Yes, Hillary. Really.
I can't believe it either. But good for her. Would have been better last night though...
What has to happen now is this:
She's going to congratulate Obama and say she's supporting him. That is a given. But what she also needs to do is appear on stage with him, give him a big hug, say that he won fair and square, and say that it's okay for her supporters to get behind him. Say that it was a tough campaign, but all that's behind us now. And now what is needed is a unified Democratic party to push back against the catastrophic legacy of George W. Bush, and to beat Bush's 3rd term, otherwise known as John McCain.
And Obama has to say even more nice things about Hillary. He has to commend her on her tenacity, her unwillingness to compromise on her principles (it doesn't matter if it's true or not; that's what her supporters believe), and all her many achievements. Magnanimity overload is what is called for here. And they have to give the impression that they are united, or their supporters will not follow suit.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Movies on your hard drive
Apparently, you can now rent (and buy) movies on iTunes Canada.
That's actually pretty cool. I wonder what the big movie rental chains think of that? $4.99 to rent the new releases (an extra dollar for HD) isn't too bad, but I haven't tested it out yet, and thus I'm not sure how easy it is to watch them on your big screen TV.
As for the entire idea of downloadable media, I'm not sold on it at all. There's just something about having a nice big collection of DVDs (or Blu-rays) that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Having a bunch of movies on my hard drive doesn't give me the same feeling, and I would always be afraid of losing them in a freak hard drive wipe or something. I think packaged media is here to stay...at least for now.
That's actually pretty cool. I wonder what the big movie rental chains think of that? $4.99 to rent the new releases (an extra dollar for HD) isn't too bad, but I haven't tested it out yet, and thus I'm not sure how easy it is to watch them on your big screen TV.
As for the entire idea of downloadable media, I'm not sold on it at all. There's just something about having a nice big collection of DVDs (or Blu-rays) that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Having a bunch of movies on my hard drive doesn't give me the same feeling, and I would always be afraid of losing them in a freak hard drive wipe or something. I think packaged media is here to stay...at least for now.
Weekly BSG blogging
Preview for this week's episode:
Looks a lot more interesting than last week's. Only two left until the break, but don't despair, frakheads! There are going to be some webisodes bridging the two halves, and the spinoff Caprica pilot will premiere in the fall. And finally, there are plans in the works for three additional TV movies after the series ends. :)
Looks a lot more interesting than last week's. Only two left until the break, but don't despair, frakheads! There are going to be some webisodes bridging the two halves, and the spinoff Caprica pilot will premiere in the fall. And finally, there are plans in the works for three additional TV movies after the series ends. :)
Congratulations, America
For nominating the first African-American for president. It truly is a milestone.
Obama's speech was excellent, and I wish I could link to it, but it hasn't yet been posted on Youtube. In any case, check my Obama TV widget over there on the right if you haven't seen it; I assume it will eventually show up there.
What else can I say? Well, I'm disappointed with Hillary's decision to prolong this, but that's nothing new. And if it weren't for her millions of supporters, I would say Obama should just ignore her at this point and focus on McCain. Don't meet with her, don't talk to her. Just ignore this disgusting, tedious narcissist and move on.
But unfortunately, there is this nasty business to come of bringing most of her supporters back into the fold. Obama will need them to win the general election. That is a fact. He was smart tonight to praise her up and down for her talents and contributions to America, but it isn't going to be that easy to defuse her and her fans. She made that perfectly clear.
Obama's speech was excellent, and I wish I could link to it, but it hasn't yet been posted on Youtube. In any case, check my Obama TV widget over there on the right if you haven't seen it; I assume it will eventually show up there.
What else can I say? Well, I'm disappointed with Hillary's decision to prolong this, but that's nothing new. And if it weren't for her millions of supporters, I would say Obama should just ignore her at this point and focus on McCain. Don't meet with her, don't talk to her. Just ignore this disgusting, tedious narcissist and move on.
But unfortunately, there is this nasty business to come of bringing most of her supporters back into the fold. Obama will need them to win the general election. That is a fact. He was smart tonight to praise her up and down for her talents and contributions to America, but it isn't going to be that easy to defuse her and her fans. She made that perfectly clear.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
That's all folks
Obama's got it. McCain's speech was horrible, and should give everyone a lot of confidence about the Dems' chances in November.
Now the only question is what will Hillary do? Will she bow out with a little bit of dignity, or will she vow to take the fight all the way to the convention, tearing the party apart in the process?
Updates to follow...
UPDATE 10:28 PM: Looks like South Dakota will indeed go for Hillary. Don't really understand it, since Obama has won all the surrounding states, some by huge margins. But whatever. He looks set to win Montana at least.
UPDATE 10:35 PM: She speaks; so far, it's relatively classy. She has congratulated Obama for the race he has run.
UPDATE 10:39 PM: Uh oh. Now she's talking about popular vote and the electoral college. Christ.
UPDATE 10:45 PM: She doesn't want the 18 million people who voted for her to remain "invisible". Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Prove me wrong, Hillary....
UPDATE 10:50 PM: "I will be making no decisions tonight". Nope, she's going to keep trying to blackmail Obama for the VP slot.
UPDATE 11:34 PM: As he usually does, Obama is spending most of his speech attacking John McCain (quite skillfully), and he began by saying nice things about Hillary Clinton.
Reality check on Iran
Via Matthew Yglesias, from a McClatchy article:
It would be wise for all of us to keep this in mind the next time we hear politicians talking about the growing threat of Iran.
Of course, there are other issues of contention. No one seriously disputes that Iran is the main backer of Hezbollah, and that they try and promote their interests inside Iraq, sometimes by undermining the legitimate Iraqi government. Iran is not exactly a warm and fuzzy country, and relations between them and the West are cool for good reason. But despite what the neo-cons want us to think, they are not Nazi Germany, and the sooner we start seriously talking to them, the better.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president and the leading contender for the Democratic nomination are exaggerating what's known about Iran's nuclear program as they duel over how best to deal with Tehran.Lost in all the back and forth over what to do about Iran is the simple fact that there is no real evidence of actual wrongdoing by Iran. As far as anyone knows, they are NOT developing nuclear weapons. They are not (insert x number of months) away from a nuclear bomb, and even if they were, the IAEA would know about it. It's not easy to enrich/weaponize large amounts of nuclear material in secret, especially in this, the satellite age.
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., say that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
The U.S. intelligence community, however, thinks that Iran halted an effort to build a nuclear warhead in mid-2003, and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, which is investigating the program, has found no evidence to date of an active Iranian nuclear-weapons project.
It would be wise for all of us to keep this in mind the next time we hear politicians talking about the growing threat of Iran.
Of course, there are other issues of contention. No one seriously disputes that Iran is the main backer of Hezbollah, and that they try and promote their interests inside Iraq, sometimes by undermining the legitimate Iraqi government. Iran is not exactly a warm and fuzzy country, and relations between them and the West are cool for good reason. But despite what the neo-cons want us to think, they are not Nazi Germany, and the sooner we start seriously talking to them, the better.
Mixed signals
So there are reports that Clinton is planning to drop out today, and also vehement denials from her campaign. There is also speculation that she will push hard to get the VP slot and will make her concession dependent on that (ugh). And finally, there was a report that a bunch of uncommitted senators failed to reach an endorsement decision. Fucking cowards.
Anyway, with any luck, Obama will pick up the majority of the remaining pledged delegates and quite possibly a bunch of superdelegates tonight. That's just about settled.
What's pissing me off today is this idea that the RBC decision was somehow unfair to Hillary, and that they gave four extra delegates to Obama from Michigan. Harold Ickes was particularly mad about this perceived injustice. But as WaPo columnest Eugene Robinson points out, the Clinton campaign should be happy they got anything out of Michigan:
It's stuff like this that has made this primary so frustrating. The Clinton campaign has become utterly divorced from reality. If they stand in their way, to hell with the rules! Hypocrisy is no barrier to Hillary's unquenchable drive for power. But two final primary wins and a flood of superdelegate endorsements just might be. Even she can't deny reality forever.
Anyway, with any luck, Obama will pick up the majority of the remaining pledged delegates and quite possibly a bunch of superdelegates tonight. That's just about settled.
What's pissing me off today is this idea that the RBC decision was somehow unfair to Hillary, and that they gave four extra delegates to Obama from Michigan. Harold Ickes was particularly mad about this perceived injustice. But as WaPo columnest Eugene Robinson points out, the Clinton campaign should be happy they got anything out of Michigan:
Recall that the Michigan primary, like the Florida contest, was not legitimate. Period. As far as the party was concerned -- and as far as Clinton herself was concerned, before she fell behind Barack Obama -- the primary never happened. None of the candidates campaigned in Michigan. Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot.
Yet, in the interest of party unity, the rules committee came up with a formula that gave Clinton credit for 69 delegates that she "won" running virtually unopposed in a vote that technically never took place. Ickes and the angry Clinton supporters who protested the committee meeting objected to the fact that Obama was awarded Michigan delegates that he didn't win. But Clinton, too, was awarded delegates she didn't win, because -- remember? -- there was no legitimate Michigan primary.
It's stuff like this that has made this primary so frustrating. The Clinton campaign has become utterly divorced from reality. If they stand in their way, to hell with the rules! Hypocrisy is no barrier to Hillary's unquenchable drive for power. But two final primary wins and a flood of superdelegate endorsements just might be. Even she can't deny reality forever.
Monday, June 2, 2008
The end at last?
The FINAL primaries in the Democratic race are tomorrow, and my god, does it ever feel good. Obama is expected to win both (though a very unreliable pollster, ARG, has Hillary up by a big margin in South Dakota....we'll see...), and there are some signs that Hillary may be ready to concede the race tomorrow night.
Of course, this has been rumored before, and it hasn't materialized. But we may very well have reached a turning point. The Florida and Michigan questions have been settled (much to the disgruntlement of Clinton supporters, but she was lucky to get anything out of those illegitimate elections, much less a net 25 delegates), and there will be no more pledged delegates to win after tomorrow. After that, it will be all up to the superdelegates, and unless she wins over 80% of the remainder, she has no hope of catching up to Obama.
I think she knows, deep down, that taking the fight all the way to the convention is not going to win her many friends. And she'll hardly be able to base her candidacy on electability, since winning only after a bitter convention struggle is hardly going to make her more electable. She knows the end is nigh. And that is why I believe Hillary will indeed drop out tomorrow night. At the same time, she has proved me wrong before...
Of course, this has been rumored before, and it hasn't materialized. But we may very well have reached a turning point. The Florida and Michigan questions have been settled (much to the disgruntlement of Clinton supporters, but she was lucky to get anything out of those illegitimate elections, much less a net 25 delegates), and there will be no more pledged delegates to win after tomorrow. After that, it will be all up to the superdelegates, and unless she wins over 80% of the remainder, she has no hope of catching up to Obama.
I think she knows, deep down, that taking the fight all the way to the convention is not going to win her many friends. And she'll hardly be able to base her candidacy on electability, since winning only after a bitter convention struggle is hardly going to make her more electable. She knows the end is nigh. And that is why I believe Hillary will indeed drop out tomorrow night. At the same time, she has proved me wrong before...
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