What a difference a day makes

My wife had been very busy today (we had some plumbing issues in our front bathroom), so she had never had a chance to turn the news on.

So I updated her about the Los Angeles SWAT activity, the Romney withdrawl, and the Kirkwood, Missouri City Hall shooting.

Oh, if you haven't heard about that yet, I heard a brief mention on KNX radio in Los Angeles, then confirmed it via tweets from @stltoday.

The latest (note that this link is constantly being updated as the story develops):

An armed man walked into a Kirkwood city council meeting Thursday night and shot several people, including the at least one police officer, the city’s mayor and several council members.

A correspondent for the Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started — the mayor was starting the meeting just after the Pledge of Allegiance — when the man rushed into the council chambers yelling and began opening fire with at least one weapon. She identified the man as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, a man she knows from covering the council.

And I didn't even have a chance to tell my wife about the illegal immigration raid in Van Nuys:

U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement says more than 100 agents have raided a printer supply manufacturer in the suburb of Van Nuys as part of a criminal search warrant filed under seal.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice says the raid at the offices of Micro Solutions Enterprises began around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. She says it's expected to lead to several arrests of current and former employees on criminal charges of providing fraudulent information in order to obtain employment.

Busy day, isn't it?

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Breaking analysis from outside of the Beltway - Romney, Huckabee, and others

I ran across a Mark Daniels post that cited three reasons why Mitt Romney didn't win the Republican nomination.

First, Daniels cited "the incredible conservative shift" in which Romney either shifted from liberal to conservative after leaving the Massachusetts governorship, or had previously shifted from conservative to liberal to win the Massachusetts governorship. Either way, it's not pretty. (Although, to be fair, McCain has apparently shifted his position on illegal immigration, or at least is pretending to do so.)

Second, Daniels talked about "the Baptist Mormon," in which Romney tried to appear as a regular ole' evangelical Christian in order to win the religious right over.

Third, and finally, Daniels cited a non-flip-flop example: "I'm Bush, too." Frankly, it's sad when today's Republicans define "conservatism" as "what George W. Bush does." That's how Ron Pauls emerge.

Incidentally, Mike Huckabee's blog now contains a statement about Romney's withdrawal:

Today, Mitt Romney announced that he will no longer seek the Republican nomination for President. I wish Mitt and his family all the best.

Over the past year, Mitt and his entire family have sacrificed a lot during the course of his campaign and for that, we should all be appreciative of their service and dedication.

This is a two-man race for the nomination, and I am committed to marching on. I believe in the importance of a strong national defense -- which includes winning the war against Islamic extremists and the protection of American sovereignty.

I am redoubled in my resolve to carry on my campaign in a civil, dignified manner. The issues that got me into this campaign—protecting life and traditional marriage, enacting the Fair Tax, and border security are going to keep me in this campaign.

As a true authentic, consistent, conservative, I have a vision to bring hope, opportunity and prosperity to all Americans, and I’d like to ask for and welcome the support of those who had previously been committed to Mitt.

As far as I can tell, John Cox, Alan Keyes, and Ron Paul have not updated their websites to challenge Huckabee's claim of a two-man race.

[8 FEBRUARY - LET'S LOOK INSIDE THE BELTWAY.]

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In other football-soccer news...

At first thought, it sounded like this foreign acquisition of European clubs was going to an extreme:

Microsoft Buys Caligari To Pimp Up Virtual Earth

Then I kept on reading.

Microsoft’s Virtual Earth just added some serious 3-D modeling and animation chops. It bought Caligari, a small company that makes 3-D modeling and animation software. Terms were not disclosed.

Oops. Plus, there's a difference between Caligari and Cagliari. I guess it would help if I could spell in Italian.

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All Over the World

The first item that I read was the one from Soccerlens:

The English Premier League clubs are considering a proposal to play some matches at overseas venues starting from the 2011/2012 season.

The idea is to extend the regular season to 39 games, with the extra 10 games being played at 5 select venues around the world (US, Middle East and Far East Asia are the obvious 3 destinations, but will we see clubs going to Africa, South East Asia, South America and Australia as well?). The proposal suggests picking actual fixtures by draw, although the star clubs may not always be paired with each other....

Why?

It’s for the MONEY! And the direct (and indirect) support (financial) of millions…and millions of Premier League fans around the world (all of whom support Manchester United, or Chelsea, or Arsenal, depending on who was champion when they started watching....

I ended up commenting:

voted no [to Soccerlens' poll on the idea] not because I object to international games, but because I object to adding to the schedule to do it. Leagues that have adopted overseas games, such as the NFL and NHL, have done so without adding games to the season. And Manchester United’s ability to head off to the Middle East shows that games could be accommodated. Perhaps there could even be an international week where all ten games are played outside of England, in different corners of the world. If teams are worried about losing home field advantage, then play two games internationally, so that each team has 18 home games, 18 away games, and 18 far away games.

As I think about it more, I’m warming to this “international week” idea. Because of the different time zones, games would be spread out throughout the day(s), so even the domestic fans would benefit because they’d be able to watch more games on TV that weekend. (Imagine a weekend in which you could watch 10 EPL games in a row. Footy overload!)

(I subsequently commented about Antonio Villraigosa and Rita Moreno of Arte, but that is neither here nor there.)

Unfortunately, the league was not monitoring the 'Nets to read my brilliant idea. They ended up agreeing to explore the 39 game idea:

at a meeting in London on Thursday, all 20 Premier League clubs agreed to explore a proposal to extend the season to 39 games. Those 10 extra games would be played at venues around the world, with cities bidding for the right to stage them. It is understood the additional fixtures could be determined by a draw but that the top-five teams could be seeded to avoid playing each other.

Under the proposal, cities such as Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Johannesburg, Dubai and Beijing would stage matches between two Premier League sides. The League have called a news conference for this afternoon where it is expected they will confirm they are to explore the proposal of playing games in some of the world’s largest cities.

Too bad. I'd still like to see a block of 20+ hours of football, played all over the world in a single day.

[8 FEBRUARY - SEE PART TWO.]

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How not to conduct an interview, and how to conduct an interview, both within the same interview

I wish that Johnny Carson were alive, and were covering politics.

The one strength that Johnny Carson had, especially when he had tne non-celebrities on his show, is that he would actually interact with the interviewee. This requires that you listen to the interviewee, rather than yourself.

Unfortunately, many of today's political interviews take one of two tacks:

• Stick the microphone in the person's face and let the interviewee spout off the approved talking points. ("Senator McCain understands how military decisions must be made.")


• Stick the microphone in the person's face, but stick your mouth closer and follow your agenda to shut the interviewee down.

Baratunde provides an example of the second tactic - a tactic that was frustrated by the interviewee.

The video shows an interview by a man named Mike who was obviously looking for a stupid Obama supporter who had merely memorized the sound bites. Derrick, however, wouldn't play along.



Notice how the belligerent tone of the interview changes after about a couple of minutes, and the interview actually ends up becoming a discussion.

But note the difference when this same interviewer interviews some Hillary supporters:



It took the interviewer a couple of tries to find someone who could speak in depth on the issues.

For what it's worth, thelatestcontroversy tended to let the camera run rather than just assembling 30 second sound clips. Imagine if he hadn't, and if he only publicized short snippets of the second video to make the claim that Clinton supporters are boobs.

I'm not necessarily talking about Obama or Clinton supporters here, and am certainly not claiming that Obama supporters are intelligent and Clinton supporters are robots. (Although I sometimes wonder how many Ron Paul supporters realize that you can kiss Federally-funded freeway expansion goodbye under a Paul administration.)

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From highways to parking places

Laughing Squid linked to a MySpace video by Mario DiGiorgio that contains "responses" to various "God" billboards. (The name of the video is "Dueling Billboards.")

Dueling Billboards

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I don't know if DiGiorgio took his original billboard ideas from actual billboards, or whether he just used stereotypical "this is what a stupid baby seal clubber nut would write" language.

Anyway, one of the billboards read:

My way IS the highway.

-God

DiGiorgio probably didn't catch it, and Scott Beale might not have caught it either, but such a billboard would be highly ironic, since a highway is kinda sorta wide:

Luke 13:22-30 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society



The Narrow Door
22Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"
He said to them, 24"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'
"But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'

26"Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'

27"But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'

28"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last."

And this, of course, bears on the latest example of Christian intolerance in Berkeley, California. As many like to remind you, religious people such as Christians and Muslims like to insist on imposing their own values on everyone, and that is evil because we have to respect everybody and agree that differences are wonderful and every way to heaven is equally valid.

Hence the Jesus freaks in Berkeley - they have to be Jesus freaks because they're so intolerant - have made an official effort to drive those who don't believe with them out of town. You have to figure that the Berkeley, California City Council must be infested with these "peace, peace" Jesus freaks, based upon their recent action. Real Clear Politics details what these intolerant Christians did:

On Jan. 29, the Berkeley city council passed several measures targeting the lone Marine recruitment office in town. The anti-war harridans at Code Pink have been picketing the center for months. Last fall, they defaced the building by slapping a sign that read "assasination" (sic) in the military office window. Instead of rising to defend the recruiters' property rights, the city council and mayor voted to sabotage them further. They granted Code Pink special parking privileges directly in front of the Marines' workplace to facilitate their protests -- and also offered them a free sound permit for six months.

We need to get some atheists on the Berkeley City Council to stop this imposition of religion on the populace.

(Hey, I enjoyed writing it.)

And yes, in this topsy-turvy world in which good is bad and left is right, this was an interesting couplet:

"I guess they've never heard of free speech," Berkeley City Councilwoman Dona Spring told The Chronicle as she defended the council's 6-3 vote to tell Marine recruiters that they are not welcome in Berkeley -- and that if the Marines stay, they will "do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."...It's pretty clear that Spring has heard of free speech, but she has no idea what it is....

[T]he Berkeley vote was the antithesis of free speech. When government officials pass a law to impede the political expression of non-believers, as the Berkeley pols did on Jan. 29, they are wielding the club of government to suppress dissent. They are abusing their authority.

And

Code Pink does not limit its activities to protesting the war. Code Pink also blocks access to the recruiting office -- members have chained themselves to the door -- which constitutes an attempt to infringe on the rights of those who, despite a barrage of anti-war propaganda, nonetheless want to become Marines.

Code Pink is the anti-war equivalent of anti-abortion protesters barring women from access to abortion clinics -- a crime compounded by the City Council's support of this suppression.

So Code Pink uses the same tactics as anti-abortion protestors? Does this mean that Ed Snell will support the Berkeley City Council? Or that Code Pink will wave around banners showing aborted fetuses? This could get interesting.

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WWMHD?

Remember when Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday night that there was a two-person race for the Republican nomination, and he was in it?

Sounded like the usual campaign bravado at the time.

I was busily working this morning on a wonderful, fascinating document (excerpt: "Most importantly, these successes have been duplicated in deployed systems, ALL of which have met or exceeded customer accuracy requirements...") and not really paying attention to the outside world. I peeked at Twitter at one point and saw some references to a Romney speech but didn't think much of it. Then I peeked at Google Reader around 11:45 and saw this headline:

Romney's Withdrawal Speech

I thought to myself, I don't remember adding the Onion to my Google Reader feeds.

Then I saw that it was a Real Clear Politics post:

Governor Romney's Address to the Conservative Political Action Committee - February 7, 2008

[bla bla bla]

Even though we face an uphill fight, I know that many in this room are fully behind my campaign." You are with me all the way to the convention. Fight on, just like Ronald Reagan did in 1976. But there is an important difference from 1976: today... we are a nation at war.

And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child's play. About this, I have no doubt.

I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters... many of you right here in this room... have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.

So the six Republican candidates that I knew of when I voted two days ago have whittled down to five. Technically, not one. Five.

The five remaining candidates, in alphabetical order, are:

John Cox
Mike Huckabee
Alan Keyes
John McCain
Ron Paul

But Andante Higgins ignores three of these candidates:

With the news of Mitt Romney suspending his campaign today, the dynamics of the GOP race have shifted. Mike Huckabee is the only candidate who has won primaries that he has to compete with.

When asked about the sudden one-on-one with Huckabee, McCain said he thought it would be a "respectful" debate between the two even though they have differences on issues like taxes and health care....

On Huckabee’s wins in five states, [McCain advisor Charlie] Black had only respectful words for the Governor. “In the states that he won, he has great appeal. It’s his home base, he’s an attractive candidate. At the end of the day we give him all the credit,” he said.

Black also noted that the states Huckabee won, McCain did little or no advertising and didn’t run much of a campaign due to a lack of funds. While some of those states were close between Huckabee and McCain, Black says they don’t regret their efforts because there were no other option available to them.

As of now, mikehuckabee,com has not released a formal statement on Romney's departure. But Reverse_Vampyr has commented:

Looks like McCain won't need to pretend to be conservative any more.

And this will be the interesting point. In the same way that Obama is the anti-Clinton, Huckabee has now become the anti-McCain, and the disaffected will rally around Mike (sorry, Ron Paul).

Ironically, Romney's move to unite the party will result in some serious division within the party for the next couple of weeks or so - perhaps longer.

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On Randy Simmons and Shaquille O'Neal

I don't think Shaq would object at Simmons getting top billing in this blog post.

If you're not familiar with the name, Randy Simmons was the LAPD SWAT officer who died overnight in a shooting. Current reports are that a gunman shot three members of his family and continued to act strangely, which is why SWAT was called to the scene. Simmons was shot and died, and another SWAT officer was shot and expected to live. I was amazed to learn that Randy Simmons was the first LAPD SWAT officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty, despite the LAPD SWAT unit having been in existence for over 30 years. More at It's a Crime and Wise Hand Poker.

Or this, from the LAPD blog:

February 07, 2008
LAPD MOURNS LOSS OF VETERAN SWAT OFFICER
Shortly, after 9:00 last night, the Los Angeles Police Department's Communications Division received a 911 call from a home in West Valley in the 19000 block of Welby Way. The caller indicated he had killed 3 of his family members. West Valley Patrol Units responded to conduct an investigation.

The suspect refused to leave the home and LAPD SWAT was called to the scene.

Around 12:30 this morning, SWAT made entry into the home and an exchange of gunfire between the officers and the suspect occurred. Two veteran SWAT officers were shot, removed from the home and rushed to Northridge Medical Center. The incident at the home in West Valley is still ongoing, and for that reason there will be no more tactical information released at this time.

Despite the efforts of the Los Angeles Fire Department and hospital personnel, one of the officers passed away just after one'clock this morning. The other officer was seriously wounded but will survive. The names of the officers will not be released until all of their family members have been notified.

The members of the Los Angeles Police Department are deeply saddened this morning having lost a member of their family. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of these two brave officers. Both have served this city for more than 25-years and have been a part of SWAT for 20 of those years.

The concept of SWAT originated in the late 1960s, and became fully operational in 1971 when personnel were assigned on a full-time basis to Metropolitan Division. Until this morning, no SWAT officer had been killed in the line of duty despite thousands of incidents this elite unit has responded to in thirty plus years. The only other SWAT Officer to have died on duty was Officer Lou Villalobos, who died during a training accident in March 2000.

Lieutenant Ruben De La Torre

As for Shaquille O'Neal, he is now officially a Phoenix Sun. It strikes me as strange that O'Neal, who was (if I recall correctly) previously named as one of the 50 best players from the first 50 years of the NBA, is now on his fourth team. More at Alibata Entertainment and Sports and Steamy Sports.

By the way, O'Neal's police experience is detailed here and here. But I can't see him going undercover in physical contact situations; he kinda sorta stands out. We'll have to see if he hooks up with the Phoenix police upon his arrival.

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When the semi-fictional character Mahree Bok is bigger than all of the presidential candidates combined

You never know what's going to attract the readers of a blog.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, and I stayed fairly focused on Super Tuesday in general and the California primary in particular. Of my eight blog posts yesterday, 6 1/2 of them focused on yesterday's elections. The exceptions were the post about my new cell phone holster, and the one that noted that NBC and Fox were showing "The Biggest Loser" and "American Idol" instead of covering you-know-what.

But that wasn't what truly interested my readers yesterday.

According to Google Analytics, the post that attracted nearly half of the blog traffic yesterday was my "Mahree Bok mystery" post from March 12, 2007.

If you don't know who Mahree Bok is, then you don't have kids. Or you're a fascist. Or something. So let's turn to the all-accurate Internet and get the story as told by Rhonda Cluff at suite101.com:

The Color of Friendship is a true story of Congressman Ron Dullam and...

Ron Dullam? Never mind. Let's try Amazon.com's product description of The Color of Friendship instead:

Inspired by actual events comes this Emmy Award-winning movie about two girls from different worlds who learn the ultimate lesson about tolerance and friendship. When African-American Congressman Ron Dellums and his daughter Piper (Shadia Simmons, ZENON: THE ZEQUEL), greet their South African exchange student Mahree (Lindsey Haun, BRING IT ON), they're surprised to discover she's white. But no one's more surprised than Mahree herself, a product of the Apartheid system, who's been raised to view dark-skinned people as second-class citizens. Only if Piper and Mahree can learn to see past their differences will they discover the friendship of a lifetime.

However, as I noted in my previous post, there technically is no "Mahree."

And while the link http://www.bayviews.org/baynews/news0408.htm no longer seems to work, there is still information online about the Piper Dellums story. Sadly, the South African probably didn't make it to Eastvale or Jurupa Valley. Here's something that was written in June 2007, three months after my original post:

No one really knows what happened to her. Her real name was Carrie and the Dellums family lost touch with her. Piper Dellums wrote a short story about when Carrie came and stayed with her and her family. It was called Simunye. In the story she speculates that Carrie(Mahree) could have been killed due to her activist role against the apartheid.

There a quite a few stories as to what happened to Carrie. One being that she was beaten to death at the age of 16 for her activist role.

Another was that she disappeared along with many other activists.

Sadly we may never know what happened.

And no, I haven't yet searched my library for Simunye. But I kinda sorta have an idea of where to look:

An established and recognized author, Piper has published children's stories with Viking Press/Penguin Putnum, edited by Jill Davis in New York City. Her latest story, SIMUNYE, can be read in "Open Your Eyes: Extraordinary Experiences in Faraway Places." The story is an autobiographical one about a white South African exchange student sent to live in her home in 1976 in Washington, D.C. The story was adapted into a Disney film entitled, "The Color of Friendship". The film won two Emmy Awards and an NAACP Image Award.

When you dig, it makes sense that Disney would make the movie, since Open Your Eyes... was originally targeted for the teenage market. From School Library Journal:

Sometimes the most life-altering moments in young people's lives come as a result of being exposed to another culture. [Jill] Davis seeks to explore these changes by gathering stories and memoirs from noted authors, among them Lois Lowry, Susie Morgenstern, Katherine Paterson, Graham Salisbury, and Jean Fritz. While most of the selections focus on evolved thinking while on foreign sojourns, two of the best are set in the United States. In a story guaranteed to make readers laugh, howl, and then cry, Piper Dellums, the privileged daughter of an African-American congressman, looks forward to making a sister of a South African exchange student. However, the teen who arrives at her doorstep is white and makes the mistake of thinking that her host family must be the congressman's servants. In "Looking for America," Elizabeth Partridge spends some time in the South and is astonished to find that a black cook who prepares the food can not drink from the family's glasses, but must use a mason jar. At his evocative best, Harry Mazer takes readers back to when he was a teenaged GI, bailing out of a flaming World War II bomber and wondering what happened to a friend who never returned. In this time of rising xenophobia, the message of these stories assumes new importance. It is best summed up by Davis's choice of a Mark Twain quotation: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness."-Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY

However, this book was not universally praised:

It's not that good of a book. It's mostly pointless stories of people. Everyone knows these kinds of thories (sic) anyway. --Ashley, 17

But there's possibly another source for the movie - a 1990 source:

"In 1990," [Alan Sacks] remembers, "I read this story about California congressman Ron Dellums."

Sacks states that he obtained the rights to the story in 2000, working with Ron Dellums, and reiterates that the Dellums family lost touch with the South African girl.

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I'm removing the poll

Some time ago, I conducted a poll:

Who do you support for U.S. President in 2008?

Ontario Emperor 1 (9%)
a stick 10 (90%)

Votes so far: 11
Poll closed

I am finally removing this poll.

Not because I'm embarrassed by the results.

Not because the California primary is over.

I'm removing it because it increases the time it takes to load my blog page.

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Smoking Cigarettes and Watching Captain Kangaroo

The California primary is over. I've used the #caprimary hashtag ad nauseum, I've voted, and I've looked at the results.

Now what do you do the morning after?

Well, first, let me analyze my pigheaded use of the #caprimary hashtag for my Twitter tweets (and even for some blog posts), even though hardly anybody else did. I'm still happy I did it, since it provided a frame of reference that helped people to know the content of the tweet.

Now let's look at the impact for the state. In past times, and even as late as last year, California didn't have much of a voice in the choice of a presidential candidate. The only reason that presidential candidates would come here was to collect political donations for use in other states. Now we got to vote and have our say in the election. From here on in...the presidential candidates will come here to collect political donations for use in other states. So we've made a little bit of progress, I guess.

Then there was my prediction. Some time in January, I predicted that both the Republican and Democratic races would pretty much be settled by the time that Super Tuesday and the California primary had completed. At best I was half right about this. Time will tell whether John McCain, the current Republican delegate leader, cemented his nomination by neutralizing Mitt Romney last night. A few comments about McCain, Huckabee, and Romney:

• I happened to hear the opening of Sean Hannity's radio show yesterday afternoon, and he was beside himself regarding the "dirty" move of West Virginia McCain supporters who threw their support to Huckabee, thus denying Romney the West Virginia voters. Frankly, I think it was a brilliant political move by the McCain and Huckabee camps - one that benefited both candidates.


• The reason that Hannity was beside himself is because he has decided that Mitt Romney is The True Conservative - whatever "conservative" means. So I found it very ironic early yesterday evening when Huckabee was winning several Southern states, while Romney was winning the true red state of...Massachusetts.

But the greatest change in California the morning after is that the radio and television political ads - especially the ads for the Indian gaming propositions - have finally, completely ceased. (Well, the Indians may mount a "thank you for giving us more money than Mitt Romney could ever hope to spend" series of commercials, but that's it.)

Unfortunately, one set of Southern California commercials remains - the unceasing stream of movie commercials targeted toward Oscar voters. I assume it's not the same way in other parts of the country, but here in Hollywoodland just about every other commercial is talking about "a classic moment in cinema" that is "the defining film of the century."

Frankly, I'm ready to take that stupid danged milkshake and ram it down stupid danged Daniel Day-Lewis' stupid danged overacting throat.

And if Dennis Kucinich agrees with me, I'll write in his name on the November ballot.

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#caprimary Election Results

From the website of the California Secretary of State.

Propositions:

State Ballot Measures
95.9% ( 22173 of 23109 ) precincts
reporting as of Feb 6, 2008, at 7:30 a.m.

91 N Transportation Funds.
2,654,316 41.9%
3,674,380 58.1%

92 N Community Colleges. Funding. Governance. Fees.
2,783,544 42.6%
3,738,241 57.4%

93 N Limits on Legislators' Terms in Office.
3,071,170 46.5%
3,522,645 53.5%

94 Y Ref on Amd to Indian Gaming Compact: Pechanga
3,727,990 55.8%
2,959,696 44.2%

95 Y Ref on Amd to Indian Gaming Compact: Morongo
3,725,141 55.8%
2,953,405 44.2%

96 Y Ref on Amd to Indian Gaming Compact: Sycuan
3,707,573 55.7%
2,956,192 44.3%

97 Y Ref on Amd to Indian Gaming Compact: Agua Caliente
3,708,824 55.7%
2,952,036 44.3%

So, as you can see, the state pretty much agreed with me regarding the state propositions.

Well, except for proposition 91.

And for propositions 94 through 97.

But other than that, I am part of the political mainstream that can unite the people.

Which brings us to the Democrats, the contest that is probably of most interest to Californians. Here are the results that the networks didn't want you to hear - or, more accurately, didn't care about.

Joe Biden (Dem) 15,087 0.3 %
Dennis Kucinich (Dem) 19,857 0.5 %
Barack Obama (Dem) 1,686,517 42.4 %
Bill Richardson (Dem) 16,469 0.5 %
Hillary Clinton (Dem) 2,064,590 51.9 %
Chris Dodd (Dem) 6,570 0.1 %
John Edwards (Dem) 167,226 4.2 %
Mike Gravel (Dem) 6,467 0.1 %

I remember reading something yesterday from someone (I don't think the person was in California) who either voted for Kucinich or strongly considered doing so. Well, Kucinich did come in fourth place here, which I guess shows something. Although when you look at California primary results, you have to remember that a large group of Californians voted absentee, which may partially explain Edwards' strong showing.

Let's compare the Democrats with the Republicans:

Mike Huckabee (Rep) 260,447 11.6 %
Duncan Hunter (Rep) 12,046 0.5 %
Alan Keyes (Rep) 9,265 0.4 %
Sam Brownback (Rep) 1,975 0.0 %
John H. Cox (Rep) 2,574 0.1 %
Rudy Giuliani (Rep) 114,888 5.1 %
John McCain (Rep) 952,409 42.1 %
Ron Paul (Rep) 96,300 4.2 %
Mitt Romney (Rep) 765,355 33.9 %
Tom Tancredo (Rep) 3,225 0.1 %
Fred Thompson (Rep) 45,426 2.0 %

At some point I'll do a web search to see how the Baba Booeys explain the fact that Ron Paul got fewer votes than John Edwards. Or, for that matter, fewer votes than Rudy Giuliani.

The other interesting thing, considering the political climate here in the last few years, is how few people cast protest votes for Tom Tancredo.

And I'm happy that Cox got over 2,000 votes. Hey, 10th place is better than 11th place.

But that's not the end of the story. The American Independents have an interesting race going on:

Mad Max Riekse (AI) 11,384 30.2 %
Diane Beall Templin (AI) 12,512 33.3 %
Don J. Grundmann (AI) 13,727 36.5 %

I'm sorry that Riekse came in third; I want to vote on a ballot in which someone named "Mad Max" is listed.

No hope in getting such a candidate from the Greens:

Kent Mesplay (Grn) 564 2.0 %
Jared Ball (Grn) 444 1.6 %
Jesse Johnson (Grn) 506 1.8 %
Kat Swift (Grn) 843 3.0 %
Ralph Nader (Grn) 16,835 61.1 %
Elaine Brown (Grn) 1,259 4.6 %
Cynthia McKinney (Grn) 7,124 25.9 %

And as long as we're talking about Nader and McKinney, let's look at Peace & Freedom:

Stewart A. Alexander (P&F) 282 5.4 %
Gloria E. La Riva (P&F) 1,057 20.4 %
John Crockford (P&F) 292 5.6 %
Stanley Hetz (P&F) 87 1.6 %
Brian P. Moore (P&F) 279 5.3 %
Ralph Nader (P&F) 2,090 40.2 %
Cynthia McKinney (P&F) 1,114 21.5 %

So, adding up the votes from the two primaries, Cynthia McKinney received 8,238 votes. This means that Alan Keyes (9,265) is more representative of black America than Cynthia McKinney. Sounds about right.

This leave just one more party, the Libertarian Party:

Michael P. Jingozian (Lib) 652 4.7 %
Bob Jackson (Lib) 1,211 8.9 %
Steve Kubby (Lib) 2,333 17.0 %
Alden Link (Lib) 442 3.2 %
John Finan (Lib) 584 4.2 %
Barry Hess (Lib) 739 5.4 %
Dave Hollist (Lib) 562 4.0 %
Daniel Imperato (Lib) 590 4.2 %
Robert Milnes (Lib) 599 4.3 %
George Phillies (Lib) 689 5.1 %
Wayne A. Root (Lib) 1,896 13.8 %
Christine Smith (Lib) 3,453 25.2 %

Which leads to an interesting issue. It may be too late for Ron Paul to qualify for the Libertarian Party nomination for President, unless the delegates are free to vote for anyone after the first ballot. And the Libertarian Party desperately needs Ron Paul at the head of their ballot to have any chance of success in state and local elections. I'll have to research Libertarian Party convention rules at some point.

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#caprimary goes to Clinton and McCain

I'll have to check the Secretary of State site to see who won the primaries for the other parties. Television isn't bothering to provide this information.

While Clinton and McCain won the vote, this is not a fight for votes. This is a fight for delegates. We'll see what happens there.

A few minutes ago, I heard that Huckabee has more delegates than Romney. An interesting twist.

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The Biggest Loser

No, this is not a politics post. This is the name of the television show that the Los Angeles NBC station is showing right now.

And Fox is showing American Idol.

BO-ring.

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Continuing with Super Tuesday...

Since I'm having problems accessing Twitter at the moment, I figured I might as well make a blog post.

I watched the Los Angeles ABC station until the California polls closed, and now I've switched to local station KCAL 9, which has nothing local to report.

I'll tweet more to http://twitter.com/oemperor unless there's a #twittout.

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Super Tuesday Status, 5:09 pm Pacific Time

Results will be rolling in early and often soon, but as of now we have Mike Huckabee winning West Virginia and Barack Obama winning Georgia.

UPDATE FROM CNN at 5:09 pm PST:

CNN projects: Romney wins Mass.; McCain wins Conn. and Illinois; Obama wins Illinois; Clinton wins Okla.

Back to the Georgia and West Virginia stuff...

From Marketwatch:

Obama appeared to score a big win over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Georgia, where 43% of the white voters cast their ballots for the African-American candidate....

In a presage of what was expected to be a long night, Romney immediately took issue with the results in West Virginia, accusing McCain of cutting a "backroom deal" with Huckabee supporters to make sure Romney lost. McCain supporters threw their support behind Huckabee on the second ballot after none of the candidates were able to win 50% of the vote.

"Sen. McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party," said Beth Myers, Romney's campaign manager.
Huckabee shrugged off the criticism from Romney's campaign and said "the game is still on."

Ana Marie Cox observed the following from her strategic vantage point:

Couch, D.C.: Huck's WV win prompting mussed hair among Romney staffers. McCain campaign pronounced "juvenile." True, & they're proud of it!

I replied:

@anamariecox well, it's really simple. john likes mike because mitt has gross boogers. and because you can rhyme the name mitt with the word

Oops, I guess I hit my 140 character limit.

Meanwhile, I happened to hear the first 15 minutes of Sean Hannity's radio show at lunch, and West Virginia had him all bent out of shape. Opinionated Catholic was listening also:

I have been listening to Sean talk about how "unfair" it was that Huckabee won WV. Good grief it was a Caucus!!!

He said said that spreading the West Virginia results was tantamount to manipulating the election and that was going to lead to voter suppression. (Really so Romney can go to Nevada on the day of SC and that is great but this is bad?).

He even said that what happened in West Virginia was questionable.(what? It is a caucus) I thought Sean was a "great American" but he seems to be trying to defame our elections on dubious grounds. It is sort of like the Iowa Caucus. If your person didn't get 15% the other people try to get you to vote for your candidate. Wow as I am typing this he has Team Romney on complaining. What a Cluster####.

Oops, I guess Opinionated Catholic's pound/hash key got stuck. This election brings out the best in us.

(Of course, if Romney were to throw his support to someone to lock McCain out, it would be praised as a brilliant strategic move. Go figure.)

P.S. I'll try to tweet and/or blog some stuff throughout the evening, although blog posts might be from a mobile phone and therefore may not include links or substantiation. If I don't get around to blogging, you can follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/oemperor, or, for California primary-specific stuff, at http://hashtags.org/tag/caprimary/.

And don't forget to check the @ivoted search on Tweetscan for real-time voting confessions.

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You'll have to pry my phone from my cold, dead fingers

In other words, I got the replacement holster for my Motorola Q. The old one broke after 15 months of use.

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Super Tuesday Stove Top for Lunch

A collection of various Super Tuesday-related links.

Front, Sight, Press reported that Eugene Volokh has endorsed John McCain.

Duncan Reilly at TechCrunch noted that Obama and Huckabee have significant web traffic. Meanwhile, Jeremy Zawodny noted that all of the candidates' web sites are, in a word, slow. (Actually, YSlow.)

Eye of Polyphemus made a valid case for the argument that the writers' strike has affected election decisions. Think about it; how many people made their 1976 election decisions based upon Chevy Chase? Jamie's Super Tuesday predictions, by the way, are here.

Speaking of predictions, Reid Wilson covered all the bases. (GroanAlert) Or, in other words, all the bases are belong to him. (/GroanAlert)

Rich Lowry claimed that the Republicans want Hillary to lose the nomination, but just as passionately want her to win the nomination.

Meanwhile, Reverse_Vampyr linked to a YouTube video from the Romney camp saying that Hillary Clinton and John McCain are pretty much the same. And Baratunde linked to a video saying that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pretty much different. So perhaps Clinton can be the Republican and Obama the Democrat. The baby seal clubbers would love THAT one.

And people are voting: Doug Haslam in Massachusetts, and Hilary (Superfluous Juxtaposition), Goddess of Pomona, and Tony Pierce in California.

And Extreme Mortman looked at radio coverage. And Caveat Bettor compared Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.

Meanwhile, Centinel weighed in on another California proposition. If you live in Pasadena and want Portantino to head up the Assembly, you should vote against 93 since that will kick Nunez out of office. Follow that?

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Me and the public teachers' unions

When I read the Foothill Cities Blog post (from Centinel) opposing Proposition 92, I realized that I was joining some strange bedfellows:

[T]his may be [the only] time you’ll ever see the California Teachers Association, the California Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters of California, the California Professional Firefighters, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the President of Cal Poly Pomona, and Centinel agree on something: Vote no on Prop. 92.

Proposition 92 is the community college one, which, among other things, sets community college fees at $15/unit/semester. As I previously noted, I voted against it.

The California Teachers Association opposes Proposition 92 and links to this statement:

Proposition 92 locks in huge new state spending with no way to pay for it.

Frankly, I don't recall that budget deficits were ever a huge concern to the CTA leadership. The big concern is outlays, and potential decreases in same:

Proposition 92 will further threaten California’s ability to address the state’s other pressing needs, like funding K-12 schools, state universities, health care and public safety.

Of course, if a proposition encouraged funding to CTA members, at the expense of health care and public safety, CTA would be all for it.

For the record, I didn't agree with CTA on the other two propositions on which they took positions. CTA was against Proposition 91 (transportation) and for Proposition 93 (term extensions for incumbents) - presumably for the same reasons that they opposed 92.

The California Teachers Association did not take a stance on the gaming propositions (94 through 97), but the California Federation of Teachers did.

Interestingly enough, the California Federation of Teachers strongly supported Proposition 92. Speak Out California explains:

Sponsored primarily by those who have a specific interest in the community college system, the initiative is designed to protect against the loss of funding for the community colleges during difficult budget times by creating a separate funding mechanism from the one that currently exists. Presently, community colleges are included in the K-14 funding minimums of Prop 98. They want their own separate funding calculation.

Those opposed, primarily those whose interests are in preserving K-12 funding, say this measure would further tie the hands of the state by taking away needed flexibility to move funds in times of serious budget shortfalls. This measure pits teachers against each other with the California Federation of Teachers in support and the California Teachers Association opposed.

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@ivoted in the #caprimary

You can follow people who voted (and, in some cases, who/what they voted for) via a Tweetscan search for @ivoted.

Here's what I tweeted:

@ivoted #caprimary huckabee (2nd choice cox). yes 91 (transportation). no 92-97 (community college, term "limits," 4 indian gaming compacts)

While much of the Twitterverse is going toward Obama (which makes sense, since he appeals to more educated people), I was debating on the red side of the ticket.

I ruled out Brownback, Giuliani, Hunter, Tancredo, and Thompson early. Not that I was averse to voting for a withdrawn candidate if said candidate best reflected my views, but I wasn't really inspired by any of them.

I wasn't going to vote for Keyes; talk show hosts (of the left or right) do not good Presidents make. You need a different skill set to yell at the idiots, rather than working with them to lead the country.

Which brings us to Ron Paul, who had three strikes against him. First, using "conservative" in the true (Goldwater) sense of the term, Paul is too conservative for my tastes. Remember how people claimed in 1980 that Reagan would guy the government? Paul actually would gut the government. Second, I don't necessarily see leadership qualities in him; in fact, he's more like a talk show host than a political leader. Third, it's no secret that his baba booeys have turned me off completely.

As for McCain, I have to admit that Kennedy-McCain still stuck in my craw. Perhaps it's not the Christian thing to do, but amnesty isn't the long term answer to illegal immigration; think of what happens AFTER this group of illegal immigrants is legalized. In the last debate, McCain, for all of his so-called straight talk, wouldn't answer the question of whether he would vote for his own bill today. Heck, when Jim Bakker (the "I was wrong" guy) does more "straight talk" than you do, your "straight talk" credentials are questionable. In addition, I'm not sure whether McCain is pretending to be a maverick, or is pretending to be part of the Beltway establishment. I suspect he's part of the latter.

So we're down to Romney, Cox, and Huckabee.

Romney and his danged gold and silver medals after every primary and caucus (and yee, we'll hear the stupid medal analogy from him again tonight), as if the Olympics have anything to do with private enterprise. Romney, who can appeal to Massachusetts voters one minute and to the true blue conservatives the next. I just never got excited about him.

As you know, I seriously considered John Cox, and got ripped for it. (Anti Cox: for Romney's true conservative credentials, see my comments on Paul and Romney above, and on Huckabee below.) In the end, I voted against him for the same reason I voted against Keyes and Paul; Cox is not equipped to be a political leader. But boy, was I tempted to go in his direction.

Huckabee.

First off, Huckabee is not a conservative. But neither are Romney, McCain, or even Keyes. Despite the numerous definitions of conservative, I hold by the old axiom that conservatives don't like a lot of government. Conservatives don't like a lot of wiretapping and spying. Conservatives don't like to tell the states what to do. Conservatives don't like to run up huge amounts of national debt.

Second off, Huckabee is not perfect. I've known pastors who were not perfect.

Third off, I don't agree with all of Huckabee's ideas. While the I-95 public works idea is appealing (I believe that government has to take action during a recession, and if we're going to spend the money anyway, better to spend it in this country), I'm not quite sure how you can eliminate the IRS at this stage of our country's history.

But, all of that aside, the best thing about Huckabee is that he is not John McCain, Ron Paul, or Mitt Romney.

Hmm...perhaps I should have voted for Cox.

I'm going to skip over the propositions except for 94-97, upon which I made my final decision at 6:30 this morning. At one point I was considering voting for some and not others, but since three of the propositions covered one county it wouldn't really matter. In the end, I decided that a "Yes" vote would restrict the ability of Pala and other gaming casinos to grow, while a "No" vote could lead to reopened talks. (The four tribes, after all, have an economic interest in re-negotiating in order to increase their profits.)

Anyway, that was some of the so-called rationale behind my votes. And if you hate my rationale, go out and vote yourself.

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Strummin' - M I C, K E Y...

I was responded to The Kibitzer's post about Tom Petty's Super Bowl halftime performance when I remembered the complete antithesis of that. I wrote about it back in 2004:

One of my favorite dimly-remembered SNL moments - Dana Carvey playing Neil Young preparing to perform for a Super Bowl in either Orlando or Anaheim. As you know, Super Bowl halftime shows have become spectacular displays; in SNL's version, Neil was going to go out on the field with just an acoustic guitar and sing "The Mickey Mouse Song" to the tune of "My My, Hey Hey." Priceless.

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More on Super Bowl Ads and the Super Bowl Itself

Reverse_Vampyr started his Super Bowl ad post by giving a little personal background:

I work in the advertising business. And I have a love-hate relationship with it. But my disdain for corporate hucksterism goes out the window every year when it's time for "the Big Game."

Here are RV's comments on various favorite ads:

Coca-Cola - It's Mine: Pardon the pun, but I liked the uplifting nature of this spot. A memorable tussle between giant parade balloons of Family Guy's Stewie and Underdog, with Charlie Brown finally winning in the end. A Coke and a smile, indeed. Home run.

Tide To Go - Talking Stain: What a perfect little way to demonstrate the need for the product. Seamless CG. It remains to be seen if this idea will be big enough to be a campaign, but it's a vast improvement on their other ads.

Pepsi Stuff - Magnetic Attraction: The celebrity is literally sucked through the air, paying off the copy in a memorable way. The more I see Justin Timberlake do comedy, the more I like the guy. And that's saying a lot 'cause I hate his music. But I applaud his willingness to make fun of himself. Plus, the addition of Adam Samburg adds "Dick In A Box" laughs to this one.

Bridgestone - Unexpected Obstacles: Similar kudos to Simmons for allowing himself to be the target of everybody's derision in this clever variation Bridgestone's other "Scream" spot that aired earlier in the game.

David Allen didn't venture an opinion on the Super Bowl ads. With good reason.

This was, I think, Super Bowl 42, if my Roman numeral skills haven't left me, and at this point I have a streak going, not having seen any of them. Not to be a snob about it; I understand the value and comfort and fun of American communal experiences, and I wouldn't say the Academy Awards, which I sometimes tune in for, are any less ridiculous.

That said, I resist the Super Bowl hype and generally enjoy an afternoon in which the streets and shops are semi-depopulated....

I had a late lunch out in Pomona in a mostly empty restaurant and bought groceries in Claremont with only one person ahead of me in line. Noticed that 21 Flavors frozen yogurt, which usually has a line out the door, appeared empty, but I wasn't in the mood for something cold. Went to a coffeehouse and read a novel in relative peace.

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Two sides of Obama coverage

When you're compared to Kennedy and Reagan (one a conservative turned liberal or vice versa, the other a liberal turned conservative or vice versa), anything can happen.

Steve Chapman: [AD COPY EDITED OUT]

On Thursday, The Washington Times reported that in 2004, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Obama came out for decriminalizing marijuana use. That usually means eliminating jail sentences and arrest records for anyone caught with a small amount for personal use, treating it more like a traffic offense than a violent crime. But in a show of hands at a debate last fall, he indicated that he opposed the idea.

When confronted on the issue by the Times, however, the senator defended his original ground. His campaign said he has "always" supported decriminalization.

It's a brave position, and therefore exceedingly rare among practicing politicians. Which may be why it didn't last. Before the day was over, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying he thinks "we are sending far too many first-time non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time" but "does not believe that we should treat offenses involving marijuana with a simple fine or just by confiscating the drug." Recently, he had told a New Hampshire newspaper, "I'm not in favor of decriminalization."

This episode reveals that as a candidate, Obama is more fond of bold rhetoric than bold policies. But it also proves the impossibility of talking sense on the subject of illicit drugs during a political campaign. That course of action would mean admitting the inadmissible: that the prohibition of cannabis has been cruel, wasteful and fraudulent.

Of course, Ron Paul has taken a stand here.

Back to Obama. Musing on Reagan Democrats, Salena Zito had an idea:

If one great communicator -- the eloquent Ronald Reagan -- could build a coalition of disaffected Democrats that swung both of his presidential elections his way, can an almost-great communicator -- the fiery Barack Obama -- build a coalition of disaffected Republicans to swing the Democrat primary election his way?

It's possible, says Brian F. Schaffner, an assistant professor of political science at American University in Washington, D.C...."Obama speaks so often of bringing the parties together and working with Republicans, he seems less polarizing to Republicans than Clinton, who has long been demonized by that party."

The Pew Research Center corroborates Schaffner's inkling. It recently produced a report showing that Obama is perceived as more liberal than Clinton among Democrats, yet is seen as more moderate than Clinton among Republicans.

And there are other reasons that a true red may go Obama:

One Republican who isn't afraid of Obama's liberalism is John Martin, who directs the grassroots Web organization "Republicans for Obama."

A Bronx, N.Y., native who was very active in the Young Republicans in college, Martin, 29, is in law school but serving on active duty in Afghanistan as a U.S. Navy reservist. E-mailing from Afghanistan, Martin said his group has more than 400 members since he last checked and that the Web site's server received so many clicks the day Obama won Iowa that it crashed.

Lisa Kinzer, 30, is another rock-ribbed Republican who's gone Obama. The Norman, Okla., native has been a registered Republican for 12 years. She has nothing against President Bush. But she does have a problem with the GOP's 2008 candidates.

Their bickering over the morality of using torture while interrogating terrorist suspects in an early debate was her turning point, she says, so she went to shop on the Democrats' side and picked Obama -- who she believes stands the best chance of uniting the nation of bringing the country back together "of by "reminding us of what we all have in common, our love of this country and our hope for its future."

Towson University science professor Antonio Campbell is a lifelong Republican -- he even ran as one in Maryland's 7th Congressional District 10 years ago. Yet if Obama wins the Democrats' nomination, Campbell says he will become an "Obama Republican."

"Obama's message reads like Reagan's playbook -- individual strength, faith and behaving in a fiscally competent way," Campbell says.

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Why Push? (a/k/a "Never Say Never")

It turns out that the GMC Yukon Hybrid ad is going by the title "Never Say Never" informally, and by the title "Why Push?" formally.

Here is a comment from Autoblog Green:

The ad for the hybrid Chevy Malibu did not make it to air but GMC's Yukon hybrid ad did. Like we said Thursday, the Yukon hybrid ad features the 1976 animated short Sisyphus by Marcell Jankovics. The voice over to the animation says the following:

Why push? Why change? Why grow? Why dream? Questions you don't have to ask yourself when you never say "it's good enough." When you never say "it can't be done." When you never say "never."

Then the text "Introducing the Yukon Hybrid from GMC. Limited Availability" and "50% Better Mileage in a full size SUV is now a reality" appears.

From commercial-archive.com:

For GMC - :60
Agency: Leo Burnett, Detriot
The spot features an animated short by Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics that was nominated for an Academy Award back in the '70s. The ad--"Why Push?"--focuses on GMC's new hybrid gas/electric version of the Yukon full-sized SUV. The spot also bows a new theme line that will be introduced in a new brand effort next month: "Never Say Never."

The commercial starts with a black-and-white, constantly morphing drawing of a man, alternately muscular, sometimes merely a representation in lines, rolling a boulder up a hill. During his struggles, a voiceover says: "Why push? Why change? Why grow? Why dream? Questions you don't have to ask yourself. When you never say it's good enough. When you never say it can't be done. When you never... say never." The short shifts into images of a white Yukon hybrid and text, noting that the vehicle gets 50% better mileage.

BrandWeek's Steve Miller gives a sober appraisal:

The GMC Yukon Hybrid SUV’s Super Bowl ad will take a sober look at the vehicle and its capabilities. Unlike the comic hijinks of the many other Super Bowl spots (in a Pepsi ad Justin Timberlake hits his groin on a mailbox post not once, but twice), the 60-second spot will trumpet innovation.

The ad aims to show consumers that they don’t have to compromise the advantages of a large vehicle, including towing capacity and space, to get improved gas mileage per the hybrid technology....

Airing the second quarter, the spot, via Leo Burnett, Los Angeles, is called “Why push?” It uses footage from an Oscar-nominated animated film by Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics.

It opens with a black and white, Picasso-esque figure struggling to push a globe up an incline. “Why push? Why change? Why grow?” narration asks over a steady beat of piano notes. The shot cuts to a white Yukon.

“We did not set out to create a Super Bowl spot,” said Kubitskey. “It’s not a funny spot, there are no talking animals. It’s serious, quiet and emotional. We’re here because it’s upwards of 80 million people. And we feel this vehicle is a poster child for innovation, and we wanted everyone to see it.”

The tagline “Never Say Never,” will carry over to a campaign that launches next month for the GMC Acadia, Yukon and Sierra. There will be different executions for each product.

The Yukon Hybrid, like the Yukon, is a large SUV with an average price of around $52,000—about a $10,000 price premium from the regular Yukon. Marrying the hybrid technology to such a large frame has been called frivolous by some critics because the mile per gallon rating is not vastly improved. But GMC notes in the spot that the hybrid gives the vehicle a 50% improvement in city fuel economy in its 2-wheel drive model, to about 21 mpg average....

The Super Bowl spot will also be seen during the Academy Awards Feb. 24.

And because I haven't posted this video on the blog in the last several hours, I guess I'd better get on the ball.

GMC Yukon Hybrid Super Bowl Commercial

Add to My Profile | More Videos

P.S. Why do the advertising types ignore Ulrich Schnauss?

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The semantics issue

There are many questions to be addressed in advance of a Republican primary, but one of the key ones that I've touched upon in this blog and the Ontario Empoblog has been the neo-conservative/conservative semantical issues (or, how did we get from Barry Goldwater to George W. Bush?).

Here's Aaron Brazell's definition of a conservative:

There are certain things about conservatism that move me to take a harder stance. A true conservative (or shall I call them paleoconservatives) hold to die-hard conservative principles. We disdain the neo-conservative philosophies that hjave taken hold in government across the board, including the Republican party. Key issues that true conservatives believe in:

We do not want the U.S. military to intervene in foreign affairs for anything other than worst-case scenarios.

Oppose illegal immigration and support tougher immmigration law and enforcement.

We believe in small federal government, with broader state rights

Well known paleocons are Pat Buchanan, CNN’s Lou Dobbs, Syndicated Columnist Bob Novak, The American Conservative’s Scott McConnell

But there are other definitions of a true conservative:

A "social conservative" accepts everything the Bible says. So, social conservatives are against abortion and sodomy because the Bible condemns them. But fiscal conservatives are pro-abortion and pro-sodomy because they don't care what the Bible teaches....

A person is a true conservative only to the degree that he or she accepts and lives by what God says in the Bible.

So what does that make Mike Huckabee? Evangelical Outpost considers:

For the past few months I've been arguing that Governor Huckabee is a solid and consistent conservative....

Yet many conservatives that I respect believe that I am wrong. In the last debate Sen. Thompson even said Huckabee would "bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies." Are they seeing something that I am not?

Josh R weighed in:

When all is said and done, nobody is a pure conservative unless you are an anarchist libertarian.

Mike is a pragmatist. He is going to oppose taxes, but he is going to get work done to move America forward.

But the Club for Growth doesn't think Huckabee is a pragmatist:

In a Club for Growth PAC-FreedomWorks event, the nation’s leading conservative organizations will hold a joint press conference to tell South Carolina voters about Governor Mike Huckabee’s liberal economic record. Although Governor Huckabee is attempting to portray himself as an economic conservative, his gubernatorial record and campaign rhetoric tell a very different story.

WHO:

Pat Toomey, former Pennsylvania Congressman and President, Club for Growth
Dick Armey, former Republican Majority Leader and Chairman, FreedomWorks
Tom Schatz, Chairman, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste Political Action Committee
Donald Devine, Vice-Chairman, American Conservative Union PAC

And this is what some foreigner blog (hey, "Deo Vindice" ain't American) says:

To the point, and the person of Huckabee, he will do damage to the Great Experiment, our democracy in America, because he isn’t a consistent, conscientious, committed Conservative. He is a big government, Nanny State, tax and spend politician – who supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. Huckabee could be right, sometimes, for Social Conservatives. But, he is wrong and weak as a Defense Conservative. He fundamentally doesn’t understand the nature of the World War we are fighting or the global context of international affairs. If he governs like he did as governor in Arkansas, he is not a Fiscal Conservative. All good reasons not to make Huckabee the Republican standard bearer.

Evangelicals need to be concerned about the damage he will do to the Great Commission. If Huckabee is the Christian identity candidate then everything that goes wrong, every foible or failure of his, and every unimaginable consequence that befalls the U.S. during his presidency will be attributed by the nominally Christian, culturally Christian, Liberal Left Christian, non-and anti-Christian Americans (about 55% of the U.S.) to Christianity. That won’t help Evangelicals build the Christian witness and discipleship of the nominally Christian or convert by faith the culturally Christian. It’ll hurt Evangelicals when they engage the Liberal “Sissy” Christians and anti-Christians in the U.S. Culture War.

Politics is about compromise. Christian faith is about purity. Politics allows accommodations and exceptions, especially in foreign affairs, to defend the Nation. Christianity can’t divert from the truth, the light, the way of Jesus. Yet, a Christian identity President Mike Huckabee will be just a man bewildered on the world stage – when he must make compromises and take actions that many will not call ‘Christian’. That is if Huckabee got elected.

So we've heard about culture wars and the Great Commission - what about the Sermon on the Mount? Well, there's a proclamation entitled No Moratorium on the Sermon on the Mount.

The job of the peacemaker is "to stop war, to purify the world, to get it saved from poverty and riches ... to heal the sick, to comfort the sad, to wake up those who have not yet found God, to create joy and beauty wherever you go, to find God in everything and in everyone." I heard Muriel Lester say this when I was a senior at McMurray College in Texas in 1951. In a campus-wide address, this perky Englishwoman went on to say a number of uncommon things as she examined the Cold War from the vantage point of the Kingdom of God.

I was profoundly moved. What she said made sense. The Christian faith took on a fresh meaning and relevance. After the address, I heard one professor remark, "That woman sounds like a Communist." I didn't know much, but I did know that was utter nonsense-unless one's definition of Communism covers everything one doesn't agree with.

One of the presidential candidates linked to that blog post.

No, it wasn't Mike Huckabee.

No, it wasn't Barack Obama.

It was Mike Gravel.

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Some leftover Super Bowl (actually Twitter Bowl) business

Last night I addressed some of the @superbowlads issues, including both Twitter's ability to handle the Super Bowl load and my contributions to the @superbowlads feed. However, I got so caught up in Ulrich Schnauss' "Blumenwiese Neben Autobahn" (I even posted the GMC Yukon Hybrid video on my MySpace blog) that I never got around to talk about other reactions to @superbowlads.

Let's start with Jeremiah Owyang, who pulled the whole @superbowlads thing together. First, he had a comment about the game itself:

I’m sure my many colleagues at Forrester (Cambridge, near Boston) are throwing fits, but you’ve got to hand it to all the players that was seriously a great game.

Next, Owyang talked about the quantity of responses:

The social media experiment went very well, there are over 2500 responses to the superbowlads account....

It was pretty amazing, every time I refreshed the search tools (terraminds or twittersearch), new responses would appear in rapid order. There were so many responses coming in, (about 625 per hour, or 10 every minute) it was really hard to keep track. I tried to summarize key findings (such as many folks liking X commercial or hating Y commercial), but it became difficult to track.

In the midst of all the madness, Owyang took the time to send this tweet my way:

@oemperor it's overwhelming the amount of data coming in, every time I refresh, the page moves down.

Heck, I couldn't even rate all of the commercials - I was in the middle of tweeting about a commercial and completely missed the Dell commercial, for example.

Owyang also commented on Kingman's - I mean Twitter's - performance:

The twitter application held up ok, although many of the replies did not show up on the replies page in real time, you could use the search tools to quickly see what folks were saying.

Meanwhile, Shashi Bellamkonda also shared his thoughts:

Such data is huge for marketers to judge audience reaction. What are the reactions the ads caused? I am sure the demographics of the audience , geographical location , viewpoints were varied and a treasure trove for market research. The only common factor is that the audience consists of Swimmers as Jeremiah Owyang calls early adopters.

Imagine if a market research company had attempted this by inviting people of similar profiles as the Twitter community to watch it in a place there they could instantly get the reaction. Now they just have to search Twitter and analyze this data.

And Jeff Pulver also shared:

I enjoyed "watching" the non-stop play-by-play commentary being shared by my friends on twitter. And if someone wasn't commenting on a play they just saw or a catch that was or wasn't made, friends were also sharing their immediate reactions when each of the Super Bowl ads aired.

But Pulver was thinking about the future:

I wonder how long it will be before broadcasters adopt an active social media strategy and discover ways to make their broadcasts both more interactive and a more intimate conversation.

Sometime during 2008 I wouldn't be surprised to learn when sports broadcasters create a twitter public timeline for an event and share with the public some of the active commentary being shared by passionate fans of the game.

I don't know if Pulver was aware of the NCAA's restrictions on blogging sporting events. There might be significant resistance to such a loss of control. All we need is for one tweeter to tweet something like

troy aikman just said that the redskins are the dominant team here

Recognize the red flag? Someone just engaged in unauthorized use of the descriptions or accounts of the game. League and network lawyers would be all over that.

But wait - it gets worse.

i'm at shepherd of the hills church for a big screen super bowl party

That would really cause controversy.

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The ink is red, the page is white - and vice versa (Larry Ellison meets Ulrich Schnauss)

Regarding something that I mentioned earlier.

In the second...um...quarter of the Oracle Database 11g video below, you will see a series of messages - white letters on a red background.



In the fourth...um...quarter (geddit?) of the GMC Yukon Hybrid video below, you will see a series of messages - red letters on a white background.

GMC Yukon Hybrid Super Bowl Commercial

Add to My Profile | More Videos

And yes, the music differs significantly. But perhaps if Larry Ellison is a little more relaxed when Oracle Database 12m is released, perhaps the video will use quieter music...and the slogan "We are enterprise grade."

Or the video may have noisier music and Deborah Iyall will sing at the Cow Palace.

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An Alternative Musical View, Diametrically Opposed to Ulrich Schnauss

Ulrich Schnauss is a male European who creates reflective music.

Deborah Iyall is a female American who creates non-reflective music.

I am a marketeer on the West Coast who has been playing Ulrich Schnauss over and over and over for the last couple of hours.

Cathleen Rittereiser is a foundation and endowment investing expert on the East Coast who had a different impression of the GMC Yukon Hybrid commercial:

GMC Bringing back Romeo Void! Yeah! "I might like you better if we slept together....Never Say Never"

Some noted authors must be discreet.

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For the record, I haven't bought a GMC Yukon Hybrid (or, for that matter, a BMX bike)

Just caught two tweets on Twitter.

The first tweet is from @mousewords (that's two, by the way):

Having some Pepsi--the ads worked.

The second tweet is from @ScottMonty:

@mousewords Having some Coke. The ads worked.

Ironically, both a Pepsi and a Coke ad made my top 6.

(For an explanation of the title of this post, see these two prior posts [1] [2].)

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