Pennsylvania Senate Race

This is the next part in my series about Senate Races going on in 2006. I guess I could call it Better Know a Senate Race :)

Next up is the Pennsylvania Race. This race is between the incumbent Republican Rick Santorum, and the Democrat Challenger Bob Casey.

Rick Santorum is the third highest ranking Republican Senator in the Senate. He is also one of the most conservative senators in the country, and one of the most unpopular. For a while, his opponent's strategy was to do nothing, and let Santorum destroy his own camapaign. Since Santorum is involved in many scandals, and believes that same sex marriage leads to people having sex with animals, he generally does get into a great deal of trouble.

However, Santorum has spent a great deal of money on campaign commercials,and has managed to get to within five percentage points (earlier in the summer, Casey was normally up by double digits). And there's a new wild card in the mix: The Green Party. This is the party of Ralph Nader (who has run for president in 2000 and 2004).

The Green Party is also running a candidate in the race, but they needed about 66,000 dollars to do so. The strange thing is, 65,970 of the money came from the Republican Party. Since the Green Party is made of people who believe that Democrats and Republicans are the same, it seems strange they would accept money from one of the parties. If this story is true, it does make one wonder.

It is thought that the Republicans have done this because they hope the greens will take enough votes from the democrats that Santorum will squeak by.

So a race that two months ago had seemed to be pretty much over, has some life in it after all.

Midnight Nation

Before I begin, thank you Salah. I don't know if you read this, but thank you for lending Midnight Nation to me.

Midnight Nation is a 12 issue comic book series written by Babylon 5 scibe J Michael Straczynski (hereafter referred to as JMS). Explaining the plot would give too much away (plus I've only read four issues) so I can't really talk about the story. But suffice it to say, it's one of those comics that makes me glad I'm a comic book fan. No giant robots, no ninjas with magic swords that combine into bigger swords, no gemstones that activate the secret laser weapon... just a good story with good characters. I'm writing this now, because issue four really made me think, and that's a rare thing in any kind of literature...

With all the comic book movies being made these days, I wonder if this one might be made into a movie. I mean it did happen with V is for Vendetta, so it's possible. I'm not sure this would be a good idea. Comic books really are a different medium, and things that work well in comics don't always translate well into other forms.

Anyway, if you are, or ever were, a fan of Babylon 5 or even JMS' Amazing Spider-Man comics (which he's been writing since 2001) then you owe it to yourself to get this series. It's been collected into a graphic novel... (meaning all 12 issues are collected together in one book) so you can read the whole story at once. And trust me, you'll be tempted to do just that.

Dwarf Planets

The IAU (International Astronomical Union) has spoken. Pluto is no longer a planet. Instead, it is now classified as a Dwarf Planet. Two other objects join Pluto as Dwarf Planets: Ceres, and 2003 UB313 (also called Xena).

This does raise one question. What is Charon, Pluto's former moon? I think Charon had the best name for a moon so I'm sad to see it go into classification limbo. I propose a petition to get the IAU to decide what to do with Charon on the double. It shouldn't be ignored like this.

And what happens to other celestial bodies like Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea. Are they doomed to remain as Asteriods while their big brother Ceres gets all the glory?

This Dwarf Planet thing really opens up a whole can of worms!

Virginia Senator

Back to my random political posts.

This one is about the race going on right now for Senator from the Commenwealth of Virginia.

The race is between Democrat James Webb, and Republican George Allen. Now why does this race matter to anyone except people living in Virginia? George Allen seems like he wants to run for president in 2008 (though no official word has been made yet). I base this on his campaining in Iowa, which is the state with the first presidential primary (ie they choose which candidate gets the nomination first of all the other states). For a senator from Virginia, campaining in Iowa doesn't make too much sense unless he has presidential ambitions. So this could be a chance for the Democrats, if they win to knock out a potential presdential candidate in 2008. Did I mention that George Allen has voted with the Bush Administration 97% of the time? Probably another reason for the Democrats to try and knock him out.

Then there's this bizarre incident from a couple of weeks ago from George Allen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90z0PMnKwI

Kind of strange.... and I"m not sure what this means..... though it certainly sounds offensive.

Anyway, here's a video of James Webb from the Colbert Report from March 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sy8zDnyNOo

After the macaca incident, polls put the two at pretty much even, so it could go either way. Could be another interested race to watch... well for me it will be :)

Back from England

I'm back from my England trip. It was so much fun... !

I really had fun seeing those Clear Lakes again... the only problem is I miss them again :(

I miss Clear Lakes

Two days before I leave for England.

I can't wait to see those clear lakes again. I can't stop smiling.

Early Results

Here are some very early Results in the Senator's Primary.

Ned Lamont 126
Joe Lieberman 66.

This is going to be a long night.

Primary Day!!!

So it finally came.

The day of the Primary in Connecticut. There were three votes to cast in the Democratic Primary: Governor, Lt. Governor and of course United States Senator. The first two have been completely eclipsed by the latter.

Ned Lamont vs. Joe Lieberman. One is an 18 year incumbent senator, the other the vice president of a cable company. Normally, this wouldn't have even been a race, but this time it was. There are lots of people mad at Lieberman, and lots who really like him. Normally turnout for primaries is low... at around 25%. But this time, it's apparently at 50%! This is amazing. Apparently, 30,000 people registered as Democrats since May (one of whom was me) so this has been very important for people.

Did I vote already? You bet I did... I voted at lunch to make sure I got to vote before polls closed. So which way did I go?

After much soul searching.... I cast my vote for Lamont. It was a hard decision, but in the end, I feel that Lieberman provides way too much partisan cover for Republicans. He doesn't seem capable of admitting mistakes, and that's not a great quality.

So who will win this thing? Hard to know....

One question though, is if Lieberman loses this primary, will he quit the party and run as an independent? If so, this race could go on for another three months until the November general elections. Nobody is sure what will happen... so this could be interesting.

When I write this, polls close in 15 minutes! So results should come in soon. It should be very interesting. Well to me anyway :)

Thursday's Interview on the Colbert Report

Last Thursday, the interview on the Colbert Report was Paul Hackett. He had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, and he ran for congressman in Ohio's second district for a special election in 2005 (the existing congressman was apointed to something, and since the next election wasn't until 2006, they had a special election to put someone else there in the meantime).

This was a district that went solidly for George W. Bush in 2004, and is considered one of the most conservative districts in the United States. Paul Hackett was running in this District as a Democrat.

This election got a great amount of attention. I read somewhere (and I can't find the link right now) that the district would usually go Republican by about 40 points. So clearly, Hackett had his work cut out for him.

While he didn't win the election, he lost by only four points. He then considered a run for the Senate in Ohio (Senator DeWine from Ohio is pretty unpopular) but the Democratic Party, for reasons that are not clear, asked him not to run. The last I read, Mr. Hackett is planning to start an organisation to help soldiers run for public office.

Anyway, here's a video of him on the Daily Show from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3G6X39uQ6E

Here's the video of the interview on the Colbert Report from August 3 2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CgvOQK8HLE

Here's another video of Paul, and his opponent in the special election in 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFo717NcRQQ

Based on all I've seen of him, and read about him, Mr. Hackett seemed like he might have been a breath of fresh air! It's too bad he isn't running for office.

A Descent Into Madness

I just got back from watching the "horror" movie The Descent.

My review will be short and sweet.

The movie makes little sense. Lots of meaningful scenes... that might have been meaningful if they didn't come out of nowhere.

Six women descend into a cave... just because. And they fight some monsters... That's it. A few good scares, but not really worth a trip to the theatre.

And the previews show tons of horror movies coming up. The Saw 3 (out on Halloween). Sarah Michelle Gellar is chased by things in a flick that takes place in Texas. There's a Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel. And the other preview I remember is a movie starring the guy from the Transporter Series... playing someone very similar who will die if he doesn't get into car chases every five minutes. I have to admit I wasn't too clear on the premise.

I guess I should have stuck with Pirates 2!

Some videos

This is going to be a short post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0mzUcCjNs&search=Ned%20Lamont

Here's the video from Ned Lamont's Interview Last Night on the Colbert Report.

Also, here's a video of a Ned Lamont commercial that I found funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKRVxQncPK8&search=Ned%20Lamont

Here's another video about the race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzo6hbKcGV8&search=Colbert%20Report