, and Bush is unlike anyone he's faced. The Republicans won't be able to do what they did last time, which was lower the expectations so much that if Bush forms a complete sentence it's a great accomplishment. He's the President, he has to show a grip on policy.

Zig-Zag
The above refers to "Democrat" Zell Miller and the vitriolic and demagogic speech he gave last Wednesday. Zell has a propensity for switching positions and if you read Joe Conason in Salon, which is linked to the right, you'll find he also has a refined ability to stab his allies in the back. This was Zell Twelve years ago, the man who introduced Bill Clinton before his nomination. Zell is a lot of things. He was a segregationist. What he is now is the last of a breed. He's the last Dixiecrat, about the only one who has stayed in the party after most, Trent Lott, Phil Gramm, Fred Thompson left the party, or died like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace. Zell says the Democratic party has left him and the values he represents. I say, good for the Democratic party. By the way, when Zell got appointed to the Senate, he called a John Kerry "a true American hero".

The Republicans are what they are, incredibly disingenuous and hypocritical. They tell us that John Kerry attacks George Bush at every opportunity. Yet George Bush's name was barely mentioned at the Democratic convention. Republicans went after John Kerry's patriotism at their convention and all but said that he'd be the greatest disaster in the history of the nation if elected. Meanwhile, record deficits, huge increases in the cost of health care and the loss of over a million jobs, with far less paying ones substituted in their place, the Bush record, doesn't get talked about. Republicans are the first to charge the Democrats with playing class warfare, but no one stirs up more resentment and ill feeling on class than Republicans, and in a far more insidious way. They turn people against the defenseless, the poor. I don't think anyone would argue, other than the really radical left, the people who call veterans "baby killers", who don't represent 99.9% of liberals, would say that the War in Afghanistan was unjustified, and that its good Saddam is gone. I disagreed with the Iraq war, but when I met a veteran at my class reunion I thanked him, because Lord knows I wouldn't go. That being said, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, we are, at best, struggling to win the peace. I believe John Kerry would do a better job than what has been done, and I think that his time in Vietnam, however brief it was, makes him, by definition better able to understand what happens in combat than men who have never heard a shot fired in anger.

The last Two days have been pretty interesting. I went down to TKA on Friday at around 1. Me, Dennis and Mike went out for the remote broadcast at Scorekeepers, which was the same bar I went two a week and a half earlier with my reunion. I basically just hung up banners for the radio station. I didn't really do much else. But I did get to meet more people from the station, as well as meet some of the callers/listeners who came out. Next week, if I go back on the remote, should be a lot more crowded, because it will be Notre Dame week, as opposed to Miami of Ohio.

Yesterday, I went down to the studio at halftime of the Michigan game, to prepare for the post game show. I must say, listening to the product of the post game show, as I had for a really long time, and actually seeing it done, the amount of effort by so many people is absolutely amazing. Me and three other people worked to get callers and stats, put together the highlight show, and to edit and put together press conference tape. I should say, in fairness that I had the easiest job, answering phones and getting stats. The other people have been there a lot longer than I have and do a great job.

I have to say that last night, along with Thursday, have really made me appreciate the importance of quality kickers in football. Northwestern lost in 2 overtimes because their kicker went 1 for 6 on Field Goals. At the Albion game yesterday, Butler's kicker missed 2 extra points and a chip-shot field goal. And last night, Oregon State was denied an upset of LSU because their kicker missed three extra points. It was painful to watch his reaction because I know that he had to feel so guilty about losing his team the game.

As far as the Michigan game is concerned, the defense looked tremendous. If I had my way, and assuming that his injury was real and not just some creation of Lloyd's to fool Miami, Matt Guttierez should start next week at Notre Dame. I just have this weird feeling that we are seeing Brady vs. Henson again, as people don't seem to count time within the program as experience and just want to see the Golden Boy with the Golden Arm. I would advise those people to remember how wrong they were before. There was no way then, and no way now, that Henson was the better QB, despite the accolades.

I know there are Notre Dame fans who read this blog, and suffice it to say, I don't know that next week is going to be very pretty. I don't mean that to be mean, there just looks to be, after watching Michigan and Notre Dame yesterday, a real difference in the physical talent level of the two teams. Notre Dame will play very hard next week, as they always do. They could summon enough to beat Michigan. But it also wouldn't surprise me if it got real ugly, real quick.

Timing
Today, thankfully, has been a bit of a break from the stresses of the last few days. I haven't done a ton, I had a project earlier in the day for work but I finished it in about 45 minutes, so since then I've been doing nothing. Which is fine by me. I decided I'm going to go out to the Sprint Store tonight and then just look for a parking space, rather than waiting tomorrow and then going home. I need to write a pitch for my Journalism Project for Tomorrow.

I haven't kept as close a tabs on the Republican convention as I did the Dems. Part of this is stress and part of it is that nominating conventions of incumbents are incredibly boring, even more than those of challengers. I did, however, see a bit of the twins' "speech" last night. The speech that one site, probably only half-jokingly, said might have lost the Republicans the election. They came off as arrogant WASPS and spoiled rich girls with absolutely no direction and no desire to find it. And by the way, anyone who says they're hot is an idiot. They're not. Jenna looks like a female version of her father, which is just bad to think about. Barbara looks exactly like 10-15 girls currently at any high school in America. Chelsea they certainly are not, and they certainly don't seem to have the same head on their shoulders as Alexandra and Vanessa. By the way, I saw that they were booed at the VMA's Sunday. I know part of this may have been the crowd not wanting to hear political messages or being pro-Bush, but I also have another thought. While the two of them are both attractive, they aren't their step-brothers, who, and I say this as a heterosexual male, are both jaw-droppingly handsome.

By the way, watch 60 minutes next week. After the Woodward interview, there was extensive coverage on the aftermath for a week and a half. Next week, 60 Minutes will have an interview with the man who got Bush into the National Guard, and now says he is ashamed that he did.

Apis mellifera and Castor canadensis

The last 5 days have been among the most stressful, though ultimately rewarding of my life. Here's a quick run down:

Friday: After calling place for sublets, and finding that I had received no replies to my Craigslist emails, I went to Apartment People at 2. We found a few places that had what I was looking for, meaning a short term (3 month) lease. All were owned by the same company. Needless to say, I was kind of stressed because I was limited in choice to three places owned by one company, and they held all the power over me, because otherwise I had no place to live come Monday. I found a place I liked, only to find out that I have to pay a non-refundable $250 fee for a short-term lease. I had to give apartment people some of my deposit plus money for a credit check. I overdrafted. Anyway, I fretted about having no control, but still, I had to have a new place and this one seemed to fit me. I ended up having to pay first months rent along with $35 for the credit check, and then had to pay the $250 plus my last months rent when I signed my lease. I went down to see Laura at 8 and then we both went to see John's final performance at 10. I t was a good show, and it was really good to see the both of them again. I also gave Laura her present Slapshot and Slapshot 2. When I left John's at around 1:45, there was no sign of the 22, which runs up and down Clark at night, but does so only every half-hour. So I preceded to Lake Shore Drive to pick up the 151. Only it didn't come. For a while I just stood at the bus stop, marveling at the number and the size of the spiders that surrounded me. Then the rain came. At first it was just drizzling, then came down a little harder. I stepped back to find cover under a tree. I t afforded me good protection for a while, and then well, the rain started coming in extremely heavily, including coming in horizontally. The tree was useless. I just kind of stood there for a minute not thinking, in a kind of shock brought on by the amount of rain. After about 3 minutes, which seemed like thirty, of being pounded by rain, I ran across the street under the carport of an apartment building. My phone was in my pocket and got completely soaked. I was able to call John, who thankfully came and got me. We drove, and sometimes waded, through the streets as he got me home. When I got there, my phone was acting kind of funny...

Saturday: This was probably one of the most frustrating days of my life. I found out I had overdrafted in the morning. However, when I tried to call her back my phone said it had no signal strength, despite being at a pretty high level on my screen. I tried again several times, sometimes getting through for a few seconds and sometimes not. I went down to the Sprint Store down my block, and they said they had no technician, so they couldn't test my phone, I had to go to the store on Devon to do so. I paid the remaining part of my deposit and then headed North. Devon is where the 36 ends and where some 151's do to. I figured it was probably close. It wasn't. It took almost an hour and a half to get out there, plus the time I spent in line and waiting for the testing, which too a half-hour, and I didn't know when my parents would be arriving. I ended up having to call my grandmother to tell my parents where I was, and had to do so when I came back as well. When my parents got there about a half-hour after I did, around 3:30 we were all tired. my dad suggested we put my phone number on his phone, which we did. But we ad to go up to the Devon store again, though it took less time because we were in the car, and I didn't have to wait for testing like I had to the first time. We ate, though we had to wait a really long time for our food, and then went back to my apartment. We cleaned up and then went to bed.

Sunday... We got most of the heavy stuff into the van dad had brought from work, that's all my parents took. The rest of the stuff I figured I would move myself. My parents left around 1, and I went back, picked up a bit and then just sort of spent the day hanging out and getting stuff ready to move.

Monday... Woke up at 8:30, thinking I would just go down to my new management company, sign my lease and get to moving in. No, they couldn't have me in until 11. Ok, I started moving stuff into the hallway in the meantime. At around 10:50, I left to sign my lease, and a call came for me. It was Cassie from Chicago Magazine, They offered me the internship, and I most gleefully accepted. It was especially sweet given that I had basically given it up for dead. I told them I would start the 13th, so I could give OCC two weeks notice. I went and signed my lease, everything is cool. I find out my carpet hasn't been cleaned yet, so I have to avoid the carpeted areas. I start stacking the load in my car in the kitchen and bathroom. John came around about 1:30 and we took my mattress over. I then had to get the component parts of the bed in the car, which proved more difficult than I had anticipated. I took that stuff over. Then my battery died. I got the building engineer to jump me, but I had to drive around for a few minutes to charge the battery. I loaded as much of the stuff from the hallway as I could and took it down to the new building (which is only 1 1/2 blocks from my present one, me and John were able to physically take the mattress to it) only to find a truck blocking the door. I took what I could in, but it was almost time for my class, so I parked the car, which still had a bunch of stuff in it, and left for school. Both the car and the belongings were there when I got back, and I went back for the last bit of things in my old room. The table which my uncle gave me proved to be very hard to deal with, I actually had to leave it sitting in the alley as I dropped my other stuff off. I found a parking space a block away from my building and physically carried it there, which was very awkward. Finally, I got in at around 10:30, exhausted, sweating and grateful for the end of the day.

Today...
My hands are aching, especially the inside of my hands. I'm sore. But I'm happy, because I'll have an in at the Tribune Company and the print internship I wanted. I still am going to do TKA, which means I'll be pretty busy, but I was busy this summer and thrived. I just want to say thank you to my parents for helping me so much this weekend. Thank you to John for helping me move the Mattress. I don't know what I want to say about my old place, only that I have been both extraordinarily happy there, but I also succumbed to self-pity and depression while there. Still it was a great experience.

Happy Early Birthday to Miss Laura Kraly.

Bitter Pill
I still haven't heard from Chicago Magazine, which means it would seem time to pretty much admit defeat on that one. I am going to call In These Times after work, I have all day free tomorrow, and try to see if they have anything that could be considered an internship. It is going to be a challenge to find the hours I need at TKA, as there are only 11 football Saturdays, though I suppose I could see about working nights when Michigan Basketball or Hockey is going on. I figure 9 to 11 hours a day on Saturdays plus 6-7 on Fridays comes to about 200 hours, meaning I need to come up with another 25 somewhere down the line.

I have a lead on an apartment, however, it is only for one month. I would move in Sunday and then stay til October, though I suppose it might be possible to stay there on a month to month basis. At least I have a good idea where I might live now, rather than having to fret about that and work. This whole week I've felt that, as they say in Rocky Horror: "The Sword of Damocles is hanging over my head." Its the end of my lease, and since I was unable to get an internship in print, which is what I would want to do, I any have to get another internship, post-graduation to improve my job possibilities. Its starting to hit me that in 4 months my education will likely be over, and the real world is beginning. I know my parents are scared, I don't know how I feel.

There isn't a lot else going on, though the NCAA did just announce they were denying Mike Williams' appeal, meaning they have no rejected Williams and Jeremy Bloom's appeals in one week, after saying they were trying to be more "athlete friendly". The NCAA sucks, basically.

I'm looking forward to John's show tomorrow, and the day off. I need a break after this week. I also can't wait to see Laura.

Happy Birthday Mom.

remembrances
I have yet to hear from Chicago Magazine. When they talked to me they said "middle of the week" which I suppose could also mean tomorrow. I emailed just in case and have yet to receive a response, but they may be busy putting out their next issue right now, and thus not to worried about me or the internship question. Hopefully I'll hear something soon. The same goes for a sublet/room. I'm starting to get in the panic stage, as I move out Sunday, and after that, I don't know what I'm going to do Monday-Thursday. I know I'll find something, I just need something now.

I talked yesterday about my reunion, I wanted to mention something that I didn't mention yesterday. A classmate of mine had joined the army and had spent a lot of last year in Iraq. He talked about some of the things he had to do, rough up some kids with AK-47's for example, and just what it was like to be shot at, and to be in country where death could be around the next corner. I asked him some questions about what it was like with the people, specifically, whether he hated the Iraqis and whether the Iraqis hated us. He didn't hate them, though he hated those that shot at him. I guess I was not surprised when he talked about how the place was divided. How some would be happy to see them, and others, well, others would stare you down with Kalashnikov's. It was really interesting.

Do want to know what "shady" really is? Its not taking your flight examination because you might well be to hungover to pass or not want to reveal your drug use. Its going months without attending the drills in the Champagne unit your father got you into. Neil Steinberg, who writes for the Sun-Times said this on Monday :
"How the Republicans could have imagined there would be any upside in questioning John Kerry's Vietnam record is a mystery. Doesn't it all boil down to this: Kerry went to war and President Bush didn't? Frankly, if Kerry had responded to combat by flinging away his gun and hiding in tears under a tarp on his swift boat, it wouldn't erase the overarching fact that he put himself in harm's way for his country, while Bush hid behind the privilege that was to eventually deposit him, blinking and amazed, into the White House."

Well here goes,

I came home, again, Friday afternoon. I picked up Meghan, who I went to High School with and works downtown, and we were off to Ann Arbor. We talked for a while, and it was pretty pleasant. We weren't especially close so it wasn't like talking to your best friend or anything, but it was generally pleasant. We avoided traffic around Ann Arbor by getting off 94 early, and I dropped her off around 5:30. I got home to get ready. I had a bit of an argument, such as they are, with my parents because at the time, I didn't know if I 'd have an internship and where, I'd be living. Its all really confusing. After cooling off, I went to the reunion. Now the flyer I got in the mail said it started at 7. I got there around 7:30, wanting to be fashionably late only to find that I was actually the second person to arrive. most everyone else was waiting until 8 for the Open Bar to start. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a really long time. Some I was glad to see. I saw a lot of growth out of a lot of people. (Interesting fact by the way, 14 of my classmates are either married or engaged, including to each other. This comes to a rate of 21%. In five years, my guess says its above 50%) Some, of course, and for me a distressingly large number, hadn't shown much growth at all. While I appreciate the need to sow your wild oats at this age, there has to be more to life than going out and getting blitzed every night, which was the same thing you did in High School, and perhaps the same as you did in College. I'm sorry, I'm just a bit frustrated at this point. Many people, after the open bar closed at Midnight, decided to head down to another bar, which I went to, just to see if anyone needed a ride home. No one did, though I don't know if that was a rejection of the ride or a rejection of me. I sensed a lot of hostility from the "cooler" people at the reunion directed at me, why I don't know, but it certainly seemed to be there. Of course I have spent a long time passing judgment on these people, but I don't think I've gone out of my way to hurt anyone.

I stopped in Albion Saturday and had dinner at Lone Star with Mike Bohne, Kopec and Huff, as well as Denise Robinson and Jeannie. Chelsea Sadler was our waitress. It was god to see those people again, though I wish I had more time to search out everyone else I wanted to see.

I got a call from TKA on Monday. They want me for Fridays and Saturdays during the fall. Obviously this is very good news, as I now have an internship in the bag. Is it absolutely that I want to do? No, but it does allow me to finish here, plus potentially make some good contacts down the line at either radio stations or newspapers.

Still looking for a place. I'm putting in a call on a place I saw for subletting on Craigslist, which is in Wicker Park. It would be short term, which is what I need. Plus it would actually be cheaper than my current apartment, as this one runs about 550 a month plus 100 in utilities compared to the 675 I pay now, which includes electricity and gas.

God, I can't wait for this to settle down. Cross your fingers that Chicago Magazine gives me the ok tomorrow or Thursday. I'll need all the help I can get.

Quick Post, I'll blog more about this tomorrow.

Reunion: Kind of disappointing, that will be the main focus of my post tomorrow.

TKA- Looks good to go, now, I just need to see when, and how much, they want me.

Place to live- It looks like I'll be staying in Chicago for the semester, unfortunately, this means I need to find a place ASAP, so I can move in relatively soon.

I will let all of you know how Chicago Magazine turns out.

Goings On

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty crazy. On Tuesday I went for my interview at Chicago Magazine. I felt it went well, I answered all the questions they had, and I think, came off as enthusiastic about potentially working there. That's what I need. I was very excited afterwards, and suddenly not so sure what I wanted to do come September, because, truth be told, print is more of what I want to do. After my interview I went down to my counseling session, and then home. And, by home, I mean Ann Arbor. Rain was pouring down in Indiana, and basically stayed with me all the way home, which sort of dampened the drive a bit, but I still had fun, because commercial-free Radio is so great.

Yesterday, I had my tryout/interview at WTKA. I got there around 2 and talked with the host of the afternoon drive time show, Dennis. He had me fill out a questionnaire, including making up my own questions, and then took me in to the producer's area. I helped write copy for the updates. During the show, which started at 4, I answered phone calls, and put up the information of the screen for Dennis to read in the studio. Everything went pretty well, I screwed up a couple of times, including accidentally hanging up on regular caller High Octane Mike. The phone lines really lit up once, while we were discussing Michigan football, which was to be expected. On the whole it was a really fun time, and I think I did well, hopefully I'll be getting a phone call soon. Chicago Magazine said they would call next week.

Thank you so much. You Know Who You Are. Thank you so very, very much.

Constitutions

I saw John's show again, and again I enjoyed it tremendously. It was good also, despite some initial apprehension on my part, to see Jean and Rhea. They were welcoming and it was much appreciated, given how I had initially feared it may go. Thank you to you both.

I saw an interview with Alan Keyes last Friday, where he talked about repealing (presumably) two amendments to the Constitution. One was to be expected, and he didn't outright call for it's repeal, but he wants to get rid on the Income Tax, in favor of a national sales tax, which would essentially repeal the 16th Amendment. The ironic twist is that he also called for the repeal of the 17th. Its ironic because he did so while running for Senate. The 17th Amendment calls for the direct election of United States Senators, as opposed to their selection by their states legislature. His point was that the Framer's intended it to be that way. Unfortunately, Keyes fails to understand that when the Amendment was passed they believed they were acting in the spirit of the Framers. And the Framers were not gods, they were fallible, after all that's why we have amendments, to correct their mistakes and update the Constitution for the changing landscape.

The Men's team that lost to Peurto Rico is a deeply flawed team. The problem is, the NBA league office was instrumental in finding the players on this team. They were looking to sell Jerseys and product, not win. There is no reason LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade should all be on the team. There is no way on God's earth that Stephon Marbury should have been allowed to be considered. The people who selected this team are not guilty of panic so much as they are supreme arrogance. They thought we could send out anyone who was succesful in the NBA and assume they would have success in International Basketball, which is more different than International and NHL Hockey are from each other. We currently have three, 3! post players, and only one seeing significant time. The other players are either slashers or athletic wing players who can't shoot. Post play and slashing are limited in the FIBA style of play because the zone is used so often and so well. The US Team has no one who cou8ld be considered a great shooter, we aren't producing a lot of them any more, and those we do (Michael Redd, Brent Barry, Reggie Miller, Rip Hamilton, Ray Allen) are sitting at home. Now, truth be told, Allen was originally on the team, and Rip turned them down after being invited at the 11th hour, but still, the makeup of the team is compromised. What follows is my group of 12, one I think would be much better suited to the International game:

C- Tim Duncan- He's played well, and because he's so unselfish and passes well, he fits perfectly the style that is needed in the Olympics. Ben Wallace would be there too, for a banger off the bench for just rebounds and defends and doesn't demand the ball all game.

PF- Rasheed Wallace- At least one big man needs to be able to step out in International basketball. Rasheed has the perfect game for this level, he's unselfish, a tenacious help defender, and rebounds on both ends. Plus he shoots well from outside.

SF- Lamar Odom- Again versatility is key, and Odom can handle the ball, and rebound. He's not a great shooter but that's why we have...

SG- Michael Redd- The best American born shooter currently in the NBA, he would be an absolutely perfect zone-buster, because his greatest offensive weakness, his inability to create his own shot, doesn't matter in a Zone dominated game. Rip Hamilton would also be quite good in this role.

PG- Chauncey Billups- He can shoot, especially spotting up. He creates for his teammates and he would be a beast for International point guards to play because of his strength. Brent Barry could come off the bench to shoot and to create.

Of the bench, in addition to the guys I've already said would be:

Iverson- He's not a good shooter and demands the ball too much, but no one on earth is better for scoring in bunches.

Tayshaun Prince- The perfect international wing defender- incredibly long and is able to shoot well enough, but he's here for defense.

Shane Battier- See above.

Brian Cardinal- Because no one will out work him, he'll shoot, and he will bang with anyone.

Sensitivity- Bain of Royalty

The complete non-issue that is John Kerry calling for a more "sensitive" war on terror, and the 'wingers trying to make Kerry out to be a kind of pantywaist who will try to lure Osama Bin Laden out of hiding, is just ridiculous. What Kerry meant, what anyone with half a brain knew he meant, was that he would try to get more of our allies involved, especially in the Arab world, so that we can start reducing our own troop levels. The Repub's (Cheney, Newt, Hannity) were making it out like he said that we need to be weak to fight the war on terror. No. We just need to have some semblance of an idea of how to approach the Arab world, not as Rush said a couple of days ago "make a parking lot out of Najaf", one of the sacred sites of Shiite Islam. That's being really brilliant Rush. By the way, if you'd like to sign a petition to get Rush off of Armed Forces Radio, or just get someone from the other side to counterbalance him, here you go. Its from Media Matters, which I now have a link to over with the rest of my links. Go, its very educational and has a lot of good information on the half-truths and b.s. of the right.

A lot has been going on as far as the internship front goes. I have an interview Tuesday with Chicago Magazine, which would be nice to work at, but would keep me here. I have a sort of tryout/interview at WTKA on Wednesday. I will be going back home Tuesday night, going in at 2:00, doing some guest booking and some operating the board during the afternoon show. This is great, but I may need to get back here to work on Thursday, and then go back home Friday for my 5th class reunion. Phew. We, my family and I , are currently trying to figure out a way for me to do that, whether it involves driving twice or taking the train or whatever.

If anyone saw Hardball last night, you heard Chris Matthews nail John O'Neill in a lie about not being employed by the Nixon White House to go and discredit Kerry. A lot of what is in "Unfit for Command" has been debunked, it was when it came out in 1996, when Kerry ran against Bill Weld, and hopefully it will now as well.

New Jersey- Wow

It takes courage to do what James McGreevey did about an hour ago. Not only did he admit an extramarital affair and resign as governor, but he came out to the world.

"Were there realities from which I was running?" he asked. "I do not believe that God tortures any person simply for its own sake.... In this, in the 47th year of my life, it is arguably to late to have this discussion. But it is here and it is now.... And so my truth is that I am a gay American. And I am blessed to live in the greatest nation... with the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world."
"Yet because of the pain and suffering and anguish I have caused to my beloved family.... This is an intensely personal decision and not one typically for the public domain and yet it cannot and should not pass... I am also here today because shamefully I engaged in a consensual affair with another man that violated my bonds of matrimony. It is wrong... It is inexcusable...."
Amazing!
"I am removing these threats by telling you directly about my sexuality," he says, telling the press that if his sexual life had remained secret the state would have had problems.
"Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its impact on my family and my ability ... as governor, I have decided to resign." - Taken from Jeff Jarvis

That's an amazing speech, and an incredibly courageous stand to take. From the reports I'm reading today, this has been building for some time, and McGreevey hasn't been a great governor anyway. But still, it took courage to do what he just did. I don't know what impact this will have nationally, probably very little. The media will hit this hard in the next couple of days, but it will probably evaporate soon. The e conservative media will try to paint this as evidence of the moral decadence of the Democrats, but McGreevey did the right thing as far as that was concerned, he took the hit, resigned, said what the reason was, and took personal responsibility for hurting his family. Wow. That took guts and a whole lot of it.

Please support, if you can or want to, the PAC my professor from Washington Semester is a part of. It raises money for, and supports the efforts of women candidates who are under 40. This is the "pipeline" theory. I'll explain later. But its a worthy, and bipartisan, cause.

Hey! I'm still here
Hello again everyone, its been a rather stressful week for me, so I haven't blogged as much as I would have liked to, but I am here now, so I'll just mention a few things.

Congratulations to John on a fine show last week, I enjoyed it, and I'm sure, if the crowd and the response from your castmates was any indication, this won't be the last time you'll be performing like this at Second City.

I saw Collateral on Saturday. I really enjoyed both Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx's performances, and I love Michael Mann as a director., so I did really enjoy the movie.

Work's been hectic this week, and so I haven't been able to blog there, plus I'm working on my website project for class, which takes some time as well. My internship status is still up in the air, irons currently in the fire have not been struck the way I might have liked.

A lot of the news lately has been looking at the Swift Boat Veteran for Truth ad that is airing in some of the swing states. I don't think the media is doing enough right now, to expose the people behind this. I saw Nightline last night did mention the fact that none of the men who appear in the ad actually served on John Kerry's swiftboat, but served with him the same way Colin Powell and John McCain did, they were in the same war at the same time. There's dirty money behind this. Much of the same money that was behind smearing John McCain n South Carolina in 2000. I know that McCain and Bush campaigned together this week, but you have to know that McCain sees him as a slimeball.

Fun Stuff to think about here, got to love those Vogue Girls

Alan Keyes- The Black Kermit

If anyone remembers SNL's sketches about the 2000 Republican Primary, you might remember Tim Meadows portrayal of the right wing talk show host/ Muppet. When I saw earlier this week that the Illinois GOP was strongly considering Keyes, and now that they have offered him the position, I was flabbergasted. He has no ties to the state of Illinois, none. And this is a person who ripped Hillary Clinton for "carpet-bagging" in 2000, and no he's doing the same. Look, I know that no one who went after the position here, meaning those who lost in the primary was particularly attractive, as they all lost very badly, and no one in the GOP establishment wants to run out and get crushed by Obama. I would have thought about nominating Chirinjeev Kathuria, who finished last in the primary, but would give the Illinois GOP good press for being the first party to nominate a Sikh for higher office. Plus it makes the party more outwardly "inclusive". Anyway, Keyes is so far out to the right he's falling off, and his natural constituency, African American Fundamentalist Catholics, is not particularly large. He is a very eloquent man, plus he was the only candidate to say yes to debating at Albion when we were trying to get a Republican debate in 2000, so I don't hate him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he lost by 25 or more points in November.

By the way, PTM should get on the phone with Butch Hollowell as soon as possible if Kerry loses the election. Hollowell is the head of the Michigan Democratic Party and an Albion grad. If we could get Albion arranged as a debate site, and put it on in say, early January, the Cable Networks would cover it, the way they do other debates around the country, giving Albion a lot more exposure.

They should do the same thing if the Lions ever decide to train somewhere other than Allen Park.

I've liked the way people have covered the Bears camp in the Chicago area so far. Obviously, there have been two main storylines, Lovie Smith coming in with a new, tougher training regimen, and the injuries, particularly to Hamstrings that it may have caused. Urlacher will likely be out for preseason. This bodes well for the Lions, especially when you consider that a lot of the Bears players who were told to lose weight will not have adjusted to their new bodies by the time they play Detroit in week one. On the plus side for the Bears, David Terrell has been lighting it up so far, which is good. He went to a fine institution.

Kris Benson is a lucky man. He pitches for the Mets now, which is good for Anna, New York needs this sort of thing.